Bagels = Zeros.... and Some iPad Love

In case you didn't know....... bagels look like zeros. ....Reid told me so. 
A week or so ago while making bagels Reid shouted out, "Mom..... ZERO!!" while proudly holding up his bagel. I stopped and looked at his little face.... and realized he was connecting that a bagel is shaped like a zero, therefore it was a zero and....well, I squealed.... yes, like a girl.... no, more like a very happy momma that was celebrating that her child had made this connection and then picked that little guy up and twirled him around. These little connections are BIG connections in our world! I didn't even know he knew zero yet.
So what do you do when your child brilliantly declares bagels look like zeros? Well.... you plop him on the couch and document it baby!

and then you eat those zeros bagels!

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One of the BEST investments we have made for Reid..... which we have seen contribute to much of his progress in number and letter recognition is the iPad. I love this thing, absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  He is so independent with it and navigates himself around to the apps he wants to work in that day and I feel ZERO guilt because he is playing and learning all at the same time. 

If you have thought about getting one for Christmas or are on the fence..... my advice? Get it. The advantage it gives our little ones with special needs is HUGE. In my opinion it is worth EVERY cent!

The app Reid is working on below is the iWriteWords app (it also has a # section) and I believe the one with the letters is from his Starfall ABCs app.... both are must haves. 

Other items worth mentioning are the Big Grips Frame shown below in blue and the Just Mobile stylus. The Big Grips Frame goes without saying... you want to protect your investment and we have found this one to be perfect for Reid's little hands. We had our iPad about a month before we bought this and we had too many close calls with falls so I feel much better with this on! The stylus is something we decided to purchase to help him with gripping an item such as a pencil or crayon. This is also one of his IEP goals so this stylus is helping us achieve that I think. We bought it in yellow to resemble a pencil but they have lots of different fun colors. He loves using  it to trace letters and numbers on the iPad... and sometimes you will even find my goofball with it behind his ear to be, well, ahem ....a goofball. 

Potty Goggles....

Potty goggles are the new thing in my house! They came about quite by accident and quite spontaneously.....and are my newest attempt to get my littlest love fully potty trained... once. and. for. all!!! This little rascal can use the potty...he knows how to use the potty... but he resists. You ask him if he has to go to the potty and he replies, "No fanks"....or quite curtly exclaims, "I dry!!" when it is quite evident that his pull up is bursting at the seams with peeps.

The other day I popped him on the potty and he kept trying to get off...so I had to pull something out of my arsenal of tricks. Out of nowhere I decided to do the o'l turn your hands into goggles thing and I heard myself say the words..."Look at my pee pee goggles, mommy wants to see the pee pee in the potty" Seriously people...you know a mom is in a state of MEGA desperation when she is saying words like..."Pee pee goggles" and "Let me see the pee pee...". BUT..... I got a giggle out of him. You get the kiddo to giggle and he is putty in your hands.... he stopped trying to squirm off the toilet and lo and behold he honored my wishes and through my fisted goggles pee pee was spotted and he was very proud of himself. Brother heard the commotion and of course he too had to make the fisted goggles....which then led itself to a basket of real goggles now ready for its purpose when the "need" arises!
We shall see how long this will last...so far so good! A.N.Y.T.H.I.N.G...... to get this milestone checked off our list! ;)
Help a sistah out, I'd love to hear what is in your.... arsenal of potty training tricks!!

Reid's "Typical" Preschool Placement... Letter to the Parents

One of the reasons I started blogging and became so interested in other blogs was because as a parent of a child with special needs I have found that "other special needs parents" are my best resource. I have found this time and time again to be true and have gleaned some really useful information from others.... how lucky am I that the Down syndrome community is riddled with fabulous mom and dad bloggers who are fierce researchers and information seekers and that they share their findings so that we might all benefit from it...so that our kids benefit from it. It is really a beautiful and powerful thing!

So, in that vein there is something that I wanted to share that I have not thoroughly put out there....and that is Reid's preschool placement. As he was nearing 3 back in 2009 we knew his IEP with the school district was soon to be here, near Christmastime, and the school would recommend a special needs preschool setting for him.... however, we had always said that IF he could handle it we wanted Reid to go to the same typical preschool that Luke went to. Our philosophy was that in a typical setting the typical peer speech and behavior models would be great for him. Long story short... we started Reid at Luke's old school in September of 2009 @ age 2 3/4 ....once the IEP came around in December we were already convinced that this placement was working out beautifully for him so he remained there all year on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We said, "No thank you" to the school districts preschool recommendation but said, "Thank you very much" when they agreed that he would receive speech 2x/week at what would have been his district home school, as well as OT 1x/week. This year we bumped Reid to a MWF class and again.... this little guy is thriving and we are so grateful for his loving and encouraging teachers he has who just adore him and rejoice with me/him when he reaches yet one more milestone.... what more could a mom ask for! ...ok, quick brag moment....I happened to pop in at school the other day as Reid was painting at the easel... instead of the usual paint "scribbles" ...though very artistic in their own right ;), this time he had painted perfect circles all over the paper....all different colors.... we all commented on it and then his teacher busted out a, "Reid, now you need to write your name on the paper" he had never done this before...in fact we've never even asked him to do that before BUT.....we all squealed and hugged each other when this little guy made an attempt to paint letters on top of his paper and with each "letter" which looked more like tiny circles but still he was getting the concept...he then accurately said R_ E_ I_ D .....Eeek, so super exciting for him, and us!!!!

