summer fun = milestones galore!

Welcome Summer!  Once summer arrived, somehow I missed a 15 month update. Can you believe Leo is already 16 months old?  I'm happy to say he's striving toward showing his age. This summer, and even moreso the past few weeks, have been filled with new babysteps and milestones. Stay with me until the end though, if you want to see some super cute pics of Leo's first vacation!

Speaking of milestones, Leo is still army crawling and has really picked up speed. He's been pulling up to stand really well since the beginning of June, and we were starting to think he'd never show interest in cruising. In typical Leo (or DS) fashion, just when one starts to doubt or wonder if something will ever happen, there he goes. He took some steps last week while holding mom's hands, then a few days later he transitioned from one piece of furniture to another by taking a few steps, and finally... he is now holding onto the couch and starting to cruise along a little. What do you know... he CAN move his feet.

Leo is also making some new sounds, signing "all done", and making messes. Yes you read that correctly, he is literally finding everything possible to get into and tear apart. From emptying toy containers, to pulling things down from every reachable place, taking clothes out of drawers that are slightly open, even pulling things over on top of himself. Look out world, and anchor it all down... This boy is on the move!

Last but certainly not least, the funnest milestone so far this summer was Leo's first family vacation amd first trip to the beach... to Galveston, TX. I have to admit I was a little bit nervous about how he would travel, his reaction to living somewhere else for a few days, and what his opinion might be (if you don't know already, he is quite opinionated for a one year old...) of the sand, saltwater and hours in the sun. In continued Leo fashion, he never ceases to amaze us. Other than our first night of attempting a later dinner time which resulted in a baby meltdown, Leo was a champ. He adores the beach and had a lot of fun playing in the sand. And eating it. There was nothing but smiles and laughter in the water, even when the waves splashed saltwater in his face. I couldn't have asked for a more easygoing, laid back, and flexible boy.

Check out the fun he had...

He even wore his hat without too much complaint!

Loves, loves, loves his sister...

Happy to have him.  Life is good!

with love,

Joyce

more belated... 14 month update!

My, how time slips away!  Leo is 14 months old, and really soon he'll be 15 months. Before that happens, I better write down a 14 month update.  I'll just pick up right where I left off....

Last month, Leo was scheduled for a swallow study based on recommendations from his pediatrician and pulmonologist. The swallow study was performed mid-April.  Much to my surprise, we found out Leo is aspirating again.  This time, we not only get to thicken but we have to thicken even more (the "honey" consistency). The recommendation was made to vamp up his therapy for dysphagia (weak swallowing) that he's had since birth. It took a while to find a home health agency on our insurance plan but after working that out, Leo had the evaluation yesterday for "vital stim". It's a special therapy to stimulate the swallowing muscles and hopefully increase their function. He should hopefully begin the therapy 2-3 times per week in just a couple of weeks.

Leo also went to visit Dr. Weakley at Children's for our second ophthalmology opinion.  His opinion is ...to not rush into surgery. Hooray!!  I always love hearing that.  Especially since it's been less than 6 months since the previous surgery. We're now patching the left eye for 1-2 hours per day (although I admit, I've been a bad mom lately by forgetting more times than not...), and Leo will follow up in the ophthalmology clinic in July to see if there's been any change, good or bad. Surgery would likely not be performed until after he turns two years old.

Sleep study #3... the results are in, and Leo still has episodes of apnea.  Ugh!!  It's no longer moderate, it's now mild, but he still has pauses in breathing even after surgery to remove tonsils and adenoids. He's scheduled to see a sleep specialist at Children's tomorrow.  I'm not sure what the recommendations will be at one year old, but it will be interesting to find out.  Also on our agenda for tomorrow is a one year follow-up with the cardiologist.  Leo will have a repeat EKG and Echo to see if there are any changes to the PFO (patent foramen ovale). It's actually a very common hole between the top two chambers of the heart. His PFO measured a little larger in diameter than most, but we are still hopeful that it may have closed on its own.  Please say a prayer for that result tomorrow!

In feeding news, there are still baby steps being made toward texture. We found out during the swallow study that Leo has a "texture aversion". He gags just by feeling the textures on his tongue, before the food even gets close to his esophagus.  We are still trudging through the tedious process of slowly increasing textures in his smooth baby food. Oh so slow....

