Messy Boy!

Helping Daddy clean the bike

I just love watching Felix's little personality evolve as he's getting older. He's got a hilarious sense of humour, and a definite stubborn streak! Tonight he ate most of his dinner, but then shook his head because he didn't want any more. I wanted to try to get him to eat one more mouthful, so I moved the fork towards his mouth but he whacked it out of my hand and onto the floor. He looked at me, as if to say, "I told you I didn't want any more." I told him that he shouldn't hit the fork out of my hand but, at the same time he did tell me, by shaking his head, that he didn't want any more. The only way he can communicate with us is by signing or by motioning in other ways (eg. shaking his head), and it means that we have to be a lot more vigilant in noticing those, sometimes subtle, signs and respond accordingly.

Messy boy!

Only this morning, I said to Nathan that I'd love to do one of the signing workshops they have at the Down Syndrome Society every now and again. I have a feeling that Felix won't be speaking (verbally) for quite a long time yet, so I really want to amp up the signing to ease his frustration. At the moment, we tend to teach ourselves signs according to the things we talk to Felix about the most, but it's sometimes difficult to know which words to learn next. I feel like Felix has so much to say to us, because he is always pointing and gesturing towards things. He does so well to communicate most things to us but I think, as he's getting older,  he has so much more to say than he is actually able to. Time to shake the cobwebs out of this old brain of mine and try to learn more than just a few signs at a time. You realise how many words actually exist when you, essentially, have to learn a whole new language!

Felix was giggling his head off this afternoon. Nathan was crawling down the hallway on his hands and knees and Felix was walking along as fast as his legs could go, pushing his little trolley and chasing him. When Felix got close to Nathan, he would pretend like Felix had run him over and he'd fall to the ground. Felix was in hysterics. His laugh is the most beautiful sound; I love it so much!

Little bit of net surfing with Mummy

Earlier today, Felix was out in the backyard with us while we were doing some cleaning up. The dogs are pretty good with him now and leave him alone most of the time when he's out there. They still give him the occasional kiss if we're looking the other way, but are very gentle with him. Felix thought it was great to be outside with them and made sure he gave them all a pat when they walked past. Being a typical boy, Felix loves dirt and enjoys digging. He quickly found a place to dig and made a huge mess. There was gravel and dirt everywhere. I was trying to sweep, but every time I turned around there were more little stones and even more dirt where I had just swept. He was having a great time. When I finally brought Felix inside (straight to the bathroom), he was covered from head to toe. When I took his clothes off he even had rocks inside his nappy. Now that's some enthusiastic playing!!