Grant in the spotlight....

About a month and a half ago Grant brought a note home in his backpack explaining that he had a speaking part in the first grade music program. Anyone who knows Grant's love for being on stage with a microphone will know how excited we were for him. Anyone who knows Grant's unpredictable nature and creative spirit might imagine how nervous we also were. Grant's teacher sent Grant's script for the night home with the note so that he could practice for the big show. Let me say that Grant did not have a mere sentence or two to recite, rather he had a full paragraph. And he refused to practice at home at all. Actually, he did concede to one half hearted rushed reading of his script when I resorted to bribing him.

The night of the program I took Grant's script to the Community Center with me thinking that since he hadn't practiced he probably did not have his lines memorized. Before Grant left me to join his class, I tried one last time to get him to practice. Grant's response: "No, I'll just put my lines in my pocket."

As the program began, I was thrilled to see Grant singing all the songs and doing all of the motions with his friends. And I worried about Grant's moment in the spotlight. I worried about whether he knew his lines or if he would remember to get his script out of his pocket. I also worried about how Grant might improvise: would he take the opportunity to thank everyone for coming or would he notice the guy in the front row with his cell phone out and decide he needed to remind that man that Mrs. Carrier told everyone to put their cell phones away? Dear God, please just let him stick to his script.

Then Grant's moment came. He walked over to the first microphone and then decided he should be at the other one. He adjusted his microphone and looked out at the audience, no doubt relishing his moment. I held my breath. Grant took a breath and delivered his lines perfectly, without even pulling his script out of his pocket. He spoke clearly and with excellent inflection. He could not have done a better job and I could not have been more proud of him.

The other morning as I walked the kids to summer school another mom introduced herself to me and said, "I don't know you or your son, but my daughter was in the music program when your son spoke. I have to tell you my husband and I were amazed at what a fabulous job he did. Your son is an excellent speaker. We were really impressed." That made my heart swell. She was amazed and she doesn't even know how far Grant has come. She doesn't even know that Grant needed speech therapy before he was two years old or that when Grant was three and started preschool he only had a handful of memorized phrases that he would say, usually not in the right context. That kid has come so far, and it's true, he is quite impressive and quite amazing. I'm so proud to be his mom.