An Empowered Kid is a Demanding Kid! Oh, and taking STEPS!

This boy of ours is just blossoming, especially with his speech. He has definitely figured out how to get what he wants from us! He's full of requests lately such as:
"I want to go wake up Mama!"
"WAKE UP!"
"Mickey Mouse OT" (Translation - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the TV)
"Open It"
"I want go for a walk"
"I go to Grandma's"
"Come here"
"Come back"
"Wait"
"I want to go home" (This one breaks my heart a little as I only wish we didn't have to travel so much to get him all of his therapy.)
"I go down and play"
"I want UP!"

Tonight we had him all ready for bed and he was lying on the floor playing when he said, "I go to bed now"
Me: "Okay, let's go"
     Gus: "Rock!"
"Oh, you want to rock? Ok, let's go. Shall we sing, too?"
     "Yes!"
We sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, to which he knows most of the words and sings along. When that's done,
    "Choo!"
We sing Thomas & Friends theme song
"What shall we sing next?"
     "Um...Mickey Mouse!"
After Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
     "How 'bou' Pooh?" (This touches my heart in so many ways. It's me who like Pooh and that's exactly how I usually ask him about what's next - How about Winnie the Pooh?)
So we sing Winnie the Pooh. Before I can ask him if he'd like to do Caillou next, he says,
     "I go to bed now"
"Night night, baby, I love you"
     "Bye Mama"

Did this little baby really just turn 2 years old and already is carrying on conversations and doing nightly sing-a-longs?

We had brunch with some dear friends on Sunday, one of whom helped us out to the car while commenting to Maria, "You sure are lucky to have such a wonderful little boy."
Gus chimes in, saying to Maria, "You're LUCKY, Mama!"

So, after some serious deliberation and frequent late night studying of the pros and cons, we decided to let the OT and PT at preschool put Gus in a gait trainer. (The KidWalk gait trainer for those of you who care.) A week ago today Maria was out of the room in a parents' conference when they put him in it for the first time. They were just going to use it as a stander that day so he could stand up by another student and play at the computer together. As soon as he got in it, he said, "I walk, I walk, I walk." So, they turned him away from the computer, unlocked the wheels, and he started taking steps right away! We haven't seen hardly any reciprocal movement in his legs - where he does one thing with one leg and then does it with the other. He mostly moves either his right leg only or both legs at the same time so everyone was shocked that he actually took steps with one leg and then the other and so on! Someone had to run and find him a pair of shoes so he could get some traction.

He looks like a pro already in his first few minutes!

Today at preschool he tried it again so I popped in from work for that part so as not to miss it!

I am long overdue to do a blog entry for his second birthday. We've all been varying degrees of sick again, including Maria down with bronchitis but she's finally recovering, and there are a bunch of pictures I want to get in for that one so I'll catch that up one of these days.