Neither Will She

We were outside on the street two days ago, enjoying the fall-isa weather (otherwise known as ‘warm’) with families on our street.   We have a happy and social street with a good number of children and good weather tends to have us all catching up outside.

Mt daughter is riding her bicycle regularly now and as long as there are some other, older children outside with her and her brother, we let them go riding without us now.   Riding on our street, or rather our cul-de-sac street which happens to be very short.  

I’m still not completely comfortable watching as my small, mostly blind child rides faster than I’m comfortable, zipping up driveways and taking turns with the greatest of confidence.   My neighbor was commenting on how fast she was and we were talking about how quickly she’d taken to it once she’d gotten proficient at it.  

I laughed and said, “I’m going in, I don’t want to see it when she crashes.”  My neighbor laughed back and said, “neither will she!”  and slapped me on the shoulder.   Then, suddenly, he realized I might not have liked that kind of comment and was trying to make apologies while I was laughing at his statement.

I assured him I was not at all offended.   The only way to deal with something as terrible as having your child lose their vision was to laugh when you could.    He told me they did the same thing with their son, who has a heart defect and has had to have a pacemaker put in/changed multiple times in his life.   They’ve always had that urge to protect their son, but were encouraged by doctors to let him live his life and don’t shunt his experiences simply because he has a pacemaker.

We agreed it was the best way we could manage to deal with a saddening situation.    I told my neighbor I was going to remember his saying and to be sure I was going to use it at some point and think of him.

The Big Boy Update:  My son decided to go outside to play the other day.   As he was leaving I said, “bye, I’ll see you later.”   He responded, “I’ll see you in the future.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter launched into angry mode today when she came inside asking to see dad.   I told her she could go find him but she had to close the door first.   She did not want to close the door.   She was petulant.   She laid down on the floor and cried and then tried to go around me to get to the basement where dad was.   I told her we didn’t leave outside doors open when we came in.    She went over, kicked the door shut and then said, “you’re poopie mommie.  Poopie, poopie, poopie!”  Then she came over and punched me.    I grabbed her hand and told her she was going to her room.    She turned into a blob so I picked her up.  She said, “I’m sorry mom!”   I said she was going to her room until she remembered how to be polite to people and that I don’t allow people to hurt me.   She said, “I SAID I’m sorry!”  I then said, “oh, you didn’t seem sorry when you were calling me poopy and hitting me.    And here’s the interesting thing—she didn’t come our of the room for five minutes.   I told her as I deposited her on her bed (bike helmet and all) she could come out whenever she was ready to be polite.    Apparently she wasn’t ready at first.