Look what I can do!

So for the past month or so we have been leaving the front wheels on Morgan's walker unlocked trying to force her to learn how to control her walker. At first she was all over the place, running into everything. But after not too long she started to get a handle on how to control the walker when trying to go straight or taking corners. The other night while at the basketball game she totally shocked me. At half time she was making her way out onto the court to go chase after Lucas when all of a sudden the cheerleaders came out. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned slightly to the side to watch them perform. Then, when they were done she turned all the way back around to come find me to make sure I had seen their performance. After coming back to me and talking to me for a second she decided she wanted to go find Lucas again. She proceeded to turn herself completely around again and headed back out on the court. Since then she has started to perfect the turn. She did it twice more on Friday at Therapy and a bunch of times on Saturday. Here is one I captured:

(Sorry, the video was too long to post directly here on blogger. They seem to max out around 30 seconds on this site. Click the link below to see the video)
http://s49.photobucket.com/albums/f281/spiesldm/?action=view&current=MVI_1424.mp4

She is moving a bit slow in this one, but wanted to go outside to play. David misunderstood her in the video. He thought she said she couldn't go outside. What she said if you listen carefully is that the back door is not open wide enough for her to fit out. She was trying to ask David to open it wider for her.

Anyway, today is Sunday and she is definitely perfecting the turning and controlling of her walker. As I sat down to start working on this Morgan walked herself out of the kitchen, turned to find me at the dining room table, then decided to head back into the kitchen by going around the island. I can't tell you how life changing this is for all of us. Just yesterday I needed to put her laundry away. Usually that means a 5 minute job taking about 30 minutes because I have to stop after folding each piece to go help Morgan get whatever she is after. Well, not yesterday. I left her playing in the living room facing toward the back door and headed into Morgan's room at the front of the house. As I was putting the last item of clothing away she proudly entered her bedroom. Morgan had turned herself completely around and then walked, maneuvering the sharp hallway corner, and into her room completely by herself!!!! I was SO PROUD!!!!!! It is still not perfect , she is still cheating with getting her legs going and often still drags her left foot, and can technically really only consistently make the turn to the right,but we will take it. She is really starting to realize her independence and that motivates her even more! If only everything in the world she wants or needs could be to her right she would be set! :)