Celebrating the slowest 100-yard dash

June 14, 2010

Yep, I’m late. Tardy, slow, behind-the-times, call it what you will, it’s Monday night and the weekly posting isn’t posted. I could be clever and say it’s all part of the theme of the week, but I’m too tired to be that creative. (More on that later.)

Over the last couple of weeks (now that Nathan’s out of school) I have more time to be with him. There’s no one else to put him through his paces, and Annette has encouraged more time in the walker and more time working on his PT and OT. We’ve switched back to the Rifton gait trainer as it’s easier for one person to get him in/out of as well as having more confidence when he’s in there, that I can get out in front and have him chase me. We’ll play ball and he’ll chase after it, forgetting that he’s working on his standing endurance as well as building mobility.

Nathan still loves the outside, and getting to seeing that the outside-world brings: kids, bikes, familes walking dogs, cars driving down the street, etc. He’s still not fond of just laying in the grass, but give him the outdoors and you’ll have one happy guy.

The first day (the day we shot the video footage) we couldn’t believe how active he wanted to be. He was moving back and forth on the sidewalk and seemed to be exploring new places all by the power of his two feet. The next couple of days Nathan would only move the walker when he had to, then he’d sink into the chest prompts, getting himself stuck in a very uncomfortable manner and needing help from us to get him back to weight bearing on his feet. A new outdoor video is coming soon, but there just hasn’t been enough hours in the day to get that ready to post.

We are the third house on our street and the distance from our house to the end of the block is right around 50 yards. My new goal is to get Nathan to walk to the corner and back. He’ll take a few steps at a time and stop. Then start again and stop. We’ve been playing the game every parent seems to play with their kid(s) "I’m going to walk this way, you better get going or else you’re going to be left." He’ll play along, especially if Annette and I are talking or are otherwise distracted and he thinks he’s sneaking up on us.

I’ve been informally timing him, and so far it’s taken right around 25-30 minutes to go the full distance. Sometime quicker on the first 50, sometimes faster on the second, but still about the same overall time. He’s a hard worker, and hopefully the more we work, the better and faster he’ll be. We’re not winning any medals anytime soon, but we’re still pleased at progress he's making.

Time is a funny thing, sometimes it’s gone in the blink of an eye and sometimes it drags on for an eternity. For the first time in two years, I spent more than 6 consecutive hours away from Nathan. Annette let me go meet up with our friends in what was traditionally called the “annual non-rafting” trip. I have to put it in past tense as the last several years there actually has been rafting involved, unfortunately Annette and I haven't participated. I’ve never been rafting (Annette has) and this year their voyage took place before I got out there.

I left (with a friend) Friday evening, around 5p.m. and didn’t get back until Sunday around 3p.m. The anticipation of being gone was one of the hardest things I had to deal with last week. I have complete confidence in leaving Nathan with Annette. She seems to know many of the answers to questions I haven’t even thought I’d have to deal with. Still the thought of being away was tearing me up inside. I know how he gets when Jessi leaves after only being there for two hours, how could I put him through that being gone for almost two days?!

Of course, while I was gone he got sick and Annette didn’t get fun time with Nathan. She had to deal with a little guy who didn’t want to sleep, couldn’t keep anything down to eat and was just generally unhappy. There’s the egocentric part of me that says he was going through daddy-withdrawal, but even my big head isn’t that thick to believe it for very long.

You’d think that any parent that can have two days away from kids, and the endless tasks that accompany them (feeding, fighting, medicines, home therapies, etc.) would want to spend most that time sleeping. That’s not going to happen on this trip. I was up until after 3 a.m. talking, playing cards and joking around the first night. Sleep wasn’t even a thought. My body would get me up at 8a.m., still nervous about not hearing the monitor to see if Nathan was still sleeping. Saturday was the same way, up until 4a.m. and then waking up at 9a.m. cleaning-up, packing bags and getting ready for the four-hour drive home.

Nathan wasn’t feeling well when I got back, and you could tell Annette hadn’t gotten much sleep either. She didn’t have any fun stories like I. She was dealing with all the things I normally assist with on her own. She still had to go to work Monday morning as Nathan and I slept in until 9. Today, we went shopping most of the day. Thankfully he seemed to turn the corner (getting his daddy fix*.) He finally looks to be feeling better. He got out of the house and seemed to have had a good time.

Tomorrow, it’s back to the walker and back to work, if not with me then at PT, I wouldn’t mind both. Time for a good night’s sleep, as tomorrow is getting here soon.

* - Part of today’s shopping was researching a new cell phone. Not only is the battery in mine not working, but if my ego gets any bigger I will need my own area code.

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