Happy Birthday, Eon!

Three years ago (and 1 week...this post is a bit late), our world was forever changed with the birth of our third son, Simeon Israel. We knew we had a 5% chance of hearing he had Down syndrome and yet, I honestly never gave it a thought during labor and delivery. 


The words, "He has characteristics of Down syndrome," before I even had a chance to hold him, rocked me to my core. While we recovered quickly, I will never forget the raw fear that overwhelmed me in that moment.


Now, three years later, I often wonder what all the fuss was about. :)

Eon is, as promised, "more alike than different". Like any 3-year-old, he loves Blue's Clues, playing cars, going to the park, and babies. His favorite foods are pizza and french fries. He can mess up a room in 20 seconds flat and he has no fear of heights. He loathes time-outs, but would rather sit there longer than sign "sorry" to the person that he's wronged. He fights and fusses every time I wash his hair, but willingly stuck his face in the kiddie pool fountains when we were on vacation last week.

He has a personality that is all his own and makes us laugh on a daily basis.


His newest thing is to shush us every time he doesn't like what we have to say. "Eon, pick up your toys." "Shhhh!" "No, Eon. No cookies before dinner." "Shhhh!"


If we continue in our madness, he'll stick out his arm in a "talk to the hand" move he's perfected. Cracks me up every time. I find myself wishing I could do that to people when they annoy me, too. :)


That being said, he is different. Not in a negative way, just in an Eon way. Hard to say what is Down syndrome and what is just him.


He is a good eater for the most part, but he's very suspicious of food if it looks different than what he's used to and will often not even try it. For example, he will not eat a square cracker. You can tell him it's a cracker and he will sign it, but if you hand it to him, he will turn his head away and refuse to let it near his mouth. If a cookie is not round with chocolate chips or cream in the middle, good luck getting him to try it! I have no idea.


He loves music from media, but he hates it if we sing or dance near him. I love to sing and do it all the time, but he will yell at me if I sing around him. Here's a nice pic of him while we were singing "Happy Birthday." I promise we were not that bad. :)

The quirky things about this kid only serve to deepen our appreciation for him. He has changed our lives by expanding our world. We are indebted to him. But don't tell him that. He'll want a later bed time. Shhhh!