Good Things (as Martha says)..

Yesterday, Liberty rode a rollercoaster for the first time in his life by himself! You'd think I had pictures right? Wrong. Forgot the camera. It's just so much to juggle. I need to get a small movie camera like the Wondershot or something. I've been meaning to do that but other things have taken precedent like supplements and DAN! doctor appointments.

ANYWAY, there was this rollercoaster that looked like a Japanese dragon. It was child-sized but it went pretty fast around the little track. He was just dying to go on it. The attendant strapped him in tight and I just prayed he understood when I told him to hold on. My heart was in my mouth as the thing took off suddenly and Lib jerked back a little. (I had these fearful images run through my head of him ripping off the seatbelt and jumping out, me second guessing my decision in those few seconds...).

I wrung my hands like Ma Kettle and then I saw it: The sheer joy of being free on my little boy's face. He was holding on, grinning from ear to ear and riding that thing! He was in the front car with other little children behind him - all of them holding on and laughing and grinning. Tears just streamed down my face. I think he is capable now of so much more than I ever imagined.

He loved it so much, I let him go on it again before we left and he even handed the attendant his tickets!

My heart just swells with joy as I think of this.

He went on the "bungee jump" (not really a jump - just suspended in the air by cables with a big inflated mat underneath so you can jump up high). I wasn't going to let him go again because it was rather pricey, but he cried and screamed out, "AGAIN!" You never saw anyone put a kid on a ride so fast.

Gotta reward those words!

He's such a trooper, my Lib. I realize that there is now a fine line between over-protecting my son and allowing him to do things on his own. In the past, I have been super protective because with no speech and no way of knowing that he heard me or understood, you know I could not be for certain that he could handle anything like riding a ride on his own. I'm just not sure what he is capable of, and I would forever regret that I was not the protector I should be if something terrible happened to my son.

But, yesterday, he showed me. My son is getting ready to fly. I must let him.