Surprising Joy, and Chicken

Part 1

I've meant to write this post for quite awhile, just haven't gotten around to much since I started my new job in January. I'm loving the job (part-time outpatient mental health therapist), but ever since I began working there has seemed to be one mini-crisis after another - mainly, lots of missed school days for the boys due to the weather. Pastor Matt has been wonderful in accommodating me being the "new kid" at work and making sure I could work if at all possible, which means he took care of the boys A LOT. Now that Spring finally seems to have really arrived, perhaps our family life will be a little calmer and I can get back to doing some writing - I have missed it, and it occurred to me last week that I've barely touched the "book" idea since we moved last summer.

We recently celebrated David's fourth birthday; I turn 39 (!) this weekend, then Simon will be 7 and Matt, 38, all in the next month. David continues to do quite well in his preschool; we're thinking we'll need to make a change for the summer and/or fall to something that offers a more full-day program, because we love his preschool but the fact that it lets out at 3:15 is a complicating factor for us. Simon will finish up the first grade soon; he has loved attending the after-school program since I started work, and he's signed up for the summer program that is basically 9 - 6 the entire summer, with lots of activities and field trips. I feel a little (   ) bad about having him in camp/school pretty much every day of summer break, but I recall that when we moved last summer and we didn't really have anything lined up for either boy ... it.was.a.nightmare.  I joked that once I found work, we were going to establish the Simon Dean Summer Camp 2014 Savings Fund and that he was going to go to camp Every Single Day, so I suppose I have gotten that wish. It's pricey, but to have it all worked out/arranged is worth it, I think. David will likely attend the summer program at his preschool, and we'll continue to work out picking him up every afternoon, but then maybe for the Fall we'll find a full-day daycare or preschool.

The title of this post comes from something that happened ... awhile back? A couple of months ago, probably? Is that how long I've been meaning to write this? ... There was some sort of mix-up with the child care provider for our Thursday night contemporary service at church, and so I ended up playing with David the whole time in the church nursery. He simply cannot be maintained in a church service, especially one when his Daddy is preaching, so I didn't even try. Normally this would be a stress-inducing experience, but we had so much fun - much more fun than I would've had sitting in the service without him. Here's some of what we did:

And here are some more (semi-) recent photos:

Part 2

One sad note - the cat I've had for about 15 years, Chicken, died a couple of weeks ago. She was old, obviously, and had been slowing down for awhile, slowing down more the past month and much

more so the last week. She seemed to have trouble walking and we were going to take her

to the vet, though I knew what the recommendation would be. But she died at home the 

morning before the appointment and we had her cremated. I've never done that before; growing up 

in the middle of the woods we always buried pets out in the woods, but it was a nice

experience. We got the ashes back in a nice little carved wooden box, and a card with a quote

and a little story professing that pets DO go to heaven, that dead pets exist in some sort of 

really nice pet limbo until their owners die and then you and the pet go to heaven together. 

I know Matt thinks this is total hooey, but it's a nice story.

This is Miss Chicken, as she was also known ("Pretty Girl" was another nickname)

at Christmas at our house in Cashiers. She was a very pretty cat, very soft fur, and her little face

was just always very clean and pretty and white. I got her when I lived alone in graduate

school, and for a couple of years it was she and I against the world, sort of. I've had her longer

than I've had Matt - when Matt & I met he was actually allergic to cats (I had two of them then, Cat 

Stevens died a few years ago) but I apparently made it clear they weren't going anywhere, and 

eventually the dander didn't bother him any more.

