The Cost of Vacation Was More Than Cash

Things were going so well. Reece was doing awesome with his speech. We were hearing new sounds and spontaneous words. I was thrilled! Last week we went on vacation for a few days. I know I should be prepared for the tough moments, but really I rarely am. When things are going good I try not to think about the bad stuff. I just want our lives to be "normal".

Vacation went pretty well. We went to Chincoteague Island, Virginia to see the Pony Swim. My seven year old loves horses and this trip was for her. Unfortunately, Reece was terrified of the horses! Trying to keep a screaming, thrashing and strong five year old from throwing himself on the muddy, horse pooped-on ground to get away from the horses is no fun. My arms still ache. He did great when we weren't near the horses. He even did better than I would have ever expected most days. I am sure the other guests in the hotel cringed when they saw our van pull up to the hotel. Our arrival was always followed by Reece screaming "BYE-BYE!!" at the top of his lungs because he wanted to go somewhere else. I am sure we were quite the sight.

We spent our time on the Ocean City, MD boardwalk trying to keep my son from seeing the ceiling fans in the stores that he was looking for. (He did find two before we could block them. He has an internal radar and can find the fan hidden in any environment.) They did have a fan in one of the booths we passed while making our way to the carousel so I spent a lot of time standing there with him. I really don't mind that--it was the dragging him away kicking and screaming that was tough. Now I know Son-Rise says you should stay home if going somewhere is going to be too hard on your kid. And really I do agree. But when you have other children who are already sacrificing so much all the time, sometimes you just have to do it.

We did do a special stop for Reece. We drove to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. He loves bridges and tunnels and water so this was perfect for him. And he did love it! He also loved going to NASA and seeing the planes and rockets. It was so wonderful to see him really enjoying himself.

The down side was he missed Speech Therapy the night we left and I wasn't working with him on his "oh's" and "ooo's" while we were away. We went to speech this week and my fears were confirmed. He lost his newly acquired speech skill. I could have cried right there as she was asking him to make the sounds and he couldn't round his lips any more. His therapist was also upset. I am now working on this like crazy again. He tries so hard and wants to keep trying even when I tell him we can stop. This kid WANTS to talk!!! We can get it back. That's what I keep telling myself. But I am so mad at myself for his losing this. I feel like I let him down and it kills me to see him struggling for this again. To make so much progress and then have this taken away is just too unfair.