Thursday, June 3, 2010

Small steps, giant leaps

Noah simultaneously took a small step and a giant leap into the world today. How so you say? Well, today, Noah had his first afternoon in mainstream creche and despite some initial anxiety (on our part...), he got along great. Whilst this seemingly small exercise may not raise too many eyebrows in the rest of the world, to us it is a huge deal as it is the first time he is venturing out into the mainstream world on his own. To date, he has been attending his school regularly with his Mummy (and occasionally his Daddy) and working hard on his speech and language and his physical development. All this work has culminated in a walking; talking (in his inimitable style) almost two year old boy and as such he is ready to take those small steps into the giant world.

Are we proud of him? Absolutely bursting with the stuff. Were we nervous about doing this? Absolutely. We have found ourselves in this rather unique situation whereby the seemingly small things, sending your child into a creche/playgroup with other children for example, are manifested into giant deals which fuel our anxiety, nerve levels and general worry-ometers. Now I know that every parent will worry when dropping off their child for the first time into a new environment and I am in no way trying to garner sympathy or anything like that but we just find these things a bigger deal than perhaps we might have done in another lifetime. Maybe we wouldn't have but I suppose we will never know now. Our goals are quite simple for Noah, aim high and do everything in our power to give him the support he needs to get there. If he needs additional support along the way then so be it, it's no problem per se but personally speaking, is there any point in aiming for anything other than the top for him? Noah will dictate the path of his life himself, we'll just be there to give him all the tools he needs for the trip and today was one of those occasions.

As he took his first small step into the creche today, Noah was unaware of the giant leap he was actually taking. We hope there will be plenty of giant leaps in his life but even if there are just small steps, we'll be there right alongside because one small step for our little man, is one giant leap in our eyes.

2 comments:

  1. Well done Noah! This is huge indeed. Isn't it typical that the parents do all the worrying and the children just sail through?

    I can identify so much with what you say about supporting, helping, giving that little push that may make all the difference in the long term to help him achieve his potential. Ever since Cathal's birth, this seems to be my focus as well...

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  2. Hey! I hope all is well with your little Noah.I just stumbled upon your blog, and noticed there is not recent updates....how are things??

    We to have a little Noah! Who also was diagnosed with Down Syndrome!

    He is 6 weeks old and we post a daily one minute video on our site!

    http://noahsdad.com

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