Liam and Lightning McQueen
The first thing most people notice when they enter our home … besides the amount of kids …. is the amount of toys that we have.
Every room. Every corner. Every inch of the floor is full of toys.
Trust me, that wasn’t in my plan.
When I was a mom of one, a first time mom, I had plans that we were going to be strict about toys. We weren’t going to buy toys. We would ask friends and family for gift cards or clothes for birthdays and the toys we had could not be more than a small cube we had at the time. Children don’t need toys. They need education and family love.
I’m literally laughing at the thought of how ridiculous that sounds. To me now. I have learned much since then.
Our life turned around with our second. Whether we wanted to or not … our house became a toy land.
Liam was having 5 therapists come over on a weekly basis and they ALL would bring toys into our home. As a gift. For therapy sessions. And I learned that toys were not a bad thing. At least for a child with special needs … it’s essential.
I will say watching all our kids grow and be naturally drawn to toys was tough. It didn’t matter if they played with them correctly, I just wanted Liam to join in on the fun.
Liam was afraid of touching just about anything but especially toys. He would cry when we would bring them near him and became hysterical if it touched him at all.
I began wishing that Liam could talk and beg for a toy at the store like any other child. I just wanted to get to know him.
Liam, who is 7, now has favorite toys but it has taken a lot of work to learn what toys we can teach him language, music, and that has helped with vision therapies. But, a part of me still longed to see Liam play like any other little boy… cars, dinosaurs, dirt, water, running, jumping, laughing …
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t suffer. I enjoy him and the new things he does. I love him no matter what but that shadow and grief of “the little boy he could have been” is always going to be there.
Because of Liam’s vision, aka cortical visual impairment, there are certain colors he can see better than others. Disney Pixar Cars is, to this day, one of his favorite movies. I remember the day I found out red was the color that he could see the most. I thought it was his favorite color, but no, it’s just the one he can see the best.
Last week I was completely surprised, shocked, and couldn’t believe that Liam had picked up a lighting mcqueen car and began playing with it. He normally only touches toys with music, lights, or buttons.
When I worked at a kids salon every little boy asked to watch Lightning Mcqueen during their haircut. I had that movie memorized. Never did I imagine it would be what my child with special needs needed to help with his progression.
He sat there for a while and I am a bit disappointed I didn’t capture some of the “tricks” he made with the car.
But still, I am amazed with every new thing he tries all on his own.
