Climbing Nashville!

Take a look at these pictures from Gracie's latest physical adventure! We took her to Climb Nashville. We were invited by Charlie, one of my students. His family decided to ask for donations to a worthy cause in lieu of birthday presents this year. So, he had his guest bring donations to the March of Dimes in honor of Gracie who was born 12 weeks early. Is that fabulous or what?

In these pictures, you will notice a couple of things. Gracie working hard, coming very close to reaching the top, and Doug following her up...in his dress clothes! He couldn't resist when Gracie said, "Help me, Daddy!" She proved to all of us, again, how determined she is. We were so proud of her!

Gracie Walks!

View the video below to watch Gracie achieve one of her goals. Gracie is walking from her bathroom to her bedroom using her own strong legs! I am following her simply to spot her. She decided to do this one night over Spring Break. She does this in therapy often, but she does not walk unassisted much at home. We were very proud of her! This happened after a week of walking solely with her crutches. She did it! We put away the walker for Spring Break and required her to use her crutches. Honestly, she didn't show much resistance. Hopefully she knows she is ready for the next step toward independent walking.

Spring Break

Our Spring Break begins today. We have prepared Gracie for a big step... She is putting her walker away over the break. She will be solely using her crutches, pink of course! She has used her crutches for a long time. However, we've allowed her to use the walker, too. She has gained confidence and no longer requires someone to be close beside her when she walks with them. However, she is still fearful and a bit slow. For this reason, she will go back to using her walker primarily at school after Spring Break. We will use the crutches at home.
Because she wanted to (this is huge for her), she used her crutches to walk to her classroom this morning. She took about 300 steps on them. It took us 20 minutes because her classroom is a good distance from the front door. She was commended the whole way! Everyone stopped to congratulate her which caused her to smile the whole way. It was fun to watch her be that proud of herself!
Wish us luck!