Leaps and Bounds

People often ask me if I ever sleep.  And, quite frankly, I don't much.  Partly out of habit from the 10+ years I used to work nights running my online business. And partly because I've found that I can get so much more accomplished when the rest of the world is asleep and not distracting me from my long list of things to do. 

As the world quietly sleeps, I've been able to revel in the blessed silence of my home and reflect upon the many things that has occurred in it since my last post in July. Wow! What a busy life we've led!

In July, at 8 1/2 months, Jacob was rolling.  Soon afterward, his physical therapist told us we needed to buy him a toy that he could play with sitting up, so we chose the toy shown below: 

Little did we know what an impact this toy, and it's annoying little dancing teddy bear on top would have on Jacob's development. He fell in LOVE with his toy.  All of the sudden, we began to see progress in Jake so substantial, that the physical therapist would be taken aback.  One week he was rolling around, the next week he was frog-hopping, and doing one or two army crawls on his belly.

Soon, he was up on all-fours grabbing for that dumb dancing teddy bear.  Then, he'd crawl 1 or 2 steps to get better positioning, and before we knew it, he was sitting upright for minutes at a time...

crawling from object to object exploring every square inch of our home and everything in it.  Then he toyed with the idea of bear crawling - on his hands and feet, and was crawling the entire length of the house...FAST!!

Out came the high chairs because his back was finally strong enough for him to sit upright for several minutes at a time.  Out came the stair gates because he discovered the stairs...a couple of times.  Up went anything and everything that could possibly be thought of as small enough to fit in his mouth, etc.  Because if he could grab it, it was going in his mouth!

In spite of the fact that he still had no teeth, we began feeding him solids - and he LOVED it!!!  He'd just gnaw to his heart's contents on anything he could get his hands on. 

Jacob discovered that he needn't just let life pass him by.  He decided that he was going to grab that bull by its horns and ride it into submission!!!  He literally wakes up around 6:30 in the morning and go go go's constantly all day long, stopping just long enough for one or two 20 minute power-naps along the way.  Every other minute of the day, he explores, follows his big sister, Courtney (she fears him! - she runs screaming in the other direction whenever he gets close - I think he secretly likes this), and constantly continues to test the boundaries of his abilities.  Crawl faster, sit longer, and even climbing upward and the start of furniture walking. 

The physical therapist swears that she's never seen a child with Downs start walking before 17 months of age.  At this rate, we estimate he'll be about 14 months when he takes his first steps. 

But until then, we have speech therapy which will begin here in the next few weeks, and we just sit back and watch Jacob embrace life and all it holds for him. 

His infectious smile seems to draw everyone to him - even strangers. 

Tonight we went to a Gonzaga vs. BYU volleyball game and he caught the attention of one of the Gonzaga basketball players.  We spoke for a moment as he goo'd and gaa'd with Jacob and talked of how he missed his own niece on Oklahoma. And as the game ended, another stranger passed us by and told us how adorable he was and so much fun to watch.  This seems to be the norm every time we go out into public with Jacob.

Of course, Jacob is no fool.  When the smiles do not help him get his way, he has mastered his puppy-dog sad face which almost always gets him what he wants.  He IS the baby of the family, you know!

But right now, we are just happy to see him happy, healthy, and progressing like crazy! Including the fact that he FINALLY cut his first tooth tonight!!  Thank heaven for life's small miracles!  All is right in my world today !