Another thing I wanted to share is a letter we had emailed to the families in his class. If you are going to do "full inclusion" it might not be a bad idea to make contact with the other families in the class so there is a comfort factor there for others and they know you are approachable and welcome any questions they might have. We are very fortunate in that we have been blessed with some amazing families in Reid's class and when we sent the following letter we had parents respond back ...insert watery eyes here... actually thanking us for having him there and for what it was teaching their child. Side note.... this did not go out at the beginning of the year as I had intended, time got away from me so I sent it out as we first came back from Christmas vacation...
Here goes our letter....
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January 3rd, 2011

Dear __(name of school)__ Friends,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

I am writing because I have some pictures of your children that I have been meaning to forward to you... that I took when I spent some time here and there in class. Time keeps getting away from me and so I decided I needed to get these over to you before any more time flies by! I will forward each of you the pictures that I have of your child later today.

I also wanted to take this time to say thank you..... thank you for being so loving and supportive of Reid.

Bringing a child with special needs to a "typical" preschool is a scary thing for a parent. We have worried about many things...will my child be accepted, is it the right fit, is it meeting his needs, is he able to make friends? It may not even be necessary to explain why we chose _______ for him but thought I'd let you know a little bit about our thought process... For Reid, having Down syndrome means he will have to work a little harder to learn to do things and it will take a little longer than a "typically developing child" but he'll get there. For him, one of those milestones that will take a little longer is being able to talk. Our philosophy is that being in a typical preschool class provides typical peer speech models that will help him to develop these skills. We have found research that also supports this but for us what we have witnessed the last two weeks with him home over vacation is the proof we needed. Our little guy has just started to explode with words... beginning with the Christmas program where all our cuties marched on stage with heir little halos to sing. My husband and I both looked at each other in that room with pools of water in our eyes when we saw Reid actually singing the words to the songs, he had never put that many words together before. He has walked around the house all vacation breaking into the songs and prattling on with stories which we are not always sure exactly what he is saying (although one of his new phrases is "HOE-leeeee cow" so apparently he is talking about something big and exciting) ....but he is trying to communicate and he now has the concept of adding multiple words to his thoughts....this is huge developmentally and again I say thank you because it is because of your children... they are the best speech therapists we could ask for! :)

The second reason we chose __________ is because we live here in the neighborhood and Reid will be going to school locally with many of the children. Reid will stand out all of his life because of his extra chromosome but our hope for him is that by being in a typical setting early on he will gain friends and allies who will look out for him and who will know that he is not any different than them. ....and this is where I thank your children! There have been many moments this year that have totally melted my heart, like when we came to school late one day because of dropping my older son off and as we got there Miss _____ told a particular little boy that Reid was now there so he could show him something he had brought and had wanted to show my son... I watched as this little boy pulled a Mickey Mouse out of his back pack to show Reid and watched Reid put his little hand up to his mouth in excitement and the two of them had this sweet exchange.... That was just so precious that even though Reid's words are limited he knew enough about my son to know that that would make Reid squeal with excitement. That is just one of many stories that have helped me to take a deep breath and know that what I had hoped for was working.

I probably should have addressed this at the beginning of the year but please feel free to share with your children what Down syndrome is if you haven't already. The way we first explained it to Reid's big brother was that he was born with an extra 21st chromosome in his body and because of it it takes him a little longer to do things but that he will be able to do them with time. Depending on each child some want more information and for some that is just enough.... if you ever wanted more information please let me know... I have quite a few websites in my repertoire now ;).

Most sincerely,

Cheri and Toby

Revisiting The Glasses Topic (New Resources)

I have been wanting to re-visit the whole "getting glasses" issue since I first posted about Reid needing them in August. In that post, found here, about how we introduced Reid to his new glasses I mentioned that we had bought several books that we had read over and over again to help set the stage while we were waiting for his glasses to be made. I have meant to share what books we bought on wearing glasses... but since that post I learned of a fabulous....FABULOUS resource for families embarking on the "glasses road" and wanted to draw your attention to them and their list of books...because their list is even more comprehensive than mine. The site is called Little Four Eyes.... isn't that cute? Pop on over and check them out.... there is a lot of information over there...including information on various eye issues your child might have.

