20 June 2012

The third day of bike camp


Julia is still very willing.  She is also doing well on the roller bike, albeit slow.  I can see that her volunteers have picked up their pace -- not jogging yet, but walking briskly beside her.  I may have found a bike for Julia on Craig’s List.  Julia is between a 20” and a 24.”  She would probably do best on a 22” but I don’t think that they make that size.  I wanted to stick with the 20” because she views that as a bike that she can handle but I don’t want to buy something new for just a year.  Truth be told, I prefer not to buy anything new until she is ready for an adult bike.  We go to look and hopefully pick up the bike after our last therapy session tonight.
The first kid of our group is riding on a two wheeler and riding independently.  He is the one who jumped on the roller bike the first day and started pedaling very quickly much to his mother’s surprise and delight.  He has fallen once and gotten right back on with cheering and high fives.  There is not a dry eye in the parent corner.  These victories are so small compared with the accomplishments of typically developing children but they are incredibly huge for our kids.  And they become “our” kids so quickly.  They come from so far down the mountain.
Second kid on a two wheeler.  This one a bit unsteady.  The first kid is learning to brake.  That makes two of the six on two wheelers and it is only Wednesday.  Julia closed out the day’s riding well, but she is not ready for the two wheeler yet.  It is her focus mostly that is holding her back.  
After bike riding, we head home and once again nap.  Julia resists laying down but if I put on some guided meditation and we half lay on the couch she falls asleep for 20 minutes or so.  She has napped every day of the camp.  This is wonderful.  Julia has only napped when she has been sick.  Even in the car, on long trips, she sleep infrequently.  It is true that pedaling a bike for 75 minutes is probably exhausting, but I also take it as another notch on our attachment belt.