Dancing King

Will loves to dance!  Here he is dancing and jumping with his cousins at the lake.  Take note that he barely takes his eyes off his cousin Jonas...he wants to do everything Jonas and Ava do.  Which is a very good thing because it is very motivating.  He is trying desperately to jump like Jumpin Jonas!  Jumping is something that is hard for kiddos with low muscle tone to do, so it is Will's next big goal that we are working on.  Yet another amazing feat that most kids just do on their own, but it will take some work for Will.  He has the motions of jumping down, but now he just needs some air:)

The Preacher Returns

Will the preacher was back last weekend at the lake.  He is trying to tell us something very serious and important...we just don't know what it is!

 

Which leads me to say that the harder and harder I am listening, the more and more I am hearing what Will is saying.  He said 'apple' clear as day this week while watching his signing video that has the signs for fruit in it.  I am sure he has many more words that I am just not picking up on yet. 

The great, great news is that he went back to speech therapy this week expecting to start from square one with a new therapist, and in walks his old therapist.  She had her baby several months early and is already back from leave.  Her baby girl is doing well but in NICU for awhile.  We were so happy to see her!  She got Will to count 'one, two, three'!

Will also had his first occupational therapy appointment with a new therapist this week.  I can't really say how it went for sure.  Since the only time available was in the middle of the day when I have my nieces and nephew, I couldn't go back to the room with him.  The therapist said he did 'ok'.  She said he played with trucks, but since he already knows how to do that I am not sure if he accomplished much.  I hope to have him improve his utensil and coloring skills along with just general improved play skills.  He is just going to do the OT for the summer since he will get a lot of theraputic play when school starts up again.

Luckily Will makes us laugh, because he is deep in the midst of the terrible twos!  As I have said before, all the pictures I post of Will are cute and funny, but we have had several moments lately of screaming, crying and whining which I chose not to document on his blog.  I am sure it is mostly a stage and a sign of extreme frustration on his part, but it seems to be getting worse.  Which reminds me how much I hate it when I tell someone new that my son has Down syndrome, and they reply 'oh they are the nicest, sweetest people'.  That sterotype didn't bother me in the past, but it does now.  He is not any more like ALL people with Ds, than I am like ALL people with blue eyes.  He has the normal highs and lows that everyone experiences, and I am here to tell you, he is NOT always happy.  He is getting more picky with food, more angry when he doesn't get his way and more whiney when he wants something.  He is trying my patience for sure.  It is hard to not wonder if something else is going on with him since I can't ask if something hurts.  I hope this phase passes soon!

Will also had fun last weekend visiting a bison farm near the lake and playing in the lake and on the boat with his cousins.

Special Needs Moms

Sorry this came out small but if you click on it it will make it bigger.  It is worth the extra click!

Will's Adventures

Will had a busy and adventurous weekend.  He had his playgroup on Saturday morning with his Little Buddies (Little Buddies is the name of our Ds toddler group), then he went to the Yellow Springs Street Fair, camping and hiking at John Bryan State Park and on the way back home he played at Young's Dairy.  He had a lot of fun eating fair food and dancing to the bluegrass band, exploring the camp site and sleeping in the tent and really enjoyed himself at the dairy with the animals, play area and ice cream!

I feel that it is somewhat exceptional that Will tolerates all the Ron and I plan for him.  Both because he is 2 and because he has Ds and sensory issues, which can sometimes cause him to get overwhelmed when he is out of his comfort zone.  He seems to rise above these little 'challenges' we put in front of him and usually has fun doing it.  It was funny to watch him clap and dance along with the music at the fair.  He can be a stinker at times, but he really is a very sweet, funny and mild-mannered toddler!

He is on a break from all therapies right now...not by choice.  I have been juggling the schedule this past week because his speech therapist had her baby very early and since there was no one to take over her patients, we had to move to a different time.  Will also had his occupational therapy re-evaluation last week.  Thank you Grandma Sandy for taking Will while I was at work, because otherwise we would have had to wait until August!  So I have been trying to coordinate OT with ST and the rest of our life, to see where we can fit this all in.  Much to my dissappointment, I never found him a good summer program or camp to attend.  They were either too expensive, too far away or too old for him.

Physically he has been under the weather.  His right ear is infected from surgery, so he has been on drops for that.  He fell on his little face while chasing his cousins and sustained the injury you see in all these pictures.  Someone told me it makes him look tough:)  And he has had a little stomach bug too.  So we are looking forward to being healthy again soon and free to enjoy our summer!

Preacher

Will decided that the back porch at the lake cottage was his stage last weekend.  He used the toy mallet as his microphone and told us all we were going to heaven...well at least some of us!  We figured this is a combination of his Rockin Ronnie concert at school last week, his constant imitation of Ava who is ALWAYS performing and, at least I would like to think, I little bit from being at church.  This boy is so funny.  He makes us laugh!

DSA Race

We had a 5K last week for Down Syndrome Achieves.  DSA is a national organization that was started here in Columbus that funds research and legislative advocacy for individuals with Down syndrome. 
www.dsachieves.org