baby steps

Tyler took his first steps today!  One of the milestones we need to hit before going home is for Tyler to be walking.  Today we put him in a wheelchair, despite his protests, and took him down to the playroom.  The Physical Therapist came with us and we were hoping that the train table down there would be enough incentive to get him to take his first steps.  BRILLIANT IDEA!  Tyler loves trains and lit up a little at the sight of the train table.  He had begged us the entire chair ride down to the playroom to just turn around and let him lay down again, but once he saw the table he was motivated to get close to it.  Joey and I supported him as he shuffled the foot or so over to the train table and picked up a car.  He whimpered and moaned the whole time as he took baby steps to the train table and then shuffled right back to the wheelchair.  My dad took a few pictures of the steps and you can see that his back is considerably straighter!

The entire adventure did not last long, he really just wanted to get back to his bed.  It was scary and painful for him to walk, but the PT assured us that the first time is the worst and it will just get better from here.  We did get him to walk a little bit more later this afternoon when we went down for more x-rays, and that was just as hard.  Tyler was extremely tired at that point and just wanted to take a nap, so the idea of exerting energy to try walking again was not appealing in the least to him. Now he is taking a nap and we are hoping he will be up for one more little walk tonight before bed.  He is making good progress, and it looks like we will be able to go home on Sunday.