Saturday, February 9, 2013

The BIG Day!!!!

Ian's power chair has been at our therapist's clinic for 3 weeks and he's been learning to drive it.  He still has a long way to go (it's a powerful chair with 2 motors and 4 drives) but we got to bring it home today!!!  Before coming home, we stopped at our church multi-purpose room for a practice run.  We were there for almost 3 hours and Ian got progressively better at learning to maneuver during that time.  He is one excited young man!!!  The independence that this will give him is not even explainable.  Research shows that independence mobility is necessary for social and cognitive learning, so we are excited to see how having his own wheels will change life for all of us (not that Ian could be any more social than he already is!)  


 And because this chair weighs more than 200 lb, we have to have a way to transport it.  Thus, the new ('03) bus!  
 The lift folds up on itself to allow for passenger entry.
 Here is the lift as it unfolds.  There are tie downs on all 4 corners as well as a shoulder harness to keep him safe.  (The restraint expert/Dad made sure of that!)
And here is Ian, ready to go!
I'll try to post videos soon!  

6 comments:

  1. hey this is Trey,THAT IS TOTALLY AWESOME!I am so jealous!i wish i could totally do that!if i could i would drive all around the house:]love you!
    see you soon
    hopefully:]
    have fun Ian!!!

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  2. Oh my word!!! How excited we are for you Ian. We can hardly wait to see it Monday afternoon. Just be careful and not run any one over. :)
    Mimi and Pa

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  3. Woohoo! Go Ian! Can't wait to see you in action :)

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  4. Holy Moly!! That is great! What do Jeremy and Lucas think of the huge van??

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  5. I'm assuming that the van is for when you are driving Ian around by yourself, because I'd expect Uncle Tom to be able to just pick up Ian's chair one-handed.

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  6. Awesome! yeah for Ian (and family)!!!!
    -Holly

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