The Stairs

Anna still primarily crawls up the stairs, but we've been working on strengthening her hips, legs and balance so she can walk up and down them. A couple of weeks ago we were on the front 'porch' saying goodbye to Anna's speech therapist and Anna shocked me by hanging onto the railing with her left hand and walking down the six or seven stairs to our front door without any prompting. It certainly took a lot of effort, but I was impressed at her initiative and ability.

I thought that was going to be the beginning of her consistently trying to walk up and down stairs, but instead she still resorted to crawling. She was starting to put her foot on the next step instead of her knee, but she wasn't ready to go up without placing her hands on the next step as well.

Over the last couple of days she's been hanging onto the railing with both hands and walking up the first few steps of the stairs in our front hallway. So I'm looking forward to her reaching this 'stair' milestone over the next few weeks. And based on past experience I bet I'll have news of other unexpected milestones that come as a result of this pending accomplishment. I'll be sure to report back.