You had vision therapy today and you did some more artwork. She likes art for you because it is so tactile. With Mother’s Day coming up, you made me a pretty picture frame for the fridge.
It actually was very sweet watching you “make” it. Mrs. Mary Beth directed your hand into a bag of pom-poms, die cuts, buttons and such. She told you to pick out something pretty to go onto the frame and you did just that. Once you felt your hand touching something, you closed it into a fist and pulled it out. You selected a few pom-poms, a couple hearts, a moon and a dinosaur looking guy. I put it right up on the fridge around a picture of you from our New Year’s card, 2008!
That photo has been on our fridge ever since it was taken at 6 months old. At that time, I had lost patience over waiting to see you smile. Since your ptosis had not been operated on and you had not received your contacts yet, you truly had no concept of what a smile should look like, or what context we use them in. I decided you were going to learn. So I would just tell you, “Smile Audrey” while holding the corners of your mouth up. It took you less than two days to before you understood what I wanted you to do when I said “smile!” You didn’t know why, but you knew it made me happy.
It wasn’t always an immediate response. Often I would ask you to smile and then have to wait minutes for your ears to hear, send the message to your brain, your brain to process, send the message to your mouth and your mouth to respond. Daddy would give up and turn away—I would grab his arm and not let him move because I knew it was coming. And it always did. It didn't take long for you to realize the appropriate times to use that smile, and you were able to show us that you are such a genuinely happy girl.
You are such a smart chickadee, trapped in a body that doesn’t let you show it. I shouldn’t say trapped. That sounds so melodramatic and not at all how I mean it. We just need to figure out how to make that cute little body of yours cooperate a bit!
Anyway, thanks for my Mother’s Day gift! I loved it and I loved watching you create it. Oh, and I love you.
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