2007 Christmas Wish List

It's hard to believe sixteen years have passed since this first Christmas in 1991 with Dear Son. As a follow up to last year's post, "Best Toys and Gifts for Special Needs Children", I thought I'd share our wish list for Christmas this year as well as follow up on a few items from last year.

Wooden Rocking Chair-This is a picture of the rocking chair I bought for Dear Son's birthday. When he was younger, I only purchased the solid wooden rockers, as I mentioned last year, becaue they are lighter and easier for him to maneuver. I purchased this rocker at the Cracker Barrel for $129.99 (I didn't eat there, just purchased the rocker.). It is a nice sturdy rocker with a tall back that supports Dear Son's head and also looks nice enough to sit in my living room/dining room. He loves this rocker. I found this rocker to be very well made and the rush back provides firm support for Dear Son.

Homedics iSound Spa Max-This is essentially an iPOD docking station that charges the iPOD, has a radio, dual alarm, remote control and nature sounds. It also projects the time on the ceiling. Currently, Dear Son listens to his music on our iPOD however because he spends a lot of time lying down, his saliva frequently rolls out of his mouth and gets caught on the earbuds and then they don't work very well. I've tried other headsets which are larger but aren't as comfortable lying down. I decided that if he had this on his nightstand, he could listen to his country music and fall asleep, as well as listen to our local radio station that plays Christmas music. I wanted a remote control so I could shut the device off once he falls asleep and not disturb him by going over to the nightstand to do it. This gift was my idea however Dad checked out a few of these and decided to buy him this one.


Mr. Christmas Symphony Santa Surprise-I purchased this for Dear Son last year and he is still crazy about it this year. As a matter of fact, I can't keep enough "C" batteries in the house. He listens to this every day after school and on weekends. I usually set a towel on the table so he is more comfortable but I was trying to take a Christmas picture and he got distracted as soon as he saw this. He actually prefers this over television, the radio, his iPOD or anything else. I just wish that Mr. Christmas would have made an electrical cord so I could plug it into the wall and not have to buy as many batteries. Once I ran out of batteries, I had to pull out his all time favorite Christmas music box which was a Mr. Christmas Twas the Night Before Christmas House. It's a Christmas house where each window of the house lights up as the story is narrated. They don't sell them anymore and ours is on it's last leg since the power cord is not providing enough power any longer.
Clothes-It's not glamorous however as you can see from this picture, Dear Son has grown a lot this year and desperately needs more clothes. I purchased this shirt for him recently and it was a men's large and fit just fine. I will probably buy him pants and shirts for school and perhaps a down jacket for those really cold days. His current one is getting tight on him.

Wheelchair Van-As much as I have avoided the dreaded "van" over the years, I would give anything to have a wheelchair accessible van that opens to the back so I could just wheel his chair in. If I had one, we could go a lot more places and it would be a lot easier to take him places. Currently, I am putting him in the front seat of my car and his legs are nearly touching the dashboard.

Diapers-They aren't glamourous but gosh, I would be thrilled to get a case of them. Dear Son goes through a lot of diapers, bed pads and wipes on a regular basis. The ones I'd like are from HDIS (1-800-2MY-HOME). They are the Tranquility All Through The Night Briefs and run around $120 for a case of 96. That would last him about 13 days so he need not quite three cases of these a month.

And the number one fantasy item we'd love to have this year, is the "Pleo." I saw it on Good Morning America one morning and Diane Sawyer was playing with it. Of course, they didn't make it easy since she never once mentioned the name. Amazon.com describes it as,

"With the Senario 22208 Pleo A Ugobe Life Form, you can expand your family with a pet from prehistoric times. The Pleo is a one-week-old dinosaur that will quickly grow to become one of the most fun and exciting members of your family. This amazing robotic marvel not only moves organically, explores its environment on its own, and interacts with you, but it also expresses emotions based on its life experiences."

Essentially, it's a dinosaur that acts like a pet. It comes up and cuddles with you and plays with you much like a pet. At $349.99, it's out of my price range this year. This would be the perfect toy for Dear Son since the pet comes to him as opposed to him trying to activate it. I think it would work but I don't know until I see it in person.

I wish I could ask Dear Son what he would like. I know that many of these things aren't very exciting but the truth of the matter is that these are the things we need the most. Either way, we'll still have a wonderful holiday because we will be together.