12.29.2010

baby steps

I came across this video today while looking back on email correspondences. In it Calvin, who is two and a half, is walking to me from his nurse's husband while his nurse shoots the video. Seeing it again I am surprised at how small he is, but his skinny legs protruding from a gaping diaper make me smile.

Calvin loved to practice walking and would stumble back and forth between me and Michael time after time after time with the cutest little grin on his face. Sometimes he'd be so happy he'd breath excitedly, as if hyperventilating, then start to giggle.

Nearly every day these past four and a half years he has practiced his walking. Calvin has made some progress, though we must still keep a tight hold on his safety harness. We take care coming around corners to ensure he doesn't clip an ear or bonk his nose. As he approaches objects we take up the slack in the harness reins in the likely case he will misjudge the distance and crash. And though Calvin no longer sways quite like the drunken sailor in the video, his balance and coordination are still very much compromised. The problem with his balance could be his brain's lack of white matter, or it could be his vision, the uncontrolled seizures, the antiepileptic drug side effects or some wretched combination of all of the aforementioned.

But Calvin is a Superkid, a M-F Badass, as one friend most endearingly deemed him, and no matter the obstacle he tries to conquer it with great determination, even if just by taking baby steps. I can learn a lesson or two from him.




1 comment:

  1. Ann Landerholm-BurkeDecember 29, 2010 at 7:31 PM

    That is such a sweet video! Thank you for sharing. It makes me smile ear to ear. You and Calvin both look so proud. What an incredible little guy and an equally incredible mama!
    We can all learn a world of lessons from Calvin and from you Christy.

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