Friday Night

It was a very quiet night at the house. Tony and I were both on hand and we have with us a new peer volunteer. Joan is a grade 12 student from a local private school. Our old peer volunteer has left us (we think) and did so without us saying goodbye! We do know that he has been accepted to med school...somewhere.

RIBS!! Ribs were on the table and I had a huge stack of them! Tonight there were more PCA's, nurses, and volunteers at the table. Janice and Daria were with us...snacking a bit and getting plugged into their tummy tubes. Janice was restless...really restless. I opted out of my RIBS(!!) and went away with Janice. Word on the street was that she absolutely loves Barney...the purple dinosaur. I though that Barney was outlawed years ago. Having opted out of my RIBS(!!) I opted out of Barney. Instead we went upstairs to the art room.

Janice is about...oooh...she could be anywhere from 6 to 9! I just don't know. Janice doesn't speak but communicates just fine with her face and eyes...and some unique sign language to which I am not privvy to what the signs mean! Earlier in the day Janice unclipped herself from her seatbelt and tried the quick crawl away from Melissa, a Friday afternoon Family Volunteer.
The prospect of painting piqued her interest so I got her suited up with a smock, some paper, paint and brushes. Not bad technique, until the paint brushes started to make their way to Janice's mouth. Time to put them away and do a bit of a clean up. That was fun! Janice liked washing her own hands in the sink. We did that for about 10 minutes.
After clean up we went outside to play some hoop. Janice could catch the ball with a very gentle toss onto her lap. She had more fun rolling it to the bushes than back to me. A bit later we went to the swing, and then we wandered the beautiful garden.
While we were talking Janice would use a couple of signs whenever I mentioned Sponge Bob on her shirt. She would stick her left arm out straight and place her right arm on her left shoulder. Then she would rub her nose with her knuckles...just like my buddy Buck did all the way through highschool with his itchy nose. Then she would giggle. I copied her everytime hoping that it didn't mean she had to go to the bathroom.
Dalia, Tony and Joan came out for a walk.

Soon it was time for her bath and a PCA came out to find us to take her in.
The three of us continued walking, Tony and I talking while Joan pushed Dalia. A few laps around the block and it was time to come in.

There was a family in the house with their son. Mum and Dad and Dylan made it down to the TV room downstairs...they has X-Box on their mind and we joined them in a ROUSING contest of the NEED FOR SPEED X Box race offs. This is the only time I have been successful against anyone in the house. Usually the kids kick my sorry rear end on every game.