Spoiler alert: Pat's amazing accomplishments

Darth Tator, I just have to say that the spoiler alert is for you.  SuperPat is catching up to you and he is going so fast that all you will see is a blur of muscles as he passes.  Hope you are working hard also so we can have an awesome celebration!

We have been just so busy, in a good way though that we haven't had time to write about our progress.  Amazingly I am the only one awake in our house, has been this way for a couple of hours actually so now seemed like the perfect time.  In case you don't know, Mama Spud landed yesterday afternoon and the rest of the tator patch is rolling in this evening. 

Mama Spud definantly wins the sweet potato award this week.  We are so glad to have her here and you can definately see it in SuperPat's progress.   Yesterday evening we convinced Mama Spud that she needed to go work out with us at the gym.  I was very impressed at her interest in trying several things and it was great to have someone to pace me on the bike and make me feel so much better that the Elliptical machine kicks my butt.  On a side note, I was able to get up to 15 minutes on the Elliptical at a pretty intense level with some sweat, but not as much muscle fatigue.  And it feels so good when you are finally able to get off.  :) 

Anyway, about Pat's progress.  He was able to get to 6 minutes on the treadmill and while he was sweating, it wasn't the usual buckets and buckets of sweat.  In fact, I honestly believe that he could have done several more minutes with not too much effort but he really didn't want to overdo it.  His ability to go longer stretches without taking a break is getting so much better.  He did several one minute stretches in a row with only a short repositioning break in between.  In fact, he even thought about trying a different hand position.  You can see that his body is really relearning it's pace and stance. 

And then just when we thought we had really hit our quota of progress for the day, we got into the pool.  He had 3 10 minute walking sessions, a large part of which was completely without holding onto the sides or my hands.  He still turns in circles but it is getting less and less pronounced and he is catching himself so much better.  If I can figure out a way to edit myself out of the video, I really want to get a video or some pictures of him walking the water to post here.  You would all be so amazed and touched by his progress. 

In fact, after a particuarly long stretch of him walking towards me in a pretty straight line without falling or faltering, I was struck by a really strong memory of a pool session about a year ago.  We had been working a little with his physical therapist in the water to learn some exercises that we could do on our own together and I decided just to have him try to take a few steps toward me.  If I remember right, he was able to take about five and it was mostly momentum carrying him forward at high speed because he was so scared that he was going to nosedive into the water.  It felt like the greatest anniversary present anyone could ever give me at the time and I remember feeling for the first time that maybe he really would be able to walk without any assistance or a cane or crutch sometime in the future. 

Now almost a year later to the date, you wouldn't recognize the same person that I had seen then.  I have to try really hard to remember sometimes that he really can't walk all by himself when we are in pool.  It is so easy just to see him as anyone else just playing and walking around in the pool.  He was even able to splash Mama Spud and then continue walking toward me without falling over.  Sorry about that Mom, but that is so huge because it shows how much his balance is improving.   Pardon me fora short pause while I wipe my tears of joy and gratitude for our blessings off my computer.

The best part of all this is that I know that when the rest of the Spuds get here this evening he is going to re-double his efforts because their praise and attention mean so very much to him.  I finally got him to do the languages of love profile and his top two languages are words of affirmation and time together.  So many heartfelt thanks to my wonderful family that loves him enough to meet those needs especially after one of the hardest weeks he has every year (both his parent's birthdays were last week and we are on the home stretch to the accident anniversary).

We have been so fortunate to have so many wonderful therapists (physical and otherwise) to come into our lives.  We would never have been able to accomplish much of anything without them and I know that Heavenly Father and Pat's family are trying to do all they can to provide these gifts to us. 

Well, enough of my ramblings.  I just have two closing thoughts.  Mama Spud - I think I know what the epression saddle sore means, maybe next time we should try a shorter bike route?  :)   Spud Family - since you get to come watch Pat walk, does this make you "Spec-tators"?