Sunday, August 16, 2009

The Lift

I've been trying my best to get Jack out of his room and out of the house on the weekends. I usually take him for walks around the neighborhood in the evening. Putting Jack in his wheelchair is no longer something I can (safely) do on my own. Jack is a two person lift and, to be honest, we shouldn't be lifting him at all. Instead, we should be using his lift - the lift our insurance paid good money to have installed over Jack's bed. I've been good and have used the lift two weekends in a row. It really is a pain to use and takes twice as long, but I keep telling myself, if I hurt my back, the pain will be much more real.


I did a photo shoot of the whole process of getting Jack from his chair to his bed.





Here is the ceiling mounted lift. When Jack got his room makeover, they painted the lift blue to match the sky painted on the ceiling. Very cute!



So there you go, everything you wanted to know (or not) about how we use the lift to get Jack in and out of bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just have to share with you another Eric classic. One of the papers I pulled out of his backpack this weekend was a "Bio Poetry". The kids had to decide who they were going to write about and then fill in the blanks. Eric chose himself and, for the most part, I thought it was cute, but nothing remarkable .... that is until I got to his "Closing Line" (the italics words are Eric's words):

Eric.
Funny. Caring. Nice.
Wishing to have a dog.
Dreams of getting rich.
Wants to walk on the moon.
Who wonders if dad has a suprise waiting for him at the end of class.
Who fears his nightmares.
Who likes his dog.
Who believes in ghosts.
Who loves tarantula.
Who plans some inventions.

and the Closing Line:

When he dies he wants to be creamated.

He clearly took the "Closing Line" literally! (love how he spelled it). I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff. We certainly don't sit around and talk about how we are going to dispose of our bodies when we die. I can only imagine what he teacher thought when she read that.

Here's a picture of my little goof with his giant gummy snake. Ahhh . . . . boys!





May your Monday be fantastic and each day thereafter equally as good.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

OM goodness that is one cute kid. He will keep you laughing forever.
Love,
Tess

bettyd said...

Love the lift -we hope to have one soon. We still do the one person carry from the mat on the living room floor to the bedroom. The "clean and jerk" technique is not going to work much longer - he is about 85 pounds now and no help at all in hanging on. I am working on getting a lift like Jack's. We have the Hoyer - but I can't bother pulling that out.

But, like you, we are aware if we lose our backs, we are screwed! I'm glad the thinking side of our brains has the right idea. Now just getting past the emotional side to say our babies are not babies on our laps anymore :(

- betty

Sam said...

Your little guy is too funny. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when the teacher read that one.

Marcie said...

That is so funny!! I just love hearing about Eric!

Anonymous said...

Eric is so funny. I'm sure his teacher was laughing about that one at home!

Sandra

Anonymous said...

Ann, I know you just want to lift your baby boy, but the overhead lift will keep his mommy healthy a lot longer. Thanks for posting Eric's poem, wish I could meet him. Enjoy the rest of your week.
Love, Kathy Hawley

Christy said...

Ann,

Hearing about Eric makes me so excited for Murphy to start school. I hope I have those kinds of stories to share soon. And thanks for the pictures of Jack's lift. Now I know.

ssouth said...

I'm glad you are using the lift more.
Maybe Jack thinks it's a fun ride too. It's nice that Eric provides his own little "lifts" for you all too.

Dana said...

Honestly I don't know how you have moved him this long. Laneah is only 45 pounds and I am already having issues. Hope someone is handy when you need to move him. I can see how the lift might be a pain.

Eric is too funny.

Anonymous said...

funny stuff, Eric!! too cute.
xo christina