Oliver & His Scooter

October 25, 2011

Oliver & His Scooter

Waverly spent the weekend at Jill's House, which meant Oliver had Mommy & Daddy all to himself for 2 whole days. While Waverly was off having adventures of her own, we had a great time with Oliver. On Saturday, we took him to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It is a huge fair in a beautiful wooded area near Annapolis. We have gone almost every year we have lived in DC. It offers fun entertainment, great food and fabulous people watching. On Sunday we went to our favorite pancake place for chocolate chip, banana and praline pancakes for the family. We then took Oliver out for a long walk walk with his scooter. He LOVES it!! Although, he has learned that the scooter we have at home has a larger base. He is able to put both feet on it and wait to be pushed. (His scooter at therapy can only accommodate one foot.)

I love this photo. He has a beautiful smile - such a happy little boy.

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Welcome to Holland

By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland.""Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.