Braces for Ruby

While we were at the beach, Ruby had a new pair of custom braces (SMO's) being built. She was measured for them before our trip, and we picked them up the other day. I got to choose a pattern for them; I went with girly butterflies because honestly all of the patterns for girls looked the same (butterflies or flowers or hearts). The fit over her socks and then she wears shoes over them. The SMO's (Sure-Steps) are flexible plastic that molds around the 'back' half of her foot and up her ankle. They stay put by way of a velcro strap. The purpose of them is to give Ruby a little more support when she's standing while still allowing her muscles to do all of the work they need to in order to get stronger. We keep them on most of her waking hours, but if I know we'll be in the car for a lot of errands, I usually leave them off. So far, so good; the girl doesn't mind them at all!