I am once again late in updating, but life gets busy with a toddler and a school age child!
Mary’s two plus years has flown by and I cannot believe it.
Mary’s use of sign language is taking off and it has been a HUGE help in communicating. She can sign for food, water, more, mom, dad. She says mama and dada more than signs it, and says Alex quite regularly (usually when his door his closed and she want’s in!). She is trying so hard to sign “I love you” and it is adorable to watch her concentrate so hard on her finger placements with it. We have also introduced the sign for poop, along with using the sign potty, in preparation for the dreaded potty training. She understands the signs No and Bad quite well as we are in the full swing of terrible twos and she loves to push the buttons to see what she can get away with.
Speaking of speech, Mary has several words she can say when she wants to: Mama, Dada, Alex, Open, Freya, Vixen, No, Hi, I did it, and a few more that I am forgetting. She will babble and squeal and scream often and regularly, as though she were having a conversation. But occasionally she will do something like knock on a closed door and say “Open!” or “Alex!”. We are currently working on the P sound with words like Pop and Papaw and Puppy.
For motor skills, she is doing great. She is running, building with blocks, kicking a ball, scribbling on paper, using utensils, and drinking from a straw sippy cup. We are still working on her not spilling her water as she drinks. Normal straws seem to be too much for her, but the sippy cups slow the flow enough she can handle it. This could be a muscle tone or a motor skill issues, but something I plan to bring up at her next evaluation at the Down syndrome center.
Her latest thing has been sword fighting. Yes, you read that right. We are part of a medieval re-creationist group known as the Society for Creative Anachronism, or SCA. We like history and dressing up and doing things. Alex has started in their youth sword-fighting group. It’s for 6-17 years old and is with foam weapons and protective gear such as a helmet, knee pads, elbow pads, etc. Mary has been watching these practices and is very excited about it. She will grab empty drink bottles and pretend sword-fight us. Everyone in our local group finds this adorable and are looking forward to her turning 6 so she can join the youth combat group.
We are approaching 2.5 soon which means we will be working on transitioning out of Early Intervention and preparing for preschool. I am a bit nervous and anxious about this, despite having gone through preschool and IEP with one child already. However, different child means different personality and different needs. One benefit is that I know the team she will be working with and I know they are great at what they do.
This time of year has been hard on the health front for us, especially Mary. She is sick more often than she is not. Sadly, this means a lot of ear infections and ear drainage. Luckily the tubes let it drain out, but it’s not fun to deal with. A lot of antibiotic drops and trips to the ENT department.
Her pediatrician continues to say how impressed she is with Mary’s development, and we are so proud of her. She is a very independent child and won’t let anything get in her way. Watch out world, here she comes!
Raising Special Roses 