Its coming close to the end of the month, and to be honest - yes... I am slowly and slightly running out of ideas on what to write about without repeating myself too much - which i am sure has happened, and you have noticed. Today, I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed, and saw a beautiful picture of a sweet little girl with Down syndrome. And the title was "Milestone Monday"... SO, today I will follow suit off the top of my head, about Lincolns milestones. As you already know, children with Down syndrome are typically slower at develping milestones than typically developing children. Lincoln - they say - is on the higher functioning scale (if there is such a thing) despite his extra chromosome. He has received therapy since his diagnosis for speech, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. He has never really 'needed' OT (occupational therapy) yet, and he was discharged from his physical therapist once he commenced walking. Anyways, I thought I would take a little walk down memory lane with you on the milestones that Lincoln has hit, and the ones we are still working towards.
He started smiling at 6 weeks old, and coo'd at 2 months (non stop telling stories). First rolled over at 4 months, and was sitting unassisted at 7.5 months. Lincoln never really crawled on his hands and knees, but he started army crawling (without using his legs) around 9 months. (and thats where his brute strength started. Imagin it. thats a lot of hard work!!) He was diagnosed with Down syndrome at 10 months, and started eating real human food around 10 months also. He had heart surgery at 12 months and things really started to pick up from there - probably from resolving pulmonary hypertension. He started pulling himself up at 14 months, started his famous butt scoot when he was 15 months, started walking behind toys around 18 months, did his mowgli impersonating walk-like move at 19 months, started self standing when he was 20 months old, and was walking full time by 2.5 years. By the time he was 2.5, he knew a handful of words, and well over 20 different signs in sign language. He got his first tooth when he was 12 months, and his last when he was 23 months - mostly in order (children with Down syndrome tend to have their teeth appear in a random order). He never 
really needed OT because his fine motor skills and eating was going well. He could build a 5 high block stacking tower when he was 1.5, and has a good pincher grip on his pencil. However, I predict more OT work in the near future to help with writing letters and using scissors to cut on lines. Lincoln doesn't ride a bike yet (but he doesn't want to try either). He is just like any other kid on the playground climbing rope walls, rock walls, steps and slides. He has been jumping off of 2 feet since 3.5 years old, and one of his favourite things to do now is jump on bouncy castles or trampolines or even over every crack in the sidewalk. He loves working out, and can lift 3 lb weights - which he does maybe 3 times a week for 10 mins (by choice. monkey see, monkey do). We continue to work with a speech therapist - although no appointments have been made yet since school started. We have had one PDT (program development team) meeting, in which his teacher and ece in his class stated he is doing very well. 
He responds well to one on one attention and direction, he uses a flip book and board marker symbols around the teachers neck to indicate what is being asked of him - or what he would like - which seems to be working out very well. He is always excited to learn, is very talkative, but struggles with clean up. We will work on an Individual Education Plan (IEP) come the new year, but all in all. Lincoln is doing qvery well. Despite a slight delay reaching his milestones, Lincoln loves to learn, and gets excited about accomplishing new things. If i've learned anything about being a mom these past 5.5 years, its that you never know when your child is going to accomplish any specific milestone. Lincoln works hard all the time, and my heart is so full after every milestone is accomplished after countless hours of woking on achieving them. It is so awesome being a parent.
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