Early memories

One of the earliest memories I have is from the time we were living in the theater in Mancos after having moved there from Denver. To get to our living area we would have to walk a tall flight of stairs that led from the street level up to the wide open audience area of the theater which we called our home. The particular area we were living in was the dressing area behind the stage. As children are prone to do, I’d consider it a personal challenge to race Dennis to see who could get to the top of those stairs first. I was closing in on my fifth birthday. Dennis was 21 months older than I was and being such, he should have won every race. Still, no matter how many times we did it the race would go something like this: Dennis would take an early lead befitting his age and body size compared to me, but at less than halfway up the stairs he would have most of his strength spent and I would start gaining ground. At the ¾ mark we would be even and Dennis would put forth an extra human effort to hold off my charge, but it wouldn’t be enough. In the last several steps I would pass him every time, leaving him disgusted and exasperated that no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t beat his little brother in a race up the stairs. This was just one of the early signs his body didn’t have the normal strength and development of a child his age and would soon lead to Mom and Dad taking him to a doctor to get an answer to questions they were already asking themselves.... Is there something physically wrong with our son?