Five Giant Leaps!

Date : 31st July 2009
Time : 8 p.m.

Ryan took five `giant' steps on his own without any aid for the very first time! He has been standing on his own and walking around holding on to sofas, chairs and cabinets for quite a while now. He has attempted to walk on his own without any aid but had not been very successful other than a small step. He finds that he can get where he wants to go to faster if he crawls and he can really crawl. If he wanted to `sprint crawl' he will put his head down and crawl like mad (just like the F1 drivers putting their head down, a term used to denote pushing to the limit).

Yesterday evening, as usual he was crawling and walking around the sofas. At then it happened. He stood up unaided (he was quite a distance away from anything to hang on to). My wife was sitting on the floor some distance away from him. As he stood there for 2 seconds as if thinking what to do next, we were busy encouraging him to take those few crucial steps. Of course, our heart was pumping with excitement and at the same time with fear that he would fall and hurt himself! Then he took his first step forward! Our instinct was to immediately rush over and put out our hand behind him just in case he falls. We have done that a couple of times, and he would immediately reached out for our hand and hang on to it. So, instead of holding out our hands, we just encourage him to walk further towards my wife, seated in front of him. He held out his arms to trying to reach my wife and started to take the next step. After a good five steps, he finally sat down, looking as excited as we are.

This is yet another milestone in his journey. For him, it was just five very little steps, but for us, these were the five biggest leaps in his life as he continue his journey and his adventure in this world.