nothing ventured nothing gained

7/19/11 Tuesday
Jewel is listening to Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry, this is our second attempt and she is into it now.  Sometimes there are too many distractions going on and sometimes it is just not the right time for a certain kind of book.  Audio books are great and I am thank full for them.  We all enjoyed reading Marguerite Henry's books and want Jewel to read them as well.
Summer has brought many pool days, time with friends and our new routine of taking Jewel down to the pool at night, she enjoys telling me that it is "relaxing", gotta love that kid, she is so brilliant! I do a lot of stretching with her in the hot tub.   Her new thing is to tell me to, "be calm" since we have been practicing the calming breath to prepare her for speech and blow toy activities.  It is humbling to have her as my reflection.  We did a lot of school and therapy yesterday and she kept telling me, "hard" and my reply is that life is hard for everyone, but the harder the task the more rewarding it is when we gain mastery over that activity in the end.  I used to sympathize with her now I realize that turned her into a whiny No girl.  So I am forging on and keeping it light and in short bursts.  A task being hard should not stop us from continued work on this activity.  I am determined to help her understand this concept, that noting ventured is nothing gained.  We did letter recognition and reading short sentences and amidst all the challenges she did well.  Keeping the lessons short and my tone light helped.  Work in the gait trainer is slow and we facilitated soccer in it.  This worked rather well and her over all posture was great, this makes me happy and I am sure in time more steps will come. Jewel has a lot of co-ordination and motor planning to master.  Patience.  Our screen door is finally fixed and it has helped cool the house down, for people with neurological disorders,(brain damage) tend to over heat.  She has had a heat rash over the past week but nothing severe.  Air conditioning is too expensive and we much prefer a natural breeze to keep Jewel cool.  Have a safe and great summer.