Court Appointed Visitors

As we prepare for the guardianship court hearing, we have a list of people who are to visit with us to assess the situation and get an idea of Kimmie's abilities.

So far the physician and the psychologist have been here. Kimmie has done quite well. She has giggled and smiled at both of them. They both asked her who the president is, and she told them both "Kimmie." She even held her guitar and did a little dance for the psychologist. He did an assessment with some pictures, and she cooperated well.

We will be glad when it is all over, but so far it hasn't been too bad.

--Mom

The Triple Hug

Before Kimmie began with the "Double Hug" she was doing the "Triple Hug."

With the Triple Hug, Kimmie gives a big squeeze, releases and then starts to back away. About the time the person thinks it's over, Kimmie decides she needs to hug them again and grabs them and squeezes again. Once she's done this, we know there is going to be another hug, because she always has to get three squeezes in.

--Mom

Update from Dad: Sometimes she has a triple-double. The night before last she was excited to finish supper and get back to her movie. I got a triple-double from that, three squeezes each around my chest and my neck.

Dad

Double Hug

Kimmie has had lots of different "hugs" over the years. Right now she has a hug I call the "Double Hug". When she decides she is going to hug someone, first she hugs them around the chest, then she has to hug them around the neck. Thus, the "Double Hug".

When you receive a "Double Hug" you really feel loved and special. The hug around the neck is usually the topping on the cake. Mmmm, mmmm, it's a really good hug.

--Mom

Tug-o-War

This is a follow-up to the earlier post about Kimmie and her socks, especially the turquoise socks that she loves so much.

The turquoise socks never seem to make it back into Kimmie's sock drawer. Every time they are washed, she spots them during the folding. She snatches them up and immediately puts them on.

This last time, her sister was folding the laundry and saw Kimmie reaching for the socks. Kimmie and her sister both grabbed the socks at the same time and a tug-o-war began. Kimmie is so strong that she was able to hold her own. (She may be small, but she knows how to use every ounce of her weight to her advantage--you should see how many people it takes to hold her down at the dentist's office.) Her sister could not easily get the socks away from her. Eventually Kimmie won (or, rather, her sister let her have them), and she promptly put on the socks.

I suppose I should buy her some more turquoise socks. However, knowing Kimberly the new socks wouldn't feel exactly the same as the old ones, so she probably wouldn't have anything to do with them. At least that's the way it is with the shoe strings. She chooses one string from the pack and the other one is discarded. She can always tell the difference between the two strings and will never play with the discarded one, at least not until the favored one is lost or frayed.

Funny little girl.

--Mom

May 20, 2009

May 20, 2009, is an important date on our calendar. We are scheduled in disability court that day for Kimmie's guardianship hearing. Between now and then we have to meet with a court appointed physician, social worker, psychologist, and attorney who will represent Kimmie.

We are not expecting any problems, but the whole thing is a little disconcerting.

We've been Mom and Dad for 18 years, feeding, dressing, bathing, teaching and loving Kimmie. Now all these strangers will make important assessments and decisions about our little Kimmie. They will spend just a few minutes with Kimmie, prepare their reports and submit them to the court. Then we will appear before the judge and jury who have never laid eyes on Kimmie, for their review and decision.

It's a little disturbing.

--Mom

Aladdin

Disney's Aladdin is by and far Kimmie's favorite movie and favorite cartoon character. She has gone through many Aladdin books. We have had to replace them because some of the pages became shredded and some of the faces were rubbed off from her pointing at them.

She loves the movie and has watched it over and over and over again. We had to buy a second copy because she wore the first one out. The rest of the family became tired of the movie and started hiding it so we wouldn't have to watch it.

Kimberly has watched it so many times that she is actually rather bored by it. She continues to ask to watch it, but, when allowed to, she ends up crying and screaming and sometimes takes the disk out and throws it. Because of this, we don't allow her to watch the movie any more. She has her books and her stuffed Aladdin toys, so she can pretend and act out the parts she likes.

Grandma's house used to be her Aladdin haven. She knew that they would let her watch it all day long, over and over again. But once the tantrums started happening during the movie, they hid their copy, too.

Now Kimmie goes over there and looks for the Aladdin movie. She studies and studies their movie cupboard hoping to find it. Every room she goes in she stands and looks and looks for her movie. Is it on top of the refridgerator? the microwave? Is it on the organ? in the bookcase?

Poor little Kimmie. Actually, we sometimes let her hold the movie box and that often makes her happy, just holding it and knowing where it's at, even though we won't let her watch it.

--Mom