Walking, horses and toe-padding

So....



 

 

Sam has his walker *does really goofy-looking smurfy-dance *  (Mom, not Sam) Whoop Whoop!

 

And he is loving it. So much so that I took this awesome LITTLE video of him taking a stroll down the road with it. But after the video still not having uploaded after almost an hour, I had to conclude that the darn thing was not THAT little after all. Eish. Will try again. Sorry Lynn ;)

 

At least we have a pic.  We have adjusted the height of the walker somewhat which makes for a much more comfortable gait and way more confidence. At the moment, the wheels can only go straight, which we thought might be a good idea at first so as to avoid Sam having some rather damaging (to both himself and the household contents) bumper car episodes. But alas, the little dude is becoming very frustrated at not being able to go exactly where he wants to and so tries to lift the walker and shift it himself, which works okay some of the time but more often than not results in him overbalancing.  The great thing about the walker is that it has these little reverse brakes on the wheels so the wheels actually cannot roll backwards at all which means when Sam does lose his balance he simply grabs onto the walker and steadies himself quite well.  I was considering taking the walker with to our physio session this morning, just to show Heidi and have her confirm that the height and everything else was as it should be. However, we ran out of time (largely due to Sam's new morning ritual - more about that later) so I decided having to first negotiate fitting the walker into the car would just make us even more late. From next week though I will make sure we have enough time to pack the walker in as when walking with the physio's trolley, Sam lost his balance, immediately grabbed the trolley to regain it and instead landed up toppling backwards as well as pulling the trolley over his little feet in the process. 

 

Overall, having the walker is such a blessing. It is going to be so beneficial to Sam.  I really can't believe I had developed such a mental aversion to it. And it's an extra blessing that, Sam being Sam, he has become so comfortable with it so quickly, as opposed to shoving it into one of his sensory no-no's along with sitting, holding his own bottle, lying on the floor, hairdryers, vacuums, balloons, etc. . I will most definitely take another video ASAP...just perhaps a little shorter...and post it :)

 

Sam and Meg had another riding session on Saturday morning. This time Sam rode with Elbie. Oh, he is LUVIN' all the attention from the girls, little charmer. And the colour-coded hats was purely coincidental by the way.  The weather played along beautifully, pleasantly warm with loads of clouds to avoid having to stress about sun exposure.  Yet again, Sam adored his time at Haven of Hope. And, an unexpected advantage, having to run alongside the horses to keep up is providing mom and dad with some much needed exercise. 

 

Yet another love affair developing...while Aunty Cheryl kept checking in to make sure her baby was doing okay. What an amazing group of ladies at Haven of Hope. Love you guys xxx

 

 

Meg feeling a lot more comfortable on Knight and even managed a little independent riding towards the end of the morning.

 

So, Sam's new morning ritual?  As you all know by now, Sam's still-not-resolved sleeping issues usually result in me putting him in our bed (Ja Ja! Co-sleeping is bad) to a)avoid him shattering the bones in his hands and arms with the sheer force by which he slams them into the side of his cot and b) in a feeble attempt to try and get something remotely resembling sleep myself. Which means that every morning Sam wakes up in our bed and insists on being delicately transitioned into the new day with some cuddles and then some i-padding before having to get up and face the big bad world.  And, even more entertaining is that he's taking to i-padding with his toes.  Because being somewhat "different" is not enough...he HAS to go the whole hog. 

 



 

 

 

Back to *BLESSINGS* (Okay. So the "flow" of my posts needs a little work lately. Hehe)

 



Both Sam's physiotherapy costs for the entire year and the cost of the walker have been gifted to Samuel by members of our families.  As you can imagine both these costs are substantial.  There are no words which can adequately express our gratitude and appreciation  (you know who you are xxx). The best we can offer is a heartfelt and emotional THANK YOU at lifting such a heavy burden from our shoulders. Does the Lord not work in truly wonderful ways? xxx