Master of the SwingSet

My nephew Max and brother Glenn dropped off a swingset that Max had outgrown. The story behind the swingset is that my grandparents in Green Bay found it. They picked up all of the pieces of this swingset that a family was throwing out. They delivered all the the pieces to my parents' house (which is about 2 hrs north of Green Bay). My dad sanded and repainted all of the pieces. After refurbishing the swingset, my dad brought it down and put it together for my nephew Max.My brother screened in the sand box and added a door to the sand box. Rachel is head over heels in love with this swingset.

No naughty kitties getting into this sandbox!

Look at this happy girl! She amazed me by showing me how she can get onto and off of the swing without any help. She still needs to work on moving her legs up and down- she pulls up her knees and then kicks her feet.

Look at Rachel's amazing arm strength! Yes!She lifted her entire body a good 4 inches above the seat of the swing to get into the swing. Embarrassing to say- I am no where near to being that strong in my arms. I tried to do a pull up on the monkey bars of the swing set and was an epic failure.

Rachel's hard work in therapy paid off. There is both a ladder and a rock climbing wall to climb up to go down the slide. She can climb up both without any assistance needed.

While these activities may seem like "no big deal" things to the average parent- to the parents of a special needs child, it is a like that happy moment when you are blowing out the candles on your birthday cake. It is that well needed reassurance that, yes, my child is more like his or her peers and getting further and further away from all of those horrible statistics you get bombarded with when your baby is diagnosed with having a disability. It is part of those "unseen" daily miracles that people often take for granted. I am blessed to watch my 3 yr old daughter show what a child with spina bifida at L4 can do and to see her inspire others.

I was unable to get a picture but the pint sized princess likes Pepper and me to ride on this seat with her. I am not sure how much Pepper enjoyed swinging but he will do anything for a Cheerio.

Rachel and Pepper are "monkey see monkey do" together. Somedays, I swear they conspire together to get me to clean up one mess while the other makes a different one. At least Pepper is consistent- he always takes his stolen items to chew to the shoe gathering in the sunroom.

Pepper Jack at 5 months old