Facial Expressions
So I don't know what you know about kids with Down Syndrome, but in my (albeit limited) experience, I have always thought that a variety of facial expressions was not their strong suit.

This does not seem to be an issue for Sam.

I mentioned the other day about the look he gives you if you're eating something, and he's not. Well I stumbled across another one.

Today, Noelle popped out for a haircut, and I was left with Isaac napping, and Sam to feed lunch to. Of course, when it comes to baby food, I'm at a bit of a loss, and for just such occaisions, we have gone to the extraordinary length (for Noelle, anyway) of buying premade baby food.
This time, it was a half eaten jar of Pink Beans, Chicken and Rice puree.

Now I know enough by now that I need to thicken it with a little rice pablum, for him to enjoy it, but I vaguely recalled him not enjoying it that much last time. This time, though, after the 1st spoonfull, he looked up at me with an expression that clearly said:
"Dad, what the hell was that?"

I have never seen disappointment and displeasure so clearly displayed on a baby's face.

Then his expression turned to general sadness, and his right eyebrow lifted (yes, only the right one), and he looked up, and ... well, I gave him another spoonfull. And after a while it was ok. But for the first few mouthfulls, it was clear he was not impressed.

So that's Sam's facial expressions.

He's also back to shouting, and now has added growling like a Tyrannosaurus. Which is cool too.

Isaac is now asking why about absolutely everything, even if he knows the answer. Like I step out of the shower and he asks,
"Why are you drying off?"

The worst part is the he clearly knows the answer, he just wants you to say it. In fact, he really just wants you to do his bidding.

The other day, I was going a little nuts, and I said, "Isaac, can you please stop asking why for two minutes?"
"Why should I stop asking why?"
So it's pointless to even argue.

So more about Isaac being really complicated. Sam, is in fact, incredibly complicated. We went to the Dr. the other day, and he said that he was concerned about some of Sam's gross motor skills being a little behind (he is 7 months, and show no interest in sitting up).
Noelle replied that "He's actually doing well for a kid with DS." To which the Dr responded, "I'm not comparing him to kids with DS, I'm comparing him to kids without."

Which of course poses a problem. We decided a long time ago that we didn't want to define him by his disability. He is not Down Syndrome, it's just something he's got to deal with. Kind of like my Tourette's, or Noelle's totaly inability to be on time for anything (only more severe than that, I guess). At the same time, however, we want to keep expectations of him reasonable.

So the balancing act continues of a) not defining him by his limitations, and b) keeping our expectations reasonable, and such that he can acheive them.

I think we for the most part err of the part of a), but we do have b) moments. The other day at the Dr. was one of those.

So at this point, we are looking into gross motor development exercises, and some things we can do to keep him developping normally...or at least as normally as he is able to do.

Life is never dull in the Allen household.