Cause and effect

Look at this guy! We are rocking the cause-and-effect activities this morning. Liam is sometimes almost pulling himself up to stand with a little support. And then he knows just what to do with the flash card program on the iPad- he can touch the screen to go to the next image and he always waits for the word to be spoken aloud before moving on. How clever is he?
We went to the park and for the first time Liam pretty much went down the slide by himself. Very brave.

When the cat is away....

When I was about nine years old I won a local art contest with a drawing of the phrase "when the cat is away the mouse will play".
Fast foreword 18 years...
Lupe is at school and Liam can play with all of her special stuff including her jewelry box. I do believe he's having the time of his life!

4 going on 14

I don't know if it's just being four or the influence of school but my sweet little girl has been replaced by a teenager, with attitude. She is talking back to me, throwing tantrums, making ugly faces, and on top of all that, doing new things like preening in front of the mirror.
It is so hard to watch! I suppose I should be glad that she feels comfortable enough with me, her mom, to talk about her emotions a little bit and to tell me when she is angry at me.
And may I just ask why is it that kids so often are dying to be friends with the one person who isn't very nice to them and doesn't want to be friends back?
God give me wisdom and patience here!

Thursday morning here

We are having a rainy day and it is so thrilling! Like finally getting a glass of water when you have been just so so thirsty. Pedro has taken Lupe off to school. We are finishing up our blueberry peach pancakes. Liam likes to feed himself now more than be fed. In fact, Liam is doing so much cool new stuff recently. Imitating gestures and sounds. He lets us know when he wants to sing itsy-bitsy spider. I don't know if it's the molar coming in but he keeps his mouth closed a lot more these days. Playing with his fingers playing with his shadow. I remember in months past having some doubts when I would see him just staring at the world passing by but now he seems like such a curious little guy When you are raising a baby with a developmental delay every single little thing they do is so exciting. I somehow thought before that these little things would get missed with the second child in the busy life that that entails. But having him is like being a mom for the first time again.

"camping"

This is one of our favorite games recently. It can be either a sheet a scarf or a kitchen towel and all we do is cover our heads and say "camping!". And everybody smiles.

Music time

Buskers on the street, babies in the music store.

Sense of touch

Sensory stimulation is a big part of what we do with Liam. What could be better than laying on the soft grass without your pants, feeling the sun on the top of your head, and a warm breeze?
That and Liam's first experience painting today.

Paso a paso

When you have a child with special needs you are so aware of each stage of development and every single little thing that they learn. It's so awesome when you are practicing something with your child and you wonder when they will finally, finally learn to do it and then one day - BOOM- they just start doing it!
Liam will stay sitting on his knees for a a while and he looks like such a big boy when he does it. Instead of letting the food just drop out of his mouth he now will put his hand in front of his mouth to keep it in while he chews. For a few weeks we have been blowing kisses at him and this week he finally started to imitate the motion. So awesome! He also has been slowly starting to make some new sounds although his main sound is still baba (that being said the other day when I wasn't picking him up he was pretty clear when he said mama up!)
But the day he starts crawling we are going to have a major, I mean major fiesta. We are working so hard, and so us he. With the help of one of his grandparents we are assisting him in the crawling Cross pattern motion. And the little guy works up a sweat!

Hair!

Look how long that hair us getting! But I can't even think about cutting it. Well, maybe I thought about it a little bit these last two days when the temperature was around 100°. But I didn't cut Lupe's hair until she was three and even then it was only a little trim. That first haircut feels like cutting the umbilical cord all over again. It's a big first for me.
So we won't do anything with his hair. I think he looks rather handsome.

Avila valley barn

Such a short short time ago that I was doing this class field trip with my little Lupe. Now she is in a five day week school and I am in parent participation class with Liam. I probably shouldn't have gone this day. I think it was 100°. Literally. Doesn't Liam look sweaty and hot?
However an interesting thing happened that same night. I was reading a blog called Noah's dad. His little one is about Liam's age and also has down syndrome. October is down syndrome awareness month in our country and this dad created an idea on his blog for a "wall of awesome. ". The idea is for parents to share pictures of their kids and talk about how awesome they are. Pedro and I were looking through the photos and I saw that just a couple of hours before a mom had posted about her field trip to Avila Valley barn- hey, we were there! From what I can tell the down syndrome community is very small in this county and I was excited to know that another mom was on the same trip but with a different class. I saw through Facebook that her daughter is three and she lives in another town nearby. So I sent her a message; we'll see what happens! Always trying to make connections.

