[blparent] Introduction

Sun Jun 11 21:29:45 UTC 2017

     Jeremy loves the Magic Tree House. I pre-read everything that he is 
going to read, and they just about drove me batty, but I got through it. 
Ranger in Time? I've got to snag those. Summer is upon us and I am 
seriously limiting his Apple TV time, so I need to pack his USB thumb 
drive with as many books as possible. He reads just about everything I 
can find on NLS Bard, including some books that are typically thought of 
as "girl" books, like the American Girl books, Little House Books, 
although he lost interest after finishing the Long Winter, the Ramona 
books and similar. Go you, I can certainly read Braille, but not in a 
way that makes it pleasant to listen to me read aloud. I pre-read the 
board books and short story books that I am going to read for Caleb, so 
I am just using the text as a cue for the memorized text. I believe 
strongly in the value of Braille, and my sons are learning Braille, but 
my reading aloud will just never be even anywhere close to their dad's. 
He does crazy funny voices and accents too. That's OK, I am the chief 
story maker-upper in our house, and with eccentric kiddos on the 
spectrum I have to make up some weird stuff. Jeremy loved vacuum 
cleaners from age 2 until around age 5 and street sweepers from around 
age three to six, so I had to make up stories about those. Caleb is 
obsessed with shapes, so our current crop of bedtime stories are all 
about adventures with discovering shapes. What the heck on a nature walk 
or a grocery store run is shaped like a trapezoid? *palm to forehead* 
Oh, a black labby. My mom Bernice has a black lab named Octane from the 
Seeing Eye. We are a circus everywhere we go with three adults, two of 
them blind, two kids and three service dogs. I swear, restaurant owners 
quake in fear when they see us coming.

So nice to meet you.

