Walking More: A little discussion on late milestones

I have talked before about milestones and how it is different when you have a child with Down Syndrome.  There is a magical chart that shows when children with Down Syndrome roll, sit, walk, talk, etc.  So the good news as a mom is you know it is going to happen later than a typical child you know it will be around 2 years old.  That doesn't mean you understand just how long walking takes.  David pulled to stand at 18 months old, cruising furniture by 21 months old, and he has been taking a few steps since then.  Now at 26 months, he still butt scoots alot, he will walk anywhere if I hold his hand, but just this week he started walking farther on his own.  Just maybe we are approaching a true walker. But honestly, on David time, full time walking could be next week or in 6 more months.  For now I wanted to share this video with you of him walking (and a little blurb of "thumbs up", during a tube feed on our last road trip).  

By the way when you have a late milestone the excitement around the milestone is crazy. Zac will hear us clapping sometimes for David and he is like what did he do. Sometimes the answer is he stood by himself for 30 seconds, or he climbed on the couch for the first time without wearing shoes, or he signed "down" and said it at the same time; and we all cheer for David. Zac is so excited when his brother does something new, at 6 he gets it. He understands that things are harder for David and more work and he celebrates his brothers achievements no matter how small it would seem in a typical family. Can you imagine being happy if your child started walking at over 2 years old, yeah it is a strange world I live in where this is my typical. I say strange because it is odd, but it is not sad.  Before having David I would have felt sorry for someone who's child wasn't walking by 2, but I don't feel sad for me.  It really is our normal and when you are living life in the moment you don't feel sad about these kind of things.  Excited, hopeful, jealous of someone else's child with Down Syndrome walking at 18 months (that is a hard pill to swallow), but not really sad.  It is hard to explain, so just share a little Lund excitement and watch David walking in the video above and have a really great day.

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