Unbelievable

So physical therapy didn't suck today.

Ace's physical therapist has been doing an exercise with him during which she sits behind him, stands him up, puts her hand on his back to steady him, then pushes him forward (gently) to make him take steps. He's become more and more sure of himself with it, and today he was in a great mood. Of course, the fact that I was right in front of him wielding candy didn't hurt.

At one point, he stopped walking and stood still and she said "Look at that!" I looked at that, and said "wait a minute, you're not holding on to him, are you?" "Nope!" At that point, my baby realized that HE WAS STANDING UP ALL BY HIMSELF, UNSUPPORTED BY ANYTHING, and he started whining and about 5 seconds later, fell down.

I cried.

He did it a few more times, the standing up on his own, and we were all excited. At one point, though, she let him go and he started whining and reaching out to me AND HE TOOK A STEP ALL BY HIMSELF.

I'm sorry, did you read that? Maybe I'll put it in red. HE TOOK A STEP ALL BY HIMSELF.

I cried again. That's not all, folks.

She had gotten him these crutches and he wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Apparently he knew that Mommy and Daddy had actually bought these instead of them being loaners like the walker he loves so much. He kept throwing them to the side and saying "no!" Oh, I'm so glad he learned that word.

The PT said "Let's see how you do with a quad cane." "Cane," Ace said, looking already pretty excited about tearing up another loaner. She busted out that bad boy and let Ace sniff around it for a minute before she stood him up and had him hold on to it. With Mommy's hugs Smartees candies as a reward, she pointed him toward me and would you believe THAT CHILD TOOK FIVE STEPS WITH THAT CANE? One step, two steps, move cane. Three steps, four steps, move cane. Five steps, fall down, get candy. That's basically how I operate my whole life, except substitute "vodka" for "candy." (I'm kidding, Mom.)

Drew's all ready to buy a cane and put some flames on it, and of course I've heard the phrase "pimp cane" at least 3 times today. Pimp cane or not, I'm so proud that I could just spit. I'm also so relieved that I don't have to buy a walker and I can just use the loaner until Ace gets totally used to the cane that I could spit twice.

He repeated his performance when he got home, but at that point he was so tired that it wouldn't have made a very good video. I will do my level best to get pictures of him using the cane tonight and hopefully a video or two. Stay tuned!