Walk This Way

So, a lot has gone on over the past couple weeks. I spent a fantastic week in Naperville with the boys. We did all sorts of fun stuff - Cosley Zoo, swimming lessons, took the train to 2Toots Grill, Blackberry Farm, Build-A-Bear, saw great friends and family, and had a lot of pool time. It was sort of a "summer vacation" for me and the boys and I tried to pack in as much fun stuff in a week as possible. We wished Mike could have joined us, but someones gotta bring home the bacon! Here are a few pics from the trip!

Melt my heart! Two brother's lovin' on each other :o)

Pool time with Katie and the boys

Petting the goats at the zoo

Here comes lunch. Choo choo!

No one wanted to build a "bear", so we made "George" and "Moo Cow" instead :o)

Somone LOVES the merry-go-round!

Dinner with my darling, Liz. Sweet friend since we were 14!!

Riding the carousel at Blackberry Farm with Grammy!

Mitchell taking swimming lessons at the pool where I used to swim, coach and lifeguard

But the biggest news is that Dominic is CRUISING on his own! He has been pulling himself up constantly onto everything, which means he's getting into everything. He has almost fallen head first into the bathtub several times because that quick bugger gets in there so fast I can't take my eyes off him long enough to get dressed! He also seems to have a new fascination with playing in the toilet. Gross. But it was encouraging that he was motivated and wanted to explore. So, today I was working on the computer at the coffee table (now that Dominic is doing so well, I'm hoping to start picking up more work again from my old company) and as usual, he pulled up to standing and peeked his head over and said "hi, hi, hi" in his cute little voice. Then, I noticed his eyes zoned in on the bowl of faux pears adorning the other end of the coffee table. Then, he started taking steps. After about 3 or 4 steps, I jumped up to get the camera. Unlike most times, he actually kept going and I caught it on video. You'll see I'm trying to entice him to keep going with his ball.



I got so emotional and I'm not sure why. He has made so many gains over the past year and I'm always proud of him when he reaches a new milestone. But this time was different. Maybe because he's walking the way you're supposed to. He's always only rolled one way and army crawled in his own "half-using his arm and leg" way and everyone always says "aww, he's doing it Dominic's way." He's walked in his gait trainer and with a walker, but always needed assistance. But watching him today, he looked so "normal".  Yeah, you can tell he doesn't use his right arm and he's still wobbly, but it gave me so much hope to know he'll walk! And he figured it all out on his own! My heart just swelled with pride and all these emotions I had a year ago came rushing back - wondering if he'd ever sit on his own, if he'd walk, talk, feed himself etc. It just hit me how far he has come in LESS than a year post-surgery. Our God is sooooo good and today He really wanted to remind me of that. Ah, God is good all the time and all the time God is good!

TROUBLE!