I decided to start blogging about Jordan from the moment I found out I was pregnant. Jordan was born with a little arm that didn't grow like most babies. Her left arm stopped just above the elbow. Now I'm committed to making sure Jordan gets everything out of life. We feel blessed to be the parents of a very special little girl.

8.06.2007

Off again

I'm on my way out of town again... This time I'm leaving the rest of the family at home. Well, I'm leaving the girl and Randy. Cam is off on vacation at his grandparents' house. I'm trying to get ready to leave in the morning... For some reason I got all mopey when I put the baby to bed tonight. I'll miss her a bunch.

She's getting stronger willed by the day. Today it took us 20 minutes to leave school... She just didn't want to walk into the parking lot. I'm trying to give her the independence to go to the car on her own (until the parking lot -- she has to hold my hand there -- usually against her will). It's a slow process.

I also made a big move... Jordan moved out of the high chair and into a Svan chair. It's a cool adjustable chair that will grow with Jordan (who is stuck at 23 pounds 4 ounces by the way).

Okay... One more thing. I was reading BethGo's recent post and it reminded me of something that happened today and I didn't know how to handle it. A little girl (who I say hi to and I'm very polite to her little sister and parents at our school) walked by Jordan and told her dad: "She's scary. Just like Grandma." He walks by and just keeps talking about Jordan without acknowledging our existence or even stopping and working with me to show this little girl why Jordan isn't scary. Jordan was wearing her prosthetic at the time and was being particularly cute at the moment in my opinion. But it made me so mad... Stop, take the time to show your child that my daughter isn't scary. She's sweet and that prosthetic HELPS her. It gives her balance, it offers stability. It's also clunky at times and a challenge. But it's offering Jordan strength and options and helps her solve problems in ways that this little girl has never encountered. And DANG it. When she's in the area, don't ignore us. Talk to us. DANG it. I should have just interrupted the conversation, but I had Jordan on a short flight of stairs and I was trying to convince her to come down so we could get to the car. Should I stop everything just so this little girl will learn something about my daughter? I just don't know. But walking by us and continuing the conversation without our involvement just seemed strange.

Okay. Rant is over.

2 comments:

Greg (Accessible Hunter) said...

Good morning,
I was wondering if you would like to write an assistive technology review regarding the prosthetics that your daughter uses for my website www.pittrehabcounselor.com ?
Please feel free to contact me with any thoughts you may have. Have a great day!
Greg

L said...

I'm sorry this happened to Jordan.
You know, I find that little girls seem to have a bigger reaction to the limb difference thing then little boys. Little girls get all freaked out about it while many little boys I know register it and then kind of move on OR they think the helper hand/robot arm is cool.
Just my observation.
Good thing Jordan and Riley are such tough cookies.