Wil Is Walking! – Down syndrome milestones

Wil is now officially WALKING!!!  Currently, I’m sitting on our front lawn, surrounded by laughter, as we watch Wil circle back and forth, with arms raised, giggling at his newfound freedom.  Warmer weather has finally come to Northern Utah and Wil is celebrating his first walk in the grass this year.

Flying was easy but walking has been one of Wil’s hardest milestones to date. He started putting weight on his legs when he turned two and started attempting to step not soon after.  Our pediatrician explained to us that all kids with Down Syndrome hit their milestones at different times, but usually start walking and developing other fine motor skills between the ages of two and three. Because of the five-year gap between Wil and Ali, we had sort of forgotten some of the “average” milestone dates. So it didn’t seem too unnatural for him to be a year and a half behind the “average” walking time frame. Now that Rockwell has joined our family I have been noticing the milestone time frame differences.

We were all a bit surprised to see Rocko sitting up at six months compared to 10 months for Wil. Wil started crawling at 18 months and Rockwell (8 months) is already starting to show signs up crawling. It’s really not an issue for me that Wil is slightly delayed, I’ve loved the opportunity to hold him and carry him for an extra year and a half.  Along with Wil’s newfound mobility, his vocabulary has also taken a huge step forward. Our pediatrician told us to expect these two milestones to coincide with each other but it was a real shock for us to hear him start calling all of his siblings by their names not soon after he started walking.

Mr. Wil still tends to crawl from time to time which we don’t mind. We are all going to miss that little Mowgli crawl one day.