You Have To Love This Kid!

I read the book, "Oh, The Places You'll Go", faithfully every day for the last few months to my womb when I was pregnant with Corbin and I am positive that he recognized it after he was born.




It's hard to believe that at one point I worried as much about his future as I do with Brian now. Corbin was born with three congenital heart defects and spent much of his first few months in the hospital, suffering from congestive heart failure. He had heart surgery when he was six weeks old. Then, on top of that, as he developed I realized he wasn't talking. Ironically, I was so worried about autism. I laugh now at such thoughts. Corbin started speech therapy at twenty months old- he slowly started talking. He still struggles with his speech at seven years old, but now it has nothing to do with vocabulary and everything to do with articulation (those damn Rs).

His articulation struggles sometimes gets in the way when he's reading and writing and he gets easily frustrated about it but all I can see is how far he's come and how determined he is. His articulation makes him seem younger than he is and some well-meaning people try to treat him as if he's only as intelligent as he sounds to them. His IQ test they wanted him to have before Kindergarten, is one that I love to wave around at IEP meetings to remind everyone of how smart he is (117, thank you very much) and how they should be treating him.


I know it's early on in his life to call it but I just see this kid doing great things in the future. He has so much going for him- he's smart, creative, compassionate, charismatic, happy, and hilarious. He befriends everyone and shows tremendous empathy for others. He's determined and wants to learn about everything- it's not odd to find him in his room reading age-appropriate encyclopedia type books or working in his workbooks. He understands math without it even being taught to him (he may be following in Mom's mathlete footsteps).

Corbin has been put into this unbelievable difficult position of having a sibling with a disability. I am so proud of how he has dealt with it thus far. How he is open to discussing his feelings with me, how he sticks up for his brother, and how he enjoys educating others about autism ("au-sissm" in Corbin speak).

Honestly, I could go on forever about this kid. And it's about time I did a post honoring what a great kid he is! Love you bunches, Corbin!

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
-Dr. Seuss