fun – Keeping Faithful

I realised today that it has been a while since my last post. There is no particular reason other than a break to experiene life I suppose (and what is a testimony without life experience?) Our boy’s progress is going really well. It has been three months since his first birthday and I am delighted to share about our journey together.

I’m not sure where to start, so I guess I’ll being with his birthday party. It was so much fun. I decided that I wanted to do a tiger themed party. I went all out and bought heaps of black and orange decorations and utensils. I also decided that it was too hard to find someone to make a specialised cake on time, so I decided to learn how to bake and decorate one myself after watching a free online Modern Buttercream course by Joshua John Russel on Craftsy.com, which eventually turned into a lovely hobbie for a while.

It was a lot of work to get everything ready for the party, but I really enjoyed myself. I know some people don’t see the need to make such a big effort, but I wanted to because it was his first birthday and I had both the time and energy. I also bought tiger clothes for us to wear and even stitched together a shirt for my husband to wear that matched our son’s shirt.

Because it was such a mess to organise a party at home, we decided to choose a park to celebrate it. On the day of the party though, it was forecast for heavy rain. – Not something we wanted to hear. But I was vibrant and joyful, excited to go ahead as planned for 11am in the park, so I prayed for it to clear up by the time we needed to set up. I felt at peace about it and that we didn’t need to worry because God’s hand was at work. It rained right up until 10:00am and then stopped over the park we had chosen to celebrate at. (You could literally see grey clouds all around the park.) The sky continued to clear up and our boy had a sunny, windy birthday.

I am so excited to share our son’s talking journey. Despite his diagnosis of Down Syndrome, he started talking reasonably young at 6-months-old, saying Mum. I felt so blessed. 🙂 He then learnt bub, and eventually started saying Dad, Dad, Dad – to my husband’s delight. A month ago, I was wondering what his next word was going to be? The next morning, I entered our boy’s room for his usual 6am wake up and said “hello”.

“Hello.” He replied. I couldn’t believe what I heard, though it was clear as day.

I decided to try again. “Hello?” He smiled and said hello once more. I was so excited!

I quickly took him to our bedroom and tried it again. He said hello two more times to his Daddy. It was beautiful. It is a family moment that I will treasure forever. And of course we are celebrating further words as he grows…

Here is a little list of his Talking Milestones:

6 months old – Mum, Mum, Mum

10 months old – Dad, Dad, Dad & Bub, Bub, Bub

12 months old – Woof, Woof

14 months old – Hello, Bye, Lizard

15 months old – Meeooow, Hi Daddy (to the phone) & Book, book (when he flicks through a book).

He is still yet to grow teeth and we still wait to see him walk on his own, but he can stand alone without holding onto anything and climbs up to a walker to take a stroll down the hallway by himself. I couldn’t be any happier. 🙂 He is such a blessing.

If you would like to read more about our progress or about my testimony since he was born, feel welcome to browse the rest of my blog:

My First Born: (1) Unexpected Circumstances

My First Born: (2) Praying One Step At A Time

My First Born: (3) Overcoming The Stigmatism of Down Syndrome

My First Born: (4) Becoming Nonchalant

My First Born: (5) Polite Stereotyping – Down Syndrome

My First Born: (6) Fun, Joy and Giggles – Overlooking Down Syndrome

Thank you.

After a bit of reflection, I have decided to write about the fun, love and laughter we share on a daily basis with our boy. It has been great to share about our experience and keeping faithful despite the challenges, but I’d also like to share about my new little love and the joy he gives us.

Despite his diagnosis for Down Syndrome after he was born, his unique personality shines brightly and I would love to celebrate his individuality with you.

My husband and I love to share a laugh, and I think one of the joys that we were most looking forward to was to hear our boy laugh for the first time. It took a while, but at 4-months-old I was able to get his first laugh while giving him a horsey-ride on my knee. It was fantastic. I was in love, again. It took a few more times before I could finally record it on my phone and send a copy to my husband so that he could also share my joy. Not long after, once I learnt how to blow killer raspberries on his tummy, did we get to video his giggles and share it with our friends online. And of course, the laughter didn’t stop there. It has become a regular part of our lives. Which I think has really grown our boy into the cheeky, witty baby his is today (11-months-old).

I’d have to say that one of my favourite times with our boy at the moment is the giggles we have during breast feeding. In the afternoon, during his feed, my boy decides to show his cheeky side and starts talking to me… ‘Ah, ah, ah.’
So I start back, ‘Ah, ah.’ And so we go back and forth.
As we continue a smile creeps over his face, all the while he’s still feeding and I start to giggle. ‘Heh, heh.’
He grins even more and starts to giggle too, ‘heh, heh, heh.’
I then can’t help myself and giggle harder, which is followed with his uncontrollable giggles.
As my Grandpa would have said, regarding my younger brother as a cheeky toddler, ‘what a character!’ And I’m loving it.

Another fun experience would have to be when we started running our finger over his lips when he was starting to have a tantrum at about 5-months-old. I’m not sure what it is called, but it is like a raspberry when you raise and lower your finger over and over your lips as you blow out air. He quickly caught on and would start blowing if we did it to him when he was quiet. One day, he realised he could do it back. He reached out, and started twinkling his fingers so I would blow raspberries too. It was so funny. I kept breaking out in laughter. But, even better when it seemed to stop he then turned his hand to his own lips and started doing it to himself. Well, we had lost it at that point. What a cutie.

Even the tantrums can bring us joy. Sometimes, our boy tries to get something he wants with a peeling cry and pout to melt your heart. At first, I was terrified. Where are the finger, where are the toes? Hmm.. He seems fine, but I did just take my car keys from him. So, like any baby learning to push boundaries, our boy also gives it a go. But unfortunately for him, we think it’s especially cute. The pout after the initial wail is priceless. We also get it from him if we say ‘no’ when he goes to do something he shouldn’t.

I think it’s interesting that he wasn’t really ticklish for a while until he started laughing at my raspberries on his tummy, and even then it wasn’t really all the time. But now, for some reason I can just run my finger across his tummy or back and send him into a fit of giggles. I’m glad I can. It really is a blessing to share giggles with him and he’s loves to laugh with us too. At 9-months-old, he started noticing when my husband and I were having a laugh amongst ourselves. It was gorgeous. He would force a short laugh and smile at us to join in on the joke. And obviously this would have us laughing even harder.

It’s been wonderful watching our little man grow. A lot of my joy in the busy life of motherhood and parttime work, comes from watching him laugh, learn and play.

Recently in the car seat, he had my bottle of water in his hands, but decided it wasn’t interesting enough so he used his left foot to keep tapping the bottle so it splashed around. I’ve also been watching him clap hands. He looks at me and notices that I’m making noise when I clap, so he focuses in and gradually claps harder until he can hear the little pats of his hands. It is just so cute to watch.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about some of our fun.