Two Father's Perspectives

I received the first issue in my new subscription to Newsweek magazine today. The first thing I looked at was the last page inside the back cover. It was a column written by George Will, a Pulitzer Prize-winning, conservative American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. Mr. Will has written quite frequently about his son, Jon, who has Down Syndrome. You can read his latest column here.

I also read another column several days ago that I enjoyed. This one was written by man from the UK, Times chief sports writer Simon Barnes. He also has a son with Downs. His column is entitled, I'm not a saint, just a parent.

Four Month Checkup

Wade - 4 Months

We took Wade to see his pediatrician on Monday for his four month checkup. They use a different set of growth charts for Downs children. Wade is doing very well on the Downs charts. In fact, Dr. Jones said he is even doing fairly well on the regular charts. We can tell he is a little smaller than our other two were and a little weaker, but he is doing really well. We are so pleased with his progress. He also got 3 shots again this visit. Karen says he didn't seem to mind them as much as the other two boys did.

Disappointment

After cutting open this grapefruit, I felt cheated. The tree must have been in the middle of a cow pasture.

I found this info online:

THICK SKIN ON CITRUS FRUIT SYMPTOMS

When you have thick skin on the fruit of a healthy citrus tree it is usually an indication of a nutritional imbalance. This is normally caused by too much nitrogen and not enough potash. This is a common problem where animal manure has been completely substituted for a complete fertilizer.

Speech Therapy

Today we met Wade's speech therapist for the first time. Her name is Liz Johnston and her official title is "Speech Pathologist". She gave us some pointers on how to start working with Wade to exercise his cheeks, mouth and tongue muscles. She wants us to check with our pediatrician to see how soon we can start supplementing his feeding with a spoon. They like to start Down's children with a spoon earlier than normal, to start stimulating their mouths in different ways.

She probably won't come back until we do start spoon feeding him. She was very nice, helpful, and told us to call her anytime we have questions or would like for her to come back out.

Liz Johnston - Speech Pathologist

Six milkbones for whoever can tell me why she is wearing one purple glove and one white one.

April (Occupational Therapist), Liz, Karen & Wade

Randall & Christopher

Since I've been posting a lot about Wade, I thought I would post a few more pictures of the other two boys. Some of them go back almost a year.

Before haircut

After haircut

Randall with baby chicks

Christopher practicing his drawing

Who doesn't like "Calvin & Hobbs"?

Making Christmas cookies

Randall has been sewing mittens for the preemies at the local hospital. He has sewed over 400 pair in the last year. He taught Christopher to pull the finished product off of the machine and stack them.

1st Post of '07

In this photo, Wade is doing a good job sitting up by himself. Back in October I posted a similar photo of Wade sitting in the same chair. However, in that photo the chair was actually lying on its back on the floor, so even though it appeared he was sitting in the chair, he was actually lying on his back. Now he can sit upright. At least long enough to snap the picture.

On January 4 we were pleased to be visited by the Milford & Joyce Yoder family from N. Dakota along with Joyce's parents, the Harry Brenemans. Milfords have 3 children and their youngest son also has Down Syndrome. His name is Kerwin, and he's 2 years old. We had a very enjoyable time visiting and hearing of their experiences dealing with Downs. Kerwin is doing well. He just recently learned to walk. He was a real cute guy and fun to watch how he interacted with others. I meant to get a picture of them while they were here, but I forgot.


On the 9th we took Wade back to see Dr. Flannery at the Children's Medical Center at the Medical College of Georgia. Dr. Flannery is a geneticist. He thought Wade was doing exceptionally well and wants to see him again after we have the hearing test, etc. done in Feb. Dr. Flannery said that if everything looks good then, that we won't have to see him anymore.