#specialsaturday
Our Olympics
1This week the theme for Special Saturday, inspired by the Olympics, is exercise.
In our house for the last few years our summers have been filled with pedal pulls. A pedal pull is a contest where kids from 4-11 years of age compete to see how far they can pedal a tractor with a weighted sled behind it. In the Midwest during the summer many of the little towns have festivals and at many of these festivals they will have a pedal pull. So our Saturdays (sometimes Sundays) involve us hopping in the car and going for a road trip to different small towns and watching our kids compete in these pedal pulls!!
Our son Aidan just turned 11 years old and he as of today has 36 pedal pull trophies including a second place trophy at the Iowa State Pedal Pull last year and a fourth place trophy last year from the National Pedal Pull. On August 12th he will be competing for the first time in the International Pedal Pull in southern Iowa. He is a strong boy and he usually makes quick work of the pedal pulls that we attend each weekend.
The video below is of his winning pull in Riceville, IA this weekend. There were five 11 year olds that signed up and of those five there were three kids that placed at the national pedal pull last year. Aidan placed fourth in the boys and the first and third place girls were also there.
Cece also enjoys doing pedal pulls sometimes!! We sign her up for the pulls and when they get to her name she decides if she is going to pull or not. My wife usually helps her walk over to the tractor and places her on it. With the help of Rick (the owner of the pedal pull company) Cece will usually go between 5-10 ft. Then she gives Rick a big hug and in MN goes to get her free pop (in all the MN pulls they give a can of pop the kids). While we are waiting for her turn to pull we walk around which means she is in her wheelchair and I am pulling her hand. We see everyone that is there and they see her. When she starts to pull something magical happens, everyone watches her like they watch everyone else but then someone will start to clap. Then someone else claps and pretty soon everyone is clapping for Cece louder than they clap for anyone else that day. Watch this video and you will hear the clapping and watch Cece give Rick a big hug!!
For our family this is better than the Olympics!! Aidan gets to use his size and strength to amaze the crowd and collect trophies while Cece gets to pull for a cheering crowd, to get a can of pop, and a hug. As parents with two wonderful kids for a moment we can forget about our crazy life and watch our kids have fun and be in the spotlight. As a family we can do something that for a few hours on the weekend helps us feel normal.
It would be wrong for me to end this post without talking a little more about Rick and Sandy Scholbrock who own Kid Power Pedal Pulls. When we started going to pedal pulls we met Rick and Sandy and over the past few years we have gotten to know them and we are proud to call them our friends. At one of the pulls last year after Cece had pulled Rick stopped the pull and went into his trailer and pulled out a special trophy for Cece that has a toy John Deere tractor on it. That is her one and only trophy she has and it proudly displayed on top of her dresser. We see them a lot over the summer and every time when Cece has pulled Rick has taken the time to help get her on the tractor, encourage her to do the best she can and let her give him a hug. Rick and Sandy you are truly amazing people and you will probably never know how much we appreciate what you do for our kids and others, thank you!!
Check out their website: Kid Power Pedal Pulls
Us Time
In honor of Valentine’s Day next week this weeks #specialsaturday theme is “Us Time”.
My wife Regina and I have been blessed by great parents who for almost every Friday night since our kids were little have given us a date night. We always go to the same place to eat, El Mariachi’s, and order the same food, Las Tapatias with no pico de gallo and two waters. We have been there so many times that the servers know what we are going to order before we even say it. Our date night usually lasts 2-3 hours but it is the time I look forward to all week when we can spend time together just the two of us and for a short time forget about all the crazy stuff that is going on in our daily lives.
I have special needs because……
0Originally posted August 9, 2011
I am writing this in words I think my 8 year-old daughter would use if she was able to communicate like I can:
I have special needs because that is a label society has placed on me. When people see me on walks in my wheelchair with my mom or dad they think that I have special needs. When I drool all over myself for no particular reason people think I have special needs. When I swing at people to get their attention because they don’t understand what I am saying they say I have behavior issues. Do you ever get frustrated when you are trying to communicate with someone and they don’t understand what you say?
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Special Saturday – People with….are different but still……
0Originally posted July 29, 2011
Last week we took our daughter to the Dr. to get botox injections in her legs to reduce the spasticity caused be her cerebral palsy. In addition to the botox they also give her some medication to take the edge off which makes her tired and she looses muscle tone for awhile. This is something she has done every three months and if she is up for it we try to go to a great buffet to eat lunch. She was up to it this time so we gladly drove there to enjoy eating way to much food. For some reason on this day I was noticing a number of people staring at us while we were eating. I am not sure if I was looking around more than normal or if more people were staring but either way it got me thinking.
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The important things in life
Originally posted July 23, 2011
A few weeks ago on Twitter I came across the #specialsaturday hashtag that is being used on Saturdays to “spread awareness of the needs, feelings and accomplishments of children and adults with special needs or autism.” This week everyone was supposed to use the following words to start their Tweets: My special needs child has taught me……… I sent out a few tweets regarding this topic along with many other people on Twitter.