Women Warriors

By Sandy on August 8, 2015

More often than not, with Josiah getting bigger and stronger, it takes an extra pair of hands to help with him. I’m not so quick to whisk him off on an errand as I was when he was much younger. Gone are the days when his little body could be transferred from car seat to stroller, allowing us to get out and about at whim, having fun.

Now, it takes a willingness on Josiah’s part to participate. If he’s not on board with the plan of the day, life becomes much more difficult for all of us. If Josiah decides he’s not interested in something, he can easily cause enough of a ruckus to almost get his way. Notice the word ‘almost’ there.

Our Budding Picasso

By Sandy on July 23, 2015

The local Down Syndrome group offers incredible opportunities for our kids. Josiah bowled with them on Saturday and attended the Houston Astros baseball game with them on Sunday. Last night he went to an Art Class and tonight he is going Go Cart riding. The fun never ends and I love it.

The problem is, Josiah doesn’t seem to share the same level of enthusiasm as I do about all of these incredible opportunities. Truth be told, our boy would prefer to stay home and do nothing. He likes sameness. He likes his routine and he likes not having any demands placed on him. Venturing out to new places is not his idea of fun. That being said, he did do really well bowling on Saturday. It was our 3rd attempt to get him to Bowling Camp and the first one in which he stayed and actually touched a ball. So we are definitely making progress.

The Ball Park

By Sandy on July 20, 2015

Free tickets to a professional baseball game? Why, but of course we will take some. What could be better than a fun afternoon at the ball park with Josiah? A full body wax perhaps? A root canal with no anesthesia maybe? Seriously, what was I thinking?

In his defense, Josiah did great for the first 4 and a half innings. There was some serious fruit snack bribing in the beginning to get Josiah on the elevator so we could get to our seats. Then, just before the doors closed, an attempt to push through the crowd to escape. I hollered out, “Rick!” to alert my husband I needed assistance, as I grabbed for Josiah. The man next to me assuming I was talking to Josiah said, “It’s okay Rick” in a comforting voice as if to assure him the ride wouldn’t be that bad. The doors closed before Rick, I mean Josiah could dart out.

We found our seats and settled in to enjoy the game. Josiah was quite content to be there. Almost looks as if he is concentrating on the activity on the field doesn’t it? Without those purple beads, I doubt he would have lasted 10 minutes. We keep a pair with us at all times. We learned long ago, beads mean Josiah stays put.

This was the 1st inning. By the beginning of the 3rd inning, we started feeding him. He had ice cream and some funnel cake, then more funnel cake. We’ve also learned food means Josiah stays put.

Then, around the middle of the 4th inning, Josiah started getting noisy. He stood up a few times, made some loud vocalizations and began swinging his beads wildly. I asked Rick to take Josiah’s beads away for a little while. It usually helps to calm him. Not today.

Plastic Scoop Dish

By Sandy on July 11, 2015

Josiah is 13. You would think by this age, he would be very adept at feeding himself. However, until recently, he really wasn’t. Unless we sat right next to Josiah and held onto his plate or bowl, typically it went flying. We learned early on it was important to never leave Josiah’s side during meals. Suction cup bottoms on bowls or plates were a joke. Josiah peeled those up effortlessly.

At one point, I put heavy duty Velcro on the bottom of his plate to secure it to the table. That worked for a short while. But this kid is smart. He figured out if he pulled long enough and hard enough he could rip that plate right up off the table and throw it across the room.

Needless to say there were many, many times over the years in which we had to clean up food off the floor, off the walls, off the furniture, off the drapes and off the ceiling even. Many, many times we had Josiah clean up his food mess, which really was us hand-over-hand helping Josiah (who was most often vehemently opposed to cleaning it up), clean it up.

Day 51

By Sandy on June 2, 2015

Day 51

Happily waiting for the school bus this morning. His string toy makes getting out the door much better. His string toy makes just about everything better.