Ella's Corner: Arboretum Fun...and Balance (by Lindsay)

Today I took the kids to the Morton Arboretum. It's one of our favorite warm weather places and is only about 15 from our house.

I love the Arboretum for many reasons. It's beautiful, for one. And they have an incredible Children's Garden for the kids to explore!

But mostly, I love the Arboretum because it is a great place for a 300 lb. power wheelchair :) Ella is free to cruise around as she pleases and she can access almost everything.

Almost.

We're finding lately that it can be a little challenging finding a place for all three kids to enjoy. Playgrounds are getting a little tricky because Ella wants to go on everything (why wouldn't she?), but she's getting harder to assist when doing certain things (i.e. slides, monkey bars, etc.). There are a few handicap accessible playgrounds in our area, which are great for her to cruise around in her power chair (like the Arboretum), but she still wants to climb and slide like Ava and Henry.

At the Arboretum today, if Ella's power chair wouldn't work for an activity, I could almost always take her out and carry her.

I carried her across some of the tree house's wood bridges and also up to the lookout platform above the maze garden. And I held her body with one hand and her head with the other, while I dipped her low enough to play with the smooth stones in the water play area.

But there were some activities that we just couldn't do.

Like climb up a ladder to then cross the rope bridges. Or crawl across the spider web-like ropes. Or take off our shoes and wade across the wet slippery rocks in the wonder pond.

But Ava and Henry wanted to do those things. And they can.

So I was faced with the dilemma of allowing Ava and Henry to enjoy those activities while Ella sat and watched, or tell Ava and Henry that they couldn't enjoy the things that most other kids are able to enjoy.

Ugh.

Ultimately, I let Ava and Henry do two of the activities that they wanted to do. However, I decided not to let them wade across the slippery rocks of the wonder pond because I knew that would be very upsetting for Ella to watch, as she desperately wanted to go in the water. And I don't think she would have understood how dangerous it would have been for me to help her walk across those slippery rocks.

Luckily, while Ava and Henry were climbing across the spider web-like ropes, Ella was cheering them on from the sides. And when they went up the ladder to cross the rope bridges, Ella and I waited at the end, looking at pictures of the Arboretum on my phone that I had taken so far during the day.

So I think it ended ok. Ella didn't seem too upset about not being able to join her brother and sister those two times (although she did ask). And Ava and Henry weren't too upset about not going in the wonder pond. And all four of us had a great time overall at the Arboretum :)

I guess it's all about balance.

Here are some pictures from our day: