Progress

As you may or may not know, our kids all have varying degrees of "gross motor delays" - which basically means they were late to do things like stand, walk, jump, and they have been slow to catch up to their peers. They don't move their bodies like other kids and all 3 receive physiotherapy services through the POTC program.

At the beginning of summer we had our last session with the physiotherapist for a few months as they work with the school year. These session are usually either really fantastic, or kind of discouraging. This was one of the kind of discouraging type. Ruby was coming along nicely, Talia needed some extra help in some areas, but it seemed like Declan was so far behind where he should be. He couldn't jump, he couldn't walk the perimeter of the flower bed, he couldn't pedal his bike, he couldn't climb the ladder to the playstructure...... he had no idea he wasn't able to do the things he was "supposed" to be doing, he just thought all the games and activities were fun.  But it made me sad to think he has a hard time.

Anyway, fast-forward to a summer full of swimming, playing in the pool, playing in the park, and basically living outside.  The progress he's made is incredible.  When we play "animals" in the backyard, he can hop like a frog all the way across the yard. When we go to the park, he climbs up the slide like any other pain-in-the-ass kid, getting in the way of the kids wanting to come down. When we play in the pool, he jumps right in. He almost looks like a "regular" kid when he runs. And much to the delight of his father, who spent a week building the monstrosity of a playstructure in our backyard, he can now do this:

Way to go, Dec!