15 Month Update

Colin hit the 15 month mark on the 20th! It's amazing that our little boy is well over a year now and even more amazing as to how much has changed in our lives in those 15 months. We are so lucky to have a little guy who is so loving and who has such an amazing personality! He is so much fun to be around...

I took him for his 15 month check-up the other day and was excited to see Dr. Uma. Unfortunately, she had a sub in for her because she was out of the office. I know I have said this before, but we are so lucky to have such a wonderful pediatrician for Colin.

Colin weighed in at 20 lbs, 8 ounces which pulled him up from the 3rd percentile at his 12 month checkup to the 5th percentile. He gained 3 lbs. in 3 months so we were pretty happy with that progress. He had a little growth spurt on the height chart as he grew 3" in 3 months putting him at 30" long. With that growth he moved up into the 25th percentile. Throughout his whole 15 months, the pediatrician has kept him on the "typical" child growth chart so he has managed to hold his own.

Since Dr. Uma was not there, she left us instructions to get more blood work done on Monday the 26th so that his thyroid function can be determined again. If the labwork comes back off again, then the pediatric endocrinologist will see us earlier than our end of September appointment.

The doctor was very happy with Colin's overall checkup, aside from a little diaper rash that she prescribed an antibiotic cream for, and gave him 1 of the 3 shots that he needed (we are going to do the rest at another time). He handled it like a champ, but all the excitment made for one tired little boy!

And yes, Colin is facing forward now! It's amazing the language explosion he has had now that he is turning forward and is able to see us in the car. I moved the mirror that I had been using to be able to see him when he was facing backwards to face Colin and it's so funny to watch him talk to himself in it.

Colin is making a lot of progress in a lot of different areas, albeit slowly (which is completely ok!). Physically, he is working really hard on getting himself into a sitting position, but has yet to complete the task during waking hours. Funny story...last night around 5am, Colin started wimpering and crying a little bit, which he never does once he is asleep. I got up and since it was dark in the room, I couldn't really see what was going on. I tried rubbing his back, and noticed that something felt off/different. I realized that the reason Colin was crying because he had managed to get himself in a sitting position at some point in the night and had fallen asleep bent in half (which I can't imagine was very comfortable!). I was excited at the prospect that if he was able to do that while he was sleeping, the possibilities were endless once he could put his full effort in!

He still refuses to do much on his hands and knees, but can pivot and roll like a champ to get himself around the room to what he wants. As you saw in a previous post, he is bearing more weight on his legs as well.

In addition to "dada", "mama", "hi" and "up", Colin started saying "oooo" the other day as well. Even though it's not a word, it's quite an accomplishment since it requires a lot of oral motor effort on his part to get the sound out. He is also using the sign "more" consistently now, so we are excited for that as well. You can see him saying "ooo" here:



He is such a lover, and if you ask for a hug, he will rest his head on your shoulder and say "ahh" (one of my favorites!) and still continues to give out LOTS of kisses...

Instead of pushing him all of the time to accomplish specific tasks, we have been allowing him to explore a lot more. I think it's all around better for Chris and I as well as for him. He loves the sand, and will move himself all over the towel in order to get his hands in the sand. He has no problem eating the sand as well.

He keeps moving and moving until he just. can't. keep. his. eyes. open. anymore.

Yep, this is him passed out half way in the sand...face down.

He still loves loves loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and gets so excited when the song starts with the show. It's really cute because when he sees Mickey Mouse on the screen he starts looking around at us and then starts clapping his hands.

Finally, we got to see Colleen and Jon this weekend! It's always great to spend time with them!

They treated us to a nice dinner and Colin even ate chicken parm! I cut up the spaghetti and chicken and he ate it like a champ...slowly but surely!

Just a Cute Picture

I just thought this was a cute picture of Colin sitting at his table, on his stool (which we use to practice pulling to stand with), watching his favorite show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Happy [Belated] Birthday Aunt Kimmy!

