The pressures of everyday life can weigh heavy on your shoulders at times. The last few months seem to have been difficult for all of my family in one way or another.
When my second Granddaughter was born with an undiagnosed Genetic Syndrome I sort of guessed that things would not be plain sailing but I never envisaged that everything would be such a battle just to get even the most basic of things. I never envisaged that my eldest Daughter would have to become an expert on medical matters just to be taken seriously by various authorities. Some days are not always good.
Yesterday was a good day. For a start the sun was shining for most of the day. It is true what people say, when the sun shines people do seem to be happier. I for one felt happier when I got up yesterday morning. I took Jess to her SEN Nursery as usual and helped out in the class that I normally help out in on Tuesdays. I love being a volunteer, I am starting to get to know a lot of the children in the school now and don’t get so mixed up with their names, at first I thought I would never remember them all.
My first good experience was seeing how excited Jess was when we got to nursery. During the car journey I am constantly reminding her of where we are going and sometimes accompany this with a song about going to nursery (thank you Sing & Sign) – I hasten to add that I am NOT signing whilst driving! Although Jess is non verbal I think she understands a lot more than she can convey. Once we arrived she waved her arms up and down – a sure sign that she is happy or enjoying something. I got her in her wheelchair and off we went to the sensory room which is where she joins her other class mates until it is time to go into class. Jess knew exactly where she was going and even tried to get out of her wheelchair herself once we got to the door. She can’t wait to be let loose with the bubble tube and the lights she also knows that her teaching assistant Kate will be there and she loves to see Kate. As soon as her feet touched the ground Jess held onto my one hand and started walking – actually no it was more pulling – towards the sensory room door. A wonderful sight because as you are probably aware if you are a regular reader, we were told that Jess may never walk, o.k. she still cannot walk completely unaided, but I know that is just going to be a matter of time. Once inside Jess sat down and let go of my hand and crawled towards Kate and the bubble tube, I always say goodbye to her as I do not believe in just disappearing, but she did not take any notice. No this does not make me sad, just another reason to be happy as I can remember the early days when she would cling onto me and not want me to leave.
Next I make my way to the classroom where I help out for the morning. I think the sunshine was having an affect on the children too as they all seemed to be quite cheerful. Sometimes a child can get upset over something and start to cry and then it has a knock on effect on the others especially those with noise sensitivity. There have been days when I have had my lunch followed by a couple of paracetamol tablets.
Yesterday morning the children were happy and even the children who are prone to crying for no apparent reason seemed to be calm. The nursery uses conductive education so everything is done with a song attached to it or a certain piece of music. Each adult in the class works one to one with a child helping them to do various stretching exercises on the floor mats all accompanied by a song. I have been taught how to help with the exercises and to make sure the child gets a good stretch to their muscles which is so important to those that are in this group. Next it is snack time and helpers are required to sit with their child and either help them feed or feed them if they cannot do it themselves or just watch to make sure they do not get into any difficulty. The child I was with yesterday morning surprised me by grabbing the spoon out of my hand and trying to feed herself. Apparently she had only just started to do this a few days ago. Things like this just prove how good Greenhall Nursery is and how dedicated the staff are. No matter what a child’s disability may be they always focus on the positive and try and build upon that. So there was another reason to be cheerful, I was so pleased by this child’s efforts, it made me feel really good. I clapped her enthusiastically and she clapped her hands back and gave me a big smile. Being a volunteer has given me so much hope for Jess’s future achievements as I have seen things that others have said were impossible become possible. Working with children can be very rewarding but working with children who have disabilities has got to be one of the most rewarding things ever and it certainly teaches you that it is the little things in life that can sometimes be the most satisfying.
Later in the day after nursery Jess and I picked up big six year old Sister Natalie from school. Again Jess gets very excited about this as she loves her Sister and Natalie clearly loves her too. Natalie had a gymnastics class later at which we would be joined by their Mummy on her way back from work. Nanny Joan normally takes Natalie to gymnastics but as she was on holiday I was stepping in. We didn’t have a lot of time and Jess was now feeling tired and getting a bit irritable but Natalie was so good. She went upstairs and got herself ready for gymnastics and then sat down to have some tea. Whilst I was upstairs changing Jess she cleared away her plate and cup without any prompting. I was trying to get her hair into a ponytail and was struggling to get all her hair into the rather small hair band.
“Don’t worry Nanny if it’s not quite right” said Natalie.
“Mummy is used to doing it so it doesn’t matter if you can’t do it just like her”.
Such grown up and kind words from one of six years. It made me laugh. It made me realise just how much I love this little girl and I gave her a big hug and told her that her Nanny loved her so very much.
Final reason to be cheerful, Jess is to have a specially adapted trike in time for her Birthday in July. This has been funded by a charity, proof that there is still kindness in the world. The picture below shows Jess trying this out at a disabled living exhibition we went to recently.
Bet you are smiling now too!!
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