Six months ago this would have sent me to my shrink for an extra session. See...The Boy has never been into all of the physical things like other boys. Obviously that is because of his OT issues, but still...it makes attending a party like that a bit rough. For both of us. Of course you go, because thank god your son is actually getting invited to those parties, and if you never bothered to show up people would get the hint and stop inviting. So we go...but while all the other kids are running off to go jump, bounce and play, The Boy stands right next to me and smiles and says very politely, "No thank you." He was always very social and he wanted to go watch the other kids, but he wasn't interested in participating. The other parents would come up and ask him if he wanted to go and play with his friends..., "No thank you." His friends would run up and ask him to come and play..., "No thank you." It was really hard.
A few years back, when I took him out of OT the first time I signed him up for one of those little kid gym classes thinking that might help take the place of the missing OT. It would have been great...if he participated in anything. He loves to run, so he would run around and do some jumps, but when it came time to balance, hang, tuck, roll...anything..., "No thank you." So it probably wasn't the best use of my money.
So that has been our past.
But you guys? You know that really freaking expensive OT I am paying for now? Wow. It's like a different kid. He wanted to have his birthday party at a place like that. About a month ago he went to the super-big bouncy house party place and he freaking ROCKED it. I was SO proud of him. He jumped, he climbed, he went down slides and over obstacle courses...and I literally kept having to look away because it was making me cry. And that's kinda hard to explain to the other parents... :) So last month he conquered all of the things I mentioned above and the only thing he didn't do was the super high slide. I don't think he trusted the very steep blow up stairs leading to the top. But still. Whole day? Major win.
So today was the first of his two parties. I had The Ex take him because The Girl was in swim lessons (and plus, I have another party tomorrow, so she needed to handle one of them) and it was during their time together. About a half an hour into the party time I got a text. It was a picture of the really tall slide thing that he wouldn't do last time. There was a blur at the top of it, but with the text-quality cell phone picture I couldn't tell what it was. I wrote back super fast, "Did he go down that thing?!?!" No answer. About another half an hour goes by and I get another texted picture of him on what looked like an indoor soccer field throwing some big red ball. She followed this one with "He is playing dodge ball and he climbed up that big slide using a rope! And went down like 5 times!!! He is having a great time."
You guys...I can't even tell you how huge that is. My son, my son, held onto a rope and climbed up the back of a huge slide, went down it...and then DID IT AGAIN. Like 5 times. I can't even put into words how huge that is. And not only that, he was playing dodge ball with his friends. This is the kid that at the end of soccer last summer (where he regularly layed down in the middle of the field because he saw some sort of random flower or bug that he wanted to check out), when asked if he wanted to do it again and if he liked soccer responded, "Well. I really like the water breaks. But I'm not so sure about that whole kicking thing. It takes a lot of work." This kid just played dodge ball. After doing that monster slide things 5 times in a row.
So it is absolutely true that between his therapies and his new school, I am more financially strapped right now than I have possibly ever been in my adult life. But you guys. It is worth every cent. Every. Freaking. Cent.
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