Baby Steps

it has been a BIG few weeks in our house!!! I haven't had time to post, but here are our MAJOR milestones!! STRAW drinking!! And I don't mean a sip, we can do an entire cup with no issues!! As many of you will remember this has been a challenge, Parker has been able to straw drink since 14months, but would only take 1-2 sips and then spit the liquids out. We tried every technique, had eval after eval to only be told he had no issues with his lip closure, tongue thrust, or swallowing, just that he was "stubborn." Gee, why am I not surprised? But, a few weeks ago when presented he drank the drink in its entirety!! Talk about the joy of the small things...we never used bottles w/Parker, so this is BIG! Let's just say we love the new independence! Bigger news....he's walking!!! Each day we make strides and we aren't perfect by any means, but it is walking! This clip is of last week when he started standing up everywhere unassisted. It was funny, when I first noticed him doing it, I was cooking in the kitchen, he was behind me practicing over and over again. He only takes one step in the clip , but trying to get a video is next to impossible! I have a 3minute one with 6 steps, but the commentary is typical of our crazy household and the color terrible. I will work towards a better internet worthy video for the masses. Again, who knew this would take 8 long months!! He began pulling up at 14months and started cruising shortly after. Everyone knows we have pushed cross pattern crawling with him for brain organization, but let's admit it, it is hard when all people do is ask if he's walking! WHEW!!! What is interesting is he went from one step to multiple steps, so it seems now that he's "got it" he will move quickly into a full on run (we hope or not)! clip 2 shows how fast he can crawl, no wonder the child has taken so long to walk, he's speedy! People always comment on how FAST he is! And I really don't think Mallory meant to hit him w/the ball, but listen to Parker laugh when she does!

Parker had the privilege of doing a photo shoot for a photographer trying to take her photos of DS kids National. Here is his premier. He is also being used in the DSRTF direct mail piece for fundraising. That I will save for another post, they are doing some fantastic things to raise funds for DS cognitive research, if you haven't already, go to their site and get connected. www.dsrtf.org All for now,

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com