Typical Day at Ten Months

After months of fear, pain, uncertainty, and anguish, life for Errol at 10 months is good. Errol and Owen share a room (Owen’s choice) and one of them wakes the other up about dawn (thank god for the long nights of winter). Errol is such a sweet kid that he doesn’t complain and almost never cries to be fed. We get him up and feed him the first drink of the day (it must be five o’clock somewhere) before we do anything else, then it’s time for a diaper change and some time on the mat with different blinking and beeping toys while we woof down our breakfast. After a bit of play and stretches (therapy, not Pilates) Errol takes his anti-reflux medicine (we are down to only three doses of two medicines and it feels great), and head off to school with brother Owen. We drop Own at his elementary school and then head off to the most amazing school in the world, The Children’s Center. There we spend some time checking in with his wonderful teachers, Anne, Audrey, and Paula – three teachers, six students. They each know and love Errol like he was there own, and there’s no doubt that it will make him a very different person. Imagine if all schools were set up like Errol’s. Imagine if we thought of all of our students as disabled (which they all are in their own ways) and responded by giving them small classes, tons of intervention, love, and the best equipment in the world. The stakes are high at The Children’s Center, if they don’t do their best, a child may not talk, or walk, but all our kids are worth the effort – what would the harm be in having schools that are too good? We feel so lucky to have Errol at his school. I wish all parents were lucky enough to have schools invest in their children like The Children’s Center has in Errol.
Errol stays in school from about 9:30 until about 1:30. While he’s there he gets play time, music, physical therapy, occupational therapy, vision therapy, speech therapy (I’m not kidding), diaper changes, feeding, sometimes a short nap, and always lots of kisses. Where do I sign up? When we come to get him around 1:30 he is exhausted, and takes a massive (up to four hour) nap when he gets home. He’s back up to feed around four or five, and then we all play, do some stretches, eat dinner, take another round of medicines, and then hit the sack about seven. Yes, we are very lucky, our kids sleep from about seven to seven. That gives us twelve hours to eat, drink, be merry, cuddle, clean the dishes, wash and fold the clothes, clean house, tend the garden, tidy the yard, take the dogs on a walk, read, talk, watch the occasional movie, and maybe even sleep. Life is good, and it just keeps getting better.