At his own pace

Today is the day we celebrate Down Syndrome. The day to celebrate is march 21st. 6 years ago we didn't know the significance of this day. Today we celebrate the joys that down syndrome brings to our lives. The good and the bad. The ups and the downs. We share it with many friends around the world we would have never had the chance to meet. We share it with our friends, we share it with our family. We have all been touched by an extra chromosome.
Why 3-21? Down Syndrome is 3 copies of the 21st chromosome. A little something extra. To us the extra chromosome equals an amazing result. Owen.

My face might be different
But my feelings the same
I laugh and I cry
And I take pride in my gains
I was sent here among you
To teach you to love
As god in the heavens
Looks down from above
To him I’m no different
His love knows no bounds
It’s those here among you
In cities and towns
That judge me by standards
That man has imparted
But this family I’ve chosen
Will help me get started
For I’m one of the children
So special and few
That came here to learn
The same lessons as you
That love is acceptance
It must come from the heart
We all have the same purpose
Though not the same start
The Lord gave me life
To live and embrace
And I’ll do as you do
But at my own pace.

At his own pace, is the message that we live every day. Some days are hard. Some times it seems like there are things we will never accomplish. But we just have to remember Owen will do everything, at his own pace.
Seven months ago we started the journey of potty training. If you have ever been through it you will know it is trying, it is frustrating, some days you just want to give up and put the diapers back on. But we didn't give up. He didn't stop trying (although there were a few days where we wondered). Many days have passed, many weeks, many months. But we have made it over this hurdle. Owen is now in big boy undies all the time. At home, at daycare, at school, at night. He did it. He doesn't need reminders anymore, he brings himself all on his own. He is completely independent. There wasn't 1 day where we said to ourselves its done. But we have spent the last month saying we don't remember the last accident. We can throw the pull ups away. We can move on from this goal and start a new focus.
 

 
It seems like there is always something. But what brightens our spirits is his amazing smile and his ability to turn anything into a rockstar moment. We know he will accomplish anything he wants. He has many supporters helping him climb every incline, every hill and every mountain that is in his way. He will get to the top of them all. At his own pace. All he is asking for is us to have faith in him. For us to be compassionate for others like him. To not be afraid. To be strong for him.

Indepedence

Big skills emerging around here. Small skills emerging as well. Of course we celebrate them all. Today I report on the little ones... Tomorrow I will tell you about the BIG one!

To some people they are minor. But if you are constantly doing this task for 2 kids EVERYDAY. You will understand why they are big to us.

Dressing themselves! Olivia still needs some assistance with her shirts since they are a bit more form fitting. But she loves to pick out her clothes. Yesterday I asked her to go get an outfit for the day. I was surprised she brought down an entire outfit. Some may say the pinks don't match. Some may say you probably shouldn't wear a skirt with jogging pants. But I say it was a beautiful ensemble because she chose it.

And Owen has been making big strides in getting himself dressed. He is now able to do 90% of it on his own. Except a little help reminding him which way is front on his shirts and some pants and getting his socks on past his toes. He too picked out his outfit yesterday. I have no words for this description, except that this is my boy. A super hero in every way.

Theres an App for that

Who knew a therapy session for Owen could turn into such a learning experience for Olivia? 

We are always looking for ways to entertain Olivia while we sit in the waiting room at Children's Therapy. They have a great assortment of books but we get though 1 or 2 in less than a minute and she is ready to move on, I bring puzzles for her to do but again they last for a few minutes. I love the warmer months when we can head outside for a walk. Her whole life we have been there 3-4 times a week. The routine and ability to keep her happy has gotten monotonous. And so I give full credit for Olivia's latest favorite thing to Jason since he is the one that started it all with his iPhone.

I never anticipated the results we are seeing. He started out with a flashcard app and she quickly learned all her colors, animals and shapes. And now she takes the quizzes and has mastered them. She names hexagons and pentagons among the typical triangle and stars. She picks out the colors they ask her for, she names all the animals and this week she started identifying her numbers 1 - 10, spot on, every time. Next goal - alphabet!

I Never really thought of using the iPad to help develop learning skills. But it is an AMAZING tool! Not only does it have flashcard apps (most of them free), but they have wonderful speech therapy and other therapy type apps for Owen. His attention span for it isn't quite there like Olivia's yet but I am excited for the opportunity to be able to use it with him.

Would love to hear some of your favorite apps for kids on the iPhone or iPad. I am going to start creating a list on the right of my favs!

silly kids

  

Puzzled

It seemed like a good idea at the time to show everyone how well Olivia is doing with puzzles. Capture the moment on video, be proud of her. But what we weren’t expecting is to show how it is hard to give one child full attention. It wasn’t until we watched this back that we saw it and it broke our heart a little to witness. Owen trying to get involved and he got shooed away, so off he went to pout. I promise this doesn’t happen because 9 times out of 10 we are working with him. And maybe that is why he reacted the way he did?

But this video is about Olivia. She has always loved puzzles. I bought her a puzzle board with interlocking pieces over Christmas thinking it was way more advanced than she was ready for but she caught on immediately. I love her little voice and her reaction to finding pieces. It is just priceless to watch her.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Special Olympics: Young Athletes

Here is the official description...
"Young Athletes is an innovative sports play program for children aged 2 to 7 years old with intellectual disabilities, designed to introduce them to the world of sports prior to Special Olympics eligibility. Since its inception in 1968, Special Olympics has established itself as a preeminent global organization offering sports training and competition opportunities to people with intellectual disabilities ages eight and above."

Here is our description...
A wonderful opportunity for Owen to build some fundamental skills in an environment where everyone is just like him. A place to not be judged but encouraged.

Tonight was the first night of the program. We were lucky enough to find out about the pilot program in our local YMCA and jumped at the chance. It falls on a day when he already has therapy in the evening so his day is crazy but he did great. He played with friends just like him and I got to sit back and feel normal.

He is on the far left in the red waving at me :)

Observations

One thing I love about being a parent is observing my kids. Not just watching what they are doing but really paying attention to all the little things that they do and say. I could do it all day long if they let me. I get so much joy out of it. The whispers, the imagination, the personalities.
For me it is different when I watch Olivia vs. Owen. With Olivia I am usually completely shocked to see and hear the things she has picked up that we haven't taught her. With Owen I get so excited to witness something we have been working on and working on. But regardless I am so amazed of each of them.  I love to see how they have matured in their play skills and how they are now starting to expand to play together.

I was putting Olivia to bed a while ago and Owen snuck off downstairs. It was dark, it was quiet and there he was playing with his little legos. So instead of stopping him I pulled out the camera and watched. There are things in here that you may not recognize as a big accomplishments. Mostly because he is 5 and most 5 year old boys do these types of things. But to us, there are things in the video that we witnessed for the first time.
And then there are things that he struggles with and we see them but others may not. He can't quite hold the little pieces with his fingers (the little lego man hats - pay attention to his fingers and how he uses the side of his fingers instead of the finger tips), he can't get the men in and out of the vehicles. But he keeps trying, he asks for help and even though things are hard, he still enjoys himself.
And I love all the talking he is doing. The imagination of how he plays. And his humor - he had me giggling a few times with the things he was coming up with!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com