Wednesday, July 21st was Colin's Aunt Kimmy's 24th birthday! Aunt Kimmy and Colin have a special relationship and they love to be together. Colin and I were lucky that we were able to drive up to celebrate with a birthday dinner for her on Tuesday.

Happy Birthday Aunt Kimmy! We love you very much! xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Look At Me!

Up until a few months ago, Colin wasn't interested at all in bearing weight on his legs. In fact, any attempt on our parts to get him to stand, even if it was just on our lap, was met with a little boy who would immediately bend his knees and actually hold his legs up.

Then, right before we moved out of our old house, we borrowed the "Johnny Jumper" from the Gallagher family, and Colin became more interested in jumping. One of my go-to pieces of equipment that I would use at school was the rainforest jumperroo during drop off because Colin would get so excited to jump that he would practically dive out of my arms.

We are finding more and more that Colin is willing to bear weight and is starting to combine that with pulling to stand on the toy box or couch (if there is something motivating there). He may start in a bear position and then will use his back muscles to extend into a standing position. It's exciting and is allowing me to invision a little boy who will be running into my open arms in the future. It's amazing how much cuter he is in an upright position!

"Hi Guys! Look at me!"

Hi Daddy!

One of the new "skills" we have been working on with Colin is using the phone to imitate and use his imagination a little bit. The first few times Miss Darlene tried it out, Colin was interested and said "hi" once, but nothing really came of it.

One of the great things about moving is that you start to unpack toys you totally forgot you had! We pulled out a phone the other day and have been talking to different people on it in front of Colin and then handing it to him to see what he does. This morning, he was so animated saying hi and yelling into the phone. I caught a short bit of him with my phone (sorry for the poor quality), but you get the point.

This video reiterates how much Colin loves his daddy...

Pray for Parker

Sweet little Parker will be having open heart surgery today, so please take a moment to say a prayer for him and his family...

An excerpt from his mom's post as they prepare for the surgery: "Pray for the surgical team, Dr. Fraser, Dr. Mossad and anyone else that will be handling our precious boy tomorrow. Pray that there are no complications, that it is an uncomplicated repair, and that Mike and I get a few hours sleep tonight."

You can stop by his blog, Parker's Purpose and let their family know you are thinking about them...

SUMMERTIME....

...and the livin's easy!

Well, mostly easy! We are still getting settled into our new house, but we love it so much and know that the whole process is going to take some time. So, we are still trying to enjoy our summer as much as possible!

We recently went to our friends Petrina and Mike's birthday party and got to see Colin's Aunt Veronica all the from Colorado! We miss her so much and love spending time with her when she is here visiting. She is my oldest friend (since 1st grade!) and I love her so much!

Colin got to spend some quality time snuggling, and enjoyed getting his tummy scratched by her!

She is the kind of friend that you can go many months without seeing her, and just pick up right where you left off!

It's always so great to have the 4 of us together again!

For us, the summer involves a lot of beach time! We are so fortunate that my parents rent a beach house for 2 months of the summer every year (I've been going since I was 2 months old!) so we spend a lot of time over there with our toes in the sand. Colin has truly become a beach babe!
Despite the fact that Colin is so fair, we have so far been successful in keeping him hydrated and sun burn free all summer. This includes the essential piece of equipment of an umbrella (and the one time where having an immobile child is useful!), a hat and sunglasses.

The only kind of hat that Colin will keep on for an extended period of time is a hat with a velcro string attached, but hey, doesn't he look good in Daddy's hat?

Unfortunately, the sunglasses last a mere 5 seconds, but he looks so adorable in them!

Like father like son?

We have spent a lot of time relaxing...

...and being silly together!

We have also had lots of things to celebrate!

On July 15th, Chris and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! Our tradition has become dinner, some time on the beach, and watching our wedding video together. I am truly lucky to have Chris by my side...

We also celebrated my Grammy's birthday! She would kill me for saying her actual age...(cough 86 cough) but hey, she looks great for her age! Right Grammy ;)

We also celebrated our good friend Liam's 4th birthday with a pool party! We had so much fun!

He had a really cool Mr. Potato head cake made by our friend Melissa! She did an awesome job!

