New Jersey

New Jersey Boy of ‘I Got It!' Viral Fame Takes First Steps into School

The adorable toddler whose determined first steps on prosthetic legs were captured in a touching video that went viral is striding into a new milestone: his first day of school.

Four-year-old Kayden Kinckle of Englewood, New Jersey walked into school Tuesday, confidently maneuvering his crutches after years of physical therapy.

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"Walking in school like WHAT!!!" reads the caption on the Instagram video documenting the proud moment. 

Kinckle was two years old when he took his first steps on prosthetic legs with the help of a walker.

“I got it, I got it, I got it,” Kayden said with each step, determined to walk on his own without any help. 

Since then, the boy has been making remarkable progress in physical therapy, Recent videos on the Instagram account run by his mother show him standing on his own with his prosthetic legs and taking a few steps without his crutches. He also practices taking the stairs "just in case the elevator is broken." 

The sweet moments he spends with his family are also chronicled: he dances with his mother, kisses his baby sister and goofs around on rides, all the time exuding the energy and spirit that endeared him to so many in the "I got it!" video. 

His parents said in 2014 Kayden had always been confident despite doctors' doubts. 

"If he wants something, he will get it and that could be good sometimes and bad sometimes," Kayden's father, Kevin Kinckle, told NBC. "He's always been a warrior." 

Kayden was diagnosed in utereo with omphalocelea, a birth defect in the abdominal wall that causes an infant’s intestines, liver and some other organs to grow outside the body. Kayden also had a band wrapped around his legs in the womb — causing deformities that required him to have his left leg and right foot amputated in January 2014.

Kayden's mother Nikki Kinckle said previously that doctors had advised her to consider whether to carry her baby to term. She said the suggestion didn't make her angry, because it was a "fact" that her baby would face serious challenges. 

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"The nurse asked me if my house was wheelchair-accessible, and that was hard," Nikki said.

The family continues to raise money on GoFundMe.com.

"We were made aware that prosthetics are an ongoing thing for life, physical therapy is once a week. He may need more walkers or crutches as he gets older and his weight changes," Kevin Kinckle said. "We need to adjust as he grows and as technology grows we want the top-of-the-line stuff for him."

"Whatever he wants to do, we are confident he can do it, whether it's a lawyer or doctor or athlete," Kevin Kinckle has said. 

One out of 7,000 children are born with opmhalocelea, and nearly half of all babies born with opmhalocelea also have other birth defects, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. 

The numbers of children living without limbs are unclear because of doctor's confidentiality agreements, according to the Amputee Coalition. Nearly 2 million people across the United States have limb loss.

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