1 Year Post Adoption Update!

It has been a long time since I've blogged. I've recently took a full time job, which has kept me very busy. I haven't worked a full time job since 2007... so my days are very long. I barely have time to get to the grocery store let alone try to blog!

So I've started work about 2 months ago, and both David and Jonathan are now in full time day care at a learning center. There has been a lot of sickness the past 2 months for our whole family, and it's from all of the new germs!  :-(   But the boys are thriving in a day care setting opposed to being at home all day.  They are in different classrooms- David is in the2 year old classroom, and Jonathan is with the 4 year olds. Jon was with the 3 years old, but that was was over-crowded leaving Jon to get overwhelmed. When he gets overwhelmed he resorts to post-orphange behavior like isolating himself in a corner, stemming, flipping toys in front of his face, and humming.  He has really outgrown some of these bahaviors and has his personality has really started to shine- but I'm glad the learning center took notice and brought him to a small classroom where he can now flourish.

The other children have really taken to both boys, and are excited to see them. One boy helps Jonathan eat, and another little girl takes his hand and brings him around the room to play. Jon's face lights up and he gets so excited to play with the other children. It's so great to see the boys do well with other typical developed children.  They just are placed with younger children that are at their play level. It's interesting to see how 1 year ago Jonathan was so behind David's level, and now he's far exceeded David's level of development.  But there are some things that David still does better than Jonathan:

-David can feed himself better than Jonathan- when he's not being a texture freak. Jonathan will eat anything though, unlike David, but I think it takes him longer to process everything.

-David can work and manipulate toys significantly better than Jonathan. Also, David appreciate books, and truns pages and looks at the pictures. He will point and sing the things he sees. Instead, Jon will take the book from David to bend the binding in the opposite direction to flip pages- but not to look at them. He makes it more of a fine motor/texture/repitition activity, rather than a visual one.

There are things that Jon does better than David:

-If I start singing, Jon will start to join in with "bum bum bums" or "la la las" in a similar tempo and tone to what I'm singing. David will just sit and listen.

-Jon loves "Signing Time" and is always signing different signs. He is able to use his fingers and sign very clear certain, particular signs. David's signs are more approximate, but his fine motor muscle strength seems less and his fingers are more short and stubby compared to Jon's so I know it's harder for David.

-Jon is also doing pretty good with potty training. He can pull down his pants and pullups on his own and use the potty. I just have to tell him what to do- 1 step at a time. Jon is not good yet with 2 step directions. And even though using the potty should be routine by now, he still will just stand there with his pants down if I'm not there to tell him to sit down on the potty. He doesn't have all the steps memorized yet.

Both Jon and David are not talking yet. They know plenty of signs, but having them use there signs to communicate on there own is a whole different story. David needs ear tube surgery, which we are in the process of trying to take the steps needed for scheduling right now. So David has about a 30% hearing loss, and I hope after the surgery, he will hear more clearly and be able to talk shortly there after!  We have a cardiac consult in 2 weeks and we just got the insurance to approve a sleep study.... so we have a couple things to do first before the surgery can be scheduled. Plus I need to build up my PTO!

Jon is finally confirmed for having Down syndrome. We just got the blood test results in yesterday.  Jon's pediatrian thinks that he also should be tested for autism, which isn't fair because Jon was nervous on the doctor's examination table after waiting an hour to be seen. So he was rocking and humming and not making good eye contact.  If only the doctor could see him at home!  We will see if I want to persue a second diagnosis or not. As far as Jon having Down syndrome, honesty, I wasn't expecting that diagnosis as Jon doesn't have the classic Down syndrome physical characteristics that David has.

And now for some pictures: