Gulf Shores

Here are some pictures of our vacation to Gulf Shores, AL.  We had a fun and relaxing week with family by the beach.  We played in the sand and splashed in the pool.  Will and his cousins kept the whole bunch laughing!

Buddy Walk 2011

The 2011 Buddy Walk was a huge success and a great time!  We raised $2734 with the generous support of all our family and friends and we can not thank you enough!  We really appreciate all the amazing donations to Team Will's Way and all the words of support.  A big thank you to all those that came and walked with us.  It is an amazing day!  The love and comfort we felt that day from being surrounded by not only our own friends and family, but also our DSACO family is overwhelming.  To see all the amazing families there that are 'walking the walk' with us is so inspiring!  Just being there among all the other families that also have been blessed with a loved one with an extra chromosome, reminds us that we are not alone and gives me a lot of strength to go on.  We hope that next year even more of our friends and family will come walk with us and experience what it means to take a Buddy Walk:)
Thank you again for all of the support we recieved for the walk and always.  It lifts us up!

Time for School!

Will's first day of school went very well.  Ron and I both stayed the whole time and watched him play.  Typical days will start with play time, then some gym and therapy time, followed by story time and snack time and then more play time.  Usually he will get his therapies while he is playing but occasionally he will be taken out of the room to work on things one-on-one with the therapist.  He is there for just 3 hours and is in a room with 3 other special kiddos and 4 typical peers all ranging from ages 18 months to 3 years.  He has a teacher, an assistant teacher, a classroom volunteer and the 3 therapists (speech, physical and occupational) that come in and out of the classroom working with kids.  There are also social workers, family therapists and nurses in and out of the classroom working and playing with the kiddos.  The adult to kid ratio is great but there is a lot of movement in and out of the room.  We really like all the teachers and therapists that we have met and are really excited for Will to be there!  It is a really great organization with a lot of really great people that definately have Will and the other children's best interest in mind!  http://www.childhoodleague.org/ .

Day two, however, did not go as well:(  I dropped him off and left although I stayed and watched from the observation room.  Poor Will cried on and off most of the time.  At times he was a sympathy crier when others got upset but more often he was the one that started the crying:(  It was hard to watch.  I know it will get easier and I know this is the best thing for him.  The down side to him staying with me 3 days and week and with Aunt Mere the other 2 days is that he has some attachment issues.  He played a little bit but mostly had to be held and comforted by one of the teachers.  Hopefully next week will go better!

Honeycrisp!

We headed to the orchard on Sunday to get our favorite apples.  Afterall we had to get an apple for all of Will's teachers since he starts school tomorrow:)  Will has been enjoying lots of fresh fruit this week and is eating his way through all the peaches, pears and apples we got.  Now I will never get him to eat the canned stuff!

Hey this looks like a ball...

Snoozin

Taking a little snooze while watching ESPN with my godfather Uncle Ricky!

Adventures in Applesauce

Utensil training...was going well...now it seems to be more of a game of how messy can I get!  And if I dare try to guide his hand or offer suggestions on how to use the spoon properly...the neighbors can hear Will's disgust!  He is a sweet but stubborn little boy:)

What is the problem?

Maybe I will just use my hands!

Its funny that mommy has to clean this up!

Hugs and Kisses

Will loves to play with the mirror:)  He makes faces in it, babbles to it and licks it.  Recently I taught him to kiss himself in the mirrow and then caught him doing it on his own a couple days later.

Will may be delayed in walking and talking, but he is definately not behind in how to show signs of affection!  This kid gives kisses and hugs better than any kid his age:)  He wraps his arms around me like a little monkey, when he is in the loving mood, and holds on so tight.  It is pure heaven!  And one is never enough.  Sometimes I can't get through the grocery store because we are so busy giving hugs:)  He loves to give sloppy kisses too!  Poor Miss Lillian is often on the recieving end of these kisses because she can't run away and he just loves her to pieces.  She is usually a slobbery mess after Will comes by to say hi!  It is very cute and a little gross!

Thank You for Supporting Will's Way

We have raised over $1800 for team Will's Way for the 2011 Buddy Walk!  We still have a couple more weeks to raise even more money for DSACO but we hit the amount we needed to get our names on our shirts and are very close to hitting our overall goal!  Thank you to everyone that has registered to walk with us or donated to Will's team and all those that have supported us in many other ways.  I know I say this often, but I really mean it...it means so much to us to have the support of so many family and friends.  Thank you!

Baseball

Will has been a big baseball fan lately!  We went to the Columbus Clippers game 2 weekends ago and the Indians game this past weekend.  Both were fun although the Indians game got rained out after a 4 hour delay:(   Will loves to cheer at the games and seems to know just when to do it!

Intently watching the Clippers!  (For those that have not seen Ron's baby pictures...this is EXACTLY what he looked like!)

Almost falling asleep at the Indians game:(  Go figure!

I think some people might be surprised by the fact that we do normal, everday stuff with Will.  I think I was one of these people before he came into our lives.  The truth is that for most families with special children, their child's disability does not affect all or even most parts of their life.  It just becomes part of who they are now and maybe adds to their daily work load with therapies and appointments but does not prevent them from doing the things they enjoy.  On an everyday basis Down syndrome does not 'impact' our lives.  We do everything we did before we had Will but now we have a little buddy to share it all with! 

