Past the Hump.

This morning I spent several hours with LadyP. We did jigsaw puzzles and looked through a catalog. Today she was not interested in imaginary shopping but did enjoy the puzzles. One of them was just pairs of mother and baby animals: the object was to pair the piece with the mother to the piece with the baby. LadyP was able to match a couple of them unaided. When I had all the pieces out on the table, the number of choices was too overwhelming for her, but when I reduced the number of pairs to four or five, she was able to make a couple of matches. We also had a good walk to the park where we enjoyed watching several little boys and one little girl play that they were robots. The children had small traffic cones that they were 'wearing' on their arms to make their arms stiff and robotic. That was a lot of fun. LadyP had a good morning: she was alert and engaged almost the entire time.

After LadyP's, it was home for a nap, as I'd been up since four and was sleepy. While I was gone, KidOne came by to pick up her boxed belongings and to borrow my car to move some more boxes and recycling. KidTwo had a dozen or more boxes in KidOne's storage space, a storage space that KidOne is no longer renting, so KidOne brought those boxes here. I'll be going through them to see what needs to be sent to KidTwo, what should be saved here, and what can be given away. KidTwo had so little time to do her move that her belongings did not get properly sorted out. I love sorting, so I get the job. The things that are to be stored up here will go down to live under my mother's table in her office; she's already cleared space for them.

Tomorrow morning KidThree and I have a date with the wheelchair repair folks. We have to be forty minutes away from here by eight in the morning, not something that will be pleasant with a teenager. Fortunately, KidThree wants her own chair back even more than she wants that extra bit of sleep, so she is amenable to the time. The repair guys need to see what is wrong with the chair so they can order the needed parts; they'll also check to see if the chair needs adjusting for KidThree, now that she has been in it longer and is better at using it.

***Wheelchairs are sort of like bicycles: when someone is just starting in a chair, she gets the equivalent of fat tires, training wheels, and no gears. As she gets better at using her chair, she can progress until she is in the equivalent of a racing bike--sleek, light, and incredibly maneuverable. KidThree is at the stage where her training wheels have been taken off, but she still has the big fat tires.

KidThree's FriendK is still here. Tomorrow we take him to the home of a friend of his, a home where he will be staying. This evening I'll be doing his laundry; I'll also try to get to the sporting goods store to find him a duffle bag so he doesn't have to keep using plastic trash bags to carry his worldly goods.

The other job for this evening is to continue digging through the pile of 'stuff' in my room. If it wasn't for wanting to watch politics, I would be doing that right now. It feels so good to finally be dealing with that mess. Last night I was able to sleep in there for the first time in months. Of such small things is happiness built.

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