Never Underestimate

Today's gift is never underestimate.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post my daughter loves her iPad.  When we bought her one two years ago, she immediately loved looking at pictures and listening to music.  It was actually looking at all her pictures, which helped her learn the "swiping" movement to make the screen advance.

It didn't take long for her to not only maneuver her way around her iPad, but to also figure out how to delete items as well...items we did NOT want deleted.  She has a new iPad now, one with a camera built in so we can not only take pictures of items we want her to have access to on the iPad, but also of her friends.  She loves looking at pictures of her friends!

Her brother and sister also like her iPad with the built in camera as their iPads do not have one...and of course, we always want what we don't have.  There is one little person in this house....the youngest child...who loves to take picture....after picture.....after picture...until we find we have over 300 pictures on her iPad.  And the one who usually finds it is our daughter's teacher!  I think he has finally gotten the message about NO MORE PICTURES!

However, about a month ago I noticed she had around 50 random pictures on her iPad again.  I was just getting ready to ask her brother if he could possibly know anything about this, when I noticed consistencies in the pictures.  I kept noticing my daughter's leg, her foot, her shoe, her hand....and then realized SHE found the camera and was taking pictures!  I couldn't believe it!  I kept them on the iPad to see if her teacher said anything....and she did.  I was so excited to tell her to look closely at the pictures and when she did, she was equally excited for my daughter!

There will be days, when I hear the noise of the camera going off...non-stop like the paparazzi are in my family room...and I just love looking to see what angle she is holding her iPad to see what interests her enough to snap away.

After this little "mystery" with the iPad I learned to never underestimate her...anymore!  Today, her main communication software was not talking back to her when she would hit a button...kinda defeats the purpose of using the software.  I tried all the tricks in the book which have worked in the past to no avail.  What confused me the most was the fact her music and other apps worked with the volume, but her main communication app would not!

My mom was here today and I was thinking out loud and said, "I wonder what she hit now"....to which my mother said, "she probably didn't do anything"....and I thought to myself....the way she works her iPad, I have no doubt she pressed some button.  Finally I had to email the AT department at her school to ask for some suggestions...which then lead to a phone call.  After talking with them and we were finally about to delete and reload the app, I mentioned in the past she had "muted" her iPad, but I assumed if she hit mute, then all apps would be muted...which is not the case.  I was so happy I mentioned this to her!  My daughter also has a new, military proof case on her iPad and I could not even look on the outside of the iPad to see if it was muted...so I knew there was no way she could have muted it this way....there had to be another way....or this was not the problem at all.

Of course, there was another way to mute it...and it involves hitting the home button fast twice....which my daughter does....often....and a menu pops up at the bottom of the iPad screen.  You then slide left to right and on the far left you will not only see a volume level indicator....but a mute button.  Guess what....she turned mute on!  I had NO idea this was an option....this way!  She is teaching me more about this iPad than I am learning on my own!

Nothing surprises me anymore and I love how she is truly exploring on her own!  I just hope one day it doesn't cost me a hefty bill on iTunes...so far so good!

Here are two quotes for today...

Never underestimate the power of a girl who knows what she wants-  Unknown

Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit.  We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us. - Wilma Rudolph