+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
Disability

Toddler insists she put on her own prosthetic

Her smile says it all.

toddler, prosthetic
Madison Brush/Instagram

Evie Brush is certainly "Miss Independent."

There is no more determined person in the world than a toddler, and no one will ever change my mind. When a toddler sets their mind to something, you better stay out of their way. It's cute, even when it scares you. That kind of sheer determination can be inspiring, especially when it comes from a cute-as-a-button little one. Two-year-old Evie Brush definitely fits the bill.

In a short video posted by her mom Madison "Maddie" Brush on Instagram, we can see little Evie prepping to put on her prosthetic leg all by herself for the first time. "Miss independent," her mom captioned the post. As Evie slides the first piece over her leg with ease, she is beaming with pride. You can tell this is something she has been really excited to do and she pulls it off without a hitch!

The post has more than 5,000 comments on Instagram and it's clear that her mom's followers are just as excited as she is about her accomplishment.

"Precious Evie 💝 You are a great mom, Madison!" one person wrote.

"She’s so proud of herself!! Love it," wrote another.

"She is just absolutely adorable! Her sweet smile is so infectious! What a brave, strong little girl!"

"A warrior! Sunshine! May you be blessed and happy always!"

The post was recently shared by Good News Movement, which brought in some new and equally wonderful comments.

"my husband lost his limb 2 yrs ago in a accident. I sent him this and he said “wow, now that’s some motivation for me!” Thank u for sharing ur story. She’s so brave!"

Evie was born with a limb difference, and Madison has the hashtag #limbdifferenceawareness in her bio on Instagram. According to PEOPLE, Evie was diagnosed with a congenital abnormality called oligodactyly before birth. While in utero, it was discovered that Evie would be missing a finger and some of her other limbs were affected as well. When she was born, she was missing a thumb and a toe, one of her legs was missing a calf bone (fibula) and she had a bowed shin bone (tibia), hence the need for the prosthetic. The reason seems to be fibular aplasia, tibial campomelia and oligosyndactyly (FATCO) syndrome.

Looking through the rest of Madison's Instagram, you can see that Evie doesn't let her limb differences slow her down. The little girl is seen playing in the snow with her brother, on a family vacation to Disney World, baking cookies and just being a really typical 2-year-old.

Last year, mom Madison shared another insight into life with a young child with a limb difference. One night Evie wanted her toenails painted, and that's exactly what she got!

"I put this on my stories, but I also felt it needed to be shared on my main feed!" Madison began the caption. "This is our life! It's normal, but not normal. I found myself asking if it was even ok to paint the toes of her prosthetic. So weird that I felt I needed to ask.... But I guess it's somewhat normal. How do you navigate, how do you make her feel normal, but also not invalidated. Anyway... I digress. WE PAINTED THE TOES! That is all."

It's clear that Madison isn't letting anything stand in the way of her little girl living life to the fullest, and that's amazing.

From Your Site Articles
toddlers
Joy

Homeless man catches family's two children and dogs dropped from burning apartment building

"He was right underneath and he was like 'Yes, throw your daughters out, I'm going to catch them, I'm going to get them.'"

CBS News|YouTube

Man catches entire family as they jump from burning building.

House fires are devastating for families. In a matter of minutes, you could lose all of your belongings and a place to live, or worse, you could lose loved ones. A family in Phoenix, Arizona, recently found themselves facing the reality of their own home in flames. Claudia Jimenez told CBS News that she woke up trapped in her burning apartment with her two daughters, with nothing to do but yell for help in the hopes that someone would hear her.

The mom's screams were answered by Joe Hollins, a homeless man who was camping nearby with his wife. Hollins didn't hesitate to try to find a way to help. With no way out and the fire department still nowhere on the scene, Jimenez had to trust the stranger who was standing below.

"He was right underneath and he was like 'Yes, throw your daughters out, I'm going to catch them, I'm going to get them,'" Jimenez told CBS.

Keep ReadingShow less
hero
Family

Pediatrician shares two simple tips that could save a child's life at a pool party

"The more folks present, the safer the pool is, right? Wrong."

Photo by Ash Dowie on Unsplash

If there's a body of water anywhere, a designated adult needs to have their eyes on it.

It's that time of year when the weather across the country is warm enough for families to enjoy outdoor barbecues, picnics and pool parties. That means it's also the time of year when tragedy will strike a certain percentage of families who get blindsided by how quickly and easily a child can drown in a backyard pool, even when they're surrounded by people who care about them and their safety.

We've all been at a gathering where adults are coming and going, chatting, setting up food, taking trips to the bathroom, all while kids are busy playing in the water. In such scenarios, it's easy to assume that someone else is keeping an eye on the pool.

But as pediatrician Diane Arnaout has shared, the harrowing reality is that the more people there are at a pool party the more likely it is that a child could slip into the pool or become distressed in the water without anyone noticing.

In a Facebook post that has been shared more than 77,000 times, Dr. Arnaout wrote:

Keep ReadingShow less
pool safety
Family

Mom who packs her child a meal when going out to restaurants has parents fired up

Does she have a good point?

via UnbreakableMomma/TikTok

Karlie Smith shows the meal she's bringing to the restaurant for her son.

A mom who admitted she packs her 2-year-old a meal when they go out to dinner has started an interesting debate on TikTok about restaurant etiquette and how it applies to young children.

The video posted by Ohio mom, Karlie Smith (unbreakablemomma on TikTok), has received nearly 600,000 views and has over 1,850 comments.

“Call me cheap, call me whatever, but if we’re going out to a restaurant, I’m packing my kid a meal," Smith, 21, said in her post. "I do this for many reasons. On Friday nights, my family and I get together, and tonight, we’re getting food out. My son is not getting food out.”

Keep ReadingShow less
parenting
Pop Culture

Musician uses traditional Chinese instrument to create hypnotic cover of 'Hotel California'

There are literally hundreds of covers of this song floating around on the internet, but this one has its own unique flair.

Moyun/Youtube

Moyun peforms "Hotel California" on the guzheng.

The Eagles' hit song, “Hotel California,” has been covered countless times over the years by a variety of artists, including the likes of Nancy Sinatra, the Gypsy Kings and that guy at your local karaoke spot.

And while every rendition gives the song a fresh dynamic, one musician with a penchant for mystery has transformed the rock n’ roll staple into something entirely new.

Using a traditional Chinese string instrument called a guzheng, Moyun plays the song focusing mostly on its two guitar solo arrangements, creating a sound that has all the otherworldly beauty of an ancient folk tale.
Keep ReadingShow less
music
Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

Keep ReadingShow less
dogs
Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
Keep ReadingShow less
movies
Trending Stories