Gravity Be Damned

Victory is won not in miles but in inches.   ~Louis L'Amour

Another blog I follow is a good, constant reminder not to forget to celebrate all the victories, big and small.  Especially in the face of a seemingly endless stream of  - what one might call - setbacks.  Right. 

To be fair - Baby Jacob is… well… a *baby*.  Brilliantly unaware of time passing and all of it’s expectations.  The concept setback would not be in his vocabulary.  He likes to play.  When he can play,  he plays.  When he can’t, he doesn’t.   But then when he can play again, he does – with the same reckless abandon as before and no baggage whatsoever about that time when he couldn’t.  (We probably should be learning something from that.)

Video backstory:  For Jacob’s entire life he has been working to figure out how to make his arms work.  Forever he would kick and wiggle and even throw his shoulders back and forth… but try as he might, those little arms would just swing like wet noodles.  Jacob has great command of his hands and fingers so once a toy is in his hands or lap, he’s good to go.  But to reach out to get that toy – not happening.  To reach up – not a chance. To reach up *and* grab at the same time – forget about it.  For such a long time, the best he could do was throw his shoulder wildly (although he was starting to get good at this) that would maybe be enough to swing his arm in the general direction of the toy that he maybe would be able to grasp for a moment.  But to keep his arm up was always too much.  Gravity would always win.  His little floppy arms were definitely living up to the low-muscle-tone reputation so famously associated with his extra little chromosome. 

Undaunted. Jacob hasn't stopped trying, mind you. Oh he just keeps trying. And trying, and trying, and trying, and trying, and trying.  And finally... this past week....arms up!  Gravity be damned. 

His victory….

 

Sidebar about small victories - not that it's all about me.  But hey - I managed to figure out how to put together that little video montage with sound effect and background music... with MY PHONE. I mean it's no gravity defying arm lifting feat, but still cool, right?!?