A Charming Little Boy

Z has his consultation with the development pediatrician every 6 months. Last month, we visited the good doctor for his first session this year.

Dev-pedia consults are actually nerve-wracking for me. Sometimes, or most of the time, I feel like I am not doing enough once I find out that Z’s progress is very slow. Last month’s consultation was somehow better. His assessment? A charming little boy of stated age. I love that!

While Z only had about 2-3 months worth of progress from the last consult, I think we are still on the right track.

Z is turning 4 in a couple of months. But in terms of development, he is still at about 17-18 months old. We still have a long way to go to catch up with his age. We have a long list to work on but a couple of things that are top priority would be potty training and independent feeding.

Regardless of the list of our things-to-do, I have seen Z’s progress and I could say that he is learning by the day. It really seems like he’s taking his time in learning things.

For the past 6 months, Z learned to do a lot of things and he has also shown a lot of his interests. So bear with me as I share a few photos of Z’s moments of milestones and interests for the past 6 months.

Milestones

There are things that we can do that we normally take for granted. But for kids with Down syndrome, these things need to be taught for them to learn how. Z goes to therapy twice a week to help him learn how to do things. And here are just some of the milestones he’s hit this year.

charming little boy_straw — He learned how to drink from a straw at the start of the year. Whoopee!

charming little boy_carousel — Z rides the carousel without any support. He can now balance himself on the “horse” 🙂

charming little boy_cars — He can identify different types of vehicles. He knows which ones are trucks, cars (sedan), and motorbikes

charming little boy_activity — Z is getting better at holding and using pens

charming little boy_ cup — He holds and drinks from his cup now, too. But he loves to dump the remaining content on the floor when he’s done.

Interests

Apart from cars (yes, my charming little boy loves cars), he loves doing a lot of other things. I think these interests sprouts from what he normally see us do at home. He also loves running on grass. There must be something about greenery that attracts this little boy so much!

charming little boy_cleaning — Z loves to sweep the floor. He would always try to get the broom from his ate when she cleans

charming little boy_cooking — He loves to cook! Whenever I cook, he comes to the kitchen and asks me to carry him so he can see what I’m cooking. I let him try to “cook” one time and he loved it!

charming little boy_pasta — This little boy is a pasta lover!

charming little boy_elmo — Z now loves Elmo! Elmo is his bedtime buddy

charming little boy_swimming — Z loves the water ever since. He’s learning how to swim and getting better at it too

Therapy Sessions

Z still attends occupational therapy twice a week. While Z is still non-verbal, his doctor didn’t recommend getting speech therapy just yet. Though I know that I have to prepare to have one scheduled, too. Z knows a few words: car, truck, hi, bye, star, bear, baby. While he can’t pronounce the words properly yet, the mere fact that he can say those words now are milestones in itself.

charming little boy_therapy2 — Z loves the slide and the swing

charming little boy_therapy1 — climbing up and down as part of his obstacle course

charming little boy_therapy3 — Z still needs improvement in completing puzzles but he’s getting there

A Charming Little Boy Indeed

Who wouldn’t find Z a charming little boy when he smiles all the time? He loves saying hi and bye-bye to people with matching flying kisses. Haha! He waves as he says hi and he waves when he says bye. During Skype session with Mama Nana, he would always give Mama Nana a kiss by kissing the screen.

He loves to give me hugs and lots of kisses, too.

charming little boy_hugs — Hugs and kisses before nap time or bed time

And while I know that we all have to work hard to make a lot more progress in terms of Z’s development, I am just glad that he is growing up to be a cheerful little boy.