New Accomplishments

This is another one of those usually "take it for granted" accomplishments, but I am so proud of my little man so I had to share.

Let me begin by saying that it has been at least two weeks since we have been to any fast food restaurants, but now in the past two days we have been twice. I've been saving up.

Ok, now: We were at McDonald's last night with a friend and her two kids and it was an unusually calm evening in the play area given the rain and heat. So I was able to let Justin play by himself fairly safely. Only a few interventions when he tried going up the big slide. This McDonald's had a little kids area that had a little slide and Justin crawled up the stairs and went down the slide several times all by himself. He was so proud of himself as he went down the slide...very...slowly because his shoes have some pretty serious tread. One of those big grins that says he knows what he's doing is good. I was so pleased watching him and seeing him as a big boy!

And today we were at Chick-fil-A with friends (see there's a reason we go fast-fooding!) and it's the big play area with the round-about stairs that I told you he is now big enough to climb. It was SO busy, but the kids were really good at helping him and watching out for him so I decided to let him try it by himself. This was after assessing the conditions and determining that I was capable of climbing up and rescuing him should it become necessary. He went up and we sent Princess TD after him to make sure he didn't cause a back up or get stuck. She managed to get him down the curvy slide! She did great! So I let him stay and he went up again. The next thing I knew another little boy came out to tell me that Justin was blocking the slide. Well, he hadn't come down the stairs and crawled over there, he went up the stairs and down the slide all by himself! And he did it at least one more time! This week at therapy he has been wanting to go up and down the stairs between the two floors by himself (about 30 stairs), so he has been practicing the stairs and he navigated those like a champ. In the play area sometimes he went down the slide, and sometimes he went down the stairs, just like he should. And he did just like the big kids do: he would play a while and then come out for a drink. Of course, not being able to open the door made it difficult so he had to piggyback when someone else would open the door, which made some parents worried about his head and fingers, but he managed to escape unscathed.

I think some other parents were a little concerned and I might even say appalled that I would let my "baby" play alone in the play area. I feel like posting a sign on his back that says "I am two years old and I want to do it myself!" The other kids seemed to do better than the parents. In the past two weeks alone I have had more kids come up to Justin and ask him to play that I ever thought would in a year. And they were all older than him! One boy kept asking if Justin wanted to play. I said that I thought Justin would like playing with him and then the little boy dropped to his knees and chased Justin all over the hospital play area. Justin is quite the speed demon! The two shrieked and played until it was time for Justin's blood draw. It was good to see. I am trying to walk the line of protection: just enough, but not too much. It's a daily challenge, and I am trying to take the lead from Justin. Sometimes I expect too much of other people and I need to work on an easy and complete explanation plus covering all my words with grace.

It's been a fun few days, and I love when the accomplishments overshadow the obstacles. It's been one of those times and I am enjoying it!