Like the Wind

With snow on the ground and wind chills hitting double-digits-below-zero this week, Joy isn't getting the opportunities for big long backyard sprints anymore. She sure can dash back and forth through the living room, though!

I continue to marvel at Joy's physical strength. As I mentioned in my very first Elvis Sightings post, she has been a powerhouse from the get-go. Her baby book contains a notation at the ripe old age of two weeks, amazed at how dang strong she was. At two weeks!

One of her favorite "heavy-work" games right now is a jumping game, one she requests by coming over and taking both your hands and beginning to bounce. She wants you to support her jumps by lifting her hands with yours, so that she gets more air with each jump. If you get a good rhythym going, all forty pounds of her are soon flying high with every leap, coming down with a satisfying "boom" on the carpet that must feel so good as it shocks through her frame.

She can even run and jump wearing weights! Her previous OT acquired ankle weights for her and made a weighted vest out of a floaty swim vest, replacing the removable floaty-foam blocks with door hinges (just the right size to fit in the pockets!) and heavy little beanbags. I don't know how much weight it is, but it's enough to make her notice -- and help her regulate, and focus, and lots of good stuff. But especially right after she puts it on, when she's still in run-and-jump mode, you should see how she motors, even with all that weight.

It brings an image to my mind...

I can imagine my girl, grown tall with her hair gone brown like mine did and in a pony-tail, wearing an adult-size weighted vest and ankle weights, jumping up and down beside the track in preparation for her race. Then she takes the weights off and joins the other runners in the starting blocks. "On your mark, get set, GO!" (oh, and haven't we practiced those words, over and over...) And Joy takes off, running like the wind.

Maybe someday we'll train together, and then she'll leave me in the dust.

Me, I don't run like the wind. Jog slow, like old pony. But I'm still working on my Couch to 5K training, and can now jog 25 minutes without stopping, at an 11-minute-mile pace. I've got my eye on a 5K in April that I might actually win! Yes, you heard that right. It's called the Poker Run. How I might win is, they deal you three cards at the start of the race. Then when you finish, you get two more. The best hand of 5-card stud "wins" the race, no matter the time!

Oh, and the race benefits Special Olympics.

Whether Joy eventually runs Special Olympics or with the neurotypicals or all on her own, I'll be cheering her every step of the way.