 Caressa cannot crawl, but can scoot on her bottom. She is nimble at rolling around her bed, and at jerking away from me while I change her diaper. Nimble and astoundingly strong. She can sit up and lie down at will. She must be carefully watched, for although she refuses to eat most food, she will eat grass, fuzz, or body wastes. This eating of non-edible substances is called PICA. She is famous for biting a hole in a quilt, and eating the stuffing inside. There are times when she pulls her own hair out and eats it. I don’t know why. I keep her hair short now because of this. When I find her doing this, I distract and amuse her to make her think of something else.
It is easy to treasure and enjoy an eight month old baby. The bright sparkling eyes, the little hands reaching out, the curiosity, and sense of humor.
Those very things are what make Caressa so much fun. It’s only that she will be remaining a cute baby all her life, in a bigger body. She is my dear little "babylady".
Caring for her is sometimes challenging, as her body movements are very jerky and athetoid. Also because she gets full of mischief, and tries to avoid getting dressed and diapered!
But all I have to do is go slowly. It’s much the same as dressing a lively baby. When she jerks her arm back to avoid a sleeve, I put my hand in the sleeve from the other end, take hold of her hand, and pull it through. She finds this very funny. She has a delightful and whimsical sense of humor!
She has an extreme aversion to eating by mouth. However, when she is in her wheelchair, I can get her to eat tiny cheese squares, raisins, cheese puffs, potato chips, and other finger foods. The only requirement she makes of me is that I not watch. I must drop them surreptitiously on her tray as I pass, and not look back. If I look back, she instantly throws them on the floor and laughs.
Caressa has a sense of rhythm. When a favorite nursery song of hers comes on a video, she will sometimes grab my hand, and swing my arm back and forth in perfect time. Countless times I have done that with her, and now she does it with me! That is certainly higher than an eight month old skill. Today I found her bouncing her leg in a rhythm that was certainly meant to match the music, because it stopped when the music did! So here is a skill perhaps at the two to three year old level!
Caressa is a petite little lady. Because she only weighs around a hundred pounds, I can lift her from bed to chair, to the floor, and back. It's been very hard lifting her out of the bathtub for many years, but only since we moved to the country did I find the solution to giving her baths! I found a round trough at the feed store made of rubber, just the size for Caressa! She can sit, because her legs fold up so comfortably, and play in the tub, but she can't fall over. It's beautiful! She loves it. I set the tub on her bedroom floor, and fill it with a pail. I put in sweet smelling bubble bath. Ginger, lilac, almond, cucumber melon, and pina colada. I cannot tell if she likes the scents, but I enjoy them all for her. She does enjoy bubbles, though. She gets her fingers covered with bubbles, then waves them in the air, watching them fall off.
This rubber tub keeps the water warm for a very long time, in a warm room, with Caressa in it. After she's done, I can lift her back in bed to get her dressed. I wish I had known about farm animal troughs years ago! She loves water, whether she is sitting in it, or it’s being poured over her, but, like any other baby, she doesn’t like it in her eyes. It’s easier to wash her hair with her lying on her back in bed. She will let me do this, because she trusts my gentle ways, as long as I go very slowly. If I hurry, she will twist around, thrash and screech, making washing her impossible. So I go slowly. I find it a very tender experience, washing her hair, because her head is so very small, under that mass of curls, and it makes me feel like I'm washing a baby's hair.
But her favorite thing is to sit in her rubber tub with her legs folded in front of her stomach, lean her arms on the edge of the trough, and stare down into the water, just watching it. She can do this until I think she has gone to sleep! But no, she's just sticking her tongue out as far as it will go, trying to touch the water with it. Or trying to touch the bubbles with it. She's just having fun! Needless to say, her skin stays gorgeous. When she gets bored, she will sit up, start laughing, and splashing water. That's my personal signal to get her out! But every morning when I come in her room, Caressa looks up, watches me pouring water in her tub, and waves her arms all over, bouncing up and down in her bed, smiling, and sometimes screeching with joy. She can hardly wait to get in! She also loves splashing with a little water in her tub, when she is dressed, and sitting on the rug outside it.
Caressa absolutely loves playing with water. In the summer when I give her a hose, she just loves it. In the bathtub, she leans over, and sticks her fingers in the drain, feeling the water go down. She turns her head and gazes up the faucet, hoping for a drip. She can barely bear her weight on her feet, with no balance, and much wobbling, and take tiny awkward steps if I'm holding her up. She loves it when I stand her at the kitchen sink and let her play in warm water for a few minutes at a time. I wish a standing table could be built for her. I must stand there holding her up, because she would fall over, but oh, those smiles!
Our family has a fifteen passenger van, so the nine of us, plus Caressa's and Joey's wheelchairs fit in it just fine. When we go to town, (a 50 mile round trip) Caressa gazes out the window, very interested in the countryside going by. She has a marvelous doctor in town, and she's a very healthy lady.
Caressa enjoys being outside with me in the spring, summer and fall, and is enchanted with the breeze in her curls. She watches me hang clothes, fascinated by the line of clothes blowing in the wind. It must appear to her as a giant crib mobile. In her bed, she looks out and watches the geese, ducks and chickens walk past her window. When I wheel her out to see the calves and sheep, she is only mildly interested. She much prefers the geese, which are noisy, funny, and move quickly! Kind of like herself!
In the winter our peacocks sit on the woodpile against her bedroom, and look in the window at her. She waves her arms and bounces up and down, smiling or chuckling. She is very fond of the sunshine, and when it is spreading warm across her bed, she lies down in it, and looks contented as a kitten. She is fascinated by the snow, and will watch it coming down. She also loves to watch the firelight in the wood stove, and hear it crackle.
At night when it’s time for me to turn her lights off and shut the door, I turn on one of her many lullaby CDs so she can relax and fall asleep by gentle music. Often she fingers the brightly colored shower curtain rings that are strung along her hospital crib sides. She loves the sound they make, and the feel of them in her fingers.
I am sharing my daughter’s life, for many out in the world don’t know anyone like her. Caressa's such a warm, friendly person herself; if she could, I'm sure she would want to do the same thing. I wish a loving home could be found for every child like Caressa, who sits forlorn and abandoned, in an institution today. I would adopt another Caressa, in her twenties, thirties, or forties in a minute. It is so much fun to give joy to a person like my daughter!
We think we've come so far, as a society, but there are still countless human beings, in our country, helpless, and unwanted. Caressa has infinite value as a human being, created by God. It gives me so much happiness giving joy to her. So here’s to our dear, bubbly daughter!
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