Max did a happy dance today. And wore jeans.

Max, in his usual pants of choice.  

I walked in the door from work tonight to the usual greeting: Sabrina's "Mommmmmy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" (she's three, so all of her sentences end in multiple exclamation points) and Max's squeals of joy (he's five). My mom's visiting, and she told me that she and Max had been dancing together before I came home. When you're a working mom, you get a little wistful hearing about fun kid stuff you missed during the day, but when you're a working mom with a disabled kid, you get especially wistful. I needed to recreate the dancing scene, so I grabbed the kids' hands and we did Ring Around The Rosie right there in the kitchen. What the heck does that song mean, anyway? "Ashes, ashes, we all fall down"? I just Wikipedia-ed it, entry says it's considered to be a reference to the Bubonic plague. Nice!

Max has cerebral palsy. He can walk; he can express himself nonverbally (typically by shaking his head) and also has some words (his latest one: "jeans"); he's bright. He has trouble using his hands (they're clenched a lot, so that even picking up a crayon takes a lot of concentration), still needs to be spoon fed (but he's trying so hard to feed himself lately) and diapered. These challenges are why I so relish the moments when he's just being a kid doing cute kid things, like dancing in the kitchen. Even when we're celebrating the Bubonic plague. Know what I mean?  

Happy blogday to me and Max—this is our first post, the start of what I hope will be a really meaningful (and helpful and funny and wise-assed) conversation with other moms, and in particular moms of special needs kids. Halloween pics coming tomorrow! Click on back to see Max dressed as his favorite character of all time and share shots of your kids.