On Your Feet!

Today during physical therapy AVH pulled himself up to standing for the first time all on his own! He also has made great progress on crawling on his knees. He has gotten so fast at the army-crawl though that he doesn't see much need for the real thing. He will crawl on his knees if he is close to something that he can pull up on. When we can get him standing we are also working on the beginning stages of cruising along the furniture. I just help him shift his weight and move his feet for him at this point. I am SO excited about getting him cruising! It's a pretty important step towards walking. Wow. That was a lot of progress in one week!



The trick has been having our new ottoman/coffee table. I had been searching for a leather ottoman to replace my older handmade one and I couldn't really find what I wanted. The one in the pictures we stumbled on at Cost Plus World Market. It wasn't my favorite at first but when I realized it's potential for helping AVH, it decided it was worth every cent. So the cool feature is that the padded top comes off and on the other side is a large wooden tray looking top. And inside there are two padded cubes to use as stools. When the top is off it is PERFECT for AVH to grab a hold of. When the tray is on, the hand-hold is higher and will be great for him when he gets a little taller and stronger. Another bonus is that when the padded top is on there is not a single hard edge anywhere - good for avoiding cut lips and other mishaps. I had no idea how badly we need this!

It's apparent, when he stands, that both of his ankles turn in badly. They call that Pronation and fortunately it can be fixed with orthodics. Our PT is up on alot of cutting edge technologies in the PT world and I guess there is a new and amazing product for just this kind of problem and has they have been studied in depth with kid who have DS. I'm so glad that we will be able to get them in just a few weeks.



AVH is starting to look more and more like a boy than a baby - although he is still very small for his age (20 mo. and 18.4 lbs.) I am pleased with his motor progress but the gap between where he is developmentally and where an average child is keeps widening. It is hard to not feel sad about that. On a positive note, our PT is just so happy with what AVH is doing - she says that he is very active and smart and that he has tons of personality. I am choosing to trust her and just keep plugging away, although it is hard to not let worry creep in. I'm sure one day I will look back on this and smile at my constant panic and concern. I also know one day AVH will run me ragged - literally running. I've thought about buying one of those cute little stuffed animal harnesses already.