Well, I use the phrase 'Summer Time' loosely! So far we have had one day of Summer – it hit 26 degrees on Friday 3rd June, where Louie adorned his favourite shorts, T-shirt, sun hat & (rather reluctantly) lashings of sun tan cream! The following day on the 4th, Louie wore vest, trousers, thick fleece, padded winter coat & a cagoule on top of that! The temperature dipped to a grizzly 10 degrees, with a wind chill taking it to about 7 degrees!!!
Well OK, so we were daft enough to have gone to the beach, but come on, it's JUNE! Good things come to those who wait – I'll wait!
Louie is now just over 3 & a half years old, continues to be very settled at nursery & is developing quite an attitude at times! His speech is coming along beautifully, with him putting sentences together of great length – 'thank you Mum for dinner', 'sorry Mum for hitting you!'.
He is learning to count from 1 to 10 & regularly counts when he's going up & down stairs. We always know when he reaches the fourth stair as we hear a triumphant 'POR', being yelled out!
He can say his own name now & can recognise various colours without prompting – so we know he's not colour blind! He continues to have good ball skills & is definitely in need of a little basket ball net to perfect his aim & develop this skill further!
One of his targets through nursery is to recognise & complete familiar stories or songs, so his nursery & I are getting stuck into 'Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy' books – they're just great!
Bottomly Potts all covered in spots, Hercules Morse as big as a horse, Bitzer Malony all skinny & bonny!!! Wonderful!
The rhyming in these will also help towards jolly phonics & learning the sounds of letters. Louie can copy all the sounds of the letters of the alphabet, with the exception of 'c', 'k', & 'v'.
Louie is much better when out & about than he used to be. He will hold my hand much more readily now (even if he does still pull away if he's not in the mood to be holding mummy's hand!) He is starting to build a small awareness of road safety, and will sometimes stand at the kerb in our enclosed street & 'look for cars coming'. Whether he understands why he is looking for cars yet, I'm not so sure!
I continue to encourage Louie to use the toilet throughout the day, as he is still in nappies. His awareness of what's happening 'downstairs' is certainly improving & he is making strong moves in the right direction. Just the one missing piece of the jigsaw – telling Mummy that he needs the toilet – rather than just closing the sitting room door & going very quiet all of a sudden!!!!
Louie has had another good hearing test again giving the all clear, & his annual thyroid blood test was executed nicely, thanks to our lovely local GP Doctor. The results all clear for his thyroid & his antibodies have decreased compared to last years results. So very good news there too.
A summer cold recently washed him out for 2 weeks, with sneezes that could be heard the other side of Scotland! But otherwise Louie's health continues to be fine.
Louie is integrating with a few of the primary school children in the playground when we go to collect his brother & sister from school. This is introducing him to different play – louder, rougher & faster. It's also allowing Louie to see that not all children are nice, sometimes one might throw a stone in your direction when their Mum isn't looking! Needless to say I don't take my eyes off of Louie & I'm ready to dash to his rescue. But I am trying to let him get a wee taste of the bigger world.
He's definitely getting more freedom now as I build my trust in his ability to not completely run off out of sight! That said, if one is mad enough to take Louie into a shop with his brother & sister, then he's gone. Out of sight! Disappeared! Completely!
Take him on his own to Sainsbury's or Tesco, then Louie is in awe of all the food! He runs from the bananas to the apples to the oranges, pointing, exclaiming & being so delighted to see so much food! There are great expressions of excitement, 'WOW!', 'LOOK!', as he takes in what seems to Louie to be such a magnificent sight - much to the delight of the onlooking shoppers!
Louie is a very lucky wee boy. For all he has DS he is doing exceptionally well. His progress is remarkable. However he is still very much younger than his years when compared to other children of his own age, and when he's around these children Louie's delayed rate of development is very noticeable. But if one doesn't mind waiting a little bit longer for 'summer' to come, then I just know it will be one of the best summers ever!
Mum – 10 June 2011
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