Climbing To New Heights

Fall is officially around the corner.  My favorite Target is stocked full of school supplies.  Molly's new backpack arrived yesterday, and hanging from her closet, ready to follow her into third grade.  Brady's welcome packet arrived this week from his new school and his practice bus ride is scheduled for next week.  Fall is coming.  The butterflies of a new school year are here.  But before I can go into complete , we have two full summer weekends left.  We have two more chances to celebrate summer.

  Summer is traditionally a time of rest, relaxation and fun.  For our family, it is a time of activity packed weeks, and even busier weekends.  We had a little rest.  We enjoyed some sunshine. We traveled a bit.  We had many, days of outside fun.  Brady loves summer.  He loves summer, not for the reasons most children do.  He is not a huge fan of swimming pools or lakes.  He doesn't like sand and the way it feels between his toes.  He is a very fair little boy and he and the sun do not mix.  He doesn't get to abandon bedtimes or routines.  He doesn't even like the way a cool ice cream cone tastes on a hot summer evening.  Having sensory issues, hypotonia and so many developmental delays causes one season after another to blend into each other.  Brady's special needs, and his very rare chromosome duplication, do not allow him to always appreciate the moments that so many of us look forward to as one season melts into another.  The special moments that so many of us countdown to each summer. 

 Brady's world revolves around routine.  But there is something very special about summer.  Something Brady will miss as the days get cooler and the magic of daylight shorter, Brady's time outdoors will fade.    Brady finds a sense of freedom that is so hard for him to find in his day to day life.  So often his world is filled with constraints and limitations.  We are constantly redirecting him.  We are holding his hand.  We are telling him what he can eat and when he can eat it.  We are his voice.  We are not always sure that the voice we are giving him is truly what he wants or desires.  Brady has very little freedom...but when he steps outside...oh, so much freedom.  Brady comes alive.  Brady finds his voice, his spirit and his strength.  Summer is a time for Brady to explore every little corner of our backyard.  Summer is a time for Brady to push himself with each peddle on his little therapy tryke.  Summer is a time for Brady to take long walks around the pond to feed the ducks.  And summer is a time for Brady to climb.

Very early on this summer, Brady "graduated" from physical therapy.  I shook my head as his therapist said he had reached all his goals, because my wobbly little boy still tripped so often, took quite a few tumbles each week and still couldn't jump, run or even climb the stairs.  How could he be ready to "graduate" from the world of physical therapy?  Of course. one of the main reasons he had graduated was due to insurance constraints.  As I shook my head in confusion and quietly accepted his "graduation" gift, his therapist leaned in and whispered to me, "the greatest PT a child can get is to spend lots of time outside." So while we spent all of our therapy dollars on speech this summer and worked so hard to make progress in the area of speech and communication, Brady was outside doing PT all on his own.  Brady was taking all the freedom of those long summer days and exploring all his body could do.  He moved from grass to wood chips to cement and wooded trails, all without falling.  He pushed every toy around the grass.  He bent over.  He squatted.  He even kicked a soccer ball here and there.  And he climbed. 

 He climbed his play scape and slid down the slide, all with just one little finger grasped around one of mine.  He learned to climb stairs. Really climb stairs. Hand over hand on the railing and eyes forward.  He even took my mom's breath away and made her heart beat much too fast with a climb all on his own, up her steep stairs when no one was looking.  He climbed and climbed this summer.  

Summer was filled with many great moments.  My seven year old, Molly, learned to swim well and became a champion off the diving board.  My husband Joe enjoyed many rounds on the golf course, but even more moments pitching to his daughter as he coached her baseball team.  I spent some relaxing moments reading a few books  under the bright summer sun.  But mostly, summer was about capturing precious moments.  Not always camera ready moments, but moments so precious that the only place they can stay is in your heart.  Watching my children, one dancing deep in the grass and the other sliding down a slide with such glee, is what made my summer beautiful.  Little, beautiful moments.  When summer started, I was determined that speech would be our one and only focus for Brady.  I was determined that he would go back to school with language, and focus and a new sense of determination.  I started to feel a little let down because so many of those early summer goals have not been reached, but determination is not one of those.  My son's determination has led to a summer of climbing to new heights and I know that will take him to wherever he is meant to be this school year.  Now off to enjoy those last few moments of summer.