Sneakers...coming soon!!

Jack is doing well. He is walking and running (and playing soccer!) on his leg. How he is doing that with that ridiculous brace is beyond me, but he's doing it. We've been strapping a sandal onto the brace and he's doing the best he can on it. Tomorrow we get to pick up his NEW FUNCTIONAL brace!!!!! We are all so excited. We're planning on sneaker shopping this weekend and then we have to go back to the orthotist with the brace and sneaker next week to see what's the best way to add a lift (onto the brace or onto the sneaker). So hopefully by this time next week, he's in a fully functional brace/sneaker combo!

The infection has healed. It was a real nasty one, and we were thrilled to see it gone. At aqua therapy on Monday, Jack was able to go into the hot tub (after 5 long months of watching the other kids wistfully). It was definitely the highlight of his week! Therapy is going well, it's a little challenging right now because the brace is so non-functional, but he really resists walking without it on. Nicki (the PT) has been doing lots of new stretching to address the muscle tightness in his calf muscle and his hips. Hopefully she can get those muscles loosened up and the contracture/tightness in his knee will go away.

The real exciting news around here is that the boys start horseback riding lessons today! We've debated putting Jack in therapeutic horseback riding for years. We recently revisited that idea and decided that he's in so much therapy already, let's do regular horseback riding lessons! We found a place that starts at age 4, so Max gets to go as well. They are so excited, I can't wait to watch them!

Here's some recent pictures. This was the first day he wore pants. He was so excited about looking like he had 2 equal-lengthed legs.

Cooperating for me.

Not cooperating for me.

Amelia started walking a few days after Jack had his cast off and he started walking. This is so funny because we've been saying since June that it was a contest between them who would walk first. I think it was very sweet of her to let her big brother win :)

She's also an ace at climbing. I'm thrilled about that.

And that's it for now. I know our updates aren't nearly as exciting as they used to be, so I appreciate you still checking in with us!