31 for 21 - Connor and Emma

Connor loves his cousin Emma!  He spends every Tuesday and Thursday with her at Grammy and Pepere's house and they have become great friends. They can make each other laugh like no other and he can't wait to start playing with her as soon as he arrives at Grammy's in the morning. He loves to copy everything that she is doing and Emma has taught Connor quite a bit on how to pretend play with her babies. She does not even get mad at him when he pulls her hair (well not too mad). They are just soo cute together =)

 

 

 

 

31 for 21 - Physical Therapy

Walking has been a slow process for us. Once Connor started crawling, he really mastered the skill and has become an extremely fast crawler and can get wherever he wants to go! For a long time he just did not have the desire to stand on his own or walk, but now that has all changed. He seems to be very motivated to walk and has made huge progress over the past few months. Connor learned to stand on his own from sitting position in the middle of the floor and can now stand for approximately 30 seconds at a time as long as he is distracted. He frequently takes 3 steps and then loses balance, puts his hands on the floor and stands back up to take a few more steps. He has taken 7 steps to walk to a toy on the table a few times as well. I am so proud of the progress Connor has made! I am still hoping that he is a full time walker by his thrid birthday, but as with everything else, we know that Connor will do it at his own pace =)

Below are some pictures of Connor working super hard at Physical Therapy. We started going to the PT Clinic at Children's Hospital in Lexington about 3 weeks ago. Connor uses a treadmill, walker, bars to help stabilize and plays with many other motivating toys to help build strength in his hips, quads, hamstrings, etc.  He is so proud of his accomplishments!

Connor absolutely loves the soccer ball hanging from the ceiling. He remained standing and would catch and throw the ball until it would hit him in the face and then he would crack up with his adorable belly laugh. That laugh gets me everytime and I can't help but smile and laugh along with him. Connor is such a silly kid =)

31 for 21 - Mickey Mouse

Connor absolutely adores Mickey Mouse! I think the fascination began last summer when we went to Disney World and Connor was lucky enough to meet the real Mickey Mouse! Since then, he loves to watch The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and every morning when we walk down the stairs he begins signing Mickey Mouse. The sign for Mickey is to put each hand on either side of your head like you are showing Mickey's ears. We showed him the sign once and he has been requesting it ever since. He is usually in his highchair when watching and taps his feet along to the music and dancing along with the characters. Otherwise, he stands up and dances. Soo cute =)

Connor Signing Mickey Mouse

Preview of Halloween Costume!

31 for 21 - Buddy Walk

In September we participated in the Northern New England Down Syndrome Congress Buddy Walk up in Concord, NH. It was a great day despite starting out very chilly! We saw lots of friends from Playgroup and had a great day all around.

Connor and Makayla

Connor wants to push the stroller instead of ride in it =)

Connor and Ryan

Makayla took this picture!

Connor laughing with Katie

31 for 21 - Apple Picking

Every year we go apple picking at least once and this year Connor was lucky enough to go twice! The first time we went with his Down Syndrome playgroup and the second time was with Makayla and his cousins Madi and Emma! This year he was able to stand up on his own and pick his own apples. Not many of those actually made it to his bucket because he tried to eat each apple! He also had fun emptying the entire bucket and then filling it back up over and over again. Connor had a great time on both occasions and ate many apples =)

 

31 for 21 - A Defining Moment

When Connor's Complete AV Canal Defect was diagnosed at about 28 weeks pregnant, it was like the whole world changed in an instant. I did not know what to think, how to feel, it was like I could not breath. We were then told that with this heart defect there was a 50% chance that our baby would have Down Syndrome. At the time I honestly was not sure what was worse. I did not know much about Down Syndrome, but all negative thoughts came to mind. I did not know anything about raising a child with special needs....this could not be happening to us. We would not be good parents to this child. We did not have the money or the time to commit to a child with special needs. We then started praying that it would only be a heart defect and that our child would not have Down Syndrome. After speaking to several different doctors, it was determined that our risk was actually much lower based on the Quad screening that I had earlier during pregnancy. It was more like a 1 in 100 chance. I started to feel a little better about it, but was still hoping that my baby would not be the 1.

Just prior to 3 months after Connor was born, he was going in for surgery to repair 2 holes in his heart and fix a problem with the valve connecting the 2 chambers. This was a major heart surgery that would be done by the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Children's Hospital Boston. We had to go in the day before surgery and spend the night because they did a sedated echo and wanted to keep him overnight due to the sedation. In the morning, when the nurse came to take Connor down to pre-op it all hit me. It did not matter at all that Connor had Down Syndrome. I just wanted my baby to live through the heart surgery and come back home with us. He was my baby and nothing else matter. I only wanted him to live. We could figure everything else out later.

It is now 2 and 1/2 years later and Connor is absolutely perfect! He made it through his surgery without any major complications. He is the best son a mom could ever ask for am I am so happy that he was the 1. I cannot imagine Connor any other way =)

 

 

31 for 21 Day in the Life....

Yesterday was Connor's first evaluation for preschool. I cannot believe Connor is almost 3 and will be starting school in January. Where did my little baby go?!?  He had his academic and speech evaluations and the special education teacher and speech therapist asked if Connor would mind separting from me. As sad as it is, I knew he would not have a problem with that! So, they each took a hand and off they went walking down the hall, Connor having the biggest grin on his face the entire time because he was so proud of himself walking. We have a meeting scheduled in November to go over the results of all his evaluations so I do not specifically know how he did, but they said he was cooperative and did well. He did have a bit of a melt down the last 10 minutes and started to cry and pointed to his ear over and over again. They did not know what that meant but as soon as they told me I knew that he was asking for Daddy. For the past month or so that is how he has decided to sign daddy. He usually points to his ear and then signs car because he wants to go in the car with Daddy. He was very happy to see me when they brought him back out and was back to himself within minutes crawling and attempting to walk down the hallway.

Right after the evaluation we had to go down to Children's Hospital at the Lexingon location for Physical Therapy. Connor started there a few weeks ago and loves it! Out goal is for him to walk independently before his third birthday and we are hoping that the equipment they have in the clinic will help. More on PT in a separate post later! We spent an hour there and then came home for naptime. On the way home, Connor drank a yogurt smoothie for lunch and then I gave him some doritos in a zip lock bag. Normally when I give him a snack in the car he dumps it all over himself and the floor, but he was in love with the doritos. By the time we got to the bank near our house his face and fingers were covered in orange cheese but I did not find one crumb on his seat or in the car =) Connor fell asleep immediately and I had to wake him up an hour and half later to pick up Makayla from a playdate at her friends house. We then went up to my office for a few minutes to pick up work and then to Makayla's gymnastics class. Home for dinner, bath, stories and bed. Just another typical day for our family!!!

Working hard at PT