Weekend Wind-down...

Day 7 of 31 for 21:

We woke up today to cool air and rainy skies...a significant change from the 80-degree weather just a few days ago...and a perfect day to drag our feet and prolong getting out of bed.  I managed to delay getting up with the baby till 8am, which is a rare treat and Jackson did the same for Adam.  I'm sure this had a bit to do with the lack of sleep that he had yesterday and the lack of sun filtering in his room.

It has proven to be a lazy day for me (not as much for Adam who volunteered to go to the grocery store only to forget his wallet causing him to leave a full cart at the store and returning to ridiculous lines as if we were about to have a blizzard tomorrow).  Today has called for comfy Uggs, cuddling with baby, and football food.

While we cheered on the Gamecocks yesterday, today we're enjoying some Ravens football!

Why use hands when you can use your feet?

Enjoy your lazy Sunday...

Oh and by the way...Adam informed me that our littlest is getting no love...so I promise to post some pics of Grayson ASAP!

Weekend Wind-up

Day 6 - 31 for 21

We geared up for a busy day today.  I took it upon myself to go get my haircut... I wasn't happy with the cut the last time I went (which was almost 3 months ago) and I wanted to shape it up before I went back to work.  Adam spent the morning getting the house straightened up just in case we had a showing while we were out.

We had our friends' daughter's 4 year-old birthday party today...which I thought was on the 20th, but thankfully was told yesterday that no, it was today (which required a last minute trip out to the store to get a gift for the party that I thought was a few weeks away).  After the party, we were hoping to make it down to the Fells Point Festival which we haven't attended since pre-children.  Then it would be time for some Gamecock football (my Alma mater).  So we were banking on a fairly busy day.

After the hair appointment (which just in case you were wondering turned out great), we quickly wrapped presents, finished straightening up and were all ready to go...except this guy...

We scooped poor Jackson up, got him in the car and made the drive over to our friend's house.  He dozed off about 10 minutes prior to our arrival and was woken up again to get in to the house.  I unfortunately forgot my camera, so I wasn't able to take any pictures of the adorable kids at the Rapunzel themed party...so I apologize for the lack of photos.

Jackson still has some sensory issues when it comes to new/infrequent settings.  He seems to have the hardest time when it comes to large groups and with that, a lot of noise.  So it took him a few minutes to get his bearings before he was ready to hang out with the larger group.

Grayson wasn't exactly cooperating either...he's going through another one of his non-pooping spells (TMI...I know).  So he's been a little fussy today.  The first thing that he did when we got to the house was projectile spit-up on their couch.  Thank God they have kids...so they get "it" and were very understanding.  Within a couple hours lack of sleep and over-stimulation got to Jackson and he too, was having some meltdowns.  With two kids crying, we called it a day and hopped in the car to go home.

With Adam and I being pretty tired ourselves, we skipped the festival in favor of some quality couch time.  I treated myself to a glass of wine after nursing Grayson and we caught up on a couple of DVR'd shows. 

And in a couple of hours, I'll be sitting back and watching my Gamecocks play the Georgia Bulldogs.  Go Gamecocks!

Flashback Friday: Jackson's "Blue Steel"

Today is Flashback Friday for Day 5 of 31 for 21 and I wanted to share one of my most favorite pictures of Jackson:

This picture remains the background photo on my cell phone and I don't have any plans on changing it any time soon.  Jackson was probably only a few weeks old in this photo and it is one of those pictures that always makes me smile.  I'm sure it was posted at some point on the blog...but it definitely deserves a repost for "Flashback Friday".

We call this photo his "Zoolander 'Blue Steel'" pose...I'm pretty sure he can give Ben Stiller a run for his money with his version!

Jackson may now be nearing 22 months and its hard to remember him ever being quite this small, but this picture will always remain in my favorites. 

Therapy in Review

In my effort to keep this Blog Challenge organized, I decided to do "Therapy in Review" for our Thursday posts.  While today I'm going to summarize what our week looked like in therapy...I'll try to hit the highlights on future posts as not to bore you to death since a lot of the days will be similar.  