As for Reid, I have had people ask how he is doing with them....and honestly besides the fact that he chucked them out the window while we were driving down the road.... and us watching in horror as car after car behind us ran over them... and then upon retrieving them discovering that they now look like they have been chewed and gnawed on by 10 wild animals... they're going great! He does not give us grief about putting them on and keeping them on and is very active in them, in fact there isn't anything he doesn't do in them... proof below ;)

Well, first off he's a pretty scholarly preschooler in them.

He can "show and tell" pictures of his best brother Luke in them.

He can play a pretty good "goofy pilgrim" in them.

He can sing you Love Me Tender as well as show off some pretty snazzy dance moves in them.

He can oversee your construction project or your home renovation in them.

There "aint nuttin" he can't climb in them.

He can throw a mean fast ball in them.

He can bowl strikes in them.

He can even sleep like a baby in them.... anytime, anywhere.

Check "Little Four Eyes" out.... my original post is being featured over there right now which is kinda fun.

*For those wondering, Reid's glasses are the Miraflex brand

"Himself"....Dressing Himself

Reid has had all sorts of developmental growths of late...his speech is totally blossoming, he counts to 3 without going 1, 2, 5, 2, 1, he spots every stop sign known to man kind and signs it with his little hands (quite aggressively, it's rather funny) and then proudly shouts out "stop" for all to hear, he can kind of say Merry Christmas ..."May Mismas" is close enough in my book...although sometimes I think it gets him a little tongue tied and the other day he decided to say "Happy Birthday" instead as he swung open our front door to come inside....again, close enough in my book. ;)
However....today I highlight a different sort of developmental growth... the terrible 2 or 3 thingy where they want to dress themselves without help. I am not complaining mind you...I like that Reid wants to do things by himself, and I like that he has his own opinions about what he wants to wear.... I only wish his pick had not been last year's Christmas sweater that never made it to the attic that is a bit too snug, too small, and too short.... the jeans I am a-okay with but we need to work on which way they need to go on his little body, however this particular day was a very stubborn day and no sort of assistance from mom was to be had, none...period. He then thought a summer hat which you can find in his hand would accent the ensemble just right.
Again....even all of this is okay by me, my little boy is growing up.... Yay, for you Reid Maddux!

31 for T21: The Itsy Bitsy Spiders...Got Talent

The Itsy Bitsy Spider not only went up the water spout.......but he also ROCKED the house, at least this house.






I had to laugh out loud yesterday when Reid came proudly marching out of preschool sporting his new spider hat!

Our Guy....With Glasses

Well, our newest bump in the road has been that Reid's eyes have started to drift inward...sometimes more his left and then sometimes more his right, and often both eyes at once. We went to see the eye doctor and we were told he was very farsighted, which is what we were told last time as well...except this time they said now that he is older and his attention is held longer on items and he is focusing more to see things up close his eyes are drifting. To help strengthen those muscles we were told it was time for glasses.

I was not sure how he was going to take to glasses....so we set a plan in motion. While we waited the week for the glasses to come in I sent away for some books on getting glasses. We read and read those books in preparation, we oogled and ogled over anyone and everyone we saw in public or on tv that had glasses, and we bought Luke some frames because Luke is Reid's hero and if Luke will wear glasses chances are better Reid will follow suit. ...actually this was a surprise to Luke, I could tell he secretly wanted glasses so when I went back yesterday to pick up Reid's glasses I asked if they had any discontinued frames that did not have any prescription in the lenses..and viola they did and now Luke has glasses too.
When I walked out of the office with the glasses I quickly took Reid's out to see just how strong the prescription was and ...honestly my heart suddenly had this very sad feeling. I just sat in my car for a bit with that old familiar feeling of being hit in the gut when you realize your child will have one more struggle. When I looked through those glasses I could barely see anything...geez louise they are strong. The poor thing has been living with incredibly blurred vision all this time and it really made my heart sad.
We decided to "unveil" the glasses as if it was a present. We handed Luke his present first with prior directions to cheer and act excited when he opened his case (which truly he was excited to be getting his own glasses ;) ) and then we handed Reid his....which he opened excitedly with all of us standing near cheering, and then we had Toby put his glasses on that we had to dig out of the archives.
Below are pictures from the big "reveal" of the glasses.

Hmnnn...can I still dance around and be silly with these???

Whoa, what's going on....I can see so much better!?!

Seriously...that's what those Backyardigans on tv look like????

Mommy loves me in my glasses!!!!

Just being cute but goofy!

As part of our "plan" we decided to watch a children's movie after the big reveal so he would be engaged in the show and hopefully notice enough of a difference that he would not resist us in wearing them. He sat the whole hour and a half with them on.... I wonder what was going on in his little brain now that he can see so clearly!

.....and thank you big brother for indulging us by wearing "your" glasses ;) to help your brother!