Patrick got a reward

Yesterday Patrick got a new toy. It's a Toy Story 3 Lil' Quad that I wanted to give to him last Christmas, but for whatever reason in the end didn't buy. It turned out that it was actually good that I didn't buy it back then.

Patrick had his physical evaluation in January, and it was until then when we got a better scoop of his low muscle tone and all the exercise he would require to make his muscles stronger. A ride on toy that moves by the push of a button, like the Lil' Quad, would have been a very bad idea. Luckily Patrick had received a cute little ride on toy on his birthday, and another one for Christmas as gifts from friends of us, which required him to move his feet in order to go anywhere.

Tim's co-worker, Deb, gave Patrick this ride-on toy for Christmas. He was thrilled!

At first Patrick couldn't go anywhere on those toys. We had to place him on them, and he would get entertained pushing the buttons that made noise. That was all the use he got from these toys the first weeks. Later on he learned to move backwards. Weeks later he was moving forward, and as he was progressing with the help of the therapies, he learned to get on and off from the ride on toys as well.

He can easily manage those toys now that I figured it would be OK to give him a break and spoil him with the Quad. Patrick got it yesterday as a reward for learning to walk. But this isn't really just because he reached that new milestone, but rather, because of his behavior during the journey he had to go through to get there. Patrick has gone through a number of evaluations and doctor appointments, and he has always been very cooperative. He is amazingly good during his therapies, and that behavior has made it easier to address the problem and to progress faster than the therapist had expected.

So here is a video of him riding the Lil' Quad for first time. Like you can see, he is trying to use his feet to move it forward, even though he doesn't have to. It took him a few tries to finally realize that it was OK to put his legs to rest while riding on that.

I know for my husband and myself it seemed like an eternity, like it was never going to happen, but now that Patrick is finally walking I can only feel very proud of him... and of myself too!