Fast Forward!

My goodness! Things have definitely changed in our world since the last time I updated this blog.  Parker is now 18 months old and is happy, healthy, growing little boy.   

Parker talking on his phone on Christmas morning

His development has blossomed so much since the last update.  Back in August, his main mode of transportation was the booty-scoot.  Although it’s very funny and cute to watch, we’ve known it wasn’t the best way for him to get around, so we did everything we could over the past few months to get him to crawl and I can say that as of about 4 weeks ago, his preferred method of transportation is crawling.  What a relief!  Crawling is such an important milestone and can even affect a child’s handwriting!  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t stressing about him learning to crawl, because I most definitely was.  We did many things to encourage him to crawl from modeling to actually putting him in position for crawling by bending his legs while on his tummy.  One therapy toy that helped tremendously was a two-side wedge toy for the floor.  It has a flat piece in the middle, between the two wedges, so it's easy to crawl from one side to the other in an up and down motion. His early intervention teacher allowed us to borrow it and it really got him interested in being on his belly and moving around.  He crawled on it a lot.  Parker started pulling to stand around 11 months, but at 15 months he actually started pulling up on furniture and "cruising" (walking while holding onto stationary object).  Needless to say, my coffee-table in the living room became empty at that point.

This is the first toy that Parker pulled to stand on (at around 11 months).  It's an old toy and is a hand-me-down from some sweet friends of ours, so I'm not sure if you can still purchase it in a store.  If you see one for sell, buy it! It's great for any child!

 Parker also started to stand up without support and walk while holding our hands about  4 weeks ago (around 16 months).  We are presently working on teaching him to walk while holding one hand or while holding onto an object with one hand. He got a grocery cart for Christmas and has started to push it around.  We put weights in the bottom of it so that it would be harder to push and would run out from under him as he tries to walk.  He turned 18 months on Saturday, January 21^st and on the evening of Sunday, January 22^nd, he took his first two steps (without support) with mommy and daddy watching!! We were pumped. He’s been trying to take steps everyday since.  We tried treadmill therapy to encourage him with walking and also because his Physical Therapist said it would help him get the timing of his steps down.  The University of Michigan has completed years of research on treadmill therapy, specifically for kids with DS, and has had great results with it, so we gave it a try.  Parker loved it in the beginning (around 11 months), but now has become bored with it.  We think he’s lost interest in it because he’s very independent and doesn’t like us holding him up on the treadmill because he’d rather do it himself.  So, we’ve kind of phased it out at this point.  I’ll post a link to the research done by University of Michigan.

Parker with his grocery cart on Christmas Day.

Parker’s communication skills have also taken a big leap.  He said his first two-word phrase at 17 months and it was “Get up!”.  He signed his first two-word phrase, which was "more cracker" about 2 weeks before he verbally said "Get up!".  If I had to put a number on it, I’d say he has about 20 words and 6 or 7 signs that he uses regularly.  He does a lot of jabbering and pointing, and we know he has lots to say!  He is rarely quiet (just like his daddy).

I can’t stress enough how much of a blessing Parker is to our lives.   He always brightens my day and I just can’t imagine our family without him.  I often ask my husband what we did before we had Parker because he’s such a joy to us.  I know we’re going to have challenges and times of struggle in the future as we have already, but please don’t ever think that having a child with Down Syndrome is a burden.  When Andy and I look at Parker, we don't see "Down Syndrome", we see our perfect little boy.

Link to University of Michigan's treadmill research:

http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/6142