Privileged to Work With the Special Ones

Micah turned 6, and that means that new worlds have opened up to him. Specifically, the world of Special Olympics. Not being one to waste time dawdling around (sometimes) I found the contact for our county and got the low-down. Saturday morning we were ready to go swimming.

Micah loves swimming. He's semi-fish, I'm pretty sure. I haven't checked for gills, but they may or may not be there. He was thrilled nigh unto death when Daddy presented him with his swimmy floaty suit. He wasted no time stripping down to don that thing. He also attempted to go outside to find the pool that we apparently constructed overnight while he slept.

We arrived at the pool (after a pit stop at the grocery store for swim diapers, which leaked and left a very obvious wet spot, by the way) only to realize that it was populated with swimmers over 20. Micah was not really fitting in. Turns out the lady in charge needed to leave early and apologized for having me there at the wrong time, but she wanted to talk to me. Those nearer Micah's age show up later, but unfortunately I had somewhere else to be at that time. Next week will be so much fun. Micah is already eyeballing the diving boards. A lot. It worries me.

Sunday is track and field practice. Micah is a runner. Not a fast runner, mind you, but he loves to run. He runs non-stop. Track is perfect. All the same Olympists were at the track that were at the pool the day before. Micah was the youngest by a good 25 years, easy. He was a bit daunted by that fact, but walked on the orange line like a trooper. He's all about following lines. It's his thing. He demonstrated this early on while driving his dump truck up the yellow lines of the road. Yeh, that was a fun, fun summer. NOT.

Micah got to practice the standing jump (he was second place in his group) and speed walking. He didn't grasp the need to speed walk, but walking backwards was all kinds of fun. He did enjoy running. He's a natural. Kinda. I think he'll do well in that when he's in competition.

But you know what's incredibly fun? Helping. Working with those special athletes is the most fun I've had in a while. I've never suffered from a competitive spirit and have always taken a "how fun is all this?" attitude toward sports, so it's just perfect for me. A lot of the athletes will never, ever grasp the idea of competing to win, and that's okay. One athlete didn't grasp the standing jump idea. She translated it into "jump, jump!" as on a trampoline rather than actually propelling yourself forward. We worked on "let's try jumping one time" and she said "one time!" as she hopped up and down repeatedly. It was so fun. She laughed and I laughed and we had a great time.

Once the athletes that take competition seriously took over the gym, the rest of us headed into the hallway to do some laps. This was fun. There were water fountains, tables to sit at, and vending machines. The distractions proved too much for our group and we quit early. It was a good thing because once Micah spotted the vending machines he was done. He's all about food, all the time.

I don't know about Micah, but I'm really looking forward to weekends. Working with the special athletes will be the highlight of my week. Although, next week I'm wearing a maxipad. My weak bladder does not support running and jumping without making the panties moist. I'm just saying.