On His Own

When I was writing my guest post for a very special new site (more on that in another post!), one of the questions I was asked to think about was "what are your greatest challenges you face in having a child with Down Syndrome?".  I think if you asked this question to a handful of my friends and family members, they could all answer this for you without needing to hear my answer- feeding.  From Colin's very first bottle until now, we have faced consistent challenges when it comes to feeding with Colin, many of which I have talked about, vented, complained, cried, and just wished they would change on here.  

Just before Christmas, we received the best Christmas present anyone could ask for when Colin started eating independently (well, mostly independently).  However, our winter travels put a little halt to that because of the disruption in schedules.  He would eat a few bites by himself and then constantly throw the spoon or fork down and refuse to eat by himself.  However, we are slowly starting to get back into the swing of things and it feels really good.  We were most excited this week when we got a note from Colin's teachers that said that Colin did great eating all by himself!  I thought I would NEVER hear those words!  

We still face a lot of challenges in this department because although Colin is growing, his weight is still lower than it should be (you should see his tiny little waist!) from the lack in varied foods.  We can still count the things that Colin eats on one hand, but we are ok with this (for the most part).  We try hard and we work at it and we know that it will all come when Colin is ready.  Man, wouldn't it be nice ONCE in awhile if it happened on your terms?

Regardless, we are so proud of how far Colin has come and look forward to the new things that are still ahead of us.