Aladdin Playing Cards

Kimmie has wanted a deck of Aladdin playing cards for a long time. As I wrote about earlier, she was very disappointed that we could not find them at Disney World.

Well, we resolved the problem and Kimmie now has a deck of Aladdin playing cards. They are actually Aladdin and Kimmie playing cards.

For Christmas we had a personalized deck made using one of the pictures taken when we saw Aladdin at Disney World.

Kimmie loves her new cards. Well, she loves the ones with numbers on them. She’s not a fan of the “letter” cards, Aces, Kings, Queens and Jacks. She throws them and the jokers off to the side.

--Mom

Disney World - Shopping

We were a little disappointed with the shopping at Disney World.

When asked what she wanted to do at Disney World, Kimmie's first answer was always hug Aladdin. Her second answer was shopping. She had very specific things she wanted to shop for: Aladdin playing cards and an Aladdin coloring book.

I was a little skeptical that we would find these items. However, I read in my 850-page Disney guide book that there was a store across from The Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride that specialized in Aladdin merchandise. We went there, only to find that it mostly carried cultural merchandise. There was one rack of Jasmine "princess" souvenirs. Of course Kimmie has no interest at all in anything with a girl on it.

We looked through the shops everywhere we went (the air conditioning was part of the draw), but we were really disappointed in the depth of selection. Mostly there was Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Disney Princesses, Tinkerbell and Toy Story III merchandise. Everywhere we went we looked for something with Aladdin or the Blue Genie. There were no t-shirts, no pins, no magnets, no pencils, nothing.

We began naming all the movies that Disney has made and thinking about how few of them were represented in the Disney merchandise. We really felt like Disney missed the boat by not having a larger variety of characters represented in their merchandise.

But Kimmie did not go home empty handed. Late in our trip we went to the toy store in Downtown Disney and finally found something with Aladdin. We found a playset of plastic Aladdin figurines. (What I believe to be the only Aladdin souvenir in all of Disney World!) Fortunately it was a different set than the one she already had at home.

And then there was the "Make Your Own Star Wars Sword" display. She added a green sword to her collection of Star Wars swords. (She bought the purple one with birthday money, so I think her collection is complete now, at least until they come out with another color.)

She also added a new Pooh plush to her Pooh collection and a new panda plush to her panda collection.

We may have to add on to the house to hold all her collections!

--Mom

Green Star Wars Sword!

OH, NO! Evidently there is a GREEN Star Wars light saber sword.

At least there is a commercial with a green one in it. I saw it the other day while sitting next to Kimmie. I gasped. She poked me and signed "green". Her sister laughed.

Maybe we won't be able to find a green one at our stores? Maybe I can keep her out of the toy section?

Oh, well. She does play with them.

My little collector.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, see the February 16, 2010 post titled "Kimmie's New Collection."

--Mom

Kimmie's New Collection

I've mentioned before that Kimmie is a collector. For a while it was Care Bears. She would pick a color and we would have to search high and low for that color Care Bear. As soon as she had that one she would pick another color. We were saved from that obsession when they were taken off the market. But there's only a couple of them that we are missing.

Several months ago Kimmie came up with something new she wanted. A Star Wars light saber sword. I looked at them in the store and they are about four feet long. Almost as long as Kimmie is tall. Why do they make these things so long? Kids could do some real damage. I was looking for one much shorter, but the short ones only come in a set with a long one.

Anyway. Kimmie spotted the set with the short and long one when she was at the store with me one day. She jumped out of the cart (as in the bench seat at the back of an extra long cart--NOT the basket part of the cart, that's a scary thought), grabbed the box and put it under her arm. In other words, nobody's getting this away from her without a fight (or screaming fit). So she became the proud owner of a set of Star Wars light saber swords that light up, and the long one makes noise. Blue light saber swords. They also had red ones on the shelf.

Well, she enjoyed the blue ones for several months, and then she started in with "red". So now we have two sets of light saber swords. She especially enjoys holding the short ones and having one for each hand. It takes two hands for her to handle the long ones.

When she has the short ones in each hand it looks like she might be ready to direct airport traffic, or play the drums, or direct a music and light show.

Thankfully, I have not seen any other colors but red and blue.

--Mom

Baseball

I've written about how cute Kimmie is running around with her football under her right arm and her left arm out in front to knock down anyone in her way. Since I've written about football, I thought I should write about baseball. Baseball is actually her favorite sport.

She gets her bat and she gets into position to bat. Amazingly, the part of baseball that she is the best at is working to dig a hole for her back foot to rest in while she is batting. She works and works her foot attempting to dig a hole in the family room rug. We're not sure how or why she fixated on this goofy, idiosyncratic part of batting, but she spends most of her time working her foot on the rug. I suppose she has seen this on television, but we don't watch baseball very often.

