PT Session and stairs!

Megan decided that she was going to be nice to Mandy today and cooperate.  It has been a long time since she has done anything for Mandy; Mandy has had to rely on my updates and videos to see her progress.  Well today....Megan rocked her session.  Not only did she walk behind the wagon - she pulled up at the wagon 3 times.  She also took several steps behind her car.

About halfway through the session Mandy took Megan's shoes off so she could look at her feet and ankles.  This is when the fun really started.  Megan started pulling up at the coffee table without any assistance.  She did it every time Mandy put the toy she wanted on the table.  Megan would stand up, grab the toy and sit down to play with it.  She did this 10+ times.  Until this morning Megan hadn't pulled up by herself in a long time.  At one point Mandy put a toy on the couch to get Megan to pull up there - Megan has pulled up at the couch by grabbing the side of the cushion where she can get a good grip.  I started to remind her where to hold on and she just put her hands down flat in the seam and stood right up.  She is so much stronger than now and doesn't need the extra effort with her arms.

Tonight Megan crawled up onto the landing and looked up the stairs.  She has been doing that 2-3 times a week for the past couple of weeks.  I decided that maybe we could give it a go tonight and see if she would climb some stairs.  As Mandy put it - if she can climb up onto the landing (which is a stair) she can climb stairs.  Prior to tonight Megan wouldn't even attempt to climb the stairs - she would just sit and look up at them like "no way man".  I sat on the 3rd stair and tried to entice her to come up.  She tried to climb but she couldn't really figure out what to do and wasn't making progress unless I literally pulled her up.

After a few minutes we told Sam it was his turn (no way we are having both kids climbing the stairs at the same time).  Sam climbed up to me and while he was doing it we kept telling Megan to watch him.  I put him back on the floor and had him climb up 4 or 5 times with Will pointing out to Megan what he was doing.  This time Will took Sam away and I sat on the floor behind Megan and put the toys on the 4th step.  Megan climbed right up 2 stairs to get to the toys and then I helped her safely climb down to the first stair and sit down.  She copied Sam.  She climbed up exactly as he had done.  She teaches him stuff all the time and she finally learned something from him.  Megan climbed up those 2 stairs many, many times before I decided it was time to quit.  Her last trip up her little legs were trembling and I had to help her.

She did all of this barefoot. Mandy said that sometimes the bulk of the shoes can make it difficult for kids who are just learning to do things so letting her go some of the time without them until she gets proficient should make it easier for her when she has them on.