There's been so many good things going on lately, but I haven't had the time to sit and write.
Last week was a huge week, culminating in an exciting weekend. Friday night was the Saving Sofia Crab Feed and Silent Auction for our friends Jennifer (Three's A Charm and Saving Sofia) and Hector, who are adopting beautiful 13 month old Sofia from an orphanage in the Ukraine. Sofia has Down syndrome and needs her new mommy and daddy and brothers desperately. She has no idea how fortunate she is that another family values her so much that they are willing to make a huge financial and emotional sacrifice to get her. The crab feed and auction was a huge success. Lisa of Genetically Enhanced, uber-organizer extraordinaire, posted some pictures of the evening (including my 28 week prego belly). Thank goodness black is "slimming." Ha ha! It was a fantastic turnout and so great to see familiar faces from the local Ds community.
Then the next day (last Saturday), we attended a family day with kid activities and parents' sharing sessions through our local Down Syndrome Information Alliance. Doug and I were facilitators for the 0 to 3 year old parent sharing session and enjoyed chatting mostly with friends and a new couple we'd just met.
Fast forward to this week and I'm feeling very behind in blogland.
John Michael has met some great milestones in the past couple months. His new thing is running, stomping his feet, and kicking a ball across the yard. His gross-motor skills are awesome and his upper body strength are very good. He can pull himself up on almost anything. He loves to climb and has added climbing up the girls' bunk bed ladder to his list of accomplishments, much to my dismay! A couple days ago, I heard SILENCE, which around here can mean trouble. I checked the girls' room to find John Michael standing at the top rung... not sure where to go next. Anna (big sis) now has the added burden of taking the ladder down every morning and tucking it away. Better safe than sorry!
John Michael's communication skills are blossoming as well. He is saying STOP (dah), GO (doh), UP (ub), DOWN (dow), IN (in), OUT (oud), MORE (moh) and signing, nodding his head for YES. He finally says Moo for cow. Not sure why that one was so hard. His Speech Therapist is trying to get him to say two different syllables together, like BA-BY, MOM-MY, and DAD-DY for starters. She also wants him to try to get the ending sounds of words like HO"T", PE"G", etc. and not just the beginning sounds.
He is quick to sign the words he knows and will often sign or make a sound if he sees something familiar to let me know he sees it. If he hears an airplane or a siren, he touches his ear and makes sure I know he hears it and then I'll identify it for him.
I love this new explosion of communication. It seems he's confident in his gross-motor to the point that it's now second nature and he can focus on the other stuff. He still needs help with stairs and will either reach for my hand or crawl up and down as necessary. He has stopped pulling hair, dumping the dog's water bowl, listens to instructions better, helps to clean up when asked, and lets me know how much he understands. Occasionally he still hits, but this is less frequent as well. I just love this little guy -- he never ceases to amaze me DAILY!
I took some video with my camera yesterday of John Michael kicking a ball, climbing up the slide and saying a few words. For some reason, my Microsoft Movie Maker software didn't recognize the MP4 video files so I couldn't splice them together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER69AEol4Ic John Michael kicking a ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8L5e_gvtOo John Michael around the yard and up the slide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1xf1sQZqFw John Michael laughing and then going down the slide
Can someone tell me how to embed a YouTube video into my blog post? I've always done it a different way... but it's not working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER69AEol4Ic John Michael kicking a ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8L5e_gvtOo John Michael around the yard and up the slide
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1xf1sQZqFw John Michael laughing and then going down the slide
Can someone tell me how to embed a YouTube video into my blog post? I've always done it a different way... but it's not working.
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Way to go John Michael. I am not sure when Ella is going to decide to walk. She will be 2 next week and will not let go at all. She is busy enough as is though so I am not pushing it too much. I am so jealous that you got to go to the crab fest...I wish we lived closer. Sofia is one of the little ones from Reeces Rainbow that I wished I could have adopted but am so thankful that she found the Sanchez family. I just know that someday we will get to meet.
ReplyDeleteyou are AWESOME JM!!! I dont know about the bunkbed climbing though, lol...WIlliam does that too without a ladder...he climbs up the foot of the girl's bed, YIKES!! now we lock their door when they are in school
ReplyDeleteI love the videos! Way to go on the communication explosion and awesome gross motor skills!
ReplyDeleteAs for embedding videos from youtube, I start with '<a href=' then insert the html code within " " from youtube (this tells blogger the source of the video). End with a >. Then insert embed object code here, which you can find on the upper right side of your youtube video, then end with </a> I hope that helps. Oh, you can also choose the size of the video screen while on youtube. You should do that before embedding object.
way to go john michael! you are just cruising along and keeping your mom VERY busy. you are so amazing and of course adorable!!!
ReplyDeleteJohn Michael is so darn cute...and so active! I loved all the videos, thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteEverything sounds good. John Michael is simply amazing! I'm glad the auction and dinner went well. how fortunate that you are close by.
ReplyDeletebut you didn't say how you are feeling. 28 weeks is about when you really start to feel pregnant, at least it was for me. You sound good hope you're feeling great!
He is doing so well! He knows he's gonna be big brother soon and kicking it into high gear! :)
ReplyDeleteAs far as the video . . . I just copy the longer code on the youtube site and then paste it where I want it on the html page of the new blog post (you know how there's a 'compose' and 'html' tab?) and then it uploads the whole video and not just the link.
Look at him go!! You are awesome, JM! I love that laugh. Reminds me of Christopher's, a lot. Hee hee. Can't wait to get them together in April!
ReplyDeleteSO awesome to see JM blossoming.
ReplyDeleteWow, JM is doing AWESOME!!! That's so great about his gross motor skills and his speech! I thought those 2-syllable words would never come, but one day he'll start doing them and will look at you like, "what, haven't you ever heard a 2-syllable word before?" LOL Great update post!
ReplyDeleteWow, John Michael, look at all the wonderful things you can do! I just loved the videos:) Keep up the good work, JM!! BTW, congrats on such a successful event!!
ReplyDeleteWhat great updates. John Michael, look at him go. I loved reading about all the great things he is doing!!! What a great event and fundraiser, congrats.
ReplyDeleteWTG John Micheal! What an absolutely adorable child he is :). I hope you're still feeling well, Monica! You look fabulous! Hmmm, embedding youtube works for me, or at least it did. I hope they haven't changed anything! Kris
ReplyDeleteWow--check out all that John Micheal can do! Way to go!!
ReplyDeleteHe's amazing and so are you! So glad to know both of you!!
ReplyDeletewhat a great update on John Michael and his latest milestones! Loved the videos - he is so cute! Great job John Michael!
ReplyDelete