When she finally "swings" (not sure you can really call what she does a swing, but she does move the bat) at the imaginary ball, then she has to stop and tell us that she has hit the ball. She drops the bat and runs. Her running is more of a back and forth pattern rather than a circle-the-bases type movement. Sometimes in the middle of her running the bases she catches the ball, stops and declares herself the winner.

I don't think she quite understands that one team bats and the other team catches the ball, and then they switch.

But she sure is cute and funny.

--Mom

PS. She received a full size football for Christmas. She thinks she's really big now when she plays. Her little arm sticks almost straight out with the bigger ball under it.

Football

We tend to think that Kimmie would have been our athelete if she had been normal. At least she takes more of an interest in sports than her siblings. She'll actually watch games with us sometimes.

Kimmie doesn't play, but she likes to pretend.

She's really cute when she is pretending to play football. She signs to us, "brown football." Then she points under her right arm where she pretends the football is. She bends her right arm like a chicken wing, tucking her elbow close to her side to hold the pretend ball tight. Her left arm she sticks straight out in front of her with the palm of her hand up in front. Then she runs across the room, ball tucked tightly under her right arm and left arm straight out. Well, it's not exactly running, but it's the best she can do in the way of running. When she stops she pants a little and tells us she is the winner. If she happens to be sitting down she pretends to run by bouncing her legs up and down. She has a small football which she sometimes puts under her arm.

Just the other day, after having lost weight since the surgery and looking more fragile than usual, we were watching a game and Kimmie started her football routine. I told her she couldn't play football, those football players would crush her. Her sister decided she was too cute and the football players would simply stand back and watch. But Daddy said he thought they'd just pick her up and carry her to the endzone.

We all liked Daddy's vision best.

--Mom

Kimmie's Worrying

Kimmie has been fixated for a long time on all things medical. When she was little the toy doctor kits sent her into hysterics. I remember a little girl trying to listen to Kimmie's heart on the toy stethescope in preschool. Kimmie screamed until they were separated.

For literally years she will talk about having blood drawn or her finger pricked for a blood test. And she can usually tell you what day of the week it was and in what month.

But she has a new phrase she's using a lot now. "Hospital none, hospital none."

Yesterday she climbed off the bus signing to her sister, "Hospital none, hospital none."

Then, yesterday evening, she came out in the kitchen with a worried little forehead, stopped in front of me, and signed with that worried look on her face, "Hospital none, hospital none."

She knows and she's worrying.

--Mom

My Little Collector

Kimmie never likes going to the dentist, although she does hug and hug and hug all over the dentist.

But the part she likes the most is the treasure box. For a while she was collecting plastic ducks for her bath, but now she has started collecting bouncy balls. And of course one is never enough, she has to have one for each hand. So when she went to the dentist this week she came home with two more bouncy balls.

Of course, after all the crying and the screaming and the hugging, everyone feels so sorry for her that they would just about give her the moon. Two bouncy balls, no problem.

--Mom

Kimmie's Birthday Celebration

I'm very behind on my stories. It's already August and I haven't even written about Kimmie's birthday celebration.

Since Kimmie's sister was going to be gone to camp on Kimmie's birthday, we celebrated early. We told Kimmie when we were going to celebrate her birthday about a week before and boy was she ready.

Not normally a morning person, Kimmie was up at 6:20 am. We weren't celebrating until evening, so she had a long day of waiting. Fortunately she was pretty good about it. She signed repeatedly "Grandma Grandpa over." I reminded her that they weren't coming over until evening. She was amazingly patient.

It did start to get the best of her when she could see the presents, but she had to wait for us to all finish our cake and ice cream. We all knew that she'd been waiting a long time, so we gulped down the cake and ice cream to get to the important part -- presents.

She was very excited. One of her new loves, this summer, is Teen Titans. One present was Season One of Teen Titans. She has been carrying it around and sleeping with it ever since. (Well, when she can convince Daddy that she needs to take it to bed with her.) She doesn't ask to watch it very often, but she keeps the movie box close by. Sometimes she cries in the night and we have to find it for her.

She is enjoying her new books and toys.

It won't be long before she starts talking about Christmas.

--Mom

The Jar

Kimmie has a new toy, a small plastic jar.

Dad washed the jar and placed it on the kitchen island. He had plans to use it for something, but Kimmie found it and claimed it instead.

She picked it up, took the lid off, examined it, put the lid back on and placed it back on the counter. But a few minutes later she went back, picked it up and carried it to the table where she sat down, took the lid off and started carefully stuffing her shoe strings into the jar. After the strings are all inside she puts the lid back on and looks at all the pretty colors inside the jar. After a while she takes the lid off and shakes out the shoe strings.

