In Which Connor Takes A Stand

Thanks for the suggestions on bubble bath and chewy things, folks.  I'll have to go shopping and try out a few brands.  I'll let you all know if we find something that works particularly well!

It was lovely outside today, so after school I took Connor out in his stander and set him up in the shade while I did some work out in the garden.  He has a little tray in his stander with a well you can put things in, so I picked a bunch of different herbs and put them in there for him to explore.  He carefully felt each of them, and seemed to especially like the fennel and the borage.  I had to move him every ten minutes or so because my shade kept retreating; one of these days we're going to have a permanent shelter in the backyard that Connor can hang out under so that he doesn't overheat. 

He was doing really well, so when the sun slipped behind the clouds for a few minutes I decided to take him on a trip to the mailbox in his stander.  I don't normally roll him around outside the house in the stander, but he thought the trip down the ramp and the bumps in the sidewalk were so tremendously funny that I may have to make a habit of taking him around the neighborhood more often.  The stander is a little awkward for me to push because I have to hunch over a bit and there aren't any convenient handles, but hey, I'll do anything for that little squeaky bicycle wheel laugh!

Connor has finally worked up to consistently doing two full hours in his stander, which is really exciting!  Two hours five days a week is the minimum he needs to be doing to help his bones develop properly-- many kids in wheelchairs end up with spontaneous fractures because their bones are brittle due to lack of weight bearing.  So we can head off a lot of problems by sticking to a standing routine!  The trick is keeping Connor's attention for two hours so that he doesn't protest being in the stander-- towards the end of the time if he's bored he starts focusing on how tired he's getting and he begins fussing.  So a daily trip down to the mailbox or around the block in good weather may be just what he needs to distract him long enough to finish off his two hours! 

~Jess