Chromosomal War (Part 2)

The beginning of the Chromosomal War

was captured on video.

Enjoy the video of Our Super Boy fighting back

Extra, Extra! The Chromosomal War has began

USA—The most aggressive and vigorous Chromosomal War began against Trisomy 21 on April 21, 2010 in a small town somewhere in the United States. Our boy stood up and walked his first 5 independent steps, forcing Trisomy 21 to surrender. People who were in surround areas were astonished of how Our Super Boy fight back and took the lead in this chromosomal war.

The Super Heros Academy Headquarters, best know as the EIP (Early Intervention Program), located in the town "Burst Heart" received the news with great joy because one of their little warrior won this brutal battle. The troopers (Therapists team) were proud that this little brave hero won one of the most harder battles of his life, using all the techniques he learned form his superiors (Therapists).

The little hero received an award for his heroic triumph. He got a trip to one of the most famous petting zoo of the nation; where he recovered after such tremendous effort. He enjoyed being around the goats. He was pulling their ears, poking their eyes and trying to hold their tails. As any super hero, he is fearless! He doesn't get scare of animals.

Currently, Our Super Boy keeps trying hard and he has been able to do up to 7 independent steps. He is walking one hand supported with his guards (Parents) wherever he goes. We are very excited to see Our Super Boy walking completely independent in the coming months.

Always remember: "The Sky is the Limit."

We enjoy our son regardless the syndrome.

He is our little hero for every milestones he has accomplished

and every challenge he has surpassed.

Always Be My Baby

The moment has sadly arrived, Tommy doesn't look like a baby any more. He still has his chubby cheeks, but they are slowly disappearing. He is beginning to slim-down looking more like a big boy. Besides the disappearance of his baby face, I have noticed his arms, legs and torso are slowly beginning to lengthen; so, his body looks more in proportion. He is changing right before my eyes.

My mom alway says my sister and I

are her babies forever; so

Tommy will always be my baby.

Tommy, as other toddlers this age, does not like to be contained; which is another indicator he is not a baby any more. So, I am wrestling match when I try to put him in the stroller sometimes. Whenever the opportunity presents, I allow him to hold my hand and walk instead of using the stroller, or allow him to hold onto the stroller while I push it. It seems fun for him! It is a good way to help him to improve his gross motor skills. We walked in the mall this afternoon pushing the stroller and all of that extra walking led up to a good night. He fell asleep right after I put him to sleep.

Getting ready for the summer

Tommy is getting ready for the summer with new toys, outfits, swim trunks, and sunglasses. He is a big boy now. He looks so cute with his UV sunglasses and he is able to put them by himself, he puts them a little off, but he knows what the place for the sunglasses is. He likes to show his sunglasses off.

I bought a pair of sunglasses for his birthday, but they are big for his face. So, I got new sunglasses that he can ware during the summer. I just bought it for the fun as a way to reinforce his self-care skills. But I realized it will be a way to protect his eyes, especially because he has Blepharitis, which is a common and persistent inflammation of the eyelids but with the proper care is controlled.

Lately, Tommy is having excessive tearing. I already talked to his Eye Doctor about it and he prescribed a medicine for Tommy, but it is not improving. Therefore, we will take him to the eye doctor to make sure everything is alright. Meanwhile, we will keep laughing and having fun by watching Tommy wearing his glasses.

Keeping hands clean

One thing, I have learned by having a child with a genetic disorder is to brake paradigms. We are not afraid to let him try, after all, he is just a child regardless the syndrome.

We taught Tommy to use the hand sanitizer when he was about 18 month. Why so early? Because he has a greatest risk to have colds more often than typical kids, which can result in otitis media (ear infection) that can result in temporary hearing lost. Hearing is fundamental for language development. Therefore, we taught him the earlier as possible. Using the hand sanitizer was also the beginning to introduce hand washing, which is the first stage of toilet training.

Accordomg to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. It is best to wash your hands with soap and clean running water for 20 seconds. However, if soap and clean water are not available, use an alcohol-based product to clean your hands. Alcohol-based hand rubs significantly reduce the number of germs on skin and are fast acting.

When washing hands with soap and water:

• Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap. Use warm water if it is available.
• Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all surfaces.
• Continue rubbing hands for 20 seconds. Need a timer? Imagine singing "Happy Birthday" twice through to a friend!
• Rinse hands well under running water
• Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use your paper towel to turn off the faucet

When should you wash your hands?

• Before preparing or eating food
• After going to the bathroom
• After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has gone to the bathroom
• Before and after tending to someone who is sick
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After handling an animal or animal waste
• After handling garbage
• Before and after treating a cut or wound

Remember: If soap and water are not available, use alcohol-based gel to clean hands."

Tommy's hand-wash routine

1. Mommy's verbal cue: "Tommy is time to wash your hands". "Let's go to the bathroom."
2. Tommy walks supported by one hand to the bathroom.
3. He climbs the step stools.
4. He opens the faucet.
5. He gets his hands wet and play with the water.
6. Mommy's Verbal Cue: "Tommy let's go put soup on your hands." "Rub, Rub, Your hands."
7. Tommy rubs his hands
8. Mommy's Verbal Cue: "Get your hands wet."
9. Tommy wash his hands with the water.
10. Tommy dries his hands with paper towel
11. Tommy throw the paper towel away in the trash can
12. and he is ready to eat.

We introduced hand-wash to Tommy when he was 23 month and we were afraid to let him climb on the step stool, but we gave him the opportunity to try. We don't know how a kid without the syndrome, at the same age than our son, masters this skill. What we know is that Tommy does it perfect; even although, his gross motors skills are not at the same label of a typical child. Today, we are so proud that our boy masters hand wash. We are not afraid!