On 6/11/2017 4:42 PM, Jo Elizabeth Pinto via BlParent wrote:
> Hi, Heather. It's great to meet you. It sounds like you have a busy, active family.
>
> My daughter is nine years old, entering the fourth grade in the fall. She enjoys all things Barbie, princess, and sparkling. But she also has an adventurous streak, and many times her Barbies and princesses will get prettied up to go mountain climbing or spacewalking. She's sighted, and loves reading out loud to me from the "Magic Tree House" and "Ranger in Time" books. I've been reading "Dr. Dolittle" and "Little House on the Prairie" to her this summer in braille. Her dad owns a watch and clock repair shop, and I proofread braille books, mostly textbooks, from home. We live in Colorado. I have my third guide dog, a black Lab, from Guide Dogs for the Blind, in California. Actually, this one, Anlyn, came from the Oregon campus in 2014.
>
>
> Welcome to the list,
> Jo Elizabeth Pinto
>
> "The Bright Side of Darkness"
> Is my award-winning novel,
> Available in Kindle, audio, and paperback formats.
> http://www.amazon.com/author/jepinto
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlParent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Heather Bird via BlParent
> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 1:58 PM
> To: blparent at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Heather Bird <heather.l.bird at gmail.com>
> Subject: [blparent] Introduction
>
> Hello. My name is Heather and I am the middle generation of a three generation blind family. My mother is blind and my father sighted. My husband is sighted and my two sons, ages 3 and 8 are also blind. The four of us have LCA, a rare autosomel dominant form, as LCA is typically recessive.
>
>
> My older son Jeremy is about to turn 9 in August, and he is my extreme child. He is on the autism spectrum and he never acts his age. He either acts far more considerate and mature than his peers, like a 12 year old, or he acts incredibly immature and difficult like a 2 year old. So, Its like having my 3 year old son Caleb, and two other children, a 2 year old and a 12 year old with some weird custody arrangement where the 2 year old and the 12 year old are never in my home at the same time.
> *smile* Jeremy is extremely bright, but has poor planning skills and is often seriously lacking in basic common sense. His reading comprehension is two to four grade levels above, but his actual reading is about one grade level behind his peers. He can do mental math one or two grade levels ahead of his class mates, but getting him to sit down and write out his work on the Braille writer for math is like wrestling a rabid, really pissed off squirrel. His primary interests are space flight/NASA history, Mine craft, collecting figit spinners, amusement park rides, science and watching other people play various games on YouTube. Like his father, Jeremy cannot carry a tune in a bucket, has an aptitude for math and technology and a fondness for Bruce Coville books and doing Lego models. Jeremy is also my child of contradictions. He wasn't fully potty trained until around age 4, we are talking about "sit on the plastic froggy potty and I'll give you an M and M and a penny to put in your toilet piggy bank that you flush to get the coin to go down into the base, and please for God's sake can we get you out of cloth training pants by the start of Kindergarten?" But, at age 3 he could take the old empty toilet paper cardboard tube off of the holder and install a new role for me. He can read children's books on difficult topics like the holocaust or the underground railroad, and have meaningful conversations about their content, but if he drops half of a cheep, crappy 20 cent freeze pop, it is the same bursting into tiers and carrying on like a wounded animal that you would expect to accompany something serious like his cat dying.
>
>
> My younger son Caleb is 3. He is my easy going sweet. He is quite smart, but rarely brilliant. He has tantrums on occasion, but he rarely misbehaves. He's very dependable, for a 3 year old, and a very amusing, lovable kiddo. If he is on the spectrum, it is much less significant than with Jeremy, as he is pretty typical in most ways. He loves music, car rides, shapes, visiting his nana and his grammie, and scented products. The only sensory things we have really seen with him is that he screams his head off as if we've poured sulfuric acid on him whenever Ilsa licks him, and he is not thrilled about having messy things on his hands or face, although he is able to cope if I give him a cloth napkin to use whenever he gets something on his fingers or face. He has done everything either on time with or slightly behind his peers, whereas Jeremy did just about everything way ahead of or way behind his peers. I see more of myself in Jeremy, but I have an easier time with Caleb. I love them both dearly, but, honestly? I like Caleb better. On a day-to-day basis, I far prefer spending time with Caleb. Jeremy pushes my buttons constantly, although on the rare occasions when Jeremy can focus and control his behavior, he is responsible for the majority of the extraordinary, epic or memorable moments in our household. Caleb keeps me sane and Jeremy helps me grow as a person, and both are very valuable aspects of my life. We want to have one more child, and we are hoping for a girl, but we are stopping at three even if the next one is a boy. Although, with three little boys, my husband, with his male service dog and Jeremy's male cat, I might have to go and spend some time with the little girls of friends to keep from being overwhelmed with testosterone. At least Ilsa is on the girl team with me. *smile*
>
>
> My husband is sighted and he is one of the few sighted people that I feel really "gets it" about the blindness thing. He is an Iraq War veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He just graduated with an under graduate degree in computer science and is looking for a job. He has moderate to severe PTSD and is a service dog handler. His service dog is a smoothe coat collie named Dante, who we owner trained.
>
>
> We also have a grey and black Maine Coon cat named Houston, who is Jeremy's pet. One of my catch phrases regarding the cat, as I fish him out from under something, extricate him from a tight spot or shoe him away from something he's stolen is "Houston, you are a problem."
>
>
> I have a black and tan German Shepherd Seeing Eye dog named Ilsa. She is still quite young as I got her in September of 2016 and she wasn't yet two at that time. I have previously had a yellow lab from GEB, two GSDs from Fidelco and one GSD from TSE prior to Ilsa.
>
>
> I am the chapter president of our local Rochester chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of New York. My husband, Jim is a board member, and my mother, Bernice, who is also blind is our secretary. I am also the vice president of the New York Associations of Guide Dog Users.
> Jim and I are members of IAADP and Jim is a member of the VFW, the DAV, and also of NOPBC. He might be joining the blind veterans division as well. I am an attachment parent, in most respects and a green parent whenever I can be. Our chapter is very new and very small, but is growing rapidly. Wee were chartered with 7 members in October of 2016 and we now have 15 members, and of those 15, 5 of them are blind parents, my mom, my self, a single blind mom and a blind couple.
>
>
> It will be great to get to know all of you here on list.
>
> Have a great Sunday,
>
> Heather and family,
>
>
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