In Which Connor Says Good Night

So Connor and I spent pretty much the entire day inside today. That's because our neighborhood looked like this.

We did make an attempt to go for a walk in the snow. Connor's wheelchair is not really built for snow travel-- it really needed some skis! It was a pretty good arm workout for me, though. We slowly crunched down where I thought the sidewalk might be until we reached the park, where I decided it might be fun for Connor and I to try and make a snowman. I'd even brought a carrot with me just in case we found a likely spot for one and needed a nose!

Alas, our snowman was not to be. The snow didn't really want to pack well, and also I had to sacrifice my gloves because Connor quickly made his soaking wet once again. He has apparently decided that his gloves (and today, the rest of his clothing) are there for him to chew on. And when I say 'chew' I actually mean 'bite repeatedly,' as Connor doesn't seem to be able to move his jaw from side to side-- one of the major reasons why most of his nutrition is by g-tube. He's kind of in an oral stage right now; you can see him chomping away in this picture. So anyway, I ended up having to give him my gloves, which came up to his elbows and were apparently not as tasty. Snowmen are not fun to make without gloves in 18 degree weather though, so instead we turned around and slogged back home.

We spent the rest of the day indoors; I didn't really want to venture out and risk the wheelchair van on the icy roads. I wasn't concerned about my driving-- the van handles very well in rough weather. I was more concerned about all the little cars I'd watched fishtailing up and down our street all day. So we sat and played with the iPad for a while instead. Connor is newly in love with a program called Vocal Zoo. It's got a bunch of pictures of animals, and when you tap the picture the sound the animal makes plays. They have some really unconventional animals on there too, like the llama and the zebra. Mostly he likes to mash one animal over and over again. He particularly likes the ones with high-pitched, annoying calls.

We also played around with Proloquo2go for a while; it's the assistive communication program that was one of the main reasons we got the iPad for Connor. After some discussion, we programmed it to say "Good night Daddy. I love you!" and then I helped Connor push the button to play it for Jeremy when he got home.

Connor grinned and nodded after we pushed the button.

He's found a voice.

~Jess