Carolyn singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" with Adult Special Needs Performance Group

 

Hide, Seek, and Panic

A few weeks ago, Carolyn was in the bathroom. When I heard her open the bathroom door, I went to see if she needed help choosing clothes.

But she wasn't in her room.

"Carolyn?" I called.

I glanced into her bathroom on my way past to check the living room, but didn't see her in there.

There was no answer to calling her name repeatedly as I looked in the three other rooms in our house.

Heart beating faster, I went out on the porch, wondering if she'd decided to go for a walk by herself, which is not okay.

Nope.

Called her name again.

No answer.

Heart racing, I ran back to her room and looked in her closet and on the far side of her shelves.

I couldn't see her anywhere.

"Carolyn?"

I almost passed her bathroom again as I wondered how long I should wait to call the police. Then I decided to go inside the bathroom, just to check, and look who I found standing behind the curtain?

She was delighted that I finished the Hide and Seek game that she hadn't bothered telling me that we were playing.

It's an adventure a day around here! I love this baby sister of mine.

 

Carolyn Takes On Chopsticks!

When we went to an Oriental restaurant, Carolyn asked what the chopsticks were for. When I told her, she was determined to eat with them. I thought she'd give up before she ate all her salad, but that little sister of mine, who calls herself "stubborn," finished the whole salad using two little sticks of wood.

 I would spell determination "C-A-R-O-L-Y-N."

NOW YOU CAN EAT YOUR GREENS!

 I've tried lots of hacks online, and most of them haven't been very impressive. But THIS ONE WORKS FOR ME and is very helpful.

If you wrap your head of lettuce tightly in foil, it stays fresh longer in the fridge. Not forever, but definitely longer, enough time that I can have three heads of lettuce in the fridge for a week, and eat them all before they turn brown.

Carolyn's Cute Hands

I gave Carolyn one of the Pop Corners chips that she said felt good in her tummy after her hospital stay last month for colitis and septic shock. Trying to stimulate her memory, I asked her what shape it was. She studied it for a moment, then looked up at me with a big smile and said, "Pizza!" 

Besides eating chips, Carolyn uses her fingers for stacking (on the right) and challenges me to do the same. I try, but it's not as easy for me (on the left, with the metal watchband), and it's certainly not very comfortable. She laughs when I have a hard time, and does it over and over again to show me how. She's a bendy girl.