One of the joys of being a parent is seeing how much of yourself is reflected in your child. I think I've covered this before in a previous blog, but since I take so long to update, I honestly can't remember.
The sad fact is that sometimes you also see some of your flaws. Even the genetic ones that you couldn't help. This is the case with Evelyn's feet.
As a kid, and even now, my feet tend to point out. This caused (and again, still sometimes cause) me to walk in a duck-like manner. A fact cruel classmates in elementary school through college all enjoyed pointing out to me at times. Now my daughter has this issue.
Mine is caused by a hip problem, per my doctors at the Shriner's hospital in St. Louis. Evelyn will grow out of her problem if she continues with her physical therapy, at least that's what our doctor says, and so does Brandy, a therapist from First Steps who helps kids learn to walk, and has been coming to our house weekly for the past few weeks.
In a sense I feel like we dodged a bullet.
One of my greatest fears is that my children will have to time wading through some of the same trash of life I had to as a kid. Kids picking on them for having red hair, constant quacking, stupid things like that were all things I never wanted for my kids. When Evie was born with darker hair, which is now a shade of blonde, I was relieved. But with the therapy I sometimes see her feet kick out, toes pointed away from each other, and her balance wavering. The therapist, Brandy, is awesome and very encouraging. She says that Evelyn will grow out of it.
Very relieved. And on the note of the therapy, Brandy insists Evelyn is her star student. She's made great progress and continues to improve. A few weeks ago when we first started, Evelyn was "army-crawling" through the house and would only stand on her feet for a few minutes at a time when we'd put her up on them.
Now, I'm beginning to miss the days she was immobile. She's coasting sideways along the couch, crawling on her hands and knees, and making life incredibly active. Or miserable, depending on how lazy I'm feeling.
Honestly, though, its amazing to see her progress and learn and adapt and grow. Its rewarding to me, probably more so than it is to her. Just hearing that she's gone two steps farther than the one step expected makes me so proud. In my heart, when something like that happens, I secretly think, "Of course, she's my kid! She's gonna blow your mind with her intelligence, just wait and see!" And of course, I see plenty of her mom in her, too, but as a dad I just want to take all the credit.
That's okay, right? I can do that sometimes?
Well, I'm going to anyway.
