I had a whole host of ideas for starting out Valentine’s Week.  Some will make you laugh.  Some will make you cry.  One in particular might even make you dance.  But I never saw this one coming.  Tonight, on my “birthday eve” of the GREAT and MIGHTY 40th year, I received the best of all birthday presents:

Sara used her fingertips.

How unusual, you are thinking?  Sara has never used her fingertips in any useful way.  They function, but are so weak for her age, that she can’t even use them while gripping a pencil.  So while she finally learned to space letters, she could only write oddly large versions of what I’ve quietly called, “tortured writing”. Her hand strength has been a large focus of her last 6 months of Occupational Therapy.

And TONIGHT, while Sara was addressing her Valentine’s cards, I looked down at the little girl leaning over her work next to me in my sewing room, and I saw…FINGERTIPS ON HER MARKER.  The first thing I noticed was the handwriting.  It was small.  It was legible.  It in no way resembled her usual handwriting.  I thought Card #1 was surely a fluke?  I silently watched the cards roll out, far too quick, and then I saw the fingertips resting in position.  Not her usual grip which allows her to use her lateral muscles while avoiding her fingertips altogether.

She looked up at me, and tears were streaming down my face.  What?  What Mommy?!  When I pointed it out to her, she lifted her hand, and started to scream, “I DID IT!!! I DID ITTTTT!!!!”  She hadn’t even noticed.  I won’t lie, and it’s probably my fault for the language, but she pumped the marker in the air yelling, “Oh my God!  Oh my God!!!”  Oh the hugging and the crying and the cheering.  It was the same celebration we had when she was able to touch her right hand to her left knee.

Small things for some.  Mountains most children will never face.  But for Sara?  Tonight was a hard-earned victory.  I’ve been asked so many times what I wanted for my birthday, and I keep replying, “Oh, I just don’t know.  I just don’t want for anything, really.”  And then Sara gripped a pencil, and I knew in a instant, if I could have had anything in the world, I just got exactly what I wanted.  For my child to be able to address her class Valentines in a reasonable amount of time.  In one evening…not one week.  For it to fit on one page.  For her classmates to be able to read it.  For her to feel like every other kid. For her little hands to just…WORK dammit.  Just them do one thing she asks them to do.

Happy Birthday To Me!  I’m turning 40 on Monday.  Regular day really: PTA Meeting, Pie with friends, School Science Fair, prep for the week’s activities.  The usual.  I love the “ushe”.  It’s going to be a really great year.  I can feel it…right down to my fingertips.