Walking!!!

My heart is full as I write the the title for this post.  Full of thankfulness and a little bit of disbelief. In the sense of "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it!.  Can you?"
The story in full, well.... as full as it's going to get.
A few weeks ago both Aggie's teacher and I pointed out that Aggie doesn't really need our hand for walking.  She could have a loose grip on our little finger and be walking along side us fine. But the moment the little finger is removed, down she would go. It was a learned behavior, a sequence of events; finger removed, I must sit. So at her IEP meeting two weeks ago we all (teacher, therapists, myself) discussed what we could do to break this learned behavior. What we came up with is not what actually got Aggie to walk. The point to this is, we saw the ability.
The story as told by the teacher and OT.
Last Friday, April 4th, 2014. Aggie's OT Dawn, entered the class room for therapy. Aggie was excited to see her. The teacher, Donna, was walking her toward Dawn and let go of the hand a few steps prior to her getting to Dawn and Aggie took a few steps on her own to finish the distance. They all noticed.  So Dawn left the room and re-entered to re-inact the scene but Donna released Aggie's hand a little further away from Dawn and Aggie again completed the walk on her own. Repeat this scene a few times. (They are so thoughtful and good to her). I'm not sure what all happened in between, but I'm guessing by all the video they showed me, that they went to get the PT, Neoly. Because most of the videos they have shown me, are of Neoly walking behind Aggie and singing, and Dawn taking video and shaking keys. They told me they had her walking the halls of the school most of the morning. Practice makes perfect.! The initial video I posted on Facebook is the only one they could send to me on my phone b/c it was the shortest and smallest file. And it was of her walking up a ramp!  This video Dawn took the time to email to me and it is a bit longer. When I arrived to pick Aggie up from school they had her waiting outside with OT, PT and conductive PE teacher, and had her walk to me. How  special and thoughtful. I cried... I think I even snorted... What can you do? She's walking.
What's next for Aggie?
Though Aggie is taking independent steps, she still needs to learn to get herself into a walking position to begin walking. We currently have to stand her up and say "go get (toy/person of choice)". And though she can pull her-self to standing, she does not know how or feel comfortable transitioning to walking from this position, which you can see at the end of this video once she finds the wall. Also endurance and strength. These are the things I'll be praying about and we will be practicing. Most of Aggie's physical developments are skills that we've had to teach her, one step at a time, so we will continue in this fashion. I am thankful that she is still able to learn!