Cousin Time

Now that Ryan and Sara are in a bigger house, we got to stay with them for part of our Seattle visit. It was great cousin time for Owen, Josh, and Calla and several late nights for us adults to talk, talk, talk. It is a great joy that our children are growing up together and that we get to share our parenting journey with Ryan and Sara. It was a cinch to pick Elliot Bay Brewery for dinner - great beer, good food, KIDS MENU! it made perfect sense to all of us to take a "field trip" to the pet store after that dinner, and bundling the kids up just to get.out.of.the.house was well worth the effort...



It's always exciting for us to spend time with Calla and see in person all the progress she it making. Ryan and Sara talked about how they measure her development in tiny increments - setting small goals with her therapy team and marking progress one word, one step, one action at a time. It can be exhausting for R&S to stay focused on these small goals, but since we only see Calla every 4-6 months, we get to see the HUGE cumulative impact all those small incremental advancements make. Since they visited this summer, Calla's vocabulary has exploded and she is moving ALL OVER THE PLACE. Sure, she has her own way of saying most words - Owen is "Ow-Nee" - but that's no different than any other 2 year old. Plus, it's a joy to see how excited she gets now that her words bring results. I loved the big grin every time she announced, "Josh!!" And when I say she is moving all over the place... holy moly! upstairs, downstairs, this room, that room... I guess she's just making up for lost time, but I think we only managed to snag one picture of Calla because she is never in one place for more than a few seconds. (as it is, any picture of Calla in this post was stolen of Facebook!)

I am continually impressed with Ryan and Sara and the work they do with and for Calla. Being a parent is incredibly challenging. Navigating that journey with a child that has multiple developmental delays is a whole new ballgame. Especially because Calla doesn't have a concrete diagnosis for what has caused her challenges. We now understand she has a "Motor Planning Disorder" that explains why her body responds differently to physical stimuli. But Motor Planning Disorder is still a symptom, a result, not a cause. That leaves Ryan and Sara without a a specific prognosis - no timeline to work with, no expectations of what Calla will be capable of in 6 months, 2 years, or further down the road. What we do know is...

Calla is energetic, smart, determined, and S-O-C-I-A-L! She's probably not going to play point guard on the basketball team, but she is going to charm her way through many of life's trials and she's always going to have lots of people rooting for her every step of the way.

Oh, and Calla loves animals - especially Ocean animals, so we made a wonderful trip to the aquarium with Nana and Grandma... even though he missed his nap, Josh LOVED watching the fish. I'm sure if we lived in Seattle, Sara and I would be having frequent play dates amid the tanks.