Therapy at Toys R Us! and Walking :)

So Zoya had been walking about 20% of the time and mostly when we made her walk or bribed her with food. She could walk and progressively could walk further and stronger, but still crawled everywhere most of the time.  Then I took a sick day on Wednesday and it was like all of a sudden (starting Wednesday afternoon) she was walking EVERYWHERE. She's walking 80-90% of the time now as her main mode of transportation. She will crawl if she's tired, but mostly she's walking!! What happened to walking half the time? Not this super star! She went from 0 to 60 and didn't stop in between!

One thing I think that really helped her was that last weekend my brother and I took her to Toys R Us thinking it would motivate her to walk. It worked :)  We didn't put her in the cart at all.  She did like holding onto the side of the cart at times and pushing, but mostly she walked from one isle to the next, stopping frequently to check out the toys.  So it didn't seem like work to her and she had fun!  She is a very curious kid and naturally she wanted to see what was on all the shelves (and touch everything too!). While we were there, we were getting ready to leave and Zoya was walking by my side all on her own. A boy walked past us with a HUGE toy and Zoya did a 180 and practically RAN after that boy! I couldn't believe she didn't even look unsteady or anything...she looked like she was walking her whole life!! Oh and I'm confident this child is 100% Americanized now. You know why? Because when we were there, she picked up a (very heavy) Magna Doodle and tried with all her might to throw it into the cart! When she couldn't do it, she signed "help" and so I help her put it into the cart to acknowledge the fact that she asked. I tried to take it out but she caught me and pushed it back in! So I had to wait until she wasn't looking to put it back (haha).

So Friday evening I took her again and she just loves walking around Toys R Us. Although she is still somewhat unsteady, she can walk pretty far before melting to the floor or grabbing onto a shelf to steady herself (I'd say about 50 feet). We also took her for a walk outside and she walked all over, from sidewalk to grass to street and back and was able to keep her balance! What a big girl my baby is...so happy and sad all at once. I remember meeting Zoya and thinking she might never walk after I saw her teeny atrophied little legs. And now to see her walking? It's enough to remind me that she has really beat the odds that she was up against!

So here are some pictures from our two trips to Toys R Us! Sorry the quality is so bad, they were taken on my cell phone.

Looking for her first car, you know she's only 14 years away from being 16 (YIKES!!!)

 not a fan of this one!

Ummm what did I do wrong?

Uncle Bub picked this one out....it even comes in pink :)

She's livin on the edge...

She finally settled on this one, which means we have to move to the country now! I mean look how happy she is!!

She's signing help, apparently she wanted to take all the boxes off the shelf!

Walking girl....

Has anyone seen Zoya? NO she's NOT for sale!

Softball player in the future?

So there you have it, sick of therapy in your living room? Go to Toys R Us!!