On the physical side of things, just WOW.  Leo has come along amazingly in the past six weeks!  He is not only transitioning quickly from laying down to sitting up, he is army crawling swiftly like nobody's business.  He also began pulling up to stand this past week and has been working on doing that with everything he can get his chubby little hands on!  His crib, the coffee table, fireplace, brother's toddler chairs, the couches, the side of mom and dad's bed, you name it!  The little boy is on a mission to not only stand, but try to climb or belly up onto things and also starting to move his feet a little into cruising mode. He has thoroughly impressed this momma with his physical determination!  He has also given himself a few bruises on the face area when he loses balance, but cuddos to the little one for not giving up.

On that note, I close out with this total cuteness, from our friend Heaven's birthday party this month...

 


with love,

Joyce

the big ONE!

Yes, it was late... but we still had to celebrate! 
Leo turned one year old on March 5, and we finally celebrated the big ONE in April! 

A few highlights...

 "I'm the Big ONE!"

 the Ladies love Leo!

Leo and his best buddy, Josiah

with sweet Carlee

One of our favorite little ladies, Olivia!

"You want me to eat Whatttttt??"

"You want me to do whatttttt????"

 Big brother Seth is so excited that Leo finally got icing on his hands!

"Hmmmmmmm....."

Happy 1st Birthday to our sweet baby Leo!

The first year with Leo was so much fun...We can't wait to see what he has in store for us next...

With love, Joyce

*milestone alert*...baby on the move!

If I can be honest for a minute, I try not to compare Leo to other babies. I know by the nature of his extra chromosome that he'll take a little longer to do things, and that's really okay. But sometimes, I just forget how old Leo is. If I were judging his age based on milestones, my guess would be about 9 months. If I can be even a little more honest, I do find myself capturing comparisons to his brother and sister. Being a mom to three, isn't that just natural? 

Just to put things into perspective...

When it came to crawling, it seemed to take Meris forever!  She was pulling up and cruising for a couple months. I thought for sure she'd walk without crawling. Then one day, at the ripe age of 11 months, at a music festival in Telluride, Colorado, she began to crawl.  Then along came Seth... who did everything so quickly, I found myself saying "is he old enough to do that already??" He began to crawl at around 8 to 9 months.

And there is Leo. Sweet baby Leo has worked so hard for every milestone. I find myself implementing so much patience that when he achieves something it seems to catch me by surprise. Like he did about 2 weeks ago.  I wasn't prepared to catch it on camera the first time around, but tonight I did...

My little man the army crawler!

Leo works so very hard to achieve milestones like this, and we are so incredibly proud!

:-D

Love, Joyce

12 months - from quiet to chaos!

The time came and passed, quickly and quietly as can be, in the blink of an eye our little Leo turned one year old. Twelve whole months, just like that!  In addition to his First Birthday....

There were many other really fun firsts this month.  Like his First Train Ride...

First ride in a shopping cart...

First trip to the waterpark (Great Wolf Lodge, to celebrate the kickoff of March bringing in "World Down Syndrome Day")..

and First Circus... (Shrine Circus, complements of the Down Syndrome Guild of Dallas!)...

All of these things, in addition to the routine PT/OT/Speech therapies, follow up visit to the GI doctor, and one year well check-up, made for a fun and relatively "quiet" month.  Until after the circus, that is... because after the three ring circus, came full-blown chaos!

Literally...after the circus, by the end of the day, Leo had vomiting, diarrhea, and a fever of 103.4.  Long story short, following two weeks of fighting congestion and respiratory infection he developed pneumonia. (Our second time to battle this!) He also picked up rotavirus somewhere along the way. It was a week-long battle of germs, fevers, breathing issues, and Leo feeling yuck.

The really cool thing about Leo, though, is that no matter how bad he feels and no matter how sick he gets, he finds some time in there to feel and act okay. In those moments, he showed off a couple new milestones!  That's right, I said our sickly little boy met some other firsts this past week, and I mean milestones.

Like ARMY CRAWLING.  Little boy who didn't want mommy to put him down had to sit in the kitchen floor as she is trying to draw up more medicine for him.  Big brother Seth tried to distract him with toys, but quickly decided to take them away. So what does Leo decide to do? Get down to belly time and scoot himself around the floor trying to get toys from his brother. Along came the Army Crawl! Mom is still trying to capture this on video...

And what's a sick week without a second milestone?  Leo now waves "hi"!

This one is in the pediatrician's office, right before getting the chest xray showing the nasty pneumonia. 

Wouldn't you say we have one friendly, crazy, amazing and adorable little guy?  Yes, I do think so.

with love,

Joyce