Several months ago two amazing moms who have become dear friends started a project. They began collecting stories from moms like myself to put together into a book. I've come to know all of these moms very well over the past year and they are some of the most inspiring and incredible women I have ever met. Unexpected is a collection of real life stories about receiving a diagnosis of Down syndrome and all of the emotions and feelings that surround that journey. Unexpected is available as an ebook on Kindle here and you can also buy it in print from this site. You can also read all of the stories on the Unexpectedwebsite. This was truly a labor of love and I'm proud to be a part of it. Thank you to Jen and Joelle for making this happen!
I want to preface this post by saying that a lot of these things probably seem very small and trivial to most, but they are huge for us. We've been waiting months for Camden to do something as simple as clapping, so seeing him do it now makes us overjoyed! Besides getting into a sitting position, I feel like he hit a plateau for many months. There were not a lot of new skills happening and some were things I had long expected to see by this point. Well, after our much needed break the clever boy started showing us things that he has been hiding inside. It's been very exciting to see new accomplishments!
Gross motor:
There is really not a whole lot of new stuff going on in this department. This is still very much his weakness. He actually has pretty decent tone, so I still think it's a matter of him being an observer. He has found a way to move some by belly diving and then sitting up...belly diving and then sitting up...and so forth. He will do this over and over to get to something. He will not stay on his belly to attempt to crawl. He can't cover much area doing this, but he does get around.
He is also trying desperately to pull himself to stand. He can do it if you set him up and support him, but he can't fully do it on his own. I think he will actually accomplish this one soon!
We are doing a lot of bench/stool sitting to help strengthen his core. I couldn't find our little stool the other day, so we improvised with one of our many empty coffee cans. He actually enjoys this and will sit on it forever if you let him.
Social:
It has been fun to watch Camden grow in this area. He's always been a social baby and would interact with you through his facial features. Now he has started really engaging with others. He finally started clapping. He did this once or twice before several months ago, but then it stopped. Now he's doing it all the time. It's a small thing, but nice to see!
He also waves hi and bye now. Again, he did this a couple of times before but it stopped as well. He does it a lot now. He actually will say "hi" occasionally when he's waving too! I didn't know he could do this until we were in the grocery store and he started waving his hand and saying "hi" over and over again. I thought he was just making random noises and movements and then I noticed a lady behind me was waving at him. That was a proud moment for this mommy.
He also has recently found his love for the all time favorite game of "peek-a-boo". He gets very excited with this one. He doesn't want you to uncover your eyes yourself though, he prefers to move your hands for you. That's what makes him really happy!
This boy also loves music and dances all the time. He's developed a new little dance whenever he hears a song and it's super cute. Sometimes he rocks his body to the music but usually it's the arm dance.
Feeding:
We have progressed a lot in this area, but now there are some behavioral issues that are making feeding times stressful. We have been completely off bottles for a couple of months now. We only use straw cups and he rocks it in this department! However, he still wants you to hold the cup for him. Ugh. We are working on it. He has also started self feeding and even using his pincer grasp. We are not using utensils yet, but that's okay. Self feeding was a huge accomplishment for him! With all that said, I'm having troubles getting this child to eat now. He spits food out all the time. He covers his mouth and shakes his head "no". He throws up his arms saying "all done". It doesn't happen all the time, but it is a lot of the time. I think it's a phase and just typical toddler behavior (I hope) so we will just work though it.
Speech:
There has been little progress in speech, but any progress is good. Camden has about five words that he has verbalized appropriately which are "milk", "ma ma", "bu bu", "uh oh", and "hi". He does occasionally repeat words but then does not use them again. We are lacking a little in the signing department too. However, he really had no signs before, but now signs "milk", "all done", and "dog". He has found his pointer finger and loves to point to things and hear me tell him what it is. He knows the Korean word for nose (ko) and will point to it when you use the word. I have to give my mom credit for that one.
All in all I'm so proud of my sweet little man! I know he will accomplish many more things and I can't wait to share those moments with him. He is turning into a toddler more and more each day. It's so hard to believe he's not a baby anymore. Sniff sniff. I have a feeling that Camden is going to keep this mama pretty busy!