This is Chicken and Simon - how old was he, goodness? Maybe 18 months? If you are wondering

what Chicken is doing, she's not doing a routine bath. She was abandoned as a kitten and does

(did, frown) this wool-sucking thing that the vet called "wooling," that is common in kittens who

weren't weaned appropriately. A lot of cats do it to wool sweaters or broom straws, but as this girl

was abandoned near some train tracks there were neither of those things around, so she 

just sort of nursed on her thigh. Or, when she was younger it was her thigh, as you can see in this photo she has gotten on a bit in years, is less flexible, and is sort of doing it to her side. Most

cats outgrow it, but this one did not. She did it pretty much every single day of her life. You could predict that whenever she sat down in your lap and started to purr, she would do it, and

even I have to admit it was kind of ... gross. She'd do it for an hour if you let her

(and no, I never really tried to do much about it), and that's a lot of wet cat thigh

to then brush up against you. Ah, Miss Chicken. You were a wonderful

companion, and I miss you a lot.

Things & Stuff in the New Place

Various Updates

Simon has started the first grade at our local elementary school. I never would've predicted this, but I kind of miss the "Learning Log" method of communication his Kindergarten teacher used. I don't feel we have a real sense of what he's doing during the day or week, though the teacher sends home a short newsletter each Monday with what they will focus on during the coming week. Simon has not given a ton of specifics; I've tried not to ask a million questions but info is coming out only in tiny bits and pieces. He reports he's made several friends, boys and girls; two boys and one girl supposedly live in our neighborhood. One of these, a boy in Kindergarten, has been confirmed by meeting kiddo and mom. After the first week of settling in, Simon has started riding the school bus, which I was really worried about initially (especially when I was waiting for him at the stop on the afternoon of the first day and he wasn't on the bus, but that mix-up was quickly cleared up) but he appears to be enjoying it.

I cannot imagine David riding the bus one day; I'm glad he would have Simon to look out for him. For me, elementary school bus riding was fine; we had a really strict driver and assigned seats and all was well. Middle school was awful - we had this totally useless older man as our driver and he basically never intervened in anything. This culminated in me coming home from school one day in 7th or 8th grade, in tears because some same-age boys had been yelling to the male driver & passengers of a car following the bus, "something about them having sex with me" is what I remember sobbing to my Mom. I was distraught but didn't really want her to call the school because I was afraid that after whatever suspension might occur the problem would only get worse. She did call, and I don't know what happened exactly, but it did not happen again. Then in high school, the bus seemed to be some sort of DMZ/No-Man's-Land where anything got swapped around (cigarettes, girlie magazines), but everyone pretty much left everybody else alone.

I don't think we had any "students with special needs" on our bus; this was likely an era when anyone with any disability was relegated to the "short bus" and isolated in Special Education classes all day and you never saw them. I am generally really nervous about mainstreaming David, although I know it's the right thing to do - I'm scared to death he's going to be bullied. Matt is much more optimistic about this than I (though I'm sure he's worried to a degree); he points out that rather than predicting all the awful things that might happen, we can instead see this as an opportunity to see exactly how great his peers and the school staff can be - perhaps any teasing will be minimal, and if/when it does happen his brother and friends will take up for him in a way that is of course non-violent and yet takes care of business.

On this note, we did receive some reassurance this week in a little guy named Nate, who is in the first grade at Simon's school but in a different classroom. Nate has Down syndrome, and we'd been referred to speak with him mom almost as soon as we moved here but dragged our feet about it (see "Mac & Cheese & Overwhelm-ment" for our history on this). Matt finally called her on Monday and had a delightful conversation; she had so much information that he ended up taking a lot of notes. Then on Tuesday when we went to the school to sign Simon up for Cub Scouts, there were Nate & mom and they were equally delightful in person. I recognized Nate because his mom'd told Matt there was a photo of him on the local Down syndrome association's website and we checked it out. He's a pretty cute guy, a year older than Sy and maybe a couple inches taller (this indicates how short Simon is, kids with DS are typically pretty small). The first thing Nate did at the Cub Scout thing was to run over to one of the displays and begin flipping through a scrapbook, pointing at photos of a camping trip and saying (excitedly, clearly), "Mom! I want to do this!" He played with Simon while I filled out forms and talked to his mom - they were racing cars around with a couple of other kids. Seeing his "regular kid-dom" was awesome. I don't know if he rides the bus or not, or if he's had many problems in the school, but there should be the opportunity to follow up.

