Easter 2012

Holidays can be a mixed bag for special needs parents. That's one of the hardest things to deal with when you find our your child has special needs. You are sad because your child may not be able to have the experiences you enjoyed as a child. And yes, the holidays and events you enjoy with your blind child will be a little different than you imagined, but that certainly doesn't mean your holidays won't be enjoyable.

When you have a blind child you just have to be a little bit more creative when planning your holidays. The extra effort put into adapting events for your child will be well worth it. You have to think about what your child can do and then adapt from there. Don't try to introduce your child to a holiday experience, instead adapt the experience for the child. Have an Easter egg hunt in the bath tub or have a beep egg hunt in the living room like we did this year.

This was a really good Easter for my family. It's really gratifying to see him able to enjoy the holiday activities that other children participate in. He ate Easter dinner and tasted lots of candy. And this year we had our very first beeping egg hunt on Easter morning.

The strange weather we had meant he had to wear light pyjamas and the only ones handy were the skeleton pyjamas! Oh well. Maybe next year he will have seasonally appropriate pjs on for Easter morning.

It looked like so much fun that even our cat Noodle had to check it out! This year Tom got a book (Animal Kisses), a bouncy ball, some candy, a light up ball, a small plastic dinosaur and some cheese puffs in his basket. He has been so good at trying new foods that I was able to have some fun to buying him some candy this year. He also got a talking bunny that sings the "Easter Parade" song and he just loves it. It's silly but he just loves singing stuffed animals. He has no time for a stuffed animal that doesn't sing to him.

He also got a water table that will be lots of fun as soon as the weather warms up. I wish he could have a sand table but I'm worried about him getting sand in his eyes, especially when he gets his new contacts. The water table will be a safe way for him to cool off this summer. I can't wait for him to try it.

Beep Egg Hunt

I hear that egg!

Found it! Notice how he won't let go of the chocolate duck.

He found this one easily.

Fun!

Tom pays attention during PT and OT!

The beep egg hunt was a lot of fun. It was our first beep egg hunt so we turned all the eggs on at once and there was chirping coming from everywhere. It was a little overwhelming. Whoops! Next time we will turn on one egg at a time. Once he found his first egg Tom decided this was a pretty fun game. Just look at his smile as he creeps up on the pink egg under the table.

At Easter dinner Tom ate half a ravioli, some ham, potatoes, fruit, and he munched on some asparagus spears. He is a brave eater! I hope you had a wonderful Easter or Passover with your family.