I have always loved being out in the rain. I remember as a little girl, riding in the back of my grandfather’s uncovered truck bed as the drops splatted into and around me, M&M’s clutched in my hand, their colors bleeding out and melting, the clouds seemingly reaching down like fingers to wrap around my heart. That memory is heavily seasoned with the feelings of calm and bliss…I remember looking at the clouds and feeling like they brought to me the happiest memory I had of that day.

Tony didn’t always like to be touched by water, and how we got to where we are now is a different topic for another day, but now he too loves to walk in the rain. Much of the time, the rains are gentle and short-lived here and we can safely walk in them. Of course, as those of you who live local know, we’ve recently had a few more intense storms that have ripped out trees, etc….so I will check the radar and the warnings before Tony and I walk to make sure there’s nothing more dramatic coming our way.

Typically Tony has always needed to be warned to walk slowly and carefully- every single time we approached any sort of wet surface or the rain started to fall down. Every. Single. Time. But despite all of that, he doesn’t always listen. A little over a month ago he slipped on our wet porch and fell. Two weeks later he slipped and fell while we were walking into a QT during a rain storm. Neither fall resulted in serious injuries, but he did get a couple of bruises.

And then, the very next time we were walking near wet ground after that second fall I noticed something. He slowed down without me saying anything. He was carefully looking down at the ground as he placed his feet. If he can walk around a puddle, he now will. And he has consistently done this again every single time since when rain is falling or there are puddles on the ground from sprinklers. I don’t say anything now and haven’t for the past couple of weeks, yet he’s remembering and assessing those risks himself, modifying his own behavior appropriately each time.

Sometimes with little things, it is easy to dismiss them for their diminutive size. But I say paying attention to the little things is important in our situation, because they can give me hints about what capabilities might be buried within our son. Him slowing down and watching his footing on his own when the ground is wet is a skill related to risk assessment, something he has to this point not really shown us that he is capable of.

Really, I love the rain. I couldn’t love it more right now, though it has brought a gift and a challenge…as it sometimes does. Knowing Tony can consistently and independently employ risk assessment when he really believes something could harm him is huge…helping him develop and use it for situations that we can’t let him experience first hand (like anything that risks him getting hit by a car) is certainly not going to be easy for a kiddo who’s first response is often to immediately try and do anything he’s told not to. Where the capability exists though, a way can certainly be found to help him develop it.

Melting M&M’s really can’t taste this sweet.