Tommy brushes his teeth on his Elmo step stool

Tommy's self-care skills are very good. It seems it comes very natural on him. I think it is because he is very observant. I realized how observant he is since he was 8 1/2 month when he discovered people and objects have shadows.

I introduced brushing his gums by himself since he was a baby, then the transition to brush his teeth was smoothly. Ironically, he knew to brush his teeth before he had teeth. He brushes his teeth with my supervision and help. I don't think it won't be much different until he is about 5 years old or older. Even although he is not walking yet, nothing is stopping him of experience brushing his teeth as other toddlers of his age, which make me very proud of him. 

Tommy's gross motor skills are slowing down again. He seems to be more fine motor driven again, but his team is looking for ways to keep him working on his gross motor skills while he does things he enjoys such as: "Brushing his teeth". Therefore, one of his Physical Therapists recommended to use a step stool in the bathroom because he can stand up on it while he brushes his teeth. We tried this evening and he enjoyed it. He was on his tip-toes trying to look at himself in the mirror. His PT suggested to buy a step stool of 2 steps because stepping will help him to improve his balance and have more weight shifting in his hips. Meanwhile, we will use his Elmo step stool. Enjoy the photos of Tommy brushing his teeth.

I enjoyed the snow today

But today, my mommy and my daddy took me out to play with the snow. It was my first time on the snow and I truly enjoyed it. I was so happy that I didn't want to go inside again. I cried so bad because they brought me inside anyways. But my mommy promised she will take me out to play with the snow again. Enjoy the pictures of my first time on the snow.

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD! MARRY CHRISTMAS!

This Christmas was very special to me because we started our own Christmas tradition. We will keep Baby Jesus figurine in a secret place and Tommy will put Baby Jesus in the Manger every December 25 in the morning until Tommy gets older. My sister and I used to put Baby Jesus figurine at 12 am every December 25 in the Manger because it was when baby Jesus was born. 

When my sister and I had our first Nativity, it was the most exciting experience for us because we made it by ourself. It was a Nativity Paper doll book. We had to color everything (animals, characters, houses, trees, and so on). We cut all figures and we used too much glue to keep the paper dolls in place. We added our imagination, too! We put Christmas lights and "musgo" to represent the vegetation. We put manila paper to create the mountains and the streets of our first Nativity. We borrowed a table from our grandma to display our First Nativity in the living room of our house. Mom always supports us even in our craziest ideas, she was proud of us for our initiative to have a Nativity. I remember the book was sold for the biggest Department store in Panama, "El Machetazo".  Our first Nativity wasn't that pretty, but it's the most memorable Nativity I have ever had. 

After our first Nativity, my sister and I made the decision to continue the creation of our own Nativity every year; and not for seven years as it was the original tradition by our grandparents. We designed the houses, church, bridges, streets and so on. We got collectible figurines made in Italy that were sold in "El Machetazo". I was in charge of the creativity of our Nativity since I was 7 years old. My sister and I continued our promise until the last Christmas before I came to the USA. I will heritage this tradition to my son. He will use his imagination and skills to do every Nativity memorable, as I did when I was a child. 

Bellow are photos of a Nativity, which is display in a local Mall in Panama City, Panama. My dreams is one day to create a big Nativity as it is display in the photos below.

Representation of the Announcement of

the Birth of Jesus to Mary

Representation of Mary and Joseph's Wedding

Representation of the Herod King

Representation of the Wisemen

Representation of  Mary and Joseph

asking for a place to stay 

Representation of the Nativity

Representation of the Presentation of

Baby Jesus in the Temple

Marry Christmas!

Tommy's pretend play skills

I didn't understand the importance of pretend play until I read the article "The Power of Pretend Play" by Adele M. Brodkin PhD, who says "what  are some of those values through imaginary play, children:

• Come to terms with their feelings, thoughts, confusions, wishes, even fears. 
  
  
• Change the power balance by "becoming" the adults in charge: Mommy, Daddy, policeman, teacher, doctor, carpenter, gardener, etc. Suspending the reality of their size, age, and relative powerlessness is very reassuring. 
  
  
• Fulfill some unacceptable wishes: returning the baby sister to the hospital, for example. 
  
  
• Make sense of their social environment. If you pretend to be someone else, you will get a sense of how it feels to be that other person. 
  
  
• Develop feelings of mastery and control. In their role-playing, children are clearly in charge. And the play gives them opportunities to use many of their developing skills: eye-hand coordination, language proficiency, even large motor performance on tricycles or jungle gyms. It provides an opportunity to be inventive, to take risks (social, not physical risks).
  
  
• Learn concepts and symbols — far more meaningfully than in situations that call for mere memorization and rote behavior.
  
  
• Learn from their mistakes without mortification or any sense of failure."
  

Tommy spontaneously initiated pretend play when he was about 15 month. He started to take anything that looks like glass of water and pretend to drink water. He also initiated pretend play by talking on the phone. Before, he picked his phone toy, put on his ear and started babbling. Now, he loves to dial and call his grandmas from his cell toy. See the video below, Tommy makes a phone call to his grandmas.