Yum

He still eats greater quantities of mashed soft food, but we are finally seeing he likes more texture and flavor too! Papa's huevo con tomate and my quinoa with parsley walnut pesto. Mmmm.....

Love

I love this sweet little boy so so much.

Travieso

Liam now stands up in his highchair. It is a clip on high chair to the table but we put a regular chair underneath it for him to rest his feet on. A couple of days ago we were developing core and leg strength by sitting up down up down up down and he was pulling himself up a lot. That night he rested his feet on the chair underneath his highchair and stood up. Mi travieso! We are so attuned to every little thing in Liam's development that it is especially exciting when he does little things that we can laugh about and say "oh you're going to get into so much trouble with that!"
With Lupe I remember feeling in no hurry to have her crawling and walking because I knew that when she did and was able to get around on her own she would be able to get into lots of trouble. With Liam life will be busier and more tiring when he can do those things but we want them to happen so badly!
BTW, he also blew a kiss at grandma and Lupe this week for the first time! Coqueto! That's my guy!

Play therapy

September 29.
Here are a few shots of Liam playing with one of his therapists
Yesterday Liam blew a kiss at lupe and grandma for the first time!

Grateful

I am sitting in bed. The kids are asleep. Feeling so blessed by the utter bounty in my life. Looking at Lupe sleeping here next to me...she is so unbelievably gorgeous.
And Liam. I still get caught up in worry wondering if I am doing enough and still the occasional "Why me? Why him?", but really, LIFE IS AWESO
E.
We live near family. We have friends. we live in a gorgeous city with perfect weather. We can walk downtown. We live within our means and are doing good. We are surrounded by love.

Good morning!

I wake up to see his face THAT close. Hard to be mad about all the times I woke up through the night.
He laughs. He tries to kiss me. He looks back at his sister who is watching. And he gets even closer.

Tracking our progress

Yesterday was a great day. Something very satisfying about seeing all those check marks Now it's the next day and 1:30 in the afternoon and we've done almost nada! Liam patiently accompanied us in the stroller for two hours(!) while we hit up a neighborhood garage sale. Looking for good CAUSE AND EFFECT toys: all in the name if Liam's therapy!

Art after dark

We went diwntown tonight after dinner and were at a store looking at kids art and a woman was studying Liam for a minute. Then she said, "he's very cute. I used to work with special ed". And it was an interesting moment. It made me think: was it necessary to even mention that? But then I said, "Oh thanks! Yeah, he has Downs.". And then I wondered, was it necessary to say that?
It's the first time a stranger in public has brought it up. Earlier today I was thinking about how we're starting Parent Participation next week and wondering if I will mention T21 from the get go so people aren't wondering. I was thinking of even saying that the other parents could feel free to ask me questions. I myself didn't know anyone with DS until Liam was born.
What would you do?

Lupita's little worlds

This is Lupe's every day. She sets up her toys in every corner or surface of the house. Recently she likes to group them by size or type or color. I wonder what she would do if we had no furniture to set up her scenes on?
I want to remember this so that when she is older and has developed some amazing talent for something I can look back at her early childhood and remind her of how she used to play.
It's like a friend of Pedro's, when they were little he used to find dead lizards or rats and cut them open to see what they looked like inside. Can you guess? That's right, he is now a surgeon.

Back to school supplies

Our support person for NACD, the neurodevelopment program we do with Liam said that Target had great flashcards for a dollar. So I went a little crazy!
The best set was the animal flashcards with the real photographs. Ideally I would find flashcards of many different subjects using real photographs. I also found some great materials to use with Lupe to practice the ABC's. And something I have been looking for for a long time: stickers in español! These will be great for story time and music time in Spanish.
Back to school is fun!