Solving the World's Problems With Duct Tape and a $1.50

I used duct tape this morning to fix Sean's binder. 

Cheap?  Considering the car is getting two new - badly needed - tires tomorrow and I have thousands of dollars in electrical and concrete repair work staring at me, I perhaps think I am.

However, I'm going to call myself practical.  Sean breaks things.  It's a fact of life.  Pencils, erasers, fidget toys.... my watch.... my first stethoscope from college when I dreamed of becoming a doctor and saving the world.

He likes to touch things.  And he touches them hard.  They break.

A fact of life.

I remember hearing from someone during all those evaluations and therapy visits that he does that because he has a disconnect or slowed connection between what his body is doing and what his brain is thinking that his body is doing.  Sean couldn't close his eyes and turn his hand over from palm down to palm up....

He writes so hard that we have to buy special pencils over the Internet - and we buy them a gross (144 of them) at a time.  We tried for years and years to get him to write with less pressure so that he would no longer gouge the table but our efforts were futile.  Both the private and school occupational therapists tried as well.  Recently, Sean was able to verbalize that the reason he uses so much pressure when he writes is because it lets him know what his muscles are doing.

Wow.....

Of course, he only said it once so I'm truly grateful that the person who was with him at the time was actually listening.

But I digress....

Sean will touch and play with anything.  Policing what is within his reach - or what's he found - is probably one of my biggest jobs as his parent.  I can only imagine Carissa's reaction if Sean were to ever break something of hers.  She would go ballistic!

Fidget toys with tentacles pulled off (and I find them laying everywhere!!!).  Fluid filled fidget tubes that are busted.  Chew tubes that are mangled.  Shirts that are chewed on or ripped.  Even the laminate on the side of his bed.  Nothing is immune.

As a younger child, he used to pinch my elbows.  Now that he's older, and if I'm wearing a short-sleeved shirt, he'll either pinch the back of my neck or pinch the skin on the inside of my upper arm (ouch!).   At least he can't break me.

Remember the skin on his arms?  He even fidgets with and breaks that....

On a good note, I think I've solved that problem.  Quarters.  Three quarters in each of his two front pockets of his blue jeans.  He fiddles with them and loves it.  I hear that jangle and know that for the time being he's not ripping at his arms.

I call it my "Let George Do It" solution.  In 1976 my school put on a bicentennial variety show.  One of the songs was called, "Let George Do It."  George Washington is on the quarters and the problem with Sean's skin is slowly going away.... I think George is doing a darn fine good job!

Of course, the season for shorts is right around the corner.....

For now, I will take pleasure in this morning's use of duct tape in fixing his binder.  I think it looks pretty doggone cool.  Made me feel totally Tim Allen, Tool Time, Home Improvement-ish....completely worthy of one of those manly growl/howl noises he used to make.  If only I could sound like that....

Instead, I told Sean not to dawdle while he brushed his teeth....

So much for Tim Allen... I think I've become my mother!