When we go out, she used to wad up all the shoe strings and carry them in her little fist. Now she carries the shoe strings in her little jar.

Sometimes she gets frustrated when the shoe strings pop out and won't stay in as she is filling it, but for the most part it is a new entertainment for her, carefully, inch by inch, pushing the shoe string in the jar.

--Mom

More about Christmas

We gauge the success of Christmas by whether Kimmie actually plays with her new toys. Often when she receives new toys she will poke at them for a minute or two and then never touch them again. (Except to dump them into a heap on the floor, just cause everything has to be on the floor.) This Christmas was a success. She is still playing with many of her new gifts.

Four days after Christmas and we are still watching Danny Phantom DVDs. She is still wallowing with her new Pooh fleece blanket. She is still playing with her black genie lamp. She has played with her new Geomag sticks that are a new color, neon pink and orange. She continues to look at her new books.

And her new Care Bears and panda bear have joined the others that get moved around the room. First they are tossed out of the basket and over her shoulder. Then they might be picked up and tossed on the sofa. Then she might climb onto the sofa and push them all onto the floor. Later she might pick them all up and load them in her "Santa bag" (see previous post), also known as her Pooh bag since it is a Pooh Bear pillowcase. Her "Santa bag" is usually carried to another location in the room and then dumped out.

Christmas, part one, was a success. We will see how part two goes when we have more Christmas on New Years Day.

--Mom

Kimmie's Santa Bag

In an earlier post I wrote about how Kimmie moves her stuffed animals from her room to the family room by tossing them down the stairs. This is very effective for the larger ones. She has another method she sometimes uses for the smaller ones. She takes her pillowcase off her pillow and fills it up. We call it her Santa Bag. She fills it up and then gathers the opening closed in her hand and hauls it off.

This last time we didn't bother to carry the pillowcase back upstairs, so she plays with it every night. She gathers her small Care Bears and panda bears, tosses them all in the bag, and then carries it around. When she settles someplace, she dumps them out, plays with them for a while and then loads the bag back up.

We always laugh because it looks so much like an overstuffed Santa bag. When she heard us calling it her Santa bag she was confused. She told us it was Kimmie's bag. Her sister asked her if she was going to throw it over her shoulder. Kimmie tried to lift it up to her shoulder but couldn't quite figure out how to get it over her shoulder.

We enjoy watching her play.

--Mom

Kimmie's best buddy

Kimmie's best buddy is Brown Bear, her teddy bear. He started out as her brother's teddy bear, but whenever he would leave the bear out where Kimmie could get it, she would latch onto it. After a while he would get tired of that and carry his bear back to his room. Eventually he decided he didn't need a teddy bear any more and he gave it to Kimmie. He had never named the bear, but Kimmie named the teddy bear "Brown Bear" after her favorite book, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" (Eric Carle)

Brown Bear has been Kimmie's faithful companion nearly everywhere she goes. We do not allow her to carry him to school, but he does go to church with us. Sometimes she folds his paws so he can pray.

He always goes to the doctor, the dentist and the hospital with Kimmie. Especially the hospital. He has been to surgery with her a couple times.

Kimmie sleeps with Brown Bear. He is usually her pillow. He is pretty flat now, and we have even had him restuffed once at Build-a-Bear.

Several years ago she took a little red shirt off of one of her Pooh Bears and put it on Brown Bear. He has worn it ever since. When she does take it off, he just doesn't look like himself.

He has taken many baths through the washing machine, but we are almost afraid to wash him anymore. He is getting very delicate. Much of his fur has rubbed off.

Kimmie rocks him to sleep, pats his head and covers him up. She tells us to be quiet. He's sleeping. Kimmie pretends he is Aladdin, the Blue Genie, Danny Phantom and lots of other fun cartoon characters that she likes.

Most of all, Brown Bear gets lots of love. Lots of hugs and kisses.

--Mom

Rabbit

A few years ago we were preparing for a yard sale. We were gathering outgrown toys, clothes and other stuff no longer needed. I put with the yard sale items a large stuffed Rabbit, as in Winnie the Pooh's friend Rabbit. You see Kimmie has lots of large stuffed animals, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, Eeyore, Rabbit, panda, Scooby-doo. They take up a lot of space and I decided that she never plays with Rabbit, so he could go. Dad was not too sure about this idea. He said it broke up the set. Usually he is all for scaling back the toys, but not this time.

We continued to prepare for the sale and I kept Rabbit in the sale items. The day before the sale we moved all the stuff to the living room where we could put it outside quickly the next morning. Kimmie became quite aggitated about all that was going on, but we kept her out of the living room.

