How it actually went: Casts came off. (Why did nobody warn us this would actually be scary, traumatic and not that much fun?) Walking boots came on. We went home and tried to excite him about standing by counting how long he could go without holding on. Day 1 was about 30 seconds. He even cruised along the couch. I felt good about that. Things were going as planned.
After that, nothing happened. For about a week he regularly complained about foot pain and had to be forced to walk at all. I tried to be patient, but I expected progress every day, and some days didn't seem any better. 10 days after casts came off, Evan finally said his feet didn't hurt. He stood up after breakfast and said, "You're gonna like this," and then he up and started walking independently for the first time since surgery. I filmed him going across the entire kitchen, and cut the video right before he fell.
Since then he is back to complaining of pain and he hasn't wanted to walk anymore. He limps when he uses his walker, so I think there really is some pain, but he's also scared. "What if I fall?" I had to show him videos of when he first learned to walk. He would fall and stand right back up to try again. "That's what you'll do! You'll get right back up and keep trying!" He's not convinced. This conversation says a lot about our last 2 weeks:
Evan: What chores am I going to do?
Me: You're gonna practice walking.
Evan: No, but like when you pick 3 chores for me to do.
Me: I don't care about chores. I care about your walking.
Evan: I don't care about walking.
He's very content in his wheelchair and he's very uncomfortable walking. Probably the best thing our friends and family can do is to not ask when he's going to walk. I don't know. I just hope that one day he will. This was tonight and is pretty typical of his current ability.
Meanwhile... my new hobby is taking pictures of my sleeping baby.
He comes into my bed nearly every night and I don't usually notice until the morning. I don't entirely mind because he's so tiny and he's so cute when he's sleeping.
Isaiah and I have gone on a few one-on-ones with the children recently. First, Isaiah took Seth to Home Depot and out for a milkshake while Evan and I rode bikes to Big Horn and watched cars drive by. Then Isaiah took Evan golfing with Uncle Josh and I took Seth bowling.
Seth can now ride his bike independently!
Bless you. What patience this requires. Evan's really favoring one foot in the video. He's a handsome boy, I hope he can walk pain free soon.
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