Finnian and Kevin

This morning, Finn's PT came over and did his developmental evaluation. Overall, she assessed him to be at about a 6-month-old level. In some areas he's evaluating at a lower level (like fine motor skills), and in some areas he's assessing at a higher level (like cognitive). I was actually surprised that she even assessed him on things like fine motor skills since it's never been a part of his therapy yet, and I haven't made a point of working with him on fine motor since I thought we were concentrating on gross motor right now. He can hold a toy for quite a long period of time, he grabs for objects and bangs on his little xylophone, so those are all good. But he doesn't "rake" with his hands/fingers, and he doesn't really pass things from hand to hand. She was surprised when she asked me about whether he picks up Cheerios and I told her that I still haven't started feeding him any solids. Yes, he's 7 months old and I haven't started solids yet. Maybe that's a whole other post, but in a nutshell, I just haven't been in a hurry because he hasn't shown me the signs of readiness that are supposed to be present - i.e., sitting up unassisted (which he can do for short periods but generally doesn't like to do and therefore resists doing), and showing an actual interest in solids (which he has not). I don't know . . . I introduced Kevin, my oldest, to rice cereal at about 5 months and it didn't go well. The others I've held off until they actually seemed ready rather than going with this standard, one-size-fits-all rule that babies should be eating some solids by 6 months of age. So I haven't started solids with Finn yet, and he's growing just fine on breast milk alone. However, now I'm being told that he actually needs to be introduced to solids to help with fine motor skill development. So. Hmmm.

She pointed out that the surgery he had as a newborn could very well still be having an impact on him, as he had an incision about 3-4 inches long cut into his abdomen, through skin, fat, and muscle, and it's likely that those muscles are still impacted by it. So that could have something to do with why he resists sitting up unassisted. His surgery to bring his testes down is scheduled for April 6, and that is likely to set him back a bit as well. We shall see.

Anyway, so really he's evaluating very well, and yes, I'm pleased. Am I not supposed to be? I don't know. Of course I want him to be as high-functioning as possible. Is it wrong to feel that way? I don't know. If he weren't high functioning, I would obviously have to accept that and I can't fathom it factoring in to my love for him, but yes, I want him to be high-functioning. I want him to be able to do as many things as he can, to experience as much as he can, to be as independent as possible one day.

So Friday morning I have a meeting with out service coordinator to go over the evaluation and talk about new goals for Finn.

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Kevin was chosen as an Author of the Month at school, and today all the kids who were chosen as such read their writing submissions aloud in front of an audience of parents. The topic of Kevin's piece was "The Greatest Person in My World." He wrote about Finn. He wrote that Finn is the greatest person in his world for opening his eyes to the differences among people, for giving him the opportunity to learn about Down syndrome and become more aware of disabilities. He wrote about how the word "retard" is hurtful and offensive. He wrote how great it is to have so many siblings. I wish I had the piece so I could type it up here to share, but I do not yet have a copy. When I do, I will post it here. It was very moving, and I was in tears as he read it. I looked over and the woman next to me was also wiping away tears, and after the presentation several parents approached Kevin and told him how moved they were by what he wrote. I'm so proud of him - not only for being an outstanding student and being given the honor of Author of the Month, but for speaking out and impacting other people about such an important and personal topic.