Keith's Big Moves

Taken tonight.  This is Keith's moment to shine, on his own two feet!  I hope the video camera reflects his sheer joy at being able to toddle to Edward, Phil and myself.  He was beaming.

I think he's finally decided that this whole walking thing is pretty cool.  We had him assessed about a month ago by an excellent pediatric physiotherapist who agreed that while he was experiencing a delay in his gross motor development - namely, in standing and walking unaided - it was likely temporary.  In addition to an obvious lack of interest in walking (why walk when you can crawl at supersonic speed?!), Keith has very loose ligaments around his joints, which means that it takes more effort and energy for him to initiate and sustain movement.  She gave us a long list of exercises to help build his core strength and to keep him on his feet as much as possible during the day.  Some of these activities were already things he enjoyed (climbing on furniture and standing at the window looking for Opa, cahs, buses and buppies!) and some were less popular (baby sit-ups), but we could see that he was getting stronger.

The last missing ingredient was confidence.  We knew he could walk, but he had to convince himself that he could pull it off.  As you can see, that's an on-going process, but he really started wanting to walk over the past few days.  He was thrilled by the response he got from Margaret and Alison when he showed off his skills for them at the library earlier this week.  In addition to lots of praise from Edward and myself, he gets effusive "Brabos" from Colin and Evelyn for his efforts.

Come to think of it, maybe he's been holding out for the accolades this whole time...