We've finally decided...

...and ended up with a happy medium. And I finally feel good about it.

Dan the wheel chair man (it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?) came by earlier this week with two models for Nate to try out. One was teeny tiny and the other was quite big for him.



He got around great in the teeny chair and even protested a little when we took him out of it. It fit him near perfectly...but it just wasn't right. Although the chair would "grow with him" I couldn't see him in that teeny chair, so low to the ground, in a couple years. And this was no easy decision. We hemmed and hawed, and sought out opinions of therapists and other families we knew had already been in our situation. The bottom line is every child is different so you just have t to go with your gut.






The bigger chair was, quite obviously, too big but ultimately it had more of what we were looking for (double push handles, lighter weight). And you had the option of getting light up caster wheels (okay, I'm a grown-up and I thought they were so cool!). Nate may not get to wear those light-up shoes like all the other kids do, but in my opinion he's got something better! Now, keep in mind this is not the actual chair he is getting. The wheels on this particular chair were 24" and we ordered 16" wheels which will bring the height of the chair way down. But not as low as the teeny one. We decided on getting him the wheels with the spokes and the hand rail (like the ones in the pic below) versus the ones on the other chair for two reasons. 1.) I am a bit of a germ-o-phobe and the thought of Nate having to actually push dirty wheels around all the time was enough to freak me out, and 2.) these are the kinds of wheels he will be having for a long time (if a wheel chair is what works best for him down the road) so we thought it best to just start with these. He was able to maneuver both chairs easily, with Dan the wheel chair man even commenting how well he took to it.



So, there you go. Picture it a bit smaller, lower to the ground, in a Cubbie blue color with his name stitched on the back. We are genuinely excited to see him be able to move around independently, at the level of his peers. I've heard that giving kids this new-found sense of freedom can be life changing for them. We're eager to see how Nate feels about it. We're also super eager for it to come in, which we were told could take up to 8 weeks (if not more). As hard as it was to make a decision, I think playing the waiting game will be even harder!