Milestones

So guess who "graduated" from occupational therapy this week?

After four years of seeing his therapist twice a week, week in and week out, he's finished. Discharged to home follow-up care.

So much time was spent in that pediatric rehab waiting room, so many hours. And so much has changed in that time, it's hard to grasp sometimes.

Fiver has spent half of his life in therapy.

We have added three lovely little people to our family.

Sally, Bun, and Mopsy have spent every Tuesday and Thursday of their lives at therapy.

Fiver's first beloved therapist passed away and has been gone for two years now.

This is what he looked like when he started:



Practically a baby.

Am I happy? Oh yes, I am happy. And so proud of my boy.

He has gone from a boy who would not, could not, sit up until he was almost one. Who did not walk until he was almost two. Who would scream in terror at the motion of the car. Who spontaneously fell out of chairs. Who could not hold a crayon. Who cried and shook when near a swing set.

His therapist confided to me, now that he's discharged, that when she first met him she honestly wondered if she could fix him. He was in a bad way.

And now he is solid gold. Everything I thought I would never see him do, he does. He dresses himself, uses a fork, rides on swings, buckles himself in the car, uses scissors, writes his own name.

For his last session, Rob was home with the little guys so that Fiver and I could go alone. To say goodbye.

His therapist and I sat on the floor and reminisced while we watched him build Lego's.

"Remember when he wouldn't lift his feet off the ground?," she would say.

"Remember when he couldn't maintain an upright posture for an entire session?," I would say.

And we just marveled at him. And we cried a little and we hugged. And then we laughed some more about how different he is, how much he has changed.

But what I realized, at the very end of his very last session, is this: He hasn't changed. Not really.

He has always been this child, locked in a body that didn't work. He has always been Fiver, we just get to see him now.

So where does he go from here?

Anywhere. Everywhere.

He's only just begun.