LOLA WALKS!!

This weekend Lola started walking independently, rather than between two people! Watch the excitement in full living color below!

and the chase begins...

Lola has been walking holding a person's hand for ages. In our very first blog post, she is seen holding her dad's hand and walking the hospital hallway. People thought that once she got hooked up, that would be the final piece for her balance, but that came and went, and she was still not walking on her own. So in our new First Steps plan, we started working with a physical therapist, Michelle who is great. She gave us some tips and has been working with Lola, but she let us know that really we were doing all we could. Lola just had to decide to do it because she could do it, she just wasn't. We all felt that being around kids that were walking was going to be what finally got her going on her own. So she started school, our neighbor kids started to walk, she got together with her cousin Jessica.... Finally at our big family get-together to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday, Lola took off! There were 27 of us there that night (Dad said it felt like 40), and 7 of those were walking kids, and I guess it was the last straw. She just started going and she would not stop. She walked between everyone's legs and in the middle of her cousin's game and still kept going. I gave her a bath and as soon as she got out, she was off again. Walking naked through the house, we finally had to catch her to put her diaper and pj's on. And she didn't stop with just walking either - she started going in circles! She even had a ballerina tutu on, so it was even cuter than you can imagine. Going, going, going...we were so happy and so proud! Sunday - wouldn't take one step. I guess she was exhausted. Monday night she started back up again, as you can see in the video in the next post.

What a difference a cord makes

Our dear friend Matthew was visiting us from Texas over the weekend, and Lola's cord from her magnet to her processor snapped on Friday night. Why do things like that always happen on a Friday night? So we started calling the doctor's office in the morning, but later found out that she was out of town. We eventually start calling all our therapists for any suggestions. We were able to get ahold of Paula who also called Elizabeth, and the two of them called all their families until they found someone with an extra cord we could borrow! Thanks again to both of them and to the very nice family for the loan! She was back on that evening! Matthew commented on how interesting it was to see her without it. She was happy all morning, smiley as usual, but as he said, she was really in her own little world. She never makes a sound when she's not hooked up, and she just played by herself. As soon as that magnet hit her head, she was blabbing up a storm and walking from person to person! It was interesting for someone else to witness what a difference it's making to her.