Noah's Dad

Since Noah’s our first (and as of today, only) child I have no idea how or when a typical child is supposed to reach their developmental milestones. My wife is a pediatrician and knows that stuff like the back of her hand, but not me. In fact, I’m not really interested in textbook baby milestone charts. In fact, I sort of enjoy Noah developing at Noah’s pace.

Not what some baby milestone chart says should be his pace. 🙂

We Celebrate, Not Compare (most of the time.)

We try to make a habit in our home out of celebrating, not comparing our son’s accomplishments. Sure, there are moments (especially when we’re around typically developing children who are about the same age as Noah) when we’re reminded that Noah was born with Down syndrome, and will likely hit his developmental milestones a little later than his typically developing peers. But honestly those moments are few and far between.

There’s a lot of screaming and yelling in our house. Here’s why.

Our neighbors must think we’re crazy because of all the loud screaming that comes from our house. I’m sure anyone walking by our house can hear it. It’s loud. Why so much noise you ask? Well, because we celebrate like crazy around here! It doesn’t matter how big or small (no accomplishment is a small accomplishment in my book) we celebrate every win in our house.

And I mean celebrate!

We scream, cheer, and applaud Noah’s accomplishments like the kid just hit the game winning grand slam in the world series. We have a lot of fun in our house. That’s just how we roll.

For the most part life is a bunch of seemingly small wins, with a few large wins sprinkled in along the way. Both are nice, and we should cheer our children on both for both as well, but it’s those large wins that can make you really want to go bananas! Children with Down syndrome have to work so hard to achieve their developmental goals and when they hit one boy, it should be a party! And in our house it is. 🙂

Sitting up for the first time is an epic win!

Strangely enough these large wins usually happen when you least expect it. Like today for instance, after months of Noah’s physical therapist working on his core strength, countless sitting marathons, and even beating his own (assisted) sitting record; our ten month old son decided to simply sit up all by himself!

It was awesome.

Sadly I wasn’t home to witness this milestone (in person) but thankfully my wife’s iPhone 4S saves the day again! (Isn’t it awesome that we live in a time where we can capture memories so quickly and easily?!) You can hear the excitement in my wife’s voice as she glances over to see our little boy sitting up all by himself in his pack and play. Don’t you love the uber-proud look on Noah’s face as he sits there with a much deserved sense of accomplishment?

I sure do!

(I guess all of that time on the exercise ball really paid off for him.)

Being a parent (and a husband) is another epic win!

As I’ve said a million times, I love being this little boy’s dad. I wish I could live life in slow motion, just so I could linger over every little second with my family a little longer. Time really does fly and I’m loving every minute of being a father and a husband. I couldn’t dream up a better family to live life with if I tried. Hmmm….it’s almost as if God Himself put our family together. 🙂

I’m truly blessed beyond words.

What recent developmental milestones have you celebrated in your house? We want to hear about them!