David, of course, is delighting and amazing his entire preschool. We had a scare (on the same day Simon wasn't on the bus) when David slipped out of the school through a door that was propped open, during the Early Pickup time (some kids are done at 12:15, David & others go until 3:15). The staff didn't realize it, and another parent brought him back inside ...  I ... I'm glad Matt was the one to pick up David that day, and that he was the one to be informed about this by the staff. We did not ask where he was (how far he got) because we didn't really want to know. When Matt initially told me, it was easy to accept the news calmly because it was long over and David was fine. But of course the longer I thought about it the more upset I became, imagining various horrible outcomes. And they are horrible - the Quaker meeting house where the preschool is housed is at the intersection of two of the busier streets in the New City, and .... even thinking about him being in the parking lot, out back of the building, was bad enough. I mean, imagine, right? My beautiful 3-1/2 year old child with Down syndrome, wandering around. Jesus.

Matt said the preschool staff were "appropriately mortified" at what happened, and that by the time he picked up David they had already completely revised the way they will do pickup from now on. I mean, I can (sort of) see how it happened - I've never been there at early pickup, but based on later pickup and hey, it's a daycare, there are kids and parents and backpacks and lunchboxes and everything. So now everyone will simply be much more centrally located, and one of the staff people will always hold David in her arms.

Matt and I have (pretty much) gotten to where we can joke about it: (1) Matt has a little joke about entering the Joanna Realm of Reasoning, in which I propose that under certain conditions we should get things for free. When our landlord has not cashed our June rent check by the time the July one is due, June's should get to roll over. When the pediatric anesthesiologist pokes a hole (okay, makes a tiny scratch) inserting a tube in David's throat before his heart surgery, we should not have to pay for that portion of her time or any of the supplies. And, every time you let our child wander out of his preschool we should get $100 off that month's tuition - hey, it's an expensive school, so ... (2) A couple days after it happened there was early dismissal and the afternoon was devoted to parent conferences focusing on "hopes and dreams" for each student. Matt and I were pre-conferencing and he asked if I had anything in particular I wanted to ask them about. My response: "My hope? That they don't lose him again. My dream? That they don't lose him again."

Other than that (!) we are quite pleased with the school and David's new speech therapist and Special Educator, who each visit twice each week. The speech therapist is really emphasizing signs over spoken language at this point, and David is picking up quite a few: apple, cracker, food/eat. His signs for "more" and "please" are now much more distinct ... we think he is beginning to recognize the colors red and blue, and the shape of a circle. The other day at church we were in an office that has a painting of a single foot, with the caption Step out in Faith (or something like that), and David pointed right at it and said "foot," as clearly as you could hope to hear. He does this a lot - he'll either parrot something we say, or label something and we're so excited, and then he never does it again. Oh well. He's coming right along :)

I am officially on the job search trail; I've come across 2 possibilities that are pretty exciting but both long shots a couple that are okay and reasonable to hope to get but I haven't heard anything back yet, and about a thousand that I am totally unexcited about, but which I could probably get hired for pretty easily. Stay tuned ...

Some Tough Shots

As I posted on facebook last week, I kind of forgot about the 3-year anniversary of David's open-heart surgery (8/12/2013). I'd thought about it the week before, but then we went to the beach and all, and it completely slipped my mind until 8/12, when I had to fill out some paperwork for David's new preschool and both enter the date and write "Repaired AV Canal defect" on a list of medical conditions.  I don't have a lot new to say, so here are some flashbacks:

(To read last year's surgery entry, click here - it's pretty good, which I can say because it's mostly stuff from an article I did not write)

And here's some other stuff I have written about the surgery:

Shiphrah, Puah, David Moses and the Red Line (this was my first "real" writing, I think, and I still think it's about the best thing I've written, or at least it's my favorite)

Exodus Things and Stuff, Parts I and II

Misgivings and Doubts

Tubes and Probes and Wiggling

After Surgery Stress and Letdown and More Post-Surgery Letdown

Hey Hey Dr. K (a letter to David's heart surgeon) and A Quick Response (in which I explore the differences between the words "sheepish" and "sheepless")

And (WARNING) here are some previously-unreleased photos. Difficult to see, yes:

(These first 3 are the day and evening before the surgery)
(he looks so small and lonely in this shot to me)

Yes, this is horrible. But we were so glad he was alive, we didn't really notice at the time. 

