Happy Birthday James! – Celebrating James 27th Birthday

Another year, another Birthday, a time to celebrate with James and those he loves the most.

This week was James’ birthday. His 27^th. I still can’t actually believe he is 27. I can remember much of those last 27 years so clearly and I definitely feel like I’ve aged more than 27 years in that time and I have the grey hair to show for it too!

As with every approaching birthday comes the age-old question of what do we buy James this year. He ended up with a good variety of puzzles and matching cards to add to his ever-growing collection. These are just a few of the presents James had as he had other lotto games and puzzles too but these may give you inspiration if you are looking for gift ideas.

As I do most Birthdays and Christmas’, I made James a new book on Snapfish. He does love his personalised books but some are a little out of date since he moved from our home into supported accommodation. I have updated the pictures in a book I made about James several years ago including pictures of his own home and corrected the text about who lives where etc.  

I found this matching game online. Its just a variation of others he has but it has lovely pictures and includes several different animals to other sets  he has. The good thing about matching games is that James can sit and flick through these on his own when myself or his care staff are busy. They are also made of quite thick card so I think they will last well.

This is another online purchase, and I was really pleased when this one arrived. Again, it is a variation on other similar ones James already has. It consists of 3 and 4 word puzzles. There are lots of different words in this set and the cards are double sided too. With 25 cards of 3 letter words and 25 cards of four letter words there are 100 words in total. 

This next puzzle came from a company called ‘tinyme’. It’s personalised with my own pictures, has 6 pieces and is double sided. You can also personalise the box it comes in and here is the back of the box which shows pictures of the puzzle inside. Its not cheap at £18 but as James already had another of these which he has done many many times I know it is good quality. His hasn’t chipped at the edges which others I’ve purchased from elsewhere have. I think if you know something is good quality and durable you don’t mind paying for it.

I found this game on Amazon. This one is a little more tricky for James. There are twelve pairs of cards. One side has small pictures and the name of two items. The object of the game is that you have to find those items on its matching card. The matching cards are very visually cluttered and have numerous items on them and the objects you are looking for are quite small amongst them. It requires a bit more concentration but I thought it would challenge James more than some of his other games. He is trying hard with this one and needs some prompting at times but he is getting there.

James’ Day

As James’ birthday was on a Tuesday he attended his day service as normal and afterwards Grandma and Grandad picked him up and brought him to my house. This is actually normal Tuesday routine for him but whereas we would normally take James home after he has had his tea, this week James was sleeping over. James’ Grandma and Grandad were staying for tea and his Auntie Joan and her partner were also coming after they had finished work.

Knowing James always comes in quite excited and wanting to play with Grandma and Grandad I wasn’t going to pressurise him to open his cards or presents so I just left them in a pile where he could see them. When he was asked if he wanted his presents yet he shook his head. Sometime later when James was sat singing with Grandad he was offered a card and on this occasion James took it and started to open it. James struggles with his dexterity at times and often needs help with tearing open the envelope or present until he can get hold of a piece to pull the rest off himself. Once started there was no stopping him, though, and he worked his way through the pile.

Some time later, once Auntie Joan and Scott had arrived, we had tea. James enjoys being head of the table where he can see everyone. Though he usually eats well (it took many many years to achieve this!) he can often be easily distracted when everyone is here, but on this occasion James got stuck into his and was first to finish. He actually waited quite patiently while the rest of us chatted and ate, though by the last few mouthfuls James did take my fork which he loaded with potato salad from my plate and fed me!! This was his way of saying ‘come on hurry up.’ He’d clearly sat long enough and whilst he had been continually asking for cake we let him get down from the table to play with Grandad while we cleared away.

Having had cake and played with several of his new puzzles it was time for everyone to leave. James was quite happy to wave everyone off and settle down for the rest of his evening with us. He later had a bath, read some books and did more puzzles until it was finally time for bed. James settled well and had a lovely sleep and the next morning I dropped him at his Wednesday carers for the day along with some birthday cake for his pudding after lunch.

It still seems strange to me that James’ cards don’t go up here. We put them up of course when he opened them but having dropped James off at his carers in the morning I came back and packed up his cards and presents and took them to his house and put them up there for him to see when he got home.

Having gone out for a quiet lunch the following day my husband and I reflected on where we were 27 years ago. At that time, the day after he was born, James had already been rushed in an incubator to special care and we had no idea what lay ahead of us. But here we are 27 years later looking forward to James 28^th year and all that entails. And next week we are off on our holidays ……………with James!!