Trials and Tribs

Evening all,

So Ava is *finally* walking. Not to the shops and back with the papers but twenty steps and still way too cautious but getting there. We are delighted. Major thanks to the physio in Kildarton who worked tirelessly and used every trick in the book. Kildarton do great great work. Here is a video for reasons best known to myself I flipped my phone halfway through so apologies.



Second had my first experience recently of kids being cruel to Ava. Tough one. We were out and two kids (small but old enough to know better)fully walked over and pointed at her and 'impersonated' her. They were literally standing pointing and laughing a foot from her face, She smiled and waved at them. That couple of seconds put me in bad form for two days to be honest. It taps into the deep rooted fears one has I guess? I mean especially with small kids cos unlike say a rude guy at a Supermarket you cant walk over and smash em over the head with a bottle :-)

Anyway take the good with the bad and its 99% good.

Down Syndrome Centre

Afternoon, I recently did some work for DSC and we decided to use the interviews we did as standalone case studies and you can view them on youtube on the Down Syndrome Centre TV Channel

There are two types of parents, some availed of the Down Syndrome Liaison Nurse and some did not. It is encouraging to see 350+ unique views in just one week.

Walking!

Morning,

Cracking result today as Ava has finally made progress in her movement. Here is all the information which someone may find useful.

Ava has been slow to walk. She had been standing and cruising along furniture no problem but was very very cautious. We bought a little trolley from Ikea but again she was wise to the fact it might run away from her and she would fall. This had gone on for ages so yesterday we took action!

We tightened the wheels and put in a Tupperware box filled with sand (we can then adjust it if needs be by removing some). It was still too light so we added a box of detergent and this happened:-

Lester

A quick post on a website that was sent to me about an artist with DS called Lester.

http://www.lestermagoogan.co.uk/index.php/videos/films/film-by-animo-tv-dublin/

Looong Overdue Post :-/

I haven't checked the stats recently so not sure if people still make their way to this blog but sure will do an 'ol update anyway. It has been a few months so sorry :(
Life has been been very busy as we also have our little Dylan. Ava had a good summer but was definitely getting bored by the end of it. This seemed to manifest itself with a lot of shouting which we didn't enjoy much. We were hopeful that when she started creche and "second steps" class in her school that we would see this improve and hopefully see a start to the walking!

So Ava started her "Second Steps" class 4 days a week and also has creche two afternoons a week. We have seen a massive change (all for the good) in her since she started. She is super close to walking now and is definitely trying to talk more. The extra stimulation has her babbling and standing and generally really moving forward with more words etc. There was an adjustment period where a few tears appeared when she started back but these seem to have gone now (fingers crossed)

On another note the last few months have seen me do some more work with Down Syndrome Centre doing interviews with new parents discussing the most excellent Liaison Nurse plus general new parent case studies. They also ran a new parent night in Dublin which was well attended with 60+ people.

Got a reminder from a friend this morning about Punky a new animation series from Monster Animation. You can read more about it here. It launches early next year. The relevance here is that Punky is the first headlining cartoon character to have Down Syndrome. Punky lives with her Mother, Brother and Granny and gets up to all sorts of adventures and mischief! Sounds fab.
Punky will broadcast next year with twenty episodes, each seven minutes long.

Get Up Stand Up

Watch this.....
I can pull myself up now......on just about anything....and do so all day long...

It rocks!
So Ava is two and a bit and still no walking :/ Loads of the boys her age are *flying* around the place like mad and we are patiently waiting. The great part of meeting with other parents, especially those with older kids, is they reassure you it will come. In recent weeks Ava has been moving *loads* and can pull herself up and shuffle round like mad. We have to baby proof the house now (or move out which is not really an option to be honest).

Schoolwise Ava has finished "First Steps" in the super fantastic Kildarton and starts "Second Steps" in Autumn. Finally Ava is now attending a Creche over the Summer and is already in the 'settling in' week.

All in all she is coming along great I am happy to say.

I will endeavour to update the blog more going forward and bore you all with the details of Ava (Bear)

Buy my Dress / Ava in the Examiner!

The all important Buy my Dress campaign takes place this Thursday 20th in Dublin in Cork.

Full details at the (rather excellent) Down Syndrome Centre website. Funds from the event go towards a liaison nurse so spread the word! I was in the Down Syndrome Centre office's recently and it was pretty full on with Sheila and her staff working tirelessly to organise the event, surrounded by dresses everywhere. This was weeks ago so I imagine they are wrecked by now.Related to the event we gave an interview to the Examiner newspaper, we basically as parents were outlining how important it is to have a liaison nurse available when a child is born with DS so get out there and buy some dresses people.