Victories

Well, that’s another year in the books folks, and I’m feeling like perhaps I have leaned a little too far toward sad this year and for that I am sorry.  I try to be honest in these posts, balancing the good and bad, but sometimes my emotions get the best of me and spew on and on…. In any case, I want you all to know we are mostly happy, most of the time.  And I surely know we have a lot to be thankful for too.  We have many small successes every day, and with each day comes another chance to try.   

We’ve also had some big successes this year.  I’d like to tell you about possibly the two greatest home therapists that ever lived.  They began working with Coleman last May with a rough start.  Coleman was a teensy bit uncomfortable with them telling him what to do.  And by teensy bit I mean he was a fist-swinging wild boy.  He is small but he is strong.  Thankfully, the therapists held their ground and the initial aggression didn’t last long.  After a valiant effort from the wild boy, Coleman surrendered the battle and it’s been steady growth since then.  The best outcome so far is that they have taught him how to follow an independent activity schedule for play time.  The schedule requires him to go to a binder with two pages full of possible activities (they are tiny pictures stuck to Velcro in the folder) and select 5 activities to do.  He heads to the playroom, takes the first chosen activity off the shelf, does it from start to finish, and puts it away.  He takes the picture off the ‘to do’ card and puts it back in the folder.  Activity one complete.  He does this for all five activities.  BY HIMSELF.  And he is does it for TWO HOURS.  TWO HOURS.  TWO HOURS.  TWO MF’N HOURS.   Can you tell that’s a long time for Coleman?  Am I making that clear?  It is a legit eon.  And do you know the best part?  He loves it.  He asks to do it.  I don’t know how to put into words how amazing that is.  It is such a gift.   So take that, you stupid standardized test. J  This success will never be captured in that kind of data.

Home therapy wasn’t our only victory.  You know I’m going to talk about skiing, right?  Hell yeah!  Coleman had a break-out year - finally skiing independently.  In the past, his two instructors skied with him, one skiing backwards in front of him and the other following behind.  This year, they moved up to simply having him follow them; no backward skiing, no hand holding.  He did amazing.  Billy and I even took him out many mornings by ourselves, exactly the goal we have been working toward all of this time, and Coleman did unbelievably well.  He was almost too fast, at least for me.  He’s worked hard for so many years and he has made amazing progress. 

Our time at Loon afforded us many opportunities to take Coleman out to eat, since nearly every weekend we walked to Mountain Club for a drink and dinner.  Soon, Coleman began to ask to go and we found ourselves all looking forward to it.  The live music was a bonus, and thanks to the best-money-ever-spent Bose headphones, it never bothered Coleman at all.  He would walk around the restaurant a bit, go up and watch the band, and eventually sit back down.  When ski season ended and we were back home, as the weekend approached, Coleman would ask  “What do you want to do Saturday night?” and before I could even make a suggestion, he would jump in and say “How about we go to the restaurant?”  And who are we to disappoint the child?  J  So it’s become a routine of sorts, but one I’m not entirely upset about.

  

Last week, a group of ten of us were out for dinner, nine adults and Coleman.  He had his Ipad and headphones and was enjoying the hubbub of the restaurant.  He would get up from time to time, walk around and then sit back down.  Towards the end of dinner, an older woman was leaving with her husband.  As she left, she touched me on the shoulder and said “I’ve been watching.  You’re doing an amazing job.  You’re a good mom.”  And BAM, just like that, all the doubts and fears and mad-libbing craziness of my life disappeared and I was back to feeling like a Badass Bitch again.  J  

That’s all folks.  May we all be kind and help others to find their inner Badass.  Thank you for reading again, and see you next year.

Birds Nest Catching