One, Two, One, Two

Micah's weak hips cause some problems for him, such as bike riding, running fast, or walking up and down steps. The school is working with him on things like this, which is so very nice. And greatly appreciated. While we certainly work with him at home, he's far more motivated at school.

The thing with steps has become a real issue lately. He gets frustrated at school when the whole class of kids walks right by him and he's still struggling to get down the first of three flights of steps when the class is already out on the playground. His absolutely wonderful aide has decided that she'll take time out of his school day to work on walking down steps. Or maybe it should be Walking Down Steps 101, because it's as much work for Micah as math or speech class would be.

The reason the boy is so slow is that he does the toddler thing where he puts one foot on a step, then the other foot on that step. And then starts over. His aide reminds him to take one step with each foot by saying, "One, Two, One Two..." And because she's an awesome aide, she shares things like this with us so that we can practice the same way at home.

So we were at the mall the other day and reminded Micah to step One Two One Two walking down to the lower level. Micah concentrates so hard to do this. His right leg is fine, but his left hip is so weak that he has to think very hard about making it pass up his right foot and step on down to another stair. But he does it, taking one step at a time. And even in his very concentrated state, he can make better time than hi old way of walking down steps.

This rocks.

And the statement was made by one of the kids that it's shocking what we take for granted, when others struggle so much with the simple basics of life. Like walking down steps. Or talking. But our boy never complains. In fact, he pretty much has the best attitude toward life I've ever seen, and he's not alone. This is why I love the Special Olympians so very much. Those guys are all rocking disabilities of some sort, and yet happen to be so very much happier than we are. And we have nothing valid to complain about. Ingrates. All of us.

While at the resort here, Micah was walking down to steps to the water park. He loves water parks so much and was so very VERY excited to be there that he had a hard time concentrating on his One Two walking. About halfway down the steps, he focused on what we were saying (One, Two, One Two...) and set aside his excitement to work on his walking. And by golly, he did it. And got to the bottom that much faster.

He makes us proud in so many ways.

Today we were at outdoor steps and I asked Sam why he didn't do the One Two with Micah. He said the steps were icy and it was difficult enough to concentrate to walk. I agreed completely. But Micah did not. He started taking one step per foot, ice notwithstanding.