My Son

I am struggling tonight to think of anything to type about.  I am doing the 31 for 21 so I have committed to doing a post a day this month for Down Syndrome awareness.  I guess this is a good time to talk just a little about my son Thomas then.

Thomas is 7 years old and is in 1st grade after having 2 years of Kindergarten.  He seems to enjoy school at least most days.  He is in an normal classroom but does get pulled out throughout the day to work with his therapists and also to get extra support on what is being taught in the classroom.  Thomas is easily distracted in the classroom so moving to a one on one setting or a small group setting(2 or 3 other kids) has seemed to help him.  Transitions can be a major issue for Thomas but it seems as if reminding him of changes coming up helps, of course coming in from recess is always going to be a struggle.

Thomas has started reading more lately.  I think part of this is his little sister is reading and sees how excited we are about her that he wants to join in as well.  His handwriting skills are not very good yet.  He can write his first name for the most part but not within lines and not very clear.  He has short kind of stubby fingers that make gripping pencils more of a chore for him.  He has never really liked coloring either, unlike our other two kids.

Potty training is still a work in progress with Thomas.  He goes to school in underwear because he will hold #1 and go when taken.  He very rarely tells us that he has to go.  #2 is just not happening, but he doesn't do this at school.  He fights sitting on the potty for #2 so we have kind of backed off on this.  We are trying to now have him tell us when he needs to go #2 so we can put a pullup on him, no success on this but just started it.  He wears pullups to bed and is usually wet in the morning.  Has also been waking up wet in the middle of the night also and coming downstairs to get changed.

Thomas is very active in that he loves to play, dance, run etc.  He has been doing Challenger Baseball for a year now, but only really gets into batting.  Sitting out in the field is usually forced, he just has no real interest in this.  He used to like shooting basketball, but has kind of gotten away from that and instead likes to throw things onto our roof and have it bounce back to him.  

Well, I think that is enough for tonight.  I am kind of tired and want to get to bed at a decent hour for once--meaning around midnight instead of 1:30 or 2 or later.