Where is Felix?

Wearing Mummy's shoe

Felix was one of only two little ones at his Special Needs Playgroup this morning. He was in his element. He pretty much had the whole place to himself, so he did lots of exploring and playing, and quite a bit of vocalising. When I asked him about the toy butterfly he was holding, he actually said "butta-iy" I actually thought I might have misheard him but, when Felix's teacher said, "He just said butterfly", I knew it wasn't just my imagination. He seems to find 'B' words the easiest to say. He consistently says 'ball' and 'book' and will also say 'baby' and 'brother' (buvu) sometimes. He is slowly starting to use different sounds as he plays and, although they haven't developed into specific words yet, he is certainly building his repertoire and I'm so proud of his efforts.

We always sing a 'goodbye' song at the end of playgroup. The words are Where is Felix? Where is Felix? There he is. There he is. Hope you had a good time. Hope you had a good time. Goodbye to you. Goodbye to you. We use key signing with Felix, so we don't sign every single word. In this song we sign the word 'where', and then his name (which is the first letter of his name signed twice). We then point to Felix (there he is). We sign the word 'good' and then wave 'goodbye'. I am so pleased to say that Felix did every single sign/action today for the very first time. He did such a great job and looked like he was thoroughly enjoying it. When it was time to sing to his little friend, he pointed to her, signed 'good' and waved goodbye as well. Such an amazing little person.

Tickles on Mother's Day morning

After Felix had breakfast this morning, he went off to play while I got organised for the day. A few minutes later I could hear a thud, and then silence, then another thud. Then I heard Felix make one of his frustrated noises before another thud. Eventually, after a few more 'thuds', Felix limped his way into my room, with one bare foot and the other in one of my big sneakers. He had a huge smile on his face and looked pretty proud of his efforts. At least it explained what all the noise was... him desperately trying to lift my shoe off the ground with each step. I was pretty impressed that he managed to get all the way up the hallway. His ankles are so floppy due to hypotonia, so it was probably great exercise for him.

Mr Serious

I don't know how many of you remember me telling you the story of Iris, a beautiful little girl with Down syndrome, who passed away due to complications from pulmonary hypertension. It really shook up all of us in the Down syndrome community who had been following her story. I woke up this morning to the beautiful news that her Mummies are expecting another baby later this year. It has been such a heartbreaking time for them as they have had to adjust to life without their precious little one. Although Iris will never be forgotten and will always be an important part of their lives, I'm so glad that they will, once more, have a little life to fill their arms and bring them joy. Congratulations girls x x x