Colin loved loved loved the pool! Of course it didn't hurt that the water was just under 90 degrees!!

Colin made me giggle when he was propelling himself around the pool "kicking his feet!". See for yourself...

2 More Steps!!

Tonight we went over to my parent's beach house for dinner...as is a typical ritual for us, we were having snacks prior to dinner which consisted of chips, pretzels and dip. We started to notice that Colin was watching us eat our pretzels/chips and was immitating by "chomping" away (with nothing in his mouth of course).

So, I gave him his own pretzel. At first, he did his typical Colin behavior by "inspecting" the pretzel holding it with a pincer grip and rotating it back and forth. Then, he was rubbing it on the carpet and after awhile, I kind of stopped paying attention. However, after a short period of time, Colin had picked the pretzel back up and was putting it in his mouth...over and over again!

After several pretzels were demolished, we decided to switch to the "biter" bisquit to see what he would do with that. I kind of thought Colin was only interested in the pretzel because of the salt. However, he started repeatedly putting the cookie into his mouth!This picture is one of the things that has been cracking me up lately....Colin loves to "share" his food with whoever is feeding him. I usually try to give him his own spoon and he enjoys feeding me with his spoon. Here is Colin trying to get me to eat his wet, crumbly biter cookie. YUM!It's so cute!

My mom had made some homemade play-doh so while we were eating dinner, Colin sat with us and was playing with his play-doh. She enjoys making it because it's ok if he puts it in his mouth since it only consists of flour, salt, water and a little bit of oil. Colin loved grabbing clumps and throwing it on the floor. A little bit later he decided to try it out and put some in his mouth. I think it was a little bit too salty...but hey, at least he put it in his mouth!

Yay for Colin!!

A Glimpse of the Future

I have to admit that we have been a little bit more laid back with the whole self-feeding thing. I think the decrease in stress has significantly helped Colin. While he has not made any big strides, we saw a glimpse of the future today, and it was very exciting!

After lunch (which Colin did really well with...minimal raspberries and helped feed mommy with his own spoon), we decided to give him so chocolate pudding. I put a small bit on his tray like I usually do with all food. I noticed that Colin started to dip a pointer finger in the pudding so I assisted his arm to his mouth. He did most of the work in getting his finger to his mouth, but I did help a little bit.

However, two more times later, he dipped and put the finger right into his mouth! We cheered and clapped and hoorayed many times so that Colin was so proud of himself!

I even got a little teary eyed because I was so proud of Colin's [small] but huge step in the right direction. One step at a time...chuga chuga chuga....

Oh, the Horror...

I'm pretty sure my computer is dead. The cable guy came today so I got the computer all set up last night so that when I got home from work I could turn it on and update my lil' heart away!! (mind you, I failed in actually turning it on then to see if it was ok)

...I got home from work, rushed to the computer, and it wouldn't turn on! It made this beeping noise, you know, that beeping noise of doom.

Ugh...what is a girl to do?! I mean, Colin has fans to keep updated!

For now, I will continue to update from Chris' work laptop which is not my number one choice.

In happier news, Colin has been so incredibly talkative the past few days. He has been using the sign "more" a lot more, and it sounds as though he is starting to say (in his own way) "up" and "all done" in addition to "hi", "dada" and "mama". He has been waving "hi" all of the time (the open palm side to side hi) and if you tell Colin to say "bye bye" he waves with his fingers (opening and closing them). It's been fun to listen to him babble and get excited. We also finally got his crib set up so he went from the twin bed in the small pack n play to the king size bed in the crib! You should see him all spread out in there!

Hopefully we can get the computer situation rectified soon (without having to spend tons of money!).

Drum Roll Please!

...................We are officially, finally, and completely moved into our new house!! Wooo hooooo!!

I can't tell you how good it feels to say that we are home and even more so, how good it feels to be sleeping in our own beds after a month and a half of bed hopping. (Although, poor Colin is still in a pack-n-play). It is going to take a long time before we are settled, but we are working on it slowly but surely (I'm not even complaining about that either!)

