December and Surprise!

Welcome December!

It sure came in with a colorful and amazing sunrise.

Thursday morning I ran errands. I had Christmas Cards to pick up in case I got the notion to sit down and make out cards. I'm not very good at that. On a whim, I went by the toy isle and picked up a Jurassic World Lego Toy. It had a big truck in it and two dinosaurs. I was interested in mainly the truck.

When I got home, I unpackaged the Legos and set it down on the table.

Rich looked at it and said, "What's this?"

I said "Oh, hmmm, I needed a truck for the village and there is a red one in there somewhere. I need you to make it." 

I walked off to put some things away.

We had a Video Connect appointment with his Mental Health doctor and I had to have hm put things to the side.

Our conversation was much different than the one he had a month ago. It normally sounds exactly like this

How are you?
The same nothing changes.

...and it started out that way until....

I told him to tell her about the Lego building we had been doing. He rolled his eyes and shook his head and then the doctor was able to convince him to tell her about it.

He started to laugh and talked about how 'my wife can't build Legos without any directions and she messes up all the time so I have to supervise her!'

He said it was nothing but stupid. I interjected the obvious. I told the doctor that we engage for at least two hours at a time when working on the Lego 3D puzzles and he often can figure things out for himself. He was engaging socially, using his mind to problem solve, working with small motor skills, ... and NOT sitting and staring out the window.

Then Rich went on to tell her a bit about building and directions and how he was figuring things out. He explained that he used to run a welding shop where he had to think things up on the fly in order to create or fix things so Legos was sort of the same.

With Aphasia, it took a bit for him to explain it, but I could see her face light up while they were talking. He was animated and laughing as he explained the concept of Legos.

Who knew? Right? This doctor had never seen him laugh or engage like he did in this video meeting. She even quipped that she should prescribe Legos...and casually wondered aloud how to do that.

I'd sent a photo to his daughter of her father working on the red truck. She asked if Lego had tractors as she would like to get him something different for Christmas.

I sent her a link to a set that isn't very pricey but had a nice tractor and trailer build by Lego Technic which means the tractor will have articulated parts.

Hey, the guy loves tractors and cars. Maybe he can build some models. Of course we'd do it together because those really tiny parts are hard for him with his tremors.

Win. Win.

Then around supper time I received an email from the Kickapoo Valley Reserve:

Congratulations,  I’m happy to inform you that your photo “Campsite AA Gibbous Moon” has been voted for a Voter’s Choice Award.  If you are able, please come to the Holiday Happening on December 3 for the public announcement at 5:30 p.m. Please keep the secret until then!  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  I hope to see you on Saturday. 

The photo above is the one the email refers to. SHHH, don't tell anyone!

More important though was the afternoon project.

And the result:

I wonder how the Christmas Village will welcome dinosaurs?

What a wonderful way to the start of December.