[blparent] Introduction

Judy Jones sonshines59 at gmail.com
Mon Jun 12 01:11:20 UTC 2017 

Hi, Kimberly,

You came to the right place.  My name is Judy Jones, and I love being on
this list, even though our two daughters are grown.  Are you a blind parent?
If you are a sighted parent, you are more than welcome to stay on this list,
but there are resources and an organization for sighted parents as well.
Welcome to the list!!  :)

Judy


-----Original Message-----
From: BlParent [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Kim D via
BlParent
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2017 5:15 PM
To: Blind Parents Mailing List
Cc: Kim D
Subject: Re: [blparent] Introduction

I'm not sure how this works. How do you post to the thread.  I'm brand new.
My family is moving to the more rural Montana from Portland and I have a
teenage daughter that is blind. Trying to make connections any way I can.
Kimberlie

On Jun 11, 2017 3:06 PM, "Jo Elizabeth Pinto via BlParent" <
blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Heather,
>
> The "Ranger in Time" books are wonderful. There's a lot of great 
> history slipped into the fast-paced stories. Plus, a golden retriever. 
> How much better can it get?
>
> As for the circus, I know what you mean. I feel that way even with 
> just one service dog and a kid. Not so much now, but when my daughter 
> was little and I had the dog, the car seat, the diaper bag, the baby, 
> and all the trappings, and I finally got settled in a place, I would 
> sometimes say, "The circus has arrived."
>
>
> 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 3:30 PM
> To: Jo Elizabeth Pinto via BlParent <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Heather Bird <heather.l.bird at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [blparent] Introduction
>
>      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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