Reverse Comparison

I often read posts on my online support group from moms comparing their little ones with Down syndrome to typically developing kids. Today, I want to reverse that and compare my typically developing baby with Eon at the same age.

Keturah (KJ) is 7 weeks old. She is just starting to have a longer (up to 6 hr) stretch of sleep at night. Eon was sleeping 12 hours straight at this age.

To fall asleep, KJ needs to be nursed, rocked, jiggled, and shushed. Eon needed to be laid in his crib.

On car rides, someone needs to sit next to KJ and constantly stuff her pacifier back into her mouth. Eon slept or watched his toys quietly.

When I'm cooking dinner, someone has to have KJ duty and walk her around the living room to keep her from wailing. Eon sat contentedly in his bouncer seat for 45 minutes in the kitchen with me.

When being held, KJ's whole body seems to be tense, like she wants to be moving. Eon just melted against my chest.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this baby with all that is in me. She is a blessing. But she is very high maintenance. I worried about how I'd cope with a "typical" child after enjoying the blessing of a baby with Down syndrome. The answer is: not very well. I try not to compare her to her brother, but I'm not very successful. And they say Eon is the one with special needs. LOL!

Walking, and signing, and speaking, oh my!

Eon has been taking steps for months, now, and I kept waiting for him to just "take off" walking. It's funny to me that it hasn't happened that way at all. Gradually, he has just taken more and more steps until, now, he walks more than he crawls. He's still unstable and falls a lot, but he's very determined and always just stands back up and keeps plugging along. Very cute! It still surprises me when I catch sight of him out of the corner of my eye and he's walking by. He'll be 20-months-old tomorrow, so it's a bit earlier than I expected, too.

I've mentioned before his tendency to use signs and words for awhile and then just kind of lose them. It drives me crazy. I've been encouraged by other parents that they will come back and we're finally seeing that it's true. He hasn't used the sign for "daddy" for the longest time. Sunday, he and I stayed home from church as he'd been vomiting in the middle of the night (fun, fun). He was sitting on my bed with me watching videos on the laptop, when he reached over and patted me to get my attention. Then, he signed, "Daddy", and looked to Shawn's side of the bed. I responded, "Daddy's at church." He then waved "bye-bye" and went back to watching his video. I was thrilled! That was the first abstract communication that we've had...something beyond his wants and needs.

He's starting to do that more and more. The other day, his 3yo brother, Zak, was yelling at him for wrecking up his train track. Eon scrunched up his face and signed, "Stop!" Cracked me up! The one that really made me laugh was when I was hollering up the stairs for Ben. Eon walked over the the baby gate, stretched his arm up the stairs, and started signing "Ben" real emphatically, like he was yelling for him, too! LOL!

He uses some words or word approximations, too. My favorite new one is "up". He used to just whisper the "p" sound for that. Now, he loudly says, "glup-a-glup-a-glup-a" when he wants up. I don't know if that's what he thinks we sound like, but I think it's too cute.

His cheering section

Eon has been standing from the floor independently for awhile. He's even picking things up from the floor while standing and unfastening his shoes. However, he only does it at home. I think he's too busy checking out the sights when we go somewhere.

That changed at VBS the other night, however. He was crawling around the church foyer playing with some kids while I was talking to some friends. I heard someone say, "Wow! Look at Eon." I glanced over and saw him standing in the middle of the room with a big grin on his face. Several other people noticed and exclaimed over him. I even had a quite a few people tell me about it later. They were all grinning and obviously excited for him.

It occurred to me that all of his typical peers started walking in the last few months and no one seemed to notice. It was a complete non-event to everyone except the parents. Eon stands once in public and causes quite a stir. Everyone notices and cheers.

We are blessed to be part of such a caring group of people who love our son and celebrate his abilities with us!

Processing

Simeon is 17 months-old and I am just starting to see some of the processing differences in him. Rather than just being delayed or behind on milestones, he takes a little longer than his typical peers to process information. An example of this is his tendency to take a nose dive off the bed if not watched closely. He stands and cruises independently, but he has yet to figure out how to safely get off the bed. I've been providing verbal, visual, and tactile cues for this task for months, but he insists that head first is the only way to fall....and fall he does on occasion. Thankfully, other than a bruise or two, he has escaped these incidences relatively unharmed.

Even with his slower processing, he often surprises me. I've been playing the "where's your nose" game with him for a few weeks, to no avail. He simply looks at me blankly whenever I ask. But, the other day, I asked a different question: "Where's your head?" Immediately, he smiled really big and patted his head. I have no idea where he learned that. Silly mom's just been asking the wrong question all this time! :)