This is a few days later - he was in the hospital a total of 7 days. Pretty amazing. 

So he's doing so much better now, these seem ancient. And I did end up making a cake, but the photos are still on my phone and I'll publish them soon.

Thanks again to everyone: Dr. K, Dr. Aaron, all the nurses and other docs, and all our family, friends, and complete strangers who have prayed for and supported us these 3.5 years. God bless.

Settling In

Our little family has been thoroughly welcomed by our New Church. We made our official first appearance this past Sunday, with Matt assisting with some prayers and communion, and Simon and I standing briefly to say "hi" to the entire congregation. Although the role of the pastor's spouse has thankfully changed a lot over the years (in the Methodist church anyway), it's still a role, I suppose - I don't know tons of other jobs where your spouse gets introduced to 300+ of your colleagues/clients all at once, and Matt's "clergy profile" on the Conference website lists me as his spouse, right after the name of the seminary he attended. That's weird, right? I can't imagine a professional profile of me, or of many other jobs, where not just your marital status but the name of your spouse is listed. I do feel "watched" a lot, right now because it's new I'm conscious of it but soon I guess my usual personality of "[forget] it" will take over ... :) It was a great day, with a cookout and celebration afterward - I would guess there are also not many professions where your official welcome comes with a big waterslide and a cornhole tournament on the front lawn. I'm excited about the new placement, and I hope it's as good for the New Church as I think it will be for us.

It's Been Awhile Since I Rapped At Ya

(If you don't get the Jim Anchower reference I may have to boot you off this site)

It has been awhile - as you know we've been busy with the move, which I would consider to *nearly* be over. We have most stuff unpacked, and all the little things that were out of order with the new place are back in order (air conditioner, leaky tub, dishwasher not draining). The house is coming in to some sort of order, and we really like it. It's hard to tell how close-knit the neighborhood is, but people are out and about quite a bit (running, walking dogs, riding bikes) so I hope that's a good sign. We appear to have two different neighbors in law enforcement, one uniformed officer whose cruiser is usually parked just across the way, and a detective or something a ways down. That's nice. We've only met one person so far, but I'm sure we'll talk to others pretty soon.

The move itself, the day with the truck, was horrible, not so much the trip itself as the 18 or so hours preceding it, when we realized the truck was too small and then learned that U-Haul, due to a history of lawsuits, will not rent a trailer to pull behind an Explorer. I tried not to beat myself up about it too much because I know it's an inherently stressful process, but it was so frustrating because I'd been packing for three months, and how in the world was there still so much left? Oh, well, it's all here now, after a trip back the next day by Matt to pick up all the stuff we had to leave on the back porch.

Simon and David are settling in, and Simon is excited to meet new people. He's begun a week-long day camp through the new church, and David's started the half-day preschool there. Today Matt suggested we start David in full-day preschool somewhere, in August, and I agree. The little booger is as cute and adorable as ever (Matt has officially termed taking him out in public as, Winning Friends and Influencing People) but he is a lot of work these days - constant supervision. Constant. Especially in the new house, where some stacks of boxes remain, not everything is 100% childproofed yet, he can start the dishwasher in a heartbeat and the oven is a lot easier to open than the one in our old kitchen. Constant, I tell you. It is wearing me out, just the four hours between picking him up from the church and when Matt gets home after work.