The past few days have been some busy ones for Colin as well. Unfortunately, we had to throw in some doctor's appointments and therapies right into the mix of closing on the house and moving, so it made things a little bit hectic.

First, we had Colin's 1-year follow-up at the eye doctor.

His appointment was for 7:15am, so Colin didn't even get a chance to eat breakfast before we got there. Last year, we were somewhat happy with the experience because the doctor explained things thoroughly and as far as the check-up went, Colin's eyes looked great. He used the term "Downs baby" in reference to Colin, but he was only 2 months old at the time and we were still getting used to everything so while it affected us, it was in a different way.

The doctor started doing his assessments and after a few minutes, he told me that everything looked great: his eyes were tracking, following the objects, dilating, and everything else that eyes are supposed to do during the assessment. After this he said to me "since he is a Downs baby, I'm going to dilate his pupils to check for some other things". First of all, most people's eyes are dilated during their check-ups so it has nothing do with (second of all) the fact that he has Down Syndrome. Ugh, I was so thoroughly disgusted. We were sent back out to the waiting room for 45 minutes so that we could get called back in to check the last bit of things. At the end of the appointment, the doctor said to me, "I can understand why you want to continue doing follow ups of eye exams. These kids tend to have problems with their eye sight." I just about fell off my chair.

You better believe I will not be continuing in the future with this doctor. I am going to speak to our pediatrician (who referred us to him) and I'm also going to send a letter to the doctor explaining why he should not be using those outdated terms as a MEDICAL PROFESSIONIAL! Nope, I couldn't say anything to his face, but I will handle this my own way.

Later in the day, we went for our first time to an ENT doctor.

Holy cow was this a totally different experience. First of all, the office was beautiful, the doctor was incredibly professional and explained EVERYTHING. We were referred to him because Colin had failed his hearing screening with the audiologist several months back and we needed to find out what the cause of this was.

He started his evaluation by looking in Colin's ears. He showed me several different tips to the scope, told me what sizes they were, and which size corresponds with which type of person. He told me that children with Down Syndrome often have narrowing of the ear canals (which I already knew, but was happy to have him explain everything thoroughly) which requires a very small tip in order to perform an evaluation.

He felt that Colin did have some narrowing, but it wasn't as bad as it could be. He saw minor fluid build up in the ear that Colin failed in, and performed another test to evaluate how "fluid" his ear drums were. He said they looked great and did not feel that there would be any major concerns with Colin's hearing. We will be doing a hearing test with him in 6 weeks (which I'm excited about because now I can do everything in one location) and he will rule out several other things before finally giving me the whole breakdown.

I was so encouraged after that experience and was very happy to hear that Colin's ears looked so well. Colin loved the ENT doctor too!

Summer Fun!

We have been having some fun this summer and the real fun will start tomorrow when we close on our new house! I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to getting my computer set up again so that I can go back to posting more often again! We can't wait to be settled and have things go back to normal again!

In the meantime, we have been keeping ourselves busy and having some fun!

After Colin wakes up from his afternoon nap, he likes to take a dip in his little pool to cool down. He has been having so much fun splashing and playing with his toys. He has become very brave when it comes to putting his face in the water. Now we just need to get him to blow bubbles!

We took a trip down to the park the other night since Colin loves the swings so much. I love this picture because you can see Chris' and my shadows behind Colin on the swing.



We got to spend a LOT of time with the Gallagher family this weekend at the beach and to celebrate Jorie's birthday with a pool BBQ at their house (Happy birthday Jor! We love you!) We had so much fun!



Colin and Kaia shared the wagon together...

Here's a short video for you of Colin falling asleep in the wagon. Usually, by the time we start walking back for lunch, Colin starts to fall asleep. It's hysterical. I'm sorry for the poor quality but I was trying to walk and video tape at the same time.

...and we had fun playing in the sand!

We got ice cream and went to a pancake breakfast...

On Monday, we went up to their house for some fun in the pool!

Oh, and girls beware...I think Colin may be off the market. See for yourself...