Don’t worry, he’s safe.
Noah and I picked him up from the airport when he came in town to speak at Catalyst Conference. By the way, here’s a random fun fact; Bob is an adjunct law professor at Pepperdine Law School, and has an office on Tom Sawyer island at Disney World. I’m not kidding!
Our son must have been bitten by a radio active spider or something because he has suddenly turned into a baby spiderman. (For all the non comic book nerds out there that’s an Amazing Spider-Man reference.) 
As I mentioned recently, you never know when your child is going to decide to surprise you by doing the unexpected. Sometimes, the unexpected is something awesome (and safe) like sitting up on their own for the first time, or learning how to crawl; other times it’s something that’s still pretty awesome, just not very safe.
Like today for instance, I was watching Noah play in his play gate (which by the way, is the North States Superyard Color Play Yard
“Dad, let me out of here.” (Please.)
I love the fact that as Noah get’s older, he gets more and more curious. He loves to explore and try to solve problems in creative ways. (Like moving his toys to the windowsill so he can use them as stepping stones in order to climb on to it.) I’ve already mentioned how our son reminded me of a Muppet Baby, and it’s a ton of fun watching his little brain go a million miles a minute as he learns new things every day.
Don’t you just love this little face? I sure do!
I hope Noah keeps his sense of curiosity and exploration his entire life, especially since adults often lose it; which is a shame.
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” -Walt Disney
As Noah gets older, and becoming more and more curious, my wife and I find ourselves saying “No” more and often. We try to make sure our Yes’s far outnumber our no’s, and that we celebrate more than we discipline, but still it’s getting to the point where we’re having to lovingly help our son learn that his choices have consequences. That climbing over the gate may be sort of awesome (in a manly-guy sort of thing) and yes, it shows off how strong he is getting, but it’s also dangerous. On the other side of that gate is a floor. Ouch!
As you can see in today’s video, he thought No meant more (which by the way was the first sign he learned) and so he kept climbing up his play gate. So we have a few things to work on. But it’s all good. You take parenting like you take everything else in life, one day at a time. And we’re having lots and lots of great days in this house with this little guy around.
“Hmmm, I totally think I can escape from this baby jail.”
“I’M GOING OVER!!!”
Awwwww….Isn’t it fun to be a parent?
What age did you first telling your child “no?” What are some ways you’ve helped your child learn what no means? And…does anyone else’s child ever attempt to escape from the baby jail (aka – the baby play gate?) Leave a comment below and tell us about it.
Noah has started to mimic our actions recently which is actually a really big milestone for a child with Down syndrome. I mean how cute is he playing patty cake with his occupational therapist today!? I love it when he points to himself with both thumbs. (By the way, that’s also the sign for “me.’ See, I told you Signing Time works!)
Every since Noah’s first birthday we’ve been slowly transitioning him from a bottle / purred foods, to more big boy foods….and he’s doing great. We haven’t ran into any problems (yet) with him not wanting to eat certain kinds of food, or refusing certain textures. We’ve been pretty impressed.
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Be sure to click play on the video at the top of this post, because you want want to it! Noah’s finally able to keep his belly off the ground! That’s right, Noah’s crawling for the first time! There is some serious celebrating going on at our house once again.
Isn’t it amazing how many things you can find to celebrate?
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We’re extremely thankful that Noah has the opportunity to work with some of the best developmental therapists in the world. Ok, so I may be just a little biased, but the people who works with him really do have all the qualities we look for in a pediatric therapist! So we’re happy.
One of the things I really like about Noah’s occupational therapist is the wide variety of developmental activities she uses to help him develop. I also like how great she is at disguising hard work as fun play. Noah works out hard during his visits, but you’d never know bases on the huge grin on his face the entire time!
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It’s been a fun time in the Smith household lately, as our son has had developmental explosion recently. In the last few months he has sat up by himself , gotten his first tooth, begun to self feed, has become a master inchwormer, and has pulled himself up to a standing position for the first time!
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