The times they are changing

I'm here and still unpacking - but my DS and his family bought a new home. So I have custody of their two children. Yesterday was spent here - the oldest can play video games endlessly. Younger one too but not continuously - wants encouragement in what is going on. Today I had the brilliant idea to wear them down a bit so we wouldn't be up until midnight tonight. Good idea but bad reality. We went to the Children's Discovery Museum - which they really loved. Hint: baths and shampoos after if children dig for dinosaur bones with others. The chances of sand all over them is 100%. The sand they have is the finest, softest I've ever felt so it goes places sand has no business being. Then to TGI Fridays for lunch. After that we went to the TN Aquarium as these kids hadn't seen the penguin exhibit yet. So off we went and had a good time seeing all of it. Younger child had a butterfly on the hand for a bit and loved it. One got on me and every time I moved it to a shrub, it came back. Finally moved it onto a gentleman's hand and it stayed there. We also got to see a newly emerged butterfly just starting to fill its wings. That was a hit as well.

Penguins are a joy and the display is set up so that you can see the above-water activities as well as the underwater ones too. The penguins seem to like coming up to the glass and observe us watching them. Then on to the invertebrates - my favorites - and the big tank with all its levels. The sharks were staying near the windows as well as the sea turtle. The big rays were in hiding today.

Anyway I'm wiped out and the kids both are wide awake and full of energy.

Now for my rant: Why do some 'disabled' people feel that everyone, including a six-year old, has to be run over or shoved aside? I tried my darndest to make sure that wheelchair (for a 30-something amputee) had room to move around and have access to all the exhibits. The one time the six-year old tried to move up, his chair spun a bit to push her away. He looked straight at me when he did it too.

Of course older (late teens) kids and 'adults' are guilty of this too. It can sour me on the human race quickly and I need to return home to restore my equilibrium.

My nature is to help out when I can. Most of the time it takes little effort on my part to allow others space to move or operate their canes, chairs, medical equipment, etc. I have family members with disabilities - a blind nephew, a deaf DH and DSIL. I have two grandkiddles with autism and one with attention deficit. My DS is ADHD - and we believe his father is too. I have some loss of vision due to glaucoma. None of us have ever asked for extra special treatment - just the normal things that may allow them to function in this life.

To those who object to my saying blind nephew - I asked him what term is politically correct and he said he's blind - so that's what I say. The biggest pet peeve that he, my DH and DSIL have is that those who see that one is blind speak more slowly and louder. He's blind, not deaf. The ones who have electronic assistance in hearing - well people talk louder and enunciate too much. If someone reads lips, this does not help much.

Back to my corner to knit tonight.