Monday, PT was canceled since Chris wasn't feeling well.  We worked on our own stuff that you can see in Monday's post. 

Tuesday, we had speech.  Keri came by and continues to work with him on making and imitating sounds.  He's gotten pretty good at imitating actions, however, does not do well with imitating sounds.  In fact, I commented to Keri about how he's so quiet during speech but swore to her that he does "talk" on and off throughout the day.  Keri even expressed her hopes and excitement that one day soon he's going to look at her and imitate the sounds she makes.

So in that effort, we worked on a puzzle that made noises of the different farm animals.  Jackson did a great job sliding the dog puzzle piece into the slot and pretty much just wanted to put that piece in and out of the puzzle.

Working on our animal puzzle

Keri brought a "Toy Box" toy that contained small stuffed toys, such as a soccer ball, car, and doll to work on some imitating of actions.

And last, she brought out the favorite and always coveted bubbles.  During this playtime, we work on sounds such as "muh" in the word "more", "buh" in the word "bubbles", and "puh" in the word "pop".  He knows and understands the word more and will clap whenever he wants something (which is not the real sign for more, but its close enough and it's understood).

Wednesday was OT and Laura brought a big block that had activities on each of the sides.  For example, a zipper side, velcro side, button side, etc.  Jackson's favorite was the button side that had a ball inside the flap that you could tug.  The ball was on a string and once released the ball would vibrate back to its original position.  Once he discovered this side, Jackson wanted no part of the rest of the block.

Then we played with this octopus toy.  We worked on Jackson lifting up the shoes of the octopus in order to locate the ball and then place the ball inside the octopus.  Jackson really enjoyed this toy (which I may look into purchasing for him...perhaps, a birthday present for him???).    It requires two hands to 1) lift the shoe and then 2) pick up the ball.  By the end of the session Jackson was able to lift the shoe, but definitely needed assistance on holding the shoe open so he could pick up the ball.  Using both hands during a task is one of the things that we are working on.

This is one of his favorite toys...and he's good at using two hands with it: one to help open his mouth and the other to put the cookie in.

We continued our work on stacking...which easily frustrates Jackson.  We have some blocks here at home which are easier for him to stack, but Jackson still finds this to be more of a frustrating activity.

After stacking we used a shape sorter to place shapes such as a circle, star, triangle, and square into the openings.  Jackson was able to do all but the triangle fairly easily.  This activity helps him with problem solving skills in addition to his fine motor skills.

Jackson uses this shape sorter at home (another one of his favorite toys)...which I think is pretty challenging, but he's pretty good at it!

Lastly, we once again attempted to have Jackson scribble.  Laura pulled out a mirror and a Crayola Window marker and scribbled on the mirror.  Jackson had minimal interest in using the marker but did have some fun looking at himself in the mirror.

Today, we had special instruction.  We had our initial visit last week with Lashawn (spelling???) who explained what the sessions would look like and how it was organized.  Each month would have a different theme, for example September they worked on body parts and October would begin farm animals.  She would come in and begin each session with a greeting song that would include Jackson's name and then begin various activities in which to meet his goals.  So I was a bit confused when another special instructor called wanting to set up a time to come work with Jackson.  In classic Infants and Toddlers fashion, they booked two different instructors.  Because Jackson will be attending day care at the end of this month, they had to contract out of the city for the special instruction because the daycare is in Howard County and the city special instructors do not go outside the city for therapies.  But of course, this wasn't communicated to the original instructor so we accidentally were assigned two.

So today we met with the new instructor who will be visiting with us in the home and then will go to Jackson's daycare.  Unfortunately I was disappointed by our visit with her today and hoping that my negative first impressions are incorrect.  I already miss Lashawn and her enthusiasm and organization...there was none of that today and Jackson didn't respond to her very positively.

Naptime!  Notice his mobile is torn down...again.

