Pushing Buttons

While Lydia also has an uncanny knack for pushing figurative buttons, one of the things we have struggled with since hour one of meeting her is her habit of pushing literal buttons. I've blogged before about her penchant for camera buttons, computer buttons, keyboards, safe keypads, appliances, any kind of phone, etc. She just has no impulse control in that realm. She's had such a problem with it that our neighbor's granddaughter posted a sign on one of their upstairs phones that said, "Lydia, don't use this phone," (not that Lydia can read that yet but I had to applaud the effort). Those same neighbors (B and D) have had Lydia pick up the upstairs extension at their house after they've already answered it downstairs and she was ready to join in on the conversation. I happened to be there to witness that one.

A few days ago, the neighbor on the other side of me had her granddaughters over and the girls had all been playing and when they had left her garage door wouldn't work. The manual string to operate her garage door without power had been engaged and she couldn't get it set back to automatically open and close. She was very sweet in saying to me that her grandchildren were playing with her door but I'm not positive they were the culprits. Either way, I eventually figured it out and got her set back up.

Well B (of B and D, our sweet neighbors who are like second grandparents to the girls and a major reason we are happy to be staying put in our condo) called me this morning and asked if I would come over and help him try to figure out how to get one of the handsets on their home phone working again. Apparently, Lydia had been pushing buttons over there the other day and somehow set the phone to keep the line on hold and it wouldn't come off hold and so couldn't be used to make or receive calls.

Before I headed over to see what I could do I talked to Lydia about it. I had talked to her for a little bit and then later said, "B and D love you. They aren't mad. When we make a mistake what we need to do is own it by saying, 'Oops, I made a mistake,' saying we're sorry, and then trying to make it right and fix it." Way early into my lecture she crinkled her face completely up like she was either mad or very confused. I could tell she wasn't grasping the depth of my wisdom and guidance. When I got to the end of the entire thing she said, "B and D love me?!" I just had to chuckle at that one. She never made it past the first sentence because she was so awestruck by that statement.

So, I headed over next door and read the manual and pushed a whole lot of buttons for about a half hour with no luck. I came back home and did a search on the phone manufacturer's website and did find a way to reset the handset which solved the majority of the problem. To test whether they could receive calls I called D who answered the phone. Lydia wanted to talk to her and said she was sorry.

I was so proud of myself and our little talk and learning session...all the way until a few moments after I got home when she pushed extra buttons on the microwave that I had to clear out before something burned and then later when we went somewhere and she came frighteningly close the pushing the buttons on the alarm at a business, among other things, and I finally had to carry her to the car to keep her contained and other people's buttons safe from harm. I'm sure she'll have some sort of wonderful career where she somehow gets to push a whole lot of buttons and levers and knobs. Until then, I'll keep a watchful eye and sharpen up my words of wisdom.