[blindkid] Jeremy and the grass, and the driveway and the stones, and the neighbors,

[Heather]

I gave Jeremy his new cane today to play with for the first time, although it is too long for him, it comes up to the top of his head.  I think that they may have not included the extra length that the rolling marshmallow tip and the rubber gulf grip add to it,because we measured to the top of his shoulder, then added two inches, which at most would be his nose or his forhead, not just over the top of his head.  Ah well.  He plaied on the stairs of our front portch, he loves stairs of all kinds, while I played with the cane, tapping it and rolling it on the portch, bumping it down the steps, making different sounds in the grass, on the sidewalk, the bricks and the little stones that fill in between our front side walk and the brick border around our little mini ever green trees at the front of the house.  I handed him the cane a few times and he sort of twirled it and explored the chewey hand grip and the spinny tip, then he would drop it down the stairs, but he was listening to the noise as it fell down the four steps to the side walk.  We did our usual routine of me holding his hand while we explored the sidewalk and the area in front of our house, but I bent over and tapped everything with the cane and named it.  I used to name what was under his feet, not mine, and change what I was saying as soon as his feet changed surface.  For instance "Oh, look, we're on the sidewalk, yep, walkin down the sidewalk, oh, and what's that?  It's the drive way, it's darker coloured, can you tell Jeremy?  It's sort of bumpy hmmmm? And now we're in the grass, it's all green and squishy and grassey.  Etc.  This time I told him what the cane was touching so that he would notice the different sounds.  We got him a white cane with yellow reflective tape, so that he could see it better, with good high contrast, and he was watching me tapping it on things.  After a few foreys to and from the stairs with interludes to play on the stairs, he is obsessed with them, I gave him the cane.  He dropped it twice, then he started whacking things with it.  He had it not quite verticle, stamping it down on things, but I didn't want to discourage his exploration or piss him off.  He's only twenty months after all, and toddlers can accidentally be deswaded from activities if adults are sticklers about how they should do the activity.  At one point he dragged the cane behind him and rolled it a little bit.  He liked it when I would roll it back and forth, but he couldn't quite figure out how mommy got the cane to do that, but he watched me very intently.  He doesn't like to go on the grass.  He isn't afraid of it, but he's not a big fan either.  Today, holding my hand and the cane he explored the grass, then squeeled, decided that the sidewalk was boring, then struck out across the grass, squeeking and saying "grass?  Grass?"  He went to the back fense and I helped him whack the chain link with the cane, which he thought was pretty awesum.  Our neighbors were being a little loud on their portch and he went over and said hi.  I convinced him to walk over their lawn to the portch, instead of through the ivey, he wasn't going to wait to go all of the way to the side walk, and he went over and went up their drive way and said hi.  The little boy or girl that lives nextdoor said hi to Jeremy and commented on his presence when we were in our drive way, but when we came up their driveway, she or he, I don't know which, I think a girl, went inside and told her dad "now, they're coming up the drive way" in this worried sort of voice.  I was a little ticked off.  We are not alians with feelers and green skin and orange slime oozing out of our noses.  Her dad came out, turned off their TV and was sort of ackwardly inquisative, asking how old Jeremy was, but not his name or mine.  I could tell they were uncomfortable and Jeremy was sort of getting upset that his aimiable squeeks and cherps and "Hi!"s and happy jumping up and down wasn't being met with the usual happy greeting that people give him.  He was ticked off at being carried back across the lawn, but I knew he wasn't going to willingly walk away from there house.  They turned off their TV and shut their door, and haven't reopened it.  It's like they're afraid that if I can hear them that I will come and bother them.  They are foreign, from one of the Eastern Block countries, and I can understand that it might seem odd to them, but we've lived nextdoor to them for three or four years.  Cute babies and toddlers are universal.  The nice Chinese and Korean and Vietnamese women I worked with in sewing thought that Jeremy was the cutest thing ever, and lots of mothers and fathers from other countries that I have met have been very friendly, so I think it is the fact that we are blind that was weirding them out.  It's not like my guide dog was pissing on their lawn or Jeremy was yelling and screaming on their drive way at two in the morning.  It upsets me, no hurts me, when his exploration and extremely friendly personality is met with coldness.  In the store, he goes up to every toddler and small child he meets and hugs them and says hi.  That is the sort of open, loving nature that our world needs more of.  Ah well.  I am getting off topic.  One other interesting thing happened.  Jeremy was standing at the top of the stairs with his cane, poking the stairs with it, when he stepped off and fell forward.  He caught himself and got back up, but he noticed that the cane was touching something, and so thought that something was there for him to step on.  Usually he feels with his foot and never falls.  I know it sounds like the cane made him fall, but this sort of exploration will eventually show him how to use the cane to judge depths, because he will instinctually learn that when the tip goes down, and the cane drops lower in relation to his body, that the surface he is on must have also gotten lower.  He didn't hurt himself or cry or seem scared, so I chalk it up to learning experience.  I think I will look at a bamboo stick thinggy that a few people have been talking about and or a strait, lightweight NFB cane for him, so that he can try them both out and see what works best for him.