Getting Closer...

Will's private PT is getting ready to go on maternity leave and we are sad to see her go but so happy to see her start her own journey with her little one.  She has been great with Will even on his most challenging days!  I am sure he is not her easiest patient to deal with but she always stays patient with him when all he wants to do is throw all the toys and explore around the gym and yet firm with him when he tries to whine his way out of doing something:)  Here are some pictures of her working so hard with Will and having a little fun too!

Will does not always like to walk on the treadmill even though he gets to watch Elmo cartoons on the DVD player:(  Jen and I both try very hard to keep him excited and motivated!

Last week Will decided he would take a few steps but in the version I got on video he kept one foot planted so all he did was turn in a circle:)  For the past several weeks he has been taking one step at a time but last Thursday was the first time he has done several steps in a row!  He is getting closer and closer!

School Starts Soon!

Will is going to be starting 'school' this fall and it will be here before we know it!  His teacher came to the house earlier this week to meet Will and I and she was very sweet.  He will be going to Early Intervention School two days a week for about three hours in the morning.  He will be attending the Childhood League Center and will get all of his therapies there in place of his home based therapies.  The classroom he is in is all 12-36 month old kiddos and 4 of them are special needs 4 are typically developing.  So he will have a great chance to play with kids of all abilities while he receives therapy!  The organization is great and if I haven't put up their website before it is... http://www.childhoodleague.org/ .  It is a privately funded organization but Will's tuition will be covered by the county.  We feel very lucky to have Will attend school here since it is hard to get into.  It has adorable little person classrooms, each with separate observation rooms and packed full of toys and activities.  It has both an outdoor play gym and an indoor gym.  It also has separate therapy rooms and a gathering place for families.  It is hard to imagine him being sent off to school but I can't imagine a better place for him to be!
Now for a quick update on what Will has been doing this summer.  I am so happy to report that Will FINALLY passed a hearing test!  So, at least for now, Will does not need any hearing aids.  I have never doubted that he hears us, but he just could not pass that test!  Everyone at the audiologist office was very happy for Will.
Will has also been taking a music class this summer.  It too is a great organization called We Joy Sing and their website is... http://www.wejoysing.com/ .  He was pretty shy the first class and mostly observed the other children.  This week however he was much more into it.  He clapped his hands, and beat on the drum and really liked to ring the triangle although he was also a fan of throwing the striker for the triangle on the ground.  He has been slapping his hands on his knees to the beat of the music on the radio where ever we go since last week:)
In the last several weeks Will has gone to the pool with the Brown's, attended Uncle Jake's graduation party, gone to a Brough family wedding, hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Crandall at the fair and will be starting swim lessons next week and going to another wedding this weekend.  He is a very busy little man!
Please remember to sign up to walk with Will at our second Columbus Buddy Walk.  The walk is 9.18.11 at Columbus Crew Stadium.  It is a lot of fun and means a lot to us to have people come and walk with us and support Will.  Register or donate at... http://www.columbusbuddywalk.org/ .  Thank you!!!

Rose Colored Glasses

Here is a video of Will eating with a fork!

In my frustration with Will and his horrible eating habits I have decided to take on the untensil training battle.  My hope is that in his struggle for independence, he will want to feed himself even if it is a green bean.  As you can see he does pretty well with the fork as long as I stab the food, but gets very frustrated when he tries to stab it himself.  He also very quickly figured out that just because I hand it to him does not mean he has to eat it and has been pulling off undesireable food like vegetables when I give them to him.  He is so challenging with eating and drinking!!!  At least his favorite food is veggie burgers:)

Which leads to what I feel I need to say about this blog.  I CHOOSE to put up mostly happy pictures of Will smiling and doing cute things.  That is the great part about this blog-therapy...you can let the world in on the parts you want them to know and leave out all the yucky stuff.  Life with Will is great...but is definately not always rosy.  I am not disillusioned into thinking that we don't have big issues to face, nor am I not in touch with reality.  I choose to put up happy pictures of Will smiling and of his big accomplishments because it is a frame of mind for me.  If I let myself go to that negative place and dwell on all that Will is struggling with, it is really hard to find my way back.  I have days where I want to literally beat my head against a wall when he won't sign 'milk' or show me where his belly is, and days when I just want to cry because I see children half his age walking and talking.  The truth is that it really stinks that Will has to work twice as hard to accomplish everything and that this will never go away.  Every time I go to that bad place though, it takes me twice as long to come back as it did the time before.  So I try to put on rose colored glasses as much as I can for my own sanity and for Will's well being:)  I do my best everyday to focus on the positive and having positive people around me really helps with that.  I just had to put that out there so it was clear that I am not trying to make my life seem better or easier than it is because our day to day struggles are very real.  Having said all of that...I wouldn't change even one little chromosome about Will!  Will is amazing and makes my life so much better than I ever imagined it could be...with or without the veggies:)



Zoo Day with Uncle Ricky

Will went to the zoo with Uncle Ricky and the kids a couple weeks back.  Will had fun watching the polar bears splash in the water, the elephants eating hay and the gorillas swinging and playing.  Most of all though he enjoyed the train ride.  He clapped and laughed the whole way:)  In general he loves the zoo but especially enjoys the bigger animals!  Thanks Uncle Ricky for hanging with us for the day!