My main task for David these days is setting up outpatient surgery for him to get fillings in his two front bottom teeth. Yep. Down syndrome makes him more prone to gum disease, not cavities, but his meds (especially the nebulizer ones) make him prone to cavities. Because he's so young they will sedate him (like with an IV, not just nitrous oxide or whatever), and our Blue Cross will cover the anesthesiologist but not the actual dentistry work, so we are in negotiations with the hospital to see if we can get some sort of discount from the $1500 - $2500 it might cost. He has not previously had dental insurance because it's so expensive and in my experience not worth it, between the premiums and the yearly maximum, and the BCBS lady basically told me not to waste my money until we had a better idea of what his dental situation might be. Well, I guess now we have a better idea .... I also have to get him set up with the New County's school system to begin speech therapy and other services - I made an initial contact with the Preschool Coordinator a couple of months ago, but she said there wasn't really anything she could do until we got here, so ...

This has been a whole lotta nothing, I suppose, but that's about the level my brain is functioning at these days. Here are some lovely photos to enjoy, and I'll try to make the next post a little more coherent:

This is at my sister's house; she has this giant (glass) jug full of wine corks, and on each visit the boys delight in taking them in and out. I figure hey, great fine motor skills practice for both of them:

                

       

My two boys in a delightful wig, and David helping to pack (none of the things he put in the box were designated to pack, but he was so cute and industrious, and so proud of himself for helping, that he can help me out any old day).

And here are three shots of my wedding dress - came across it packing. I did not have bridal portraits taken, which I regret because the dress is really beautiful, but here are a few.

 A close-up of the hem, the back of the dress, and the neckline. 

It's best from the front, the neckline and an empire waist, but it looked sort of droopy, not being on a dressmaker's dummy, so maybe I'll show some of those later.

(And yes, in fact, I did have to move a few stray Kix out of the way to

 take the close-up of the hem. How did you guess?)

Yawn ...

Not sure what the next couple of months will hold as far as "ability to post/blog." We are starting to realize this moving thing is for real - this weekend Matt and I are going to visit about 7 rental homes, and get an official-ish tour of the new church. We've started to pack up some books, pottery, etc.; I actually got a package of color-coded Avery moving labels but I think that may ultimately only serve to make me think I'm further along than I am ("I have labels. I'm obviously way too organized to have to worry about this."). Something about that last sentence is really awkward, I admit, but I'm not currently motivated enough to do anything about it.

Regular Stuff

I would say, we are slightly getting back to normal. But I'm not sure what "normal" typically is for our family, and I think even that is off the table for the near future due to the upcoming move.

I was out of town for four days last week, attending a conference in Wilmington and then checking out a few homes in our upcoming city. Either right before I left or the moment I got to Wilmington, I caught some terrible cold germs - Monday evening I started feeling poorly and that continued all day on Tuesday. As I was heading back last Thursday, this giant wave of fatigue hit me hard, and I ended up checking into a motel for a couple of hours to take a nap. (Not really, but) this felt like some sort of personal failure. I mean really, paying $60 to take a nap because I couldn't stay awake? But it was necessary; there was no other way to be safe. Whatever virus or whatever it is, is still hanging around - I skipped church and Simon's soccer game on Sunday, and laid low all day yesterday because I felt basically terrible. Today is a better day, and I'm going to get out and about in the sunshine some.

I Feel Terrible but at Least I Look Good

I am taking a sick day today, Tuesday April 30th. Yesterday afternoon was half a sick day - the morning was wonderfully productive, house- and writing-wise. Then I was feeling pretty bushed so I tried to nap and never fell asleep but when it was time to go get Simon, I Felt Horrible. Nausea (I would rather break my wrist and have a cast for 6 weeks, than feel nauseated for 15 minutes) increased and increased for about 2 hours (miserable, I tell you, I was miserable) until I finally, uh, you know, but then I still felt bad for most of the evening. Thanks to Matt for taking care of the boys; the nausea finally went away but I still felt generally yucky and was worried I might have the flu or something. This morning is much better but then I hardly slept at all, so today (I hope) will hold some naps.