We are reinforcing his pretend play skills by engaging him in more activities to transform objects and actions symbolically. He has a collectible toy farm from Playmobil. He moves the animals and make the (his) animal sounds, but when he is alone. He stops as soon as he sees me and doesn't do it again. He has also brushed his stuffed animals teeth and hair. We are encourage him to do more this type of actions with his stuffed animals. He also hugs and kisses his monster puppet. The new pretend play activity is to feed a doll and he is doing an excellent job. As my sister-in-law said: "He is really blossoming and becoming such a little man, not a baby anymore." I can see it when he pretends play because Tommy's pretend playing skills are age appropiate, we are just exposing him to the proper toys according Tommy's preferences and our therapist's guidance.

I am collecting all type of cute containers, plastic jars and bottles, and boxes from our groceries. This is a way to have items to pretend play without spending money. This is a fun way to encourage language development, too. Tommy tries to say "garlic" every time I give him a empty garlic jar. Going to the grocery store is an activity for pretend play I am planning when Tommy gets older because he likes to go to the grocery store with us (he already has a shopping cart).

If you know any activity to encourage pretend play, feel free to contact me. I will be more than happy to try it.

Tommy is enrolled in Parents as Teachers

As any other parents, we want the best for our child; therefore, we are providing to our son with all the tools he needs to reach his full potential and we have great people who are guiding us to nurture our son's brain.

Tommy is currently enrolled in the Parents as Teacher program, which provides parents with child development knowledge and parenting support. The program's goals are:

• Increase parent knowledge of early childhood development and improve parenting practices
• Provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues
• Prevent child abuse and neglect
• Increase children's school readiness and school success

This is a very neat program because it is FREE. We have once a month home visit by a teacher. She gives us hand-outs about child development and positive parent-child relationships, which have became very helpful for me. Our teacher uses the same materials and activities she currently uses with other kids of Tommy's age. She hasn't modified the program because he is responding to the games and activities according to his age. She said Tommy has good attention span (it is not the first time we heard it), which is very important to learn in the school years. The activity of our last visit was about Music and Tommy was shaking his head according to the rhythm and incorporating his hands as part of his dance, he finds the way to shake is booty; even although, he is not walking yet. He is a funny guy!

I think the key of success, for kids with or without the syndrome, is STIMULATION. It seems, there are more and more kids with T21 who are doing many things according to their ages. The blog "My life with Gabriel" is a true examples of what stimulation can do. Gabriel is doing great regardless the syndrome. Read what his mom says about their Parent-Teacher interview:

T and I had our parent-teacher interview this morning before school started. We brought along the kids who played while Gabe's teacher caught us up to speed. I guess I expected more -- maybe more negative? -- I don't know -- but I came away from the meeting realizing that Gabe is doing great. In fact, he's right in line with his little peers right now. Other than needing more help in the French department, he seems to be participating in every other aspect, and his "scores" in certain areas (counting to 39, shape sorting, word recognition, patterning, etc.) are above or the same as his classmates...click here for the full story

I think we cannot know the future, but we can build a better future in the present. How we stimulate our son today will help him tomorrow.

Beautiful couple with T21

I found an astonished photo shut of a beautiful couple with T21, Christian and Andrea. I couldn't resist to share it.  http://connywenk.com/blog/2009/04/andrea-and-christian.html

Tommy rolls his Spanish "Rs"

With or Without the syndrome, Tommy has to be bilingual because my family doesn't speak English and my husband's family doesn't speak Spanish. My little boy doesn't have options! Tommy is not raised to be bilingual because he is growing up within two cultures and the spontaneous practice of two languages, English and Spanish.

Tommy is not the first child with Trisomy 21 who is raised in a bilingual family, and I am sure, he won't be the last one. I have been inspired for other parents who have raised their kids with Trisomy 21 in a multicultural environment where the kids with Trisomy 21 have learned more than two languages. Yes, more than two languages!. If you would like to know more about bilingualism in kids with Trisomy 21, click on Language Learning in Four Bilingual Children with Down Syndrome: A Detailed Analysis of Vocabulary and Morphosyntax.

For now, our target language is English; therefore, his Speech therapies are focused in helping him to speak English. Even although, he says three words in Spanish (bébe, tetita, and agua). He imitates sounds in both languages. Nonverbal communication skills are the foundation for the emergence of any language for all kids with or without the syndrome. Therefore, we are working on his nonverbal communication skills to strength his communication skills in both languages.

His Speech Therapist realized Tommy was doing the Spanish "R" during Tommy's jargon moments. He spontaneously learned the Spanish "R" sound just by listening. When we realized he can do the Spanish "R" sound, we asked him for the"R" sound because we are working on helping him to answer questions. See the video bellow, you will see Tommy rolling his Spanish "Rs".

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