When all the world’s your stage

Feb. 14, 2010

I'm one of those very hidden people who doesn't like to share what I'm working on, until it's finished. To me, a work-in-progress has flaws, lacks a great unveil and opens itself up to recommendation and critique before I've had a chance to put my whole heart into it. My weekly postings are kept hidden, even to my wife, until they're posted. (Then she reads it over, tells me of all my typos and corrections and by Tuesday it normally looks right.)

On more than one occasion, I've seen the same trends with Nathan. Of all the new skills he's developing, learning, and in some cases inventing, he won't let on to anyone that he can do it until he can do it well, (and he knows he'll get praise from others for it.)

He still doesn't talk but he will stare you down, with the eyes everyone loves, and if you glance over his way, he'll draw you in within seconds. At four years old he's developed a way to capture the attention of all the pretty girls that he passes by in any environment: school, hospitals, church, or even the grocery store. I'm almost 10 times older than he is and the number of females who know his name far out number those that know (or have known) mine.

Once Nathan has an audience, his performance will soon begin. On Saturday, Annette's group at church heading to Uganda for 2 1/2 weeks this summer held its spaghetti dinner fundraiser. Nathan loves going to church for several reasons: first, the attention he gets from seemingly everyone; second, seeing his friends, primarily Sharon and Bill who sit in the pew in front of us (or we sit in the row behind them;) and third, the nursery and the nursery staff. If either Annette or I attend a church group or meeting without bringing Nathan, it seems others are disappointed. Normally, we're hoping not to interrupt the group (as if Nathan isn't the scheduled center of attention, he tries to steal it away.)

On this evening, they had the kids in a different room. It was a little bigger and more open, but inside he found several familiar (teen to adult female staff) faces. Since the dinner was going to be longer than the traditional church service, I got him out of his chair and let him down on the floor. This was new and right away he was ready to "wow" his audience.

He would roll around on the floor, better than anywhere he had before, (including intensive therapy. If Lisa could have seen him, she would have been dumbfounded.) Roll to the left, roll to the right, reach those arms, tuck the leg up tight! He succeeded in his goal, stealing all the attention in the room and getting everyone to 'ooh' and 'ah' over him. He got girls to lie on the floor next to him and play, reaching and vocalizing to them. After a while he was even planting his feet and scooting backward, which he doesn't show to too many people at this point. For the better part of 3 hours, as long as he had someone's attention he would go-go-go!

Of course the next morning at the actual service, during passing of the peace, many of the same people (girls) would come up and ask if he slept well, or how he was doing this morning after all his scooting around just hours before. He would give a smile, but the gleam in his eye said, "Yeah, I still got it!"

Day after day and week after week, he never ceases to amaze and entertain me (and many others.) I know it's considered typical for a child his age, but there are very few things that bring a smile to my face, than when Nathan can be called a typical child. He deserves any of the breaks he can get, and if we can facilitate any of those for him, we finally feel like we're doing our job as parents as well.

Back to previous postings