Sunday morning, we were milling around the house, about to get ready for church. John was playing in the game room I think and I needed him in the living room to get him dressed. I got him to a standing position, and I was going to walk him into the living room. Normally, when he walks, it's while holding both of my hands and me walking behind him. When he walks with daddy, he's still holding both hands but daddy is usually standing in front of him and walking backwards as John walks forward. I find that John does more of the work on his own if I'm standing behind him, so that is how I like to do it. This time however, he started walking and was only holding one of my hands. Now I've tried this before, but he's usually too scared to not hold both hands and we normally only make it a couple of steps before he falls. This time, however, he took off. He was walking with only one of my hands for balance and he was moving fast. I think partially he had somewhere he wanted to be and partially he was trying to get across the room so he could grab on to something with his other hand. I was very impressed though, both in his confidence and his balance. He was doing most of the work himself. I was just giving him that little extra balance that he needed.
That same afternoon, we went back to the church. Tommy had a meeting and we decided to wait for him so we could go get dinner after. At our church, there is a little indoor playground that is used for the preschool kids. So while Tommy was in his meeting, John and I went in there to play. They have a few stationary places that John could stand at and kind of chill. I expected him to crawl around the floor some and play with a few of the toys. I was sitting nearby looking at my phone when I suddenly noticed that he was standing on the first step of a small bridge that sits in the middle of the room. I watched him climb two more steps to the top of the bridge and I was just amazed that he did that on his own. I did manage to get video of him climbing the steps. So then we went out into the main area and walked over to the stair case. He grabbed onto the banister with one hand and with the other hand, he held onto me. And he proceeded to climb the whole flight of stairs. We tried coming down, but that was just a little more difficult. After he did all of this, he was wiped out. He got his exercise in for the day. So now we are hitting up our handy neighbor to build him something like that to have at home. That would be great exercise and great therapy for him. Maybe we are on our way to walking after all.
He has also been making some progress with his feeding. His therapist is able to get him to chew on a few different foods and even has gotten him to suck on a straw a few times. This progress is slower than the rest, but it is progress.
I can't tell you how proud I am of my little guy. I know I've talked about this before, but I take for granted all of the everything things that I am able to do, like walking, and eating, and talking. He struggles so much to do any of those things, but he never gives up. He is very persistent. I see that at home when he is playing with his toys. If he wants something a certain way, he keeps at it until he gets it the way he wants it. He is motivated to walk, which is the first step. If I can keep him focused when he works on it, he may come along even faster. And I think our horse riding is beginning to make a difference. It has increased his upper body strength and trunk control, and I think he's beginning to feel the gait of the horse and put it to good use. Also, when he gets on his horse, they have him stepping up on a step before climbing onto the horse. Obvious that one step every week, has made an impression on him and has encouraged him to try more than one step at a time.
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| This shirt sums up my persistent little guy. |
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| Standing at the top. |
