We decided it was official around a month ago, at about 15.5mo. Baby Hulk is
walking. He is the earliest walker either Barb (Early Intervention), or Ms. Annie (PT) have ever seen. I don't know about Ms. Annie but Barb has been working for 28 years. Before Baby Hulk the earliest walker she had walked at 18mo. I am so proud of this dude it is ridiculous, but I feel like I can't really talk about it. I can talk about it with my friends with typical babies but when I bragged about how Baby Hulk was his PT's earliest walker, I think I made another mom (Tsunami's mom) feel bad. I didn't mean to! I am sure if Baby Hulk had a heart surgery to recover from and the set backs Tsunami had because of infantile seizures, he wouldn't have been walking so soon. I didn't even think it would make Tsunami's mom feel bad, Tsunami will be 5 this summer and walks, but she got a bit defensive when I was doing my proud Momma bragging. I have kept my Instagram bragging to a minimum because I have a lot of followers who also have a child with Down syndrome, many close in age to Baby Hulk. I know the stress that come from seeing other babies close in age to yours doing things that your baby isn't doing. It makes me nervous. I often start to write something about his achievements in Instagram posts and then end up just posting a picture with no caption because I am afraid it will make someone feel bad. Now I am making more and more friends with all these other parents, friends in real life, friends on Facebook. But I am excited! I want to shout it from the rooftops!!! Baby Hulk is WALKING!!! But I am afraid I will make someone else feel bad!
To be fair, Baby Hulk kind of HAD to learn to walk. His big brothers do not go easy on him. They wrestle with him, and drag him around, he has to keep up! He climbs on them and pulls their hair. He takes their toys from them and steals their food. They are his big brothers and they keep him on track. He had to learn to walk so he can run, whether he needs to run from them or after them I am not yet sure but I will know soon enough because this boy can move! Ms. Annie hardly had time to admire his perfect crawling before he started walking, and I really think he has his big brothers to thank for that. They don't do gentle just because he is different, or because he is a baby. He is their brother and they will treat him as such. Because of that he will continue to thrive! ...It he wants to keep up!
But of course, this means more trouble for me...
