Loving Our Lucky Bums

Anyone who knows our Brave Hero also knows that the activity he loves the most is flying through the air in his play set from Make A Wish.

Except, at the moment, the play set seems to be in the midst of a long winter’s nap.

What’s a Brave Hero’s Activity Director…..uh…..I mean Mama… to do?

I didn’t want this to be another winter where Parker and I were stuck in the house. But I’m not to the point of taking Parker out into the masses either.

Thanks to the sweetness of Parker’s Gam and Happy (my parents) Parker has him a new love in his life.

Ain’t she a beauty?

I spent a few days calling all kinds of sled companies and asking them about their sleds and how well they would get along with a kid with Down syndrome and the sometimes low tone,  that must be accompanied by an oxygen bottle at all times.

You’d think that a few companies that make sleds had never heard of kids with special needs.

Or think that they’d ever want to go sledding.

“Does he understand what a sled is?”, they’d ask.  “Well, he might not now, but he will when he gets one,” I’d reply.

“Well, I’m not sure our sleds are made for kids with Down syndrome”, I was told not once, but twice.

Especially one that had to take an oxygen bottle wherever he went.

WTH?

We were talking PULL sleds here.  Not whizzing down the slopes dodging trees on his own somewhere.

I finally decided to go with a Lucky Bums sled. The side rails are tall enough that Parker can’t fall out, and there’s enough room at the opposite end for me to bungie cord an oxygen bottle in.  And Parker’s weight is situated in a way that when I pull the front doesn’t lift up and dump it rider out.  This being my biggest concerns.

Parker loves it.

And he’s even *gasp* smart enough to hold on when he’s being pulled.  Whoda’ thunk it?

Obviously not a couple of sled companies I talked to.

The gal I spoke with at Lucky Bums even sent me pictures of this sled with a mannequin just about Parker’s size in it, so I could see if it would meet our needs.

I’m tempted to send a couple of sled companies a picture of Parker hanging out in his Lucky Bums sled as I pull him around the neighborhood.

Look!, I would write on the back of the picture, a kid with special needs loving his new sled that we DIDN’T purchase from YOUR company because you were too lame to even consider the possibility of a kid with Down syndrome wanting to do something as typical as sledding.

That would serve ‘em righ, huh?

sigh.

Instead I’ll keep advocating by writing about companies who get it and understand that even a kid with special needs wants to experience winter from a front row seat.

Kinda like Lucky Bums.

What companies have worked with you when trying to make your child’s life a little more typical?