Jump Around

Happy 4th of July to you! We spent the weekend up north with Dave's family, which is an awfully fun place for our boys to explore and play with their cousins. They enjoyed the swing set, the sand box, the trampoline and the assortment of tractors, 4-wheelers and lawn mowers. Teddy's favorite thing is to rotate among all the vehicles, climb onto one, sit there proudly for 30 seconds and then move onto the next one.

As I watched Teddy's younger cousin bouncing happily on the trampoline, I was wistful for a few moments. Although Teddy likes to be bounced on the trampoline, he's a long way from independently jumping on the trampoline. The moment passed as I went to chase Teddy to the next climbing obstacle. (For the record, he's fairly safe with all except for the tractor. That's where I spot him pretty closely.)

Later that night, Teddy was supremely excited to be near his bigger cousins and brother playing on the air mattress. Teddy was standing near the extra-tall mattress, swinging his arms into the bed to bounce it. That's when I noticed that he was jumping at the same time. I kept watching in amazement as he jumped in excitement. He was stabilized by the bed, but he was jumping in his own way. That accomplishment swept away that wistfulness from earlier in the day.

Our fun continued with swimming at the lake, ice cream at town and more time playing with cousins. Teddy managed probably the funniest moments of the weekend simply by being himself. When we were tossing horseshoes, Teddy was buckled in the stroller to keep him contained away from flying metal objects. Well, he reached around, snagged a Mike's hard lemonade from the drink stand atop the stroller and proceeded to do a nice long pour from high in the air covering himself. Thankfully, his aim isn't so swell, so he only got a taste. He certainly had quite the style ... a classic Teddy moment. (And if you think about all the fine motor skills to pull off that escapade, well, that's like a whole session of OT in less than a minute.)

The other classic Teddy moment was also a testament to how far his fine motor skills have come. At breakfast this morning, his younger cousin was eating watermelon next to him. All the adults warned her to keep her fork away from Teddy, but Teddy decided he needed more watermelon. He quickly reached across his body, grabbed her fork and shoved her watermelon in his mouth in one smooth move. None of us could stop him, partly because he was that fast and partly because we were laughing so hard. (We did make Teddy share a bite of cookie in exchange for the pilfered fruit.)

For all the times I let myself become melancholy about the struggles Teddy faces and how much harder those struggles make life, Teddy manages to do something amazing ... and often hilarious. It's his way, and God's way, of reminding me to let Teddy be Teddy. He's amazing in his own right.