What a difference a year makes

Jan. 1, 2012

I can remember Christmas of 2010, opening a gift from my mom to Nathan. She has found onezies online in a 4T size. They were special order, and could actually go bigger. I told her, you can probably keep going back year-after-year just buying the next size bigger. With as much time Nathan spends on the floor and the way his shirts kept creeping up on him as he wiggled around, I thought it would be a safe bet. I’m glad she didn’t take me up on that offer.

This year Nathan did get clothes, and yes, some shirts, but the need for onezies seems to be lessened. He’s growing into his clothes and starting to be one step closer to being like the other kids.

That’s just the beginning.

To see how far Nathan has come in his walker, actually steering and maneuvering around objects through doorways and getting into trouble that he’s seeking out, I would have never expected at this time last year. To hear that Teacher Beth has confidence that he knows his primary colors and is starting to convey numbers, is something Annette and I always thought would be possible, but didn’t realize he’s showing those skills now.

One down side to the work we do in Cincinnati is we sometimes focus on one skillset so much that it takes some time to catch up on skills he had started developing prior. When we push his muscles to the physical limits, we aren’t able to work on things such as the walker or communication device as much. Once Nathan gets home and comfortable after a long day, asking any more of him, just doesn’t seem to work.

Still, we forge ahead. We’re currently in the state of rebalancing, the physical building, not as strong of a focus. This week school starts back up, as does the communication device speech group. We’re working on getting a grasp back on his eating and sleeping habits and trying to get him back into a routine.

As 2012 starts off, we have great hopes of what the year will bring. We don’t have specific tasks to accomplish, as we know that Nathan goes at his own pace. Being able to take his lead and stretch it to as far as he will go seems to be the best way to help Nathan reach his potential.

Hopefully, having both Annette and I working won’t take away skill time with Nathan either. So far, we’ve made sure to balance down time, or computer time with helping Nathan work on standing or pushing up to all 4’s, (two more tasks he wasn’t willing/able to accomplish in the past.) I won’t pretend that it’s easy or something that we’ll be able to stay on top of, but it’s all the more reason to start that hunt for a home health aide, to assist in the process.

If I can make time this week, I may try to document a little further Nathan’s skills and tasks at the beginning of the year to see where we end up. I just have to remember that it’s not a competition, or a race. We can’t afford to treat time like a sprint, but more like a marathon. There will always be more to learn, further to grow and a better life to seek.

As the calendar turns over to January, we have chance for a new start, a revived lease on life, and more reasons to be thankful for the blessings of 2011. Being able to start the new year on a Sunday, and spending it at church is the best place to begin. The building blocks of success can be found in these places all over the world, and it’s one resolution, we hope to maintain all year long.

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