I Didn’t Know Cats Could Swim Redux
I am very crabby today…went to the dentist. Dentists conjure up very bad memories of pain. Living with a “crazy” dad who loved to eat candy, cookies and pies, along with limited encouragement for good dental hygiene, I had many cavities as a child. When having the cavities fixed, the dentist did not use Novocain. (Either that or my parents would not pay the additional expense for Novocain because my dad was obsessively cheap.) At any rate, I equate going to the dentist with torture. Even though I am grown now, and the dentist DOES use Novocain, the experience in general is very stressful and causes me much crabbiness. Needing a boost out of my bad mood, I tried to think of something that would make me smile. Thus, I am repeating a post I did more than a year ago. One that made me giggle. One that I will share again with you…
Because my youngest daughter, who is deaf, goes to school out of state, I sometimes rent a hotel room for myself, my oldest daughter and her son, Alley (Alejandro) to visit together. Last weekend was one such weekend. I love to see the interaction of the three of them, Dinora signing in ASL to Marie and Alley trying to copy the signs with his small hands. (He explains that Marie can’t talk because her ears are broken, so she has to use her hands…) His favorite sign, “swimming”, is used often because he wants them to spend all of their time together in the hotel pool. It was during one of their swims, while I was sitting in the lounge chair by the pool, sipping a nice tall plastic cup of Diet Coke, and smiling while the three of them frolicked, that I was overwhelmed with a feeling of joy in my heart. They were beaming with laughter and exuding a happiness that one could not overlook…a deep, profound happiness which doesn’t often come to Marie. Seeing her eyes glint with laughter, tears stung at the back of my eyes, then slowly slipped down my cheeks. To think that a child who had been so severely abused as she could come through all of that darkness and despair to ultimately be able to experience such joy made my heart want to explode with love for the three of them. I could not remember ever having been so content in my life, but my reverie was soon disturbed, but not unpleasantly…
My tears of joy were soon replaced by tears of laughter. Alley came out of the pool and looked around… “Where’s the cat pool?” he asked. “The CAT pool? There is no cat pool!” I replied. “Yes! Yes! In hotels there are sometimes CAT pools!” he argued, frustrated that I could not understand what he was asking. “You know, the pool for the kitties.” Ah! The KIDDY POOL!
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The Apple Tree: Raising 5 Kids With Disabilities and Remaining Sane
Authored by Linda Petersen
The link to the book:
https://www.createspace.com/5321986?ref=1147694&utm_id=6026
Raising 5 Kids With Disabilities and Remaining Sane Blog 