Joshua's Armor

For the past month, our little soldier Joshua has been wearing a new back brace to relieve compression in his spinal cord. We like to call it his "armor" because it weighs a whole pound! Despite the extra weight, Joshua's making amazing progress.

He doesn't let the back brace keep him from his daily activities. He can climb up the stairs all by himself for physical therapy every morning. And he doesn't let a little rain stop him from going out to play.

He's also quite a smart cookie. At only two years old, he's already got his shapes down. In English, he can identify squares, hearts, diamonds and more. His favorite shape is the triangle. And here he is showing me the circle he drew.

Joshua's quite the creative thinker, too. The other day, when he didn't really want to crawl up the stairs as part of his therapy program, he asked his nanny to carry him. He knew he needed a really good excuse to get out of therapy, and he thought he'd stumbled upon the perfect one that was sure to win the heart of his nanny. "Please carry me," he said. "I have a heart problem!"

She didn't fall for it. But we've fallen for this little boy!

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Post by Elizabeth, our new NDFH intern.