in order to throw an elephant across the room.

a couple of weeks ago, mr. caleb had a physical therapy evaluation.

this was at the request of ben and myself, who have felt for a while now that even though he is out of the woods with his seizures, his physical strength is not up to par with where his peers are.

we've signed him up for tumbling and soccer, hoping that these activities would help strengthen him, but the more he got into these activities the more we felt like something extra was needed. during each soccer game he ran his heart out, and on more than one occasion he came up to me after the games and said, "mom, i'm so tired. i just can't run as fast as these kids."

it was hard to hear him say that, even though ben and i could see that he was struggling to keep up. he ran as fast as he could and would come home exhausted.

ben and i are really careful what we say around him when it comes to these concerns because we don't want him thinking that he doesn't have the potential to be just as fast or as strong as his friends. we try to just encourage his efforts and work with him at home, under the guise of "fun" like wrestling and obstacle courses and racing and getting "big muscles like dad."

as caleb and i walked into the physical therapy building, i began to second-guess myself. we were walking behind a girl who was probably just around caleb's age and had to hold her mother's hand as she steadied herself to take each step. her legs were bent in angles they weren't supposed to be and wiggled back and forth as she balanced on her tip toes.

i looked down at my little boy who was walking perfectly fine and worried that i would be looked at by the physical therapists as an overprotective mom, or that i was hyper-sensitive because of caleb's past.

well, we were already there, so we went ahead with the appointment and i decided that i could let the therapist make the decision.

it was an hour long appointment, and as we got to the end of that hour i was grateful that i listened to my intuition. caleb tested physically much lower than he should have, and qualified for weekly appointments.

the therapist remarked that she felt he was probably lacking strength due to the fact that he never crawled. he bum scooted {which was hilarious to watch, especially when he went really fast...we called it "warp speed scooting"} and so he lacked the strength that most kids acquire during crawling, pulling up to cruising, etc.

so anyway, he'll start next week and i'm excited for him to start. he's excited too, when i explained to him that he gets to go and do a bunch of fun things and get even BIGGER muscles than he already has {i love what motivates a 5 year old}.

as we walked out of the doors and were talking about all of the things he would be able to do with his huge muscles he said,

"i can't wait for my huge muscles! then i'm going to be strong enough to throw an elephant across the room!"

and i laughed, but didn't correct him. because who knows?

maybe someday he will.