Thrift Store

Brook found a new baby (new to her) and a high chair (that was $0.59) and you see Gage already disassembling his finds only to reassemble in different ways to make the trucks better!

I started going to the thrift store years ago and if you've ever been to one of my presentations, you know I'm a huge believer in the good bargains you can find there. I used to find tons of bagged animals used for our at home therapy play (our AVT auditory verbal training)

for less than a dollar. One week I could get a bag of zoo animals, the next week maybe sea animals, pets, you name it they had it already in bags. The same goes for household toys for doll houses, instead of having to buy my SON a doll house I could buy a bag full of sofas, tables, chairs, etc. for cheap. All I had to do was come home and wash them (sterilize them!) and we could learn vocab/language and practice our AVT at home for weeks without HIM having to play with doll houses!

Now the kids are out of all that, and we still go, behavior permitting, several times a year and today we left with each child carrying a bag FULL of items and we spent $12.00! Gage got like 5 big trucks he's currently working on and Brook got lots of baby clothes for some of her kids, a car seat for one baby and high chair for another.

You know how some people get on these long drawn out stories and you sort of just half way listen, tune out the majority of it, hoping they won't find out you're not really listening? Well, one of my deaf children (G) can go on, and on, and on, sometimes and we do take that for granted at times and just tune out so our brains/ears can just rest for a minute. Today, on the way to the thrift store, he was telling some story that my husband and I thought had no ending, we tuned him out. He was in the front seat with my husband, I was in the back with Brook (we have to separate them, ADHD in the car can be dangerous, so he rides up front for safety reasons believe it or not!). He ended up getting distracted in his own conversation and then wanted to go back to what he was originally talking about...trouble is, not only did he not know what he was originally talking about, but my husband and I didn't either....we got caught not listening. But thanks to my other deaf child, bilateral Brook in the backseat, was able to tell us what Gage had originally began telling (which was amazing giving the time lapse and distractions!) so he was able to return to the never ending story....which eventually did end when we arrived at the thrift store!