Sharing Small Victories

Just the mention of  Easter Egg Hunts starts getting CHASA parents agitated.*  For many "hemikids" such hunts are an ordeal.  Holding a basket while collecting eggs and running requires bilateral coordination that many of them just don't have.

Grasping the basket!

Apparently in big cities, there are also special Easter Egg Hunts for kids with special needs, but sometimes kids with CP get glared at for not being special enough and sometimes get put with the younger kids who are more their speed and get glared at for being "that big kid" among the little kids**.

Of course, my simple solution to this would be not to have large group egg hunts for anyone, but that's not the point of this post.  The point of this post is that CHASA is a community where I could post these photos of my kids at my neighbor's house and the other parents could immediately understand my excitement that Aster is actually grasping the basket with his right hand! and my teary sadness that I can't help but compare Aster to Dianthus, who can manipulate eggs with both hand without a second thought (shown here counting them in order to slow him down). I ache a little at how much harder most everything physical will be for Aster while cheering that he can do all the things he can do.
 It's invaluable to have a place where one can share the little victories and the nagging petty fears.  Thanks CHASA!

Two hands all the time.

 

*They agitate me because of the commercialization, the plasticization, the sugar, the materialism . . . And the fact that we had a school Easter Egg hunt agitated me because of all of the above and WHY ARE WE CELEBRATING EASTER AT PUBLIC SCHOOL?

**For the sake of clarity, Aster has not received these looks, in part because we do not participate in large Easter Egg Hunts (which takes some planning to avoid parks at certain times around Easter), but I have heard multiple reports through CHASA moms.   It's hard to believe that people glare at kids like this, but then you think about how humans are, and it is really not that hard to believe.  Kids with hemiplegic cerebral palsy have also been kicked off of sports teams for not being handicapped enough-- after all, they can stand.