  I'm excited to report progress again with sucking on a straw.  We purchased this straw cup but did not have any luck with it.  It requires him to open the straw by putting pressure  on the straw with his mouth and suck.  I decided this was too complicated for him when he tried but couldn't get any liquid up.  So we made a trip out to Babys R Us and bought us some new ones to try.  I bought a milk shake from Burger King and we tested out this straw cup.

So excited that we are one step closer to being off the bottles!!!

Check back in tomorrow for day 5 of the 31 for 21 challenge!

Wordless Wednesday: Busted

Two for Tuesday!

First off, I should have prefaced yesterday what this 31 for 21 thing was all about.  October is Down Syndrome Awareness month and many in the DS community are bloggin' it up to advocate for their little ones in an effort to show that we are more alike than different.

I started this blog for two reasons: 1) To keep my family up to date on how their grandson was doing since my parents (and the bulk of my small family) are not local.  This has carried over to some close, dear friends who also do not live in the area and to Adam's brother Josh and his wife Lacey who are doing great works in China.

2) It felt good to let "it" out.  "It" being Down syndrome.  One of my initial biggest fears when Jackson was born was telling people that Jackson had DS.  In the hospital we knew it was a possibility due to the NT screening we had in the first trimester.  And once he arrived and the doctors gave us the litany of "issues" that Jackson had (all ending up very minor in the long run), I remember corresponding with our close friends and family and giving them regular updates throughout the week on Jackson's NICU stay and his DS confirmation.  Adam and I have been blessed to have close, dear friends (most of which we've known since high school, if not middle school and a few elementary schoolers in there!) and family that have welcomed and supported Jackson (and us) since he arrived.  But then there's the rest of the world, friends and acquaintances, and I didn't want to have to awkwardly explain every time to someone about Jackson having DS.  In those first couple of months, while we loved and adored Jackson, I still had moments where it hurt or I was scared and the idea of explaining anything other than how freaking adorable Jackson was, was not something I wanted to do.  I typed up the first two posts and published them...and didn't tell anyone about it for a few days...not even Adam.  I had to let it mull around in my head and then I shared it first with Adam who encouraged me to share it with others.  What better way to tell everyone than to share it with Facebook...I could post it once and never have to explain myself again.

I continue this blog for a couple of reasons: 1) Continue to update friends and family about Jackson and our amazing life with him and 2) The amazing responses I received after posting to Facebook...I felt less scared and felt that Jackson was welcomed into this world by a larger audience than I expected.  I have never deleted them and don't think I ever will.  This was a huge part of my healing process.

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So on Day 2 of this 31 for 21 challenge marks "Two for Tuesday"...which in all my creative glory simply means that in keeping with the original purpose of this blog, Tuesday will be dedicated to discussing our life with two...because you know, we did have a second child about five weeks ago and he deserves at least the blip of recognition that only a second child can receive.

I had my Well-Baby appointment today and am 9 lbs. 10 oz.!

I was thinking about what I wanted to discuss and right away felt that the biggest thing I think about is what I want my boys to learn from us.  So here's a brief list:

1) Family is important

I hope we can instill loyalty in our boys.  In the end, family is the one true source that truly advocates for each other.  While Adam and I will try to be the best advocates for Jackson and Grayson, I want to teach my boys to be advocates for each other...especially Grayson who may come across his own challenges of having a brother with DS.  

2) We are more alike than different.

Standing in his crib!

 Jackson may be slow to learn things, but he will learn them.  He may look different than other typically developing kids, but he is still beautiful.  There are many people out in this world, some typically-abled while others are differently-abled.  Some may talk, while others may sign or only grunt.  Some may walk, while others may require the use of a wheelchair.  Some may look different from us, but they are still beautiful.  We all deserve respect and if we want respect, then we have to first show respect.  Which leads me into...

 3) Don't be a bully. 

