Our personal Kitty Hawk moment

Oct. 19, 2009

I remember learning about the Wright brothers and their initial flight. As a boy my thought was: That was it? What’s the big deal? 12 seconds? I could probably keep a paper airplane in the air 12 seconds if I wanted to. What I didn’t understand was the window those twelve seconds opened. That relatively short distance would soon get farther, the time in the air longer, and soon we could fly airplanes around the world.

Two weeks ago Nathan treated Annette and I to one of those moments.

We learned last year of his love being outside and riding in a modified tricycle that my wife and I pieced together from two store-bought bikes, some straps she made for his hips and special pedals she bought online. We would do all the steering and propelling, this was a way to teach him a reciprocal step pattern and tried to let him have fun like the other kids do.

On a day when both Annette and I were able to drop Nathan off at school, the PT came out and said she wanted to try him in a bike she thought was the right size for him. (For those readers who know about these bikes, it was an Imp Trike.) It had the chest supports and the similar pedals, which would keep his feet against them. Becky pushed him around the hallways and he thought he was big-stuff. He spent a lot of time looking at his feet and watching them move back and forth, up and down. We got most of the way around the floor and stopped to look at how he was sitting and looked to see if there was any easy adjustments that would get him in a better position.

Apparently, Nathan got sick of stopping. He kicked his feet and spun the pedals a full revolution and a half all on his own. He startled himself, (and we probably shocked him too) when all three of us shrieked. “Did you see that?!” we all yelled. A little later, and with a lot more coaching, he moved it again, all on his own.

I can’t say for certain but the total distance he moved was probably about 18 inches. (I think the same distance I jumped up in the air, which is dangerous for a person my size and age.) 18 inches is only one full-pace for me. I take thousands of them a day. Nathan walks distances up to 18 feet at a given time, but never has he done anything the way the other kids do. Some may call it a milestone, but that distance underestimates the size of the accomplishment.

I know when I saw it, I wanted to tell the world. Good think I have this site. We all now know that a window has opened, his desire is there and it is building. Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts, and return your tray tables to the upright-and-locked position, Nathan will be taking off in just a few minutes.

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