After a while, when she continued to be aggitated, we turned her loose to go in and get whatever had her upset. It was like she was on a rescue mission. She put her head down and ran into the living room. She snatched up Rabbit and clutched him under her arm. She pivoted around and ran out of the room, past us, and didn't stop until she was safely in the family room with Rabbit and all her other treasured toys.

We still have Rabbit. We won't try that again. She may not play with him, but his presence, along with many other of her stuffed animals, brings her some comfort and security. That's important, too.

--Mom

Shoestrings

If you have ever been around Kimmie much, you have probably noticed the wad of shoestrings that she carries around with her. (unless you know her from school--we don't let her carry them to school)

Her interest in shoestrings began many years ago. I started it. When Kimmie was five she was in kindergarten. The class she was in didn't work out very well. Eventually we took her out of school for about a year and I homeschooled her while we tried to find an appropriate class. As I searched for activities that would develop different skills, I found this idea of using peg board and shoestrings to practice lacing and creating designs. Kimmie wasn't much interested in working the laces through the holes on the board, but she became obsessed with unlacing the board. I would string the laces every which way through the holes, criss-crossing them and changing direction. She would work diligently until all the laces were free of the board. It became a fine motor and problem solving activity.

Eventually we discarded the board, but she had become very attached to the shoestrings. She usually has four or five that have become her favorites. She will carry these around and fiddle with them. She will find the exact center of each and tie exactly the same number of knots in each, usually two or three. Then she will line up the knots in her hand. Kimmie is very tactile. The knots in each string have to match, they have to feel the same size and length, or she will rework them.

When we are headed to church we will usually try to get the shoestrings away from her so we can tie knots in them on the way. This keeps her busy for a while working to untie them. While she is busy with one, we will try to sneak another away from her to tie more knots in it. If she catches us, she will not let us have the string. It turns into a game as we try to out-maneuver her and get the shoestrings. Sometimes the whole family gets involved--Grandma, Grandpa, sister, Mom, Dad . . .

Kimmie is very tactile and she can be very picky about the strings. They must be flat shoestrings not round. No metallic threads in them. Not too slick. They must also be solid colors. Once she has played with one for a while she knows the feel of it and it cannot be replaced with another the same color, not even the matching one that came in the same package. She can tell the difference.

--Mom

Pandas

Kimmie loves pandas. She has a nice little collection of stuffed ones, and she loves to wear her panda pajamas.

In 2000 we visited San Diego and went to the zoo. This was our first time to see real pandas. Kimmie was 8. She ran in a gift store and wrapped her arms around a stuffed panda that was almost as big as she was. Of course we hauled that panda home with us. It became her sister's carry-on when we boarded the plane. Her sister was 5 at the time and she carried it through the airports for us. We still have that panda.

In 2006 we visited San Diego a second time. The only animals Kimmie was interested in seeing at the zoo were the pandas. We pushed her wheelchair over to the rail where she could sit and watch the pandas. Actually, she didn't really watch them all that much. She was simply content just to "be" wth the pandas. Fortunately it was not busy and we were able to stay there for a while.

We visited the pandas twice that day so she could sit contentedly and "be" with her friends.

--Mom

Sea of Toys

We live in a sea of toys. Since Kimmie was just a little tiny girl she has always been happiest when surrounded by all her toys. It is not enough that she can see them; they have to be all around her on the floor. Once she has the floor covered with her toys, then she is content.

We thought, hoped, she would outgrow this, but, at 17, she still likes to sit on the floor in the middle of all her toys.

It's not enough to get out her favorites, or just the ones she is going to play with right now. No, all the toys have to be out of their containers and strewn on the floor around her.

To control the mess we try to keep a few toys in each room. That works for a while, but eventually she starts carrying them all to the family room. She will go up to her room, carry stuffed animals to the top of the stairs, then throw them down. When she has them all at the bottom of the stairs, she comes down and carries them to the door of the family room where she tosses them in. When the floor is completely covered she sits down in the middle of the mess and plays contentedly.

We all take comfort in having our favorite things nearby. Kimmie just illustrates this in an extreme way. In the big scheme of things it is just a small inconvenience that is worth the bother if it makes her feel safe and secure.

--Mom

Kimmie the Collector

Kimmie is a collector. We first noticed this when she wanted the green Care Bear "Good Luck Bear". We searched everywhere for one. Finally we found it and gave it to her. She hugged it, kissed it, and then threw it aside and signed "blue Care Bear". Every time she received a new one, she would think of another color. I've lost track of how many 9" Care Bears she has. After those she moved on to the larger ones that come with DVDs.

Kimmie also collects stuffed pandas, teddy bears, anything Pooh bear and Geomag sticks.

--Mom