Some Days I Hate CP

Most days, I don't think about Princess's diagnoses. It's just day to day stuff: Medication in the morning, therapy every other week, preschool twice a week, medication at night.

And then there are some days her cerebral palsy is really evident to me. Today was one of those days.

It's our typical Monday. Get up, take Little Man to school, come home and start figuring out the menu for the week so we can go to the grocery store. I'm never entirely sure what our grocery trips will be like. Will they be an adventure or not? Lately, we've been using the little shopping carts and Princess has been able to drive them herself. This works well. I put things in here cart and in mine.

So today, when she got her little cart, she wanted to lead in the store. Okay. No problem. I told her where to go and we were doing okay. Most people stop and watch her because I guess she's just so darn cute pushing that little cart. If they only knew...

Eventually, she quit wanting to lead and started following me. I was fine with that and it was easier on me. Sometimes it's SO hard to walk as sloooooowwwww as a short little nearly three year old.

By the end of the trip, as we were heading to the check out line, she was walking SO SLOW! Being I was ahead of her, I turned around to look at her. As I watched her push her little cart, I could see her left foot turning in and her toe dragging as she walked. She was tired. We had walked all across the store!

Now, I could've gotten mad at her for being so slow, or even stopping to play with all the stretchy cords they use to block off the check stands, but I didn't. This wasn't her fault. It was the CP.

I kept encouraging her as we slowly made our way to the check out line. Not once did she stop or say she couldn't walk or give up. She kept going. And when we got there, she even helped unload her cart! After she put her cart away, she sat on the floor quietly and played with the mirrors and her giraffes while I finished paying for everything.

It's days like today that I hate CP. I hate that my daughter can't be like her peers and run around like normal kids. But this is our journey. As much as I hate it some days, I have to accept it.