Inclusion and Dis-clusion

Last week David went to our church's afterschool program, Wonderful Wednesdays, for the first time. It's for kids 3 - (2nd grade? 5th grade?), so David is among the youngest kids. One of the missionaries our church helps to support is home on an extended leave, and she loves to play the guitar and lead the kids in singing. The kids were all in a semi-circle around her, with David on my lap unless he was up wandering around. For the WW program, we pick up kids from both the elementary schools in our little town, so some go to our church but a lot don't. I noticed a lot of kids looking at David; I've sort of come to dismiss younger kids doing that because I know they'll stare at anything. And a lot of them were watching me sign some of the songs pretty closely. So I introduced him as Simon's little brother and added that he can't talk much yet so that's why I'm signing. I encouraged them, if they had any questions about David to ask me later. 

What to do, what to do ...

Our two little guys are doing well, chugging right along. David had his 3-year-old checkup last week; again it's a relief to be reminded by the pediatrician of exactly how far he's come. He has finally broken 25 lbs; he's about 32" tall. He was over 25 lbs a long while back, then he was sick and vomiting, and he's only now getting back up there. There were no shots at this visit, thank goodness, and we finished up by having lunch with a former colleague and then visiting my last job site to see a couple of other old co-workers. Simon brought home an excellent 3rd-grading-period report card; everything was the same or improved from the last time. Matt in particular was really proud; he made a copy of it to send to his parents. He (Simon) continues to regularly amaze us, most recently me during a phone conversation. I had to go out of town overnight for a family (of origin) issue, and it's probably the best phone conversation I've ever had with him. We didn't talk about anything special, just his day at school and home, but it felt like a much more grown-up conversation, probably owing to the fact that he didn't recount anything having to do with Star Wars/Angry Bird, Ninja Turtles, or one of the various other mass-marketed cartoons he has come to love. And I saw him getting dressed the other day; it was a "free dress" day at his uniform school, I encouraged him to wear jeans and I was shocked when he agreed. He'd usually much rather wear sweatpants or something similar, and watching him suck in his little belly to zip and snap the jeans was just funny. The jeans are a little too long and without his shirt on yet, he looked really tall and grown-up, more like a 7 or 8 year old. "He looked really tall" is not something you are going to hear much in association with Mr. Sy.

100 - 100 - 100 - 100 - 100 - 100 - 100 - 100

This is my 100th post and it's going to be awesome. This blog was pretty slow to get started, slow to grow, mostly because I was slow to actually use it and was clueless about any ways to really promote it. But in the past 6 months I've gotten as many page views as in the previous 12 months combined, so I guess it's starting to get out there.

Thanks so much to everyone who has read this page, either faithfully, occasionally, or if this is your first visit. I have been reviewing my first blog-type entries, on David's CaringBridge page. The first few entries were written in May of 2010, when David had been really critically ill with back-to-back infections in the NICU. There was one night in particular that we were convinced he was not going to live. Then came the open-heart surgery and the really difficult few months that followed. And holy smokes, here he is now: he will turn 3 in one week, he's 32" tall and weighs about 25 lbs. He knows some signs and a few words, all his medical conditions are stable/managed, and he's doing beautifully in full-day daycare.

 

 

My Boyfriend and Other Random Thoughts

1. Our church has a delightful after school program on Wednesdays, appropriately titled, "Wonderful Wednesdays."It's for kids age 3 to 5th grade, and Simon has loved it for as long as he's attended. David will technically be eligible, here in about a month or so, but Matt (he's in charge of this ministry) is advising against it. I suppose I agree; this is not a public school or anything and they just don't have the staffing to give him the attention he needs - daycare is helping him with sitting in a chair and coloring or whatever, and I know that no 3 y.o., disabled or not, is that great at any of that "paying attention" stuff. At the same time, my hackles automatically went up (not at Matt, at the universe or something) - he has the right to participate just like any other kid. I suppose this'll be an ongoing or recurring battle, trying to balance David's rights with what a "reasonable accommodation" is, in any given circumstance. I guess I could volunteer in the preschool class and be available as a 1:1 for David; note to self talk to Matt about this.

