Own That Ride

Caden has a no-nonsense speech therapist. She is not fooled by his charming attempts to distract her and realizing the importance of her techniques being repeated often and correctly at home, she includes me in each session, provided I am not a distraction. She is not afraid to tell me when to assist - and when not to ("Now mom, he's never going to do it on his own if you always prompt him". Doh!) Yesterday was the first day I thought she might actually kick me out of the room. I had one of those giggle fits that just won't leave you alone. I laughed until I cried and just when I thought it was out of my system, boom! The laughter snuck out again. I tried to stifle it but was nearly convulsing from the effort. It was almost painful.


Caden was doing his usual delay tactics to keep from doing the work: clearing his throat, shuffling and reshuffling his speech cards, readjusting his chair. This therapist has other-worldly patience and waits him out while I am at my wit's end swallowing my maternal need to tell him to cut it out. He finally starts vocalizing his word list but is fidgeting in his chair, even rocking it up onto the back legs. Suddenly his eyes widen as he starts to lose balance. He tries to recover by throwing his torso forward but it's too late. Realizing he's going over backwards, he gleefully throws both arms up in the air and exclaims, "Wheeeee!" The last things I saw were his feet rising straight up in the air from behind the table before he hit the ground. He quickly got up and righted his chair. He was clearly okay but that image of him going down with arms and legs out, saying "Wheee!" like it was some amusement park ride killed me. I didn't want to look like a bad mother and I truly tried to stop laughing but it was useless. It was such a classic Caden move. Knowing he was going down, he figured he might as well go big and enjoy the ride! I'm still chuckling today though I'm worried I may be banned from the next speech session. And if anyone is having a tough day, just take a page from Caden's book: own that ride and say wheee!