Great Strides

Jack has one more appointment scheduled with a physical therapist. After his most recent, the gal said she doesn't think he would need anymore. It's obvious around here how much he has changed in the past couple of months. The biggest improvement is in his walking. In that he willing to walk. Everyday Kim and the boys take the dogs for a stroll around the neighborhood and Kim has to carry Jack in a pack. But recently he's been walking. He's been capable of doing it for some time, but lacked either the inclination (probably) or the confidence to do it.

But now he's walking on his own. Which is nothing but great news for Kim's back. Granted it takes them a lot longer to get home, but it's a trade she happily makes. What's more, is Jack and Lucas seem to have fun together. I took them out the other night and they both ran giggling down the sidewalk. Neither is the most graceful runner you'll ever see. But that's OK.

Actually, Lucas has changed notably as well. He has never been very agile or even coordinated, but now he's hopping around on one foot and able to balance on things without problem. We even played catch this past weekend. I was blown away by his new ability to catch a ball.
In other news we are hoping to go to Alaska this summer. Kim's former roommate (Chanda) is getting married near Denali. Luckily the big day is after Kim is done teaching summer quarter so we are free to head north. Unfortunately plane tickets aren't free. We started looking and suffered some severe sticker shock. So much so that I talked of driving. Joking of course, we can't drive across town without Jack complaining. Two-thousand miles each way is out of the question.

But I have been considering buying an old VW camper van, so what a great excuse. Again, jokingly. But I was telling the boys about it, how we could drive all the way to Alaska and sleep "upstairs" in the van. Jack wanted to bring the dogs, so I agreed and said they'd probably sleep downstairs. Jack didn't agree, he really likes to diagree of late. So he laughed and said the dogs would sleep upstairs. He then went to each dog and said "Tuppers sleep upstairs, yeah! Liddy sleep upstairs, yeah!" It was hilarious, one of those things you wish you could have filmed.

I could just imagine the drive. We caved and bought a portable dvd player to pacify the boys during car trips. The problem is I can only stand their videos for so long. I'd go (even more) insane if I had to listen to them non-stop for four days. Sure, there are some that I don't mind, but they would get old after listening to them too many times. We did find one that I enjoy, Here Comes the ABCs by They Might Be Giants. As you would expect it's mostly music and the songs are fine. But like everything else it needs to be used in moderation. One song Lucas likes is The Alphabet of Nations. It lists a group of countries in alphabetical order, Algeria, Bulgaria up through Yemen and Zimbabwe including West Xylophone. He took the lesson to heart and his teacher asked why he was lining up the states in alphabetical order at school.