Nothing Political Whatsoever

I have high hopes for this week - few if any appointments or formal obligations, no weather expected that should close school, and I hope to get in 5 solid days of work and writing. Oh, wait, Simon's school is out all day on Wednesday for parent-teacher conferences. And crap, I need to call the pulmonologist's office to cancel that appointment and today I have to get the kids ready by myself because Matt has to leave early for a "day of service" activity and … well, you get it, but maybe it'll still be 4 semi-solid days of work. 

David's Daily Stuff

David taking a break from yesterday's project - moving all his pants from the drawer to sections of the ladder for Simon's top bunk bed. Each time he threw pants and landed them inside a section, this was a cause for great celebration.

Drinking well from a cup

The mirror his CBRS lent us - he loves checking himself out!

Matt is dying for him to get his hair cut; I am always hesitant but it may be time.

Yeah, maybe it's time.

Often Imitated, Part 2

1. More great David-imitation: (a) From watching brother coughing into his elbow, David has learned to fake-cough into his elbow. Doubly funny because Simon is usually fake-coughing to start with. (b) Hilarious: fake snoring. Simon used to fake snore when we put David to bed, when he was having a hard time transitioning from crib to toddler bed. I have no idea why he started this, but he believed it helped/distracted David so he could settle down, and after awhile we were inclined to agree. Now David will dive onto a pillow or blanket on the floor, close his eyes, and snore.

2. Covering his mouth with his hands while he’s giggling. This is something his speech therapist started with him, and it’s really cute. He also seems, in the last month or so, to have rediscovered that he has this belly – often pulling up his shirt, checking to make sure his belly button is still there (I guess). He loves everyone else’s belly button too, especially brother's.

3. Dance moves have improved – now whenever he hears music, he begins waving his arms back and forth as if he is at a concert. He also uses above-mentioned belly as a drum, and kicks his feet.

Often Imitated

David’s development has really taken off lately – nearly every day he’s doing something new and different. Several of his therapists told me this would happen once he began walking, that major progress in one area is usually associated/correlated with big progress in other areas. The thing we are enjoying most is all the ways in which he’s imitating us, showing us he has been paying plenty of attention to the way we do things in our family.

David’s main chore is helping with laundry. This usually consists of me taking the wet clothes out of the washer, shaking them out, and then resting them on the open dryer door for David to push them the rest of the way in. He is diligent in this duty, if something doesn’t go in right away he keeps giving little pushes until it does. Occasionally he punks out before the load is done, but as you can imagine we have plenty of laundry at our house and sometimes I wish I could quit before it’s done. He also helps me get the dry clothes out of the dryer into the basket for folding. Lately he has begun taking small items like washcloths and disappearing around the corner with them, coming back empty-handed. Follow-up reveals he has gone to the living room and put them on the arm of the couch or the chair, and smoothed them out, because that’s exactly what Daddy does when he’s folding. He also helps quite a bit with unloading groceries, sitting on the floor and handing me boxes of cereal or pasta, or cans of veggies, for me to put on the higher pantry shelves. He’s not easily daunted, either: he can pick up one of those 48 oz bottles of apple juice and carry it a short way, and even a gallon of milk he can drag for a little while.

He’s a great little problem-solver; yesterday he began trying to climb up on his little Elmo stepstool. He has previously used it to sit on and has not offered to try to stand, but yesterday it was pushed against a wall, and he used that to brace and balance himself while he took all these steps up and down – his own little step aerobics class. It was so great to see him experimenting with different places to put his hands.

These things may seem little, but David continues to provide regular reminders of how much work goes into everything, for him. You notice lots of stuff you never had to before. 

