He had an eye appointment...he will hopefully have a fancy new pair of glasses in the next couple of weeks. We're getting some of those miraflex frames that are completely plastic and harder to hurt himself or break. Hopefully they'll be in soon. We're looking forward to him finally being able to see better!
He has a new pediatrician! We are much happier with this one...so far so good. He has had many patients with Down Syndrome and seems much more interested and comfortable in treating Joseph. We are very thankful for finally seeing someone that actually seems to care about him as a whole person.
Joseph seems to be settling in and adjusting pretty well. There's so much that goes on with bringing an adoptive child with special needs into your home...it's hard to know what to write here. He's struggled in some things and he's come remarkably far in other things. He's done amazingly well in speech therapy...he's starting to tolerate a little bit of chewing on things, he's starting to make progress in the oral aversions he has...he's even learning to drink from a straw! It's not perfect, but it's great progress from where he was two months ago :)
We're still working on health issues with Joseph...trying to do everything we can to help him to feel good. Eating is an issue....he has good days and not so good days. Even with learning to use a straw, he is not always cooperative and it's a full time job to work on keeping him nourished and hydrated. We were told from a nurse at the GI specialist's office that they think Joseph is "on his way to getting a g-tube" and at one point they were so concerned about his lack of being able to stay hydrated that they almost made us come into the emergency room. We know what to look for as far as dehydration and we're trying our hardest to keep getting nutrition and fluids into him. He's come a long way and we're just going to keep working on it and hope that it will get better over time. We'll just have to keep a close eye on him and get him checked often if it seems to get worse. It's a lot, but he is worth it! He'll get there.
He loves being around the kids. Gabriel and Matthias are really good sports because they are the ones that have to sit next to our "Mr. Flexible" in the car....he wants to get there attention and play with them so he just kicks a foot up into their face out of no where! He's fast!
He's not walking, but he will stand up with his arms supported on something...we often stand him in places where he feels safe and give him practice standing. We stand him up against our dining room chairs and push him around the house to get him walking. He usually cackles his little happy laugh and thinks it is quite fun!
He's definitely growing in confidence and independence. We sit him down in one place of the house and within seconds he can be in another room entirely. He does a kind of belly swim...or he scoots on his bottom. He loves to explore, to sit at the dishwasher and look at his reflection or to play with the magnets on the fridge :). Most of all, he just likes to be where we are :). And that works out great because we all love having him around, too!
Well, I've run out of time...and I've gotta go hunt down our little Bulgarian now that he's belly swam his way right out of the room!
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