Bullying scares me.  Kids like Jackson can be an easy target.  I know what easy targets look like.  I'm a school teacher and I see it ALL the time.  Obviously you do not have to have DS in order to be a target since most kids who are bullied do not have DS.  But Jackson's delays can make him an easy target and makes me scared just thinking about it.  After being given our high risk factor found in the NT screening, when I couldn't get out of bed, one of the images that kept replaying in my head was of a former student going up to one of my other students that had Asperger's and saying "You're a retard."  Now I will note, that the bully dropped out of high school and the student with Asperger's graduated this past spring...who's laughing now, bully!  But nevertheless, the thought of kids being cruel to each other is by far one of my biggest fears as a parent...not just for Jackson, but for Grayson as well.  I hope we can not only teach them not to be a bully, but to also stand up for those who may be the easy target.  Remember...we're more alike than different!

 4) The "R-word" is a dirty word (amongst others).

While we all have the right to use whatever language we want, there are still consequences to our choice of words.  The word "retard" and "retarded" is hurtful to families of individuals with special needs and therefore will be treated as such in our household.  There are many people who argue for their right to free speech or that it's simply slang or that they are being too sensitive.  But when it comes down to it, it does hurt people's feelings so why use a word that causes harm to others when there is a wide range within the English language to say what you mean? If your friend does something stupid, then say "That was stupid", not "You're such a retard".  If your computer is acting slow, then say, "Ugh, my computer is acting so slow" (ugh added for emphasis), not "My computer is retarded".  Its about showing some compassion for others. 

5) Treat your significant other with respect.

I've been blessed to have married someone who treats me with respect.  He has never called me a derogatory term (even if he was thinking it) and continues to love and support me every day.  I'm grateful that he has a wonderful role model in his own father who certainly showed the way for his boys by showing how to be a good partner.  I know Adam will model this for our boys and instill in them how to treat their own significant others one day. 

6)  Be yourself.

This is a tricky one as I see that children today have so much to deal with.  They not only have peer pressure and models from the Jersey Shore, but they also have the anonymity of the internet.  It is so easy to be a follower and fall into many traps that young people face today.  I hope that we can instill confidence in both of our boys that they not only can make decisions based on their own opinions and emotions but will also stand up for each other when needed.

I'm sure this list will grow and be modified as we gain experience as parents and as our children develop and approach new stages in their childhoods but I hope that through our efforts we will teach our children to be strong, independent and compassionate people.

31 for 21

 

I decided to take part in this Blog Challenge and while writing 31 blog posts in 31 days is quite intimidating, I've created a sort of "schedule" so that it is realistic to attempt with two kids while trying to sell your house and going back to work at the end of the month.  I am also going to keep it as simple as possible...

So today marks the beginning of the 31 for 21 Blog Challenge and I've so cleverly decided to give Mondays the theme of "Miscellaneous Monday".  I know...serious originality. 

So for this "Miscellaneous Monday", I'd like to talk about Jackson and his shoes.  Jackson's PT wanted him to wear shoes during the day to hopefully promote stability and a desire to stand and I totally think it's working.  

Just a while ago, I glanced over and Jackson was standing at the couch...something he hasn't attempted to do in a while.  And when we practice our pulling up and standing skills, he actually stands for more than a second and its only been a week of daily shoe-wearing.  

Good weight-shifting!

Chris (his PT) also has us pulling him to stand prior to picking him up so that Jackson gets the message that he has to stand if he wants to be picked up off the ground.  While he's not standing on his own or really pulling himself up to help, he is tolerating standing prior to being picked up (with lots of support of course, but he's doing it!).  This is good for him and good for our backs!

I will say one thing that is a pain about the shoes (and I'm assuming most parents of toddlers can attest to this)...Jackson quickly figured out how to un-velcro  his shoes and typically can be found with only one shoe on by the end of the day.  Interestingly enough, once one is off, the other typically stays in place.

That's all for this "Miscellaneous Monday"...you'll have to check back in for tomorrow's oh-so-creative theme. 

Happy Monday!