My Delightful David

A big thank-you to everyone out there who has been reading this blog the last few days. The response to “I Am Not Ashamed” is overwhelmingly positive, and somewhat humbling – I guess a lot of people are continuing to re-post on facebook because I have continued to get four or five (or more) times as many page hits as usual. That’s great. Please feel free to look around the site a bit – some entries are more polished, on-target and succinct than others, but I think most of them are pretty good, especially the Pages (the list of titles is to your right). The main target audience of this site is our family and other parents of young children, but I will modestly assert that other folks would enjoy it. If anyone, but especially the parents of a child with special needs, finds something here that is helpful and encouraging, then I have succeeded.

Quick departure from the topic at hand, to make a David Update. He saw his pediatric endocrinologist on Tuesday, for a 6-month follow-up. David has very mild hypothyroidism, which is easily controlled with medication once per day. The office visit was short, but the doctor really engaged with David and he showed off his new walking skills for her. Since his disastrous cardiology appointment in March (see “Mr. Uncooperative”) we have been practicing with Simon’s toy doctor kit, especially listening to his heart with the stethoscope. This practice has paid off – as soon as he sat in the doc’s lap he reached for her stethoscope and began to stick it down the front of his shirt. Hooray!

Blog Stuff, David Stuff

Dear Readers,

You guys are awesome – a thousand visits since things really took off (i.e. since I started keeping track) – but please, show yourselves! Let me know who you are, and become a member or follower, leave a comment, or e-mail me  – lots of folks are reading, but beyond some really basic info (a variety of places, operating systems, and browsers) I know nothing.  I'm interested in hearing from other parents, especially those who have kids with special needs (What's helpful? What does not match your experience?). But I'm also really curious about everyone else who's reading, especially those who do not have kids (What are you liking here? What is boring you to death that I should take out?) 

Team SyandDaveysMom! Team SyandDaveysMom! Team SyandDaveysMom!

Oh, and, keep reading: 

Progress Progress Progress

Lots of progress lately for Mr. David. He is walking more every day – walking more often than scooting, and walking longer distances. He is learning some new signs, sort of. He’s still doing his version of “please” and he makes sort of a general, almost-clapping sign for most everything else. That makes sense to me, because the other signs (help, more, finished) all begin by bringing your two hands together, so it’s not surprising he has not differentiated them just yet. He’s also taking a more active role in mealtimes, shaking his head when he doesn’t want something and pointing at what he does want. He wants to feed himself more and getting frustrated when his skills don’t quite match up to his goals. His first word, “okay,” has progressed from “m-kay” to “okay” and he seems to be using it to convey actual agreement (before he would say m-kay or shake his head in response to a question, no matter what his answer really was). He still shakes his head plenty of times when he doesn’t mean it, but he is usually grinning when he does that, and it’s quite cute. He’s also making the silliest, cutest faces, and gives kisses upon request. It’s pretty great.

Miss(ter) Independent

I am currently (Friday, 11:30 a.m.) watching David taking an early nap – he was pretty worn out after his new home-based teacher worked with him for an hour, and I’m hoping an early nap and earlier wake-up time will help him get to sleep more easily tonight. He’s had a really hard time going to bed since we got back from our little trip. I think part of it is that he slept in his porta-crib all last week, and now he’s having trouble adjusting to being back in his little toddler bed. I’m hoping and assuming this will be over with soon, because there’s a lot of screaming (by him) and putting him back in bed involved.

The new teacher (her official title is Community-Based Rehabilitation Specialist or CBRS) was quite pleased with how he’s doing developmentally: verbally, gross- and fine-motor skills-wise. He is making some new little funny high-pitched squeaky sounds, and is working on the sign for “finished/all done.” She helped him build a wall of blocks and made up a little song to go along with tapping each block in sequence. He was able to tap the blocks in the same sequence and in the same way (with just his pointer finger) and he was (sort of) approximating the rhythm of the song, though with slightly different sounds.