Milestone!

I absolutely LOVE watching Jacob catch up to developmental "norms". It is so fun to watch him accomplish something new that was difficult for him before.

Because of some developmental issues with Jacob's legs, going up and down stairs has been a bit of a challenge for our boy. When we first brought him home I was surprised at how stiff he seemed when trying to climb up steps. It took several months to teach him how to climb up and down the stairs (something my other littles seemed to learn very quickly and at a much younger age).

I did not realize until his recent checkup that one of the gross motor developmental milestones for a 21 month old is being able to walk up and down stairs in an upright position (holding onto the rail or someone's hand) rather than crawling.

When I discover something that Jacob is unable to do I focus on teaching him. That's how we learned the pincer grasp, stacking blocks, speaking, etc. I thought the stairs would be no different. We just needed to encourage him to try, make it fun and give him lots of opportunities to practice. But his stiff little legs just couldn't do those stairs. And he had no interest in 'learning' this one.

Until...

After removing his 3rd serial cast:

Ta-da!

It was all about range of motion. The casts are working!