Eli Shywalker
A Shywalker is a little boy that is starting to learn to walk, but doesn't want any attention. As Eli was starting to make his move in steps, we would get down on Eli's level and say excitedly, "Come to Mama, and Dada,"with our arms out stretched. In response, Eli would put both hands over his eyes and just stand there, waiting until the attention was directed somewhere else. When Eli didn't have the attention focused on him, out the the corner of our eyes we would see him taking steps here or there, and as soon as we looked at him, he would sit down and crawl. AKA Shywalker.
Eli took 7 steps independently on August 6th at the ripe age of 21 months. And now is officially walking everywhere at 22 months.
So this is one of the first videos that we have been able to get of Eli walking.
Henry Solo
Henry has also made big strides this summer. Over the summer, Henry wasn't wearing his leg braces as much because it was so hot, and we just let him wear his sandals, and he was walking fine. As fall and school were approaching, we started to put on his shoes and braces. Mike and I both noticed that when he was wearing the braces he was having a harder time walking, his toes were turning in, he was falling more, and complaining of tiring out more quickly while walking. Henry then told us that it was harder to walk with this braces. We talked with his physical therapist, and she saw how much more he could do without his braces, and how braces where restricting the muscles he did have, so we took off the leg braces (DAFO 3.5).
Now Henry is walking independently during school and walking to the playground with the other kids. He isn't using the wagon at school anymore. He occasionally will use his robot arms when he is tired. We have gone back to the Orthotist, and they recommended Henry to use a less restrictive orthotic (Kiddie Gait), so we see how those work.
