It Might Take Another 7 Years To Perfect

Parents around the world celebrate things they never thought worthy of celebration in their pre-parental days. Things like pooping in the potty or learning to blow a nose into a kleenex. These are things that are so huge when you're dealing with kids, but in real life they don't even register on the scale of Awesome Things I Want To Accomplish Someday. You know, on a scale of 1 to 100, they would rank somewhere in the -50 range. Not even a Thing, yet worthy of celebration.

The world of special needs parenting has a lot more of these celebratory moments. Its not that our kids do so much more, it's the fact that it takes them so much longer to do the things other kids do. While big things like the aforementioned are huge in our world, parents of typically developing kids never even know to look for (much less celebrate) so many other things. I know, because I parented three typically developing kids before I was introduced to a whole new world.

I am bragging about some pretty huge milestones in Micah's life, because I can. No, wait, I should. I'm his mom.

We have been terrified of the boy near roadways or in parking lots for 7 years now. He started walking at 2, and ever since then we've been yelling, "DON'T CROSS THE ROAD!" or "WAIT FOR MOMMY!" or "STOP!!!!!!" And every single time (sometimes twice or three times) he crosses a road, I admonish him to stop, look, and listen. I hold up my hand in a stop motion, I point both up and down the road to show him where to look. And only then will I allow him to proceed. Most times he proceeds only because I've released him from the death grip I had him in to keep him from running across the road even as I told him how to watch for cars.

He just didn't get it. Seven years of this, and he just didn't get it. STRESS. My word, the stress.

So you can imagine my pride the other day when Micah held up his hands in the sign to STOP, and told Daddy to stay where he was; there was a car coming. My heart swelled, as only a mother's can. And then I ran to get him out of the way of the oncoming car. The boy was standing in the middle of the right of way in the parking lot.

Maybe he'll have a future as a crossing guard. Maybe I should just make him a reflective vest now.