Have Bike. Will Crash.

Teddy has been interested in bikes for a long time, including climbing on AJ's big boy bike with training wheels. He can pedal our tricycles for short spurts, but his feet fall off the pedals. We've had a pattern to adapt the foot pedals to better support his feet, but we never got around to actually making them. (My somewhat valid excuse is that we spend so much of our time Teddy proofing and supervising and repairing damage from Teddy that other projects get pushed to the backburner.)

So when I saw a room full of adapted bikes at Teddy's last appointment to get fitted for new braces, I inquired into how those are typically funded. I was surprised to learn that it is something that could be funded by Children's Long-Term Support Waiver (CLTSW). That's the county program that supports Teddy's additional needs above and beyond a typical child (with a parental cost share, of course). I e-mailed Teddy's case worker and received approval within 24  hours for the assessment for an adapted bicycle, which astounded me that it was that easy! (Apparently, it's not always that easy. The guy who did the adapted bike said that it's extremely rare for the process to move this quickly. When I spoke to Teddy's case worker yesterday, she said that she knew Teddy would benefit because Teddy and our family are so active.)

That means the highlight of today was picking up Teddy's new bike! This custom bicycle is designed for Teddy, so it fits him perfectly, yet will grow with him both as he develops more abilities and grows older.

He climbed right on and waited patiently for the adjustments.

It has a couple straps to help secure him in place to his backrest, which provides support for his core, so he doesn't have to work as hard to stay upright. The handlebar adjusts in height and gives him a wide, steady base for steering. Until he masters that concept (because he's a wild man now!), there's a guide bar in the front for someone to help Teddy when he needs assistance steering or is stuck and needs a boost. There's also a handle in the back for pushing, but the guide bar will be the main form of support until it's no longer needed. Then it can be removed.

Nice wide handle for steering, not that he intends to actually steer any time soon.

The pedals have a series of 3 straps to secure his feet in place, so he doesn't have to keep adjusting them to stay on the pedals. Perhaps the neatest part is that whenever the bike moves, the pedals move. That helps ingrain the reciprocal motion of medal into his muscle memory. Wait, there's a brake, so I can keep him still when I get him strapped in. That might be the coolest part.

Pure (blurry) joy at having his own bike!

That's the technical side of why an adapted bike is so great for him, but all you really need to see is this:

Captain Teddy

We had quite the fun-filled, busy weekend, which is why it's now Thursday when I'm posting this. It took a few days to recover from AJ's birthday, his first fun run, Teddy's first MyTEAM Triumph (MTT) run, AJ's Lego pirate birthday party and my half marathon.

As much fun as the whole weekend was, the highlight was Teddy's first event as a captain with MTT. When I first considered signing him up as a captain, the amount of support was incredible. Thank you to everyone who showed your support for Team Teddy.

Teddy's lucky angels were Stephanie and Ashley, along with his proud mama. Both these ladies have known our family since before Teddy was born and were incredibly awesome angels.

Teddy & his angels!

Race day was quite the experience. Teddy's Aunt Lindsay went early with us since we had to be there an hour before the event. Teddy checked out everything before the run, putting in his own version of a 5k. (Let's just say I was grateful to have Aunt Lindsay to help entertain Ted. He's not a captain who's willing to hang in his race chair for long if we're not actually running.)

Captain Teddy pre-race.

MTT does a team meeting to recognize everyone who makes race day possible, as well as share last-minute details and reminders (that we may not remember when we're caught up in the moment). They also do a team prayer with everyone praying for their captain before heading to the starting line.

The teams go to the front of the crowd and get a few minutes before the rest of the race begins. This allows us to get all the chairs spread out and not have everyone tripping over us. Ashley ran like a bat out of hell from the start to give us some space, so we ended up leading the entire crowd for about 3 minutes, which is the first time and longest time I've ever led any sort of a race. It was so neat to be running through this beautiful park along the water with Teddy leading the way.

Captain Teddy leading the pack!

Our lead didn't last forever, as we got passed by the pace car, other MTT teams and then other runners. Still, we knew we had a fast first mile when the guy called out 6:31 as our time. Ashley said my face was priceless because I didn't instantly add the couple minutes we had on the official start time.

Our fast start also meant we nearly killed Stephanie, who was quite the trooper to put up with the sprint start. We took an easier pace to enjoy the rest of the race, with a few walk breaks to straighten Teddy in his chair and share some water that a little girl was passing out with Teddy. Since Teddy's chair had his name on it, we had people cheering for him, and we did our best to get the bystanders cheering for him as well.

We got Teddy out of his chair probably a bit earlier than MTT volunteers expected because we wanted him to walk to the finish. He walked the whole way we asked him to, although he was really distracted by all the people on the side. Having him cross that finish line walking was just incredible!

And, the icing on the cake, was that Teddy took third place for the MTT teams, so he got a cool tile plaque to go along with his medal from the run.

This absolutely was the most fun and special race I've ever done, between leading the pack with Teddy, watching him cross the finish line and being surrounded by family, friends and the rest of the wonderful people with MTT. I cannot wait to be an angel again for Captain Teddy!

First First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school for both my boys: 4k for AJ and early childhood for Teddy. Someone asked me if it felt like the years flew by that AJ was already heading to school. I joked I'd been waiting for this day for 5 years (even though AJ isn't even 5 yet) since it was really difficult for me to leave work when he was born. And then I said the emotions about AJ going to school were really overshadowed by Teddy because Teddy alters our perspective on everything.

If we didn't have Teddy, I'm sure AJ's first day of school would have been more emotional for us. Instead, nearly all our nerves were wrapped into worrying about Teddy. We're excited for AJ, but it's easy because he's thrilled to go to school and has had so much fun the past two days. He comes home ready to show off anything he has, even a piece of paper in his folder that I need to complete, and rattles off everything he can remember about his day (which still doesn't include the names of anyone from his classroom, even his teacher).

It's harder with Teddy because at best I'll get a note or a quick statement of how his day went. He can't tell me anything about what he did, if he got hurt (like AJ who had someone step on his foot today) and who his friends are.

All smiles before school!

But, I know in my heart that he will love school. He will learn amazing new things. He will win over his teachers and therapy team with his smile, charm and personality. He will make new friends and learn to play with them in at least a somewhat socially acceptable manner. His smile as I picked him up yesterday told me that he had fun. (It did help to hear from his teacher, though, that he had a good day.)

I love how much these two love each other!

And another positive note: given their track record in day care settings, I'm quite proud to report that neither one has been kicked out of school yet. (I'm serious ... they've both been booted from day care ... and almost got booted together for a second time before we pulled them.)