My Lil' Pony Walker...

Elodie had her first physical therapy appointment at Shriner's on Wednesday. Her therapist is named Mark and he looks similar to my high school friend Jay Haslem. I liked him, Elodie did too. He has a different therapy philosophy than the other therapist we work with and I dig that. Good to try things for Elodie from all angles.

All brains work differently, of course. He thinks it is better to see how Elodie is going to move and go from there, rather then try to teach her a way to move that might not be efficient for her brain. Mark thinks that it is more important for children to adapt their skills to their skill level so tasks can be completed. He thinks that trying to teach a child to move traditionally might not work all the time. Mark also thinks that Elodie's army crawl is fine and he doesn't want to focus on making her crawl traditionally. She has shown that she can get around just fine to explore and get in trouble. He wants to strengthen her legs and abs more to get her to stand.

Introducing the Pony walker! Pictured above, Elodie can stand in it! She is completely supported and her little feet touch the ground. It is designed so that she can push off the ground with her feet and roll along. She has pushed of hard once during her appointment, but now she is sort of pushing a little bit, like little twitches. It is amazing! I am watching her in it now. She is standing, doing her little pushes, and watching "Finding Nemo" with her brother. My eyes are glossy with tears. We are just borrowing the Pony Walker for a little bit to see if it helps her. I think the little pushes are going to help her get strength in her bum and thighs. Also I sit behind her and cue her legs by moving them in a walking motion and make a noise so she can connect the two, it sounds like "Pashooo!" Hopefully we can keep it for longer and maybe she will take her first steps in it! Just to see her moving her legs at all is so exciting. She is so tall when she stands, it is the cutest thing in the world. Mark said that once she gets her AFOs she will have an easier time pushing with her floppy little feet. They will help keep her joints ridged.

I am so happy that she likes it. I was scared it would freak her out, but I am really learning that this girl loves to try new things. She plunges into stuff with all the confidence of a much older kid. Elodie has a "can do" attitude. It makes me so proud. I hope she keeps that forever. I think she gets it from her daddy. She works so hard at everything she does and I just have to teach her something once and she's got it. I will do my best to encourage her sense of adventure and feist, having two rambunctious older brothers will help too, I'm sure. I yelled at Joaquin a little while ago to get his foot off her head, and she bit him. I think she will be just fine.

PS- The reason why the pictures have weirdo lines on them is because when we went hiking a few weeks ago, I fell on it. I was holding Joaquin, walking down a hill and slipped, the camera was in my back pocket. I crushed the display. It still works, but we can't see the pictures and now weird lines. Meh. Maybe we can get a new one at Christmas, but if not we will live with the lines.