Today, I am thankful for slow mornings.  Mornings when we don’t have to hurry to be anywhere at any specific time.  We have already fallen into a rhythm I enjoy.

We wake up at our house at 6 am.  Kiran sometimes forgets, but he is content (enough) to vocalize in his bed until 6 am, when we wake up.  Brace comes off, diaper is changed, and we do joint compressions (an OT activity to promote body awareness) to “wake up his body”.  We come upstairs, and we practice standing at Papa’s chair with toys.  We practice hands and knees.  Standing, he got up to two minutes and forty-five seconds this morning.  Yesterday afternoon, when I wasn’t timing him, he stood for a solid 10-15 minutes.  Hands and knees, he did 46 seconds this morning.  It’s far more than he has ever consistently done.

He is getting SO strong!

We have breakfast.  I remember to do the tongue swiping (a feeding activity to promote tongue movement) before we start.  He eats.  I eat.  And then, we go for a wagon ride.  This is my favorite part, I think.  Except for yesterday, when the torrential downpour at that time of morning prevented us from doing so, we have gone out every morning this week.  He is still in his pajamas – as am I – and I carry my coffee cup with me.  We walk the neighborhood for maybe ten minutes.  We listen to the birds.  Enjoy the fresh air.  Isn’t it great that spring has finally sprung in Iowa?

He has some independent play time when we come back inside.  I handle dishes and breakfast cleanup, laundry, whatever I need to handle, while he works on his visual attention skills and toy play (OT and speech activities, really PT too – sitting skills).  We read books and play together.

I feel like we incorporate his therapy homework in a slightly structured but mostly really fluid way.  It makes me feel both accomplished and like Kiran gets to be a kid.

I like slow mornings.  I like not being rushed.  I like enjoying this time with my son.  It is not lost on me that our lives are about to change, yet again – the fall brings preschool and more structure to an already pretty structured life (with therapy appts and medical appts).  There will be busy days this summer.  Mondays and Thursdays are therapy days; we have some medical appts sprinkled throughout – one week from today, for instance, is his brain MRI.  But the days that are ours – the slow, non-rushed, sweet sweet days that are ours – those will be my favorite.  And I plan to make the most of each and every one.