January 3rd - More laughing

Today was Riley's 18 month check up. It's always nice to see Dr. Froehlke, not only a wonderful pediatrician, but also a father to a child with Down Syndrome. It's really nice to have her doctor understand her from a day to day perspective, not just a medical milestone viewpoint. It's also nice to hear him tell me over and over, "Oh Mrs. Restivo, you're doing such a wonderful job..." I admit, I'm a big sucker for praise. It's nice to hear every once in awhile from an outside source that I really am not failing miserably.

Anyway, the nurse handed me a potty training guide which apparently we're supposed to start working on right now. Yeah, it's going to be awhile. She also gave me a guideline for normal development for 18 months:

Your toddler should:

Run stiffly (not even walking)
Walk up stairs with one hand held (she can crawl up them?)
Names a few objects (no words yet)
Colors with crayons (eats them)
Makes decisions for herself, such as clothing (claps at me no matter what I choose for her)
Fights to do things for herself (throws her hands up when I try to help her spoon feed herself)
Points to body parts (she actually can do this, but really likes her cheeks) (so do I)

Anyway, at first I wanted to cry because I get so frustrated. I constantly feel like I'm failing her and that no matter what I do it's not enough. Newsflash mama: You're not failing. Her doctor cannot believe how ahead she is for having Down Syndrome. She knows about 30-35 signs, sat right on time, crawled 4 months earlier than the DS scale says, and most kids with DS are barely walking by 2. She is literally days away from doing it on her own. It's not that bad. She's doing great for herself. Remember that. Always remember that she is fighting just as hard as I am to learn all the things I show her. She wants to do them and someday will and this time will seem like a distant memory.

On the (much brighter) bright side she has started laughing a lot. It used to be literally like pulling teeth to get a chuckle out of her. I rarely got to hear that precious angelic sound from my sweet little girl, but in the past couple of days she has turned into a little giggle box. I love it. She laughs all the time at the silliest things and I think that is something worth celebrating.

So I have to make the choice each day to not compare her to other kids, but to cheer her on down her own little path to success.

Keep laughing... It's all going to be okay. <3