there are moments...

there are moments on this journey that make you stop, dead in your tracks...moments that touch you, that make you silently reflect and think about just how and why you are on this journey you find yourself on every day. why it was you chosen. moments where things fall into line, when you are at the right place at the right time. things that would have never happened had you not been chosen to take on this new path. people that you meet, and you can feel this swelling inside, the quick paced beating of your heart, because you want so much to wrap your arms around that new mother and tell her that it will be wonderful, breathtaking and inspiring. so when you meet a couple, just a little half way through their first pregnancy at a barbeque, for a friend that either of you hardly ever see...a couple whom after finding out that camden has down syndrome, bursts out to you, whom they have just seconds ago met, that the baby girl they are carrying might have down syndrome too...it makes you stop and realize that this is part of it. this is all part of the journey now...and that somebody else is walking you through each step that you take...because just how much coincidence really happens in life?

and regardless of whether or not that baby girl, still growing and changing, does have down syndrome, this couple needed you at that time, and you needed them. i am thankful for these moments, they always seem to happen at a time when you needed someone to wrap their arms around you and remind you that this path is wonderful, breathtaking and inspiring...

just because...

i know my blog is overrun with video clips these days, but i can't help it...
~
the toughest thing about having a 16 month old who is the size of most 8 month olds (or younger) is finding developmentally appropriate toys that fit his tiny frame...but every once in a while we get lucky...this was a christmas present from a certain pair of grandparents and i am happy to say, g and g bush, that he now loves his truck! (click here to see how cam first responded to this now treasured gift)

every day i love him a little bit more...i don't really know how that's possible.

simon says...

while in the produce aisle at the grocery store cam looked to the side, folded his arms and bowed his head, so mom looked to the side and there it was...an older gentlemen pacing the aisle in search of some vegetable his wife had no doubt sent him on a hunt for, with his arms folded across his chest, i immediately started to laugh and then from behind heard another patron begin to laugh..."what a good mimic cute one" she said as she walked by...

~
he is definitely becoming our little mini-me with all of his mimicking and i can't help but fall in love with this newest obsession of his. it is truly amazing how each stage brings something even more magical than the last.

the world upside down...

ignore the shaky videographer...pretty sure looking at the world upside down is cam's favorite thing to do these days...

and i have to throw in his awesome signing and speech skills too!

and ignore the tv in the background haha i was obviously not paying attention...

summer is peaking out...

of the frequent clouds and gloom this year, we have had the occasional day of sunshine, yesterday and today being hopefully the start of more and more...to celebrate the sunshine we headed to the zoo yesterday with cousin austin...

and today we went for a quick swim! PLEASE STAY SUNSHINE!!!

a,b,c's...

a couple of months ago we started speech therapy with cam...i felt like he was doing alright with making a few sounds, he did mama, dada, baba, goy, nana...so what i really wanted from therapy was to get him eating more (he was having problems moving to more solids...he ate stage three baby foods all day long, bread, puffs of all sorts, and cookies and french fries, but had a problem with choking and then vomiting on pretty much all other foods, including his bottle, and he wasn't taking a sippy or a straw). along with his speech therapy weekly, his early intervention coordinator through the school district set up a feeding eval and encouraged us to encourage cam's speech by repeating every sound he made to us, back to him (and i mean every sound).

so we faithfully went, every week, even though cam had mad stranger anxiety with the therapist and spent half of every session clinging for his life to my neck. and billy and i have been making an extra effort to repeat every single sound that comes out of our boy's mouth. we got some great advice on eating from the therapy sessions, along with our early intervention coordinator, each week. i also started singing a,b,c's to camden at bed time, i sing once through the traditional way...a,b,c...and then through with just the sounds (ah, ba, ca, da...). i do it at bedtime because that is when i have his fullest attention, he will do anything to postpone going to bed.

so here we are one and a half months later and cam is now eating and swallowing (without choking) small bites of meat (chicken, meatballs, vienna sausages), small fruit slices, yogurt, fruit bars, cereal bars, bagels and cream cheese, peanut butter, steamed veggies, most anything sweet, graham crackers, pudding...you get the idea) and he hasn't thrown up anything in about three plus weeks! we still have a long way to go, because the bites are still ultra tiny but we are getting somewhere! he is also drinking through a straw!

as far as speech goes, he has started to blossom, he is trying to mimic a lot of sounds we make, where before he would only mimic mama and the other sounds he only said when babbling...now he copies ma, da, ba, wa, ga, ka (this one is a little throaty), s (it's a mix between an s and th, because he has no top teeth, but it sounds pretty dang good for a toothless s), h, na, doe, no (which he is also saying in correct context here and there), ta, oh, uh. we are really working on getting him to say uh oh and hi and the e and i sound...but he hasn't quite yet. all in all i am so excited to see improvement!
~
seeing cam blossom and knowing that he can and will continue to accomplish so much is so amazing to watch! we are so proud of his hard work! and so thankful that we live in a day where the help that he needs is available.

uh oh...

my sweet, innocent, baby boy is a hair puller and biter to boot! we are starting time out this week, since he laughs when mommy signs owie and pretends to cry and since he has branched out farther than family members and thinks that you initiate play time by grabbing hold of the nearest head of hair and pulling it in...something has to be done. he goes into nursery at church in just two short months and i definitely do not want to be called up because cam took a chunk out of some kids scalp and laughed about it before he bit him. so we will see how the time out thing goes. if anyone out there has experience and suggestions...please feel free!