Little Movements that move mountains

If you are a parent of a child with some special needs you understand my title. In parenting we get so focused on those "big" childhood development milestones, but one of the perks to being a mom with a kid like James is that I get to slow down and enjoy the little things. Like 2 weeks ago my son wasn't able to kick below the knee, but today while eating dinner he started kicking his legs. It was such a beautiful sight.

Here it is!

James is 8 days post op from his PERC surgery, and we are seeing so many little things that are so HUGE. Everyday James is wiggling his toes more and more. He is also now able to move his foot up and down. Today he started back walking in his walker, and for the first time he has a HEEL STRIKE!! I bet some of you never thought about how your heel hits the ground first when you walk. Well for a kids like James it never has. We had been trying to teach him this but when you can't lift your foot up that is a hard thing to do. But not anymore :-) James got into his walker for the first time tonight and that was the first thing I noticed, a heel strike. He is still very hesitant and worried about moving in a way that is going to hurt but that is fading and he is still pretty sore. We have really be working on doing things with a good attitude and he is starting to grasp that concept more and more.

James works best with a end goal in sight. He likes to know what he has to do to make the exercises be over....who doesn't right! So I have been trying to make his home exercises a little more like how I did when I taught kindergarten. I made centers and set a timer. I took each exercise that I wanted him to do and made it a fun activity ( as fun as I could) and put them through out the living room in a circle. I set the timer for 30 mins and sad that when the timer went off we were finished. So we would do each center and it actually worked. He liked having a clear goal of what I wanted him to do and also a stopping point. I knew he understood when we got to the last center and he said "Look Mommy the last center and almost finished" I did his warm up as I was explaining the centers so he thought we were just talking but I was stretching him....sneaky Mommy!

I am just thrilled with his progress so far, and I know it will only get better. Please be thankful for your children's little movements. How I wish I could give James my legs and make all this go away, but I cant do that for him. Instead I will do all that I can to make sure we celebrate each little movement because I know they will lead him to move mountains!!