Communication

Fun with Mummy

I never thought it could be possible to get any prouder of our little man. His communication is literally getting better every day. He was sitting, playing with his toys, near the front window of our house this afternoon and very excitedly told me every time a car drove past outside. He made a noise to get my attention, then signed the word "car" and then pointed repeatedly towards the window. I responded by saying, "I know. There's a car outside." He beamed a huge smile! I love the look of satisfaction on his face when he knows I've understood exactly what he's telling me.

My little cleaner

Later in the day Isaiah said to me, "Mum, quick, Felix needs to go to the toilet." I asked him how he knew that, and he told me that Felix had asked him (by signing "toilet") Isaiah then scooped Felix up and ran him up to his potty, took his nappy off and put him on it. The little champion did a huge big wee! I was impressed for two reasons. Firstly, that Isaiah was paying enough attention to see what word Felix was signing to him; and secondly that Felix actually asked to go to the toilet. Usually I will ask him at different intervals during the day and he will sign it to me when he hears the word 'toilet', but he has never actually approached any of us to ask before. Super excited about that. Hopefully he will keep it up.

One of Felix's new signs is the word 'train'. He is a little bit obsessed with them at the moment. On his ipad, he will press the picture of the train over and over again to hear the noise it makes. Today I was holding Noah while Joel and Mel were out. Felix, my little green eyed monster, came over to make sure that Noah wasn't getting all of the attention. He noticed, straight away, that Noah had a picture of a train on the front of his shirt. He pointed to it and started signing 'train'; and then later when he was pushing a toy train along, I saw that he was signing 'train' to himself. It's pretty cute when we catch him 'talking' to himself.

Hello handsome 

I know some parents of children with Down Syndrome who have not started learning to sign with them yet, or are unsure about whether or not to bother. Again, I really encourage you to try it. Sometimes it takes a while for children to pick it up and start signing themselves and I understand that can be frustrating. I can assure you, however, that if you keep it up they will eventually start signing and you will be so thankful you persisted (especially if they are much later to speak or non-verbal). I have spoken to several parents who wish they had kept signing because they are now struggling with very frustrated children who have limited spoken vocabularies. Who knows what the future holds; maybe your child with Down Syndrome will learn to speak quite early (and some do); but what have you got to lose from having a bit of fun learning to sign? It's been a laugh for our family to learn it together (some are better than others), and we've really enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we have to make the trek back to the city again. It will just be an overnight visit this time for our daughter, Amy's, 21st birthday. We are looking forward to spending some time with her, celebrating together. Felix is having his first overnight sleepover with Granny and Papa without us there. I feel a bit of a maternal 'pang' about leaving him, but at the same time I'm looking forward to some time with my gorgeous hubby. It will be our first child free night since Felix was born. Besides, Felix has so much fun when he's with my parents that I don't think he'll notice we're not there. There will be a ton of stories and songs. Papa will show him the trees and plants in the front yard, and Granny will be showing him how to jump like a frog. He'll have a great time.

I won't have internet coverage tomorrow, but I'll be back then next day with more of Felix's adventures!

My thoughts will be with a beautiful family tomorrow as they farewell their precious little butterfly. Her ten short months of life touched so many people, and she will be forever in our hearts. Sleep sweetly little one x x x