Christmas for the Special Needs Mom

Any parent of a severely disabled child will tell you that Christmas is a huge pain in the ass. Don't get me wrong; we love showering our kids with presents. What parent doesn't? But finding the right kind of presents can be a nightmare. My son, for example, loves superheroes. They are like Pokemon to him in that he wants to collect them all. Problem is, he has very little control of his arms. That means his action figures remain inactive all year long unless I help him play with them. And sadly, I am about as good with sound effects and play fighting as I am at keeping up this blog. 

So, every year, I go out in search of the perfect gift for him. I have a list of all the things it has to be. First, it has to be awesome. Second, it has to have sound effects since my sound effect board is broken. Third, it has to do something. He is 14! He wants action and speed, and he wants to control it. I don't mean that he wants to hit a switch and watch a frog dance; he wants to control what it does when he wants it to do it. 

Where oh where is the Nintendo Power Glove when I need it?

Each year, I find a toy to get excited about. Then I sell an organ to afford it (not really). Come Christmas Eve, I am so excited for him to see it and play with it that I look like a squirrel that mistook catnip for delicious pastries. I bounce up and down squealing at higher pitches than a recorder in the hands of a two year-old. Then, Christmas morning, he opens that coveted gift that Mom was so excited about. 

It runs; it jumps; it dances! All you have to do is touch this tiny little button on the remote. Which he can't do.

This happens every time.  

Well, except one. My best friend bought him Bigfoot. That thing has a remote with HUGE buttons, and he still loves it. 

But he also loves dinosaurs. 

We bought him Crusher (the interactive dinosaur) one year. While it does respond on command, the commands have to be spoken. My son is non-verbal. 

The struggle is real, folks. 

Why cant we just have amazing toys that don't cost a million dollars and can be used by any child who has limited motor function, and doesn't say "ages 2-4," huh? 

Christmas shopping sucks.

*This blog post has been brought to you by the number 7 and the time I cleaned my son's room and found all of his unopened toys from last year.*

Daily Writing Challenge, Day 2

The First Book I Ever Read (That I Remember)...

Okay, so I added that last part. Because the truth is that I have no idea what the first book I ever read was. It may surprise you to hear that I was quite the little reader in elementary school. I even won a microscope for reading the most pages back in second grade. Sadly, the microscope didn't last long, but my love for reading remains. This was back during the time of Reading Rainbow when my little brothers were so small that we all had to read to them. I probably read thousands of pages before finding the book that made me love reading. 

That's why I can only share the first book I remember reading, which was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I remember devouring this book over and over again throughout my childhood, yet I don't remember a single thing that happened in it. I should probably go back and re-read it today to see what enchanted me so much about that story. Anyway, that was the book that got me into reading. I would sit outside in the patio swing and read every word as if it were the last word ever written. 

What's the first book you remember reading? 

'Tis The Season... For Nanowrimo.

In the spirit of Nanowrimo, I have committed to do two things. For one, I am going to meet the 50,000 word goal, and all of those words will be going to the Sentinel Series. The best part about that is that I only have about that many words left on Blood and Water. Good news, right? The other thing is that I have accepted the challenge to do a writing prompt for my blog every day. If you have suggestions about what you would like me to write about, feel free to email me at cjethingtonbooks@gmail.com and I will see what i can do. 

Until then, let's get started, shall we? 

#1. What Made Me Start Writing.

If you've read my author bio, you have seen that I claim to have been making up stories since before I could write. This is all true, though I'm surprised I remember it. 

When I was four, I used to make my mom create homework assignments for me so that I could sit at the table and do my "work" while my older sisters were doing their's. Normally, it would be math problems and coloring. This was back when I liked math. In other words, a time before my alphabet and my numbers joined together to confuse me. 

Anyway, one day, my older sister was talking with my mother about a creative writing assignment she had to do for school. I wasn't sure what she was talking about, but it sure sounded like fun. So, like any other little sister would do, I eavesdropped. 

My sister broke into an elaborate story about a little girl with an imaginary friend. Even now, I can remember the way the imaginary friend's red hair flew around her head like flames. She had green eyes and would cause mischief everywhere she went. This was back before we ever saw Drop Dead Fred, by the way. I imagined the types of mischief the red-headed girl would cause. And later on, I wished that I had an imaginary friend of my own. 

In case you were wondering, I have many now, but never had one when I was younger. 

Over the years, I must have written a story about a little red-headed imaginary friend at least twenty times and in every medium and genre possible. Eventually, that character spawned many others and she faded into the background. 

Before anyone feels the need to point out that this was plagiarism, let me say this:

A little while ago, I asked my older sister if she remembered that story and if she had been annoyed by me copying it throughout our childhood. She said she had no idea what I was talking about. That actually made me feel a lot better. 

That same sister (let's call her Wendy because, well, that's her name), inspired me more than she will ever know with my writing. She not only gave me the little red-headed imaginary friend, but she instilled a love of fairy tales within me. At one point, I even decided to write fan fiction of her favorite show when it ended. It was awful and she never saw it, but it was exceptionally good practice.