Sadness and Joy

This post is about my son, who's about to turn 5. He's our 2nd kid, and he's always been the more delicate of our children. Whereas our daughter has had relatively "normal" challenges, Z has gone through a bunch of stuff that has always been hard to define and even harder to treat. When he was just a baby, we found out that he has febrile seizures, and that left us on pins and needles every time he caught a cold. The seizures themselves were terrifying, though supposedly harmless, events, where I thought I was witnessing my son dying in my arms. He's had other challenges as well though, none of which could be defined by anything other than what sounded like made-up illnesses by the various speech therapists, physical therapists and (insert word here) therapists that he's seen. Those challenges have taken their toll on our family, with my wife and I wondering if he has the condition at all, fighting between each other about what the appropriate course of action should be, and then stressing out about whether he's making progress or not, which can be so hard to decipher when dealing with such vague diagnoses. I say all this because my son is turning 5, and with all we've been through, I'm so proud of him and so happy to report that he's actually just a normal, well-adjusted kid who has some amazing talents. For all of the stress and worries we've had, it ultimately seems to be evolving that he just has his own personality -- he's physically very healthy, he's super-smart and he's pretty darn funny. I guess I'm doing all this bragging because for so long we just worried that one of these many things would become a harbinger for so much more, and I feel the urge to just lie back for a second and appreciate the boy that he has become. My son is reading - and I mean REALLY reading - which, as far as I can tell, is almost unprecedented for a kid who's not even 5...and the craziest thing is that we (with the possible exception of his incredible grandma) haven't taught him how to read. He's also very organized, and very well-spoken. And, perhaps most of all, he's just a great kid who I treasure my moments with. My wife and I were terrified about his adjustment to DK (kindergarten), as he had to transfer to a new school, a longer day and a whole new experience. This is something that's been very hard for a kid who is very aware of his schedules and doesn't like surprises. To our amazement, school has been a huge success - he's engaging, he loves his teachers and he's...well, he's like any other kid. To be sure, he has his challenges - he moves a bit slow in physical activities, and our AYSO debut has been a challenge for him, though we've been delighted to see him get out on the field at all. He has challenges around some social situations - oddly, he's great with adults but can have a hard time with some kids. He's certainly not perfect, but we wouldn't expect or want him to be so. So this is a long and rambling way to say how happy I am with my beautiful son, and how proud I am of our family for getting to where we are today. I guess what sums it up for me is yesterday, when we were in the car, and the following exchange occurred:  Me: (making some sort of stupid joke)  Z: "Dad, you need to stop making jokes and focus." Amen, Z.  I'm gonna focus.