Gavin's Favorite Time of Year!

I'm quite sure that this time of year is Gavin's favorite time of the year. He loves having the Christmas tree up and having something all lit up to look at. He just stares at it and smiles and gets excited!




Being legally blind, Gavin doesn't see very well, but he really responds to lights. With the Christmas tree up he always has something that really stimulates him visually. This is great therapy for him! He even reaches up towards the tree's branches and grabs at them.



At his school they have a "little room". It's a cubed box that has toys hanging from it and the child lays in it to play. With Gavin, since he can't see well, they turn out the classroom lights and shine flourescent lights on the "little room" so that the toys are highlighted and create shadows. He LOVES the "little room"! He gets really excited and wiggles and grabs for the toys. His teacher says that this is very exciting to see. Gavin's blindness is called Cortical blindness, which means it stems from the brain. This means that with therapy, like he does at school with light therapy, he may be able to see better one day.

Having the Christmas tree up at home creates a similiar atmosphere for him. With the lights off in the room and the tree shining, he has opportunity to do therapy at home too! Plus, it's very pretty and fun for the rest of us as well! I have always hated taking down the tree each year, but it's even harder to do now with Gavin enjoying it so much!

Speaking of Chritmas trees and lights, I took the boys to a mall near us this past weekend. They had a bunch of trees decorated that you could vote on. You paid a dollar to vote for your favorite tree and the money would go to Special Olympics. They were also going to auction off the trees after the voting was done. I thought that this was a great way to raise money for this awesome organization!

While we were there I had to take pictures of the boys in front of one of the mall trees! Jacob told me that it was one of the most embarrassing moments of his life! I didn't feel badly for him though. I have to get them back for all the times they embarrassed me, right?! That's part of the fun of being a Mom don't ya think?!

Here are a couple of the pictures:





I know that I'm biased, but aren't they a handsome bunch?!


"Oh house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light of the Lord." Isaiah 2:5