New Things are Happening!

On March 21, I met Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Jerry at the park. It has been awhile since we had been there and I decided to try something new. Matthew has had a walker for a year and a half, but it's been in the garage for most of that time. Once he started walking, we just haven't used it. When we go out, those three boys are seatbelted into the wagon (or I would shoot myself). Last year I was told not to bother sending it anymore because he didn't use it at school either.

In February we had Matthew's annual IEP meeting. It turns out that Matthew has been using his walker to get from his classroom to the bus and he LOVES it! Normally he is in his chair, the chair he refuses to talk to people while sitting in it, to get to and from school. Matthew wants to walk to the bus just like his brothers (wish he felt that way about potty training!). I asked Matthew if he wanted to start using his walker and the smile on his face was HUGE! I dug out the walker and fought with it for awhile. Eventually I figured out how to resize it, but still can't figure out how to collapse it.

The park sounded like a great place to try it out! I asked Matthew if he wanted to take his walker to the park instead of riding in the wagon, he was all for it. We arrived at the park and off he went with his walker. For the most part, he was actually running with it! He was so thrilled to get all the way from the parking lot to the playground (far walk). Everything was going great, that is until he headed up the ramp. Part way up the ramp he stopped. I think it was harder for him to get up the ramp with the walker than walking. He headed back down and made his way over to the park bench and sat next to Uncle Jerry. He refused to play. I told him he didn't have to use the walker once he was at the playground. The stubborn boy that he is, he wasn't going to leave his walker. I was starting to have second thoughts about whether or not the walker was a great idea. He was now relying on it more than he needed to.

Noah surprised me with his wall climbing skills. I know most boys climb all over everything, but mine has always been very timid when it came to playground equipment. I was thrilled to see Noah climbing up the rock wall. He was proud of himself, as he should be!



Matthew eventually got off the bench, grabbed his walker, and headed out for the equipment. He would leave his walker for a few minutes at a time to play. After awhile he left the walker and just started running around and playing.







Noah and Robert, after a lot of help from Aunt Bobbie, gained enough courage to walk along the posts by themselves. Matthew was enjoying walking alongside of Aunt Bobbie.



Matthew also climbed up the little wall on his own. Typically he will go up the ramp or use stairs only to get on the equipment. He was bound and determined to do a lot of new things that day.





Leigha spent most of the time on the swings. She is still trying to learn how to pump herself, but gives up way too easily. She just wants someone to push her higher and higher. Thankfully, Uncle Jerry was there to help her out. I think she was going high enough now!



Noah decided that he was ready to conquer the bigger rock wall. He is turning out to be my little Spiderman.



This frustrated Leigha because she has not been able to do that one yet. Not to be outdone by her little brother, she worked hard at it until she was at the top, too!





ALL of the kids went down the tallest of the slides. It was pretty amazing to watch how far they have come. I can't wait for Noe to take them to the park for the first time and just watch them go. We ended our visit on the swings, and they couldn't have been any happier!





When we got back to the house we had lunch and then headed outside to teach Leigha how to ride a bike without training wheels. It was slow going, but she worked on it for about an hour. She is really too big for her bike so I can't imagine that it's easy to learn how to balance when your knees are coming up to your chest.

The entire time we were out there, the boys were running up and down the sidewalk getting dirtier than I have seen them in a long time. That's when my sanity left me. I decided that this would be the perfect time to cut the boys' hair! Stay tuned to see what a "great" job I did!