Mushy Monday

Woo Woo look who's posted on the right day two weeks in a row?! This week I am suuuuuper happy to have our baby boy back! When your little one is sick and teething for a while, you forget what his regular personality is like - fun, laid back, sweet, funny, etc. After a week+ of holding a crying and whining baby, getting lots of sweet snuggles though, I was ready for the return of our Tommy. He took an antibiotic for the first time, he hated taking it so I was glad when it was all gone. And we have since discovered that it was all 4 canines coming in at once. Here's the bad news, only the tips of these 4 vicious teeth have poked through. You can see 4 specks of white where the teeth are, sometimes I think it might just be a leftover from a meal, but trust me I've felt them many times to verify they are in fact the points to all 4 painful canines. I'm just hoping that as they grow in more they don't cause him as much pain. But in wonderful, God praising, worthy news - TEETHING TABLETS ARE BACK! I know there are some teething tablet haters out there, I am not one of them. They work. God thought of me and Tommy, and my sister Julie and niece Eliza, (shout out on the blog woo woo) when he had someone invent these. By the way I did read why they took them off the market to begin with and how they brought them back. They're safe. They're great. The end.

But in all seriousness Tommy has been so much fun lately. He's big into giving me TONS, and by tons I really do mean more than I could count, of kisses. It's actually starting to dry my skin out on my cheeks from all the slobbery love he is giving to his mama. But I love it! He thinks it's funny! Oh and he's babbling so much more now, he is constantly saying "dadadadadadadadada" and now "babababababababa" sometimes we get a "rararararara" and on the rarest of occasions a "ma". He's actually babbling in front of people now too which is fun for them to hear his sweet voice.  He's been playing really well by himself again, which is so so so nice! I was afraid it would be a long road back to him being able to do that, but it hasn't. He's a pretty great kid.

Tommy just turned 19 months old yesterday! That blows my mind. Our little boy is over a year and a half old. How did that happen? His physical therapist thinks he'll be walking around the age of 2, but Kyle and I will be amazed if that happens. Not to sound negative, we just know he has a long way to go before he's walking, the kid is smart and independent, he likes to get around quickly in the ways he knows how to and that do not require anyone else's help. His cutest way of getting around is by leaning forward on his hands and then lifting and moving his butt over in which ever direction he wants to go.

This week, right around his 19 month old marker, was the first time a stranger brought up Tommy having Down Syndrome without me bringing it up first. It actually took me off guard. Initially I didn't really like it but the lady was super nice and didn't mean anything by it. It was a grandma who was playing with her 10 month old grandson. And we were talking about their ages and size and shortly after she just said, "My daughter works with kids with Down Syndrome." And I said, "Oh, that's good." Obviously she was meaning to be sweet and to let me know she had a connection with Down Syndrome. And I don't know if it was b/c she said it out of the blue or that we hadn't been talking that long but my initial reaction was uncomfortable. Now here's the thing, I am A Okay with talking to people about Tommy having Down Syndrome and a lot more people may be able to tell he has it by looking at him but aren't going to say something about it. Anyway one of my points here is that I had wondered if as Tommy got older if he would look more like he had Down Syndrome to me, there are some typical physical features attributed to DS but not every kid who has DS will have those attributes. But the answer to that question is that as he gets older I actually see it less. And I don't think that that means Tommy doesn't have those attributes, he might, but I think as his mother I know him for being Tommy and I see his personality way more than anyone else and that effects the way that I see him. Now sometimes when he is tired I do think you can see it more in his eyes, but I actually don't even see it as much now as I did when he was little (I don't think that means that it's changed I think it means that I have). I don't care if Tommy has the typical attributes associated with DS but I love that I see him through my eyes. Do you get what I'm saying? It's not completely like when you meet a good looking person but then when they start talking they get a lot uglier, or vice versa when you meet an average looking person but as they start talking they become a lot prettier; but it's kind of along those same lines. It is comparable to my twin sisters, some people can't ever tell them apart, I've been able to since I was 2, b/c I know them. They're faces look completely different to me. Well Tommy's face looks like Tommy to me - the most handsome little face I've ever seen! He has the sweetest smile and the most pitiful sad faces (which he is getting very good at faking for attention). It makes me happy to share this with whoever reads my blog b/c this was one of the things I worried about when we had Tommy. It sounds vain, but I had no idea what it was like to have a kid, let alone a kid with DS. So I was afraid he wouldn't look like us, or that those "typical features" would be all I saw. How naive was I?! Kyle always knew better. When Tommy was still and infant, I asked him my embarrassing question of, "Do you think we'll be able to see that Tommy has DS some day?" he said, "No, I think we'll just see Tommy. We'll know him as he grows and he might gradually change but I don't think we'll see it. And he'll just look like Tommy to us." I married a very smart man, who gave me a very handsome boy that looks just like his daddy! I love my family!