31 for 21 Day 3: Colin's Personality

Colin's personality has really been changing and emerging as he has gotten older. He really likes to make people laugh, especially Chris and I. Despite the fact his relationship with Kailey is so so depending on the day, he still likes to make her laugh by blowing raspberries in her face. She thinks it's the funniest thing, which only fuels his desire to continue to make her giggle.

Colin is a big ole' cheese ball. He has some pretty silly grins now and likes to ham it up for the camera. He doesn't always like to be on the receiving end of a picture, but rather, would love to crawl up in your lap WHILE you are taking the picture so that he can see what is going on.

Colin fiercely craves the attention and the spotlight, but more at home and with us (school is a different case). It makes me giggle to watch him at times try to get in Kailey's space because he thinks she is invading it. The other day, Kailey was sitting on the floor playing with her toys when he crawled over to her area, flopped on to his stomach, and starting stretching out his legs as far as he could to try and push Kailey out of the way. He just kept saying "ow"; his way of saying that she is touching him and he doesn't like it. Mind you, he crept into her space. There are days at school when I will walk into the room and say hi to all of the kids, and if anyone is too close to me and he can't quite get there, he just says "no" to them in his cranky type voice, like "it's my mommy, i want to get to her so get out of my way!"

If he thinks Kailey is getting too much attention, he gets right in the way. In the picture above, I was taking pictures of Kailey because she was sitting so well independently (she just started doing that), and since I wasn't looking at him, he tried to crawl right in front of the picture. Mission accomplished.

For the most part, he is very happy all of the time.

But, he has his moments and they come pretty often these days. If he doesn't like something or doesn't want to do it, he very adamantly says "no". His personality is very strong in this sense so our struggles with gross motor skills (walking) and most especially, eating, are met with strong resistance (to come in a later post). We face strong opposition when it comes to eating and eating independently, so it is a big frustration for us.

Since the beginning, Colin's therapists have always called him an "observer" and this still rings very true. There are days when I will pick him up from school and despite the fact they are singing a song he knows and loves, he will sit there and watch everyone else. I thought for sure that once he went back to school, he would be walking because of the temptation to be as involved as the other kids. To be honest, he is just as content to watch everyone else. We have just come to realize that Colin likes to take things in and watch what is going on around him. This aspect of his personality really shows when he says or signs words that we haven't been working on or may have only said once in passing. So while that side of his personality can be challenging for us, it's Colin's way of learning and taking things in.

These days, Colin loves to snuggle in and does this by scooting backwards into your lap which is one of my favorite things he does these days...

Myth #1: All kids with Down Syndrome have the same personality.

Our kids with Down Syndrome are just like everyone else's; they have their own personalities. Colin's is certainly his own and it makes him who he is...a fun loving, charming, sweet little boy (who has his moments just like everyone else).