Enjoy the video of Tommy washing his hands.

Matching Like Object

Currently, Tommy is able to match a three figure puzzle (Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Barnyard Animals Jumbo Knob Puzzle). He began to match one figure when he was 16-17 month and he matched the three figures when he was about 21-22 month. We like to reinforce Tommy's skills; therefore, his Developmental Therapist and I are increasing the difficulty of matching.

One way, I have found, it is fun for Tommy to play 'matching' is during story time before going to bed. His favorite animal is the 'PIG' and he loves to do the pig sound. Therefore, I bought the book "Fun in the mud," which is about a pig that didn't want to share the mud with other animals in the farm, but at the end, they had a mud fun party. To make the story time more fun, I bought a pig figurine. It was a success! Tommy loves the story; while I read, he does the pig sound and matches the pig illustration with the pig figurine. This is an easy way to combine cognition, language development and have fun while inculcate love for reading.

You can find a good source for matching in Bill and Ria's blog. Here is the link:

http://billandria.blogspot.com/2010/01/matching.html

Sensory Box

The sensory box is a homemade toy that we created by following the recommendations of our Developmental Therapist. It is a medium size storage box, which is filled with rice or any dry material, according to your child's preference. Inside the box, we have 4 little rubber toys, a scoop and a catch-a-mess mat.

We used this sensory box during the past winter to keep Tommy entertained. The objective of this box is to work on cognition for increasing attention span, fine motor skills to work on wrist control and hand separation, as well as tactile sensory input by touching the rice with the fingers. It also helps to promote language development by describing the rice, rubber toys, scooping tools and the actions such as: 'scoop', 'pour', 'hide' and 'seek'. We still uses the sensory box, but not as often than before. Tommy still enjoys this homemade toy.

Tommy cleans his mess

Our little boy is growing up! He is in the "I want to do it myself" age and it shows to us how independent he is. He likes to do things by himself, such as: blowing his nose and wiping his face. Because we have seen his interest in doing these self-care skills on his own, we are encouraging him by providing the paper towels, napkins, wash cloth or anything he can use to pretend he is blowing his nose or wiping his face.

Tommy is mastering blowing his nose and wiping his face by himself. After he eats, he likes to wipes his faces and blowing his nose. What amazed us is that he is learning by observing everything around his environment, which means he is aware of his surroundings. The fact, Tommy is not walking is not stopping him to learn. This makes us very proud of him.

Enjoy the video of our messy boy!

Tooth brushing with a power toothbrush

As most toddlers, Tommy fusses to do things. Of course, tooth brushing is in the list of fussiness; which is nothing related to the syndrome, it is just him being a 2 year old kid. But I always find a way to keep him engage with the activity. The secret to kip a child engage into an activity is always make it fun and introduce something new according to the child's preferences and learning style.

The new tool we have incorporate to tooth bushing is the Crayola Power Toothbrush. I chose this toothbrush because Tommy likes to scribble with Crayola crayons and markers. He also likes to give his own oral motor massages with the Z-vibe (The Z-Vibe is a vibrating tool for oral-motor stimulation and sensory input). He has been interested in using my tooth brush because it is bigger than his toothbrush, which tells me Tommy wants to be a big boy. Therefore, the Crayola Power Toothbrush matches perfect with Tommy's preferences and learning style because it has a similar shape of a marker; it gently massages his gums as the Z-vibe and it is a big toothbrush just like mammy's.

Crayola Power Toothbrush Features:

• Make brushing time fun with colorful Crayola maker-shaped power toothbrush
• Suction cup is a fun and easy way to store your brush when not in use
• Oscillating bristle action massages gums
• Colorful ultra soft bristles are gentle on young gums

Oscillating bristle action massages gums is the most outstanding feature of this toothbrush for us. WHY? We are increasing oral motor input because of the advises of our new Speech Therapist and Developmental Therapist. Tommy is showing signs that he is getting ready to talk. Those sings are: excessive drooling and staring at our mouths when we talk. We has noticed he has increased the production of sounds and we are hearing some words he has said before more often. Therefore, increasing awareness in his oral muscles is important to stimulate the production of words.

You can find this toothbrush in your local Target or online. I highly recommend this tooth brush for any child. It definitely makes tooth brushing FUN.

Tommy still needs help and supervision because this is an skill that kids don't master until they are 6 year old or so. I do believe the earlier the better! So, the most he practices tooth brushing, the better his fine motor skills get to master this skill. Tommy is doing a great job bushing his teeth by himself.

Enjoy the video of Tommy brushing his teeth with

his Crayola Power Toothbrush.

Prayers, Prayers and more Prayers

Blogging have introduced me to the journey of other parents raising a child with Trisomy 21. I follow a blog of a beautiful girl, who is 2 weeks younger than my son, Ella. Ella is sick, she has Leukemia and the doctors started the chemo last night. I do believe in the power of prayers and I can see it every day on my little miracle, my son. Please pray for Ella and her family. If you would like to meet Ella, here is the address to Ella's blog:www.sweetellagrace.blogspot.com

Tommy-proofing products

I though because of Tommy wasn't walking yet, we didn't have to pay much attention to toddler-proofing. But I was wrong! Today, he took a piece of paper I left on the coffee table. He was playing with the paper and went to the kitchen. He stood in front of the stove, which was on, and touched the pot with the paper. He put the paper close to the flame. Thank God, we saw him on time. Lately, we have seen him trying to turn the stove knobs. We always keep our eyes on him because he is constantly exploring, but we don't want to take a chance and we will get more 'Tommy-proofing products'.