Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Little Boy, Big Wrapper

Nathan is big.  Correction, Nathan is HUGE.  He's 6'2.5" in his shoes and 310 fully dressed.  His hands are like bear paws and he's heading into a size 13 shoe.  He dwarfs me, his teachers, and particularly his peers.  He shaves.  His voice is deep.  He's a man, or is he?

Time to confess again.  I've been guilty of paying too much attention to "the wrapper".  In recent weeks I've been reconnecting with the little boy that lives inside.  One would think that being faced daily with "developmental disability", the term would have sunk in.  Apparently it hasn't.  There's still a lot of "little boy" in that great big body.  

I have to remind myself that he still needs to be touched and played with like I did when he was much smaller.  I certainly can't wrestle with him anymore.  I'd end up putting some orthopedic surgeon's kids through college.   I'm having to find other ways of reaching the little boy in the big wrapper.  

There's a lot of man in there too.  I'm proud of who he's becoming.  Amanda awoke to find him in the kitchen Sunday morning.  He was on the verge of tears.  He'd been up all night with a savage inner and outer ear infection.  He was in severe pain and had been for hours.  Nathan's pain tolerance is best described as Herculean.  If he complains, it's BAD.  For him to be on the verge of tears, I can't even imagine.   In all that, he refused to wake us up.  

Off to the ER we went.  Two hours, $1000 (thank God for insurance), and three prescriptions later, we were out the door.  Also, thank God for understanding doctors who write Lortab scripts for hurting little/big men.  Considering everything, the least I could do was get the boy breakfast at McDonald's.  He'd earned it in spades!

Dad and son both got to learn.  We had a talk about how when he's sick or in pain, dad and mom always want to know.  I kept a hand on him through the whole incident, and saw that even when the big man is strong, the little boy still needs his dad.  I won't soon be forgetting again.

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