The Birthday Boy.

Today Isaiah turned 3 years old. I can't say for sure but I'm assuming he had never had a birthday cake and celebration day just for him until today. He enjoyed every bit of the 2 cupcakes he was given. Isaiah's Godparents and their 5 kiddos helped celebrate so Isaiah loved all that extra attention he was given. Their 8 year old girl adores him to pieces.

Isaiah had an ENT appointment a few weeks ago and he will be needing his adenoids removed. He is a snorter, snorer, and still has horrible bad breath on and off. He also usually gasps for air after drinking. Hopefully this will all improve once the culprit is removed. His tonsils look fine so they will remain intact. Next week he has a urologist appointment to hopefully coordinate 2 surgeries at the same time. That common procedure that newborn boy babies have in the nursery by a regular doctor requires an older child to be under anesthesia and have it done by a urologist.

Isaiah has been home almost 8 months. Although he hasn't made leaps and bounds developmentally he has made some gains in many areas. He now goes up and down steps by himself. He has a few favorite toys with balls being the most favorite. He used to let the ball roll off his hands and how he attempts to throw them. He will throw certain things a small distance and crawl after it while giggling and making a game of it. He is into climbing up on anything his little legs can get him up. He waves bye-bye...signs more and eat and getting close to signing ball. Plays peek-a-boo, So Big, puts his foot out to me when I start saying This Little Piggy, Patty Cake, gives kisses and hugs, gives 5, attempts the actions to the song Hot Potato by The Wiggles. He still LOVES music. He imitates some sounds and still is a babbler. When he cries he "says" mom, mama over and over. I doubt he means me but I still like hearing it.

He recently got his orthodics and while I think they are a pain in the butt I know they are to protect the growth of his muscles and bones. Still have not found shoes that fit well with them. When we first saw him in the orphanage he didn't even know how to take "instinct" baby steps when holding his hands. Now he is walking around furniture, walking behind push toys and has taken 2-3 wobbly steps to us. He can stand and balance for probably close to a minute. He is so close to getting into standing position on his own. With all this unfortunately comes the bumps and bruises. The other day I had him standing up against the wall while I was getting something and he fell forward and put a hole in his lip. He was throwing a fit because I took him out of the highchair and he most likely threw himself forward but didn't plan on his tooth going through his lip :( Awhile back I noticed a front tooth has a little chip in it. I have a feeling there will be much more of this type of thing by the time he is a steady walker. :(

Eating....just when I think things are improving a bit then it gets bad again. I keep hoping and praying for the day I can say meal time is finally relaxing. Now and then we get one of those and it is so nice.

Early Intervention ended this past week with Isaiah turning 3 so now he moves into the school system. He will be getting 60 minutes of ST (speech therapy) per week and 60 minutes with the special education preschool teacher per week and 30 minutes of OT (occupational therapy). I still take him to Bismarck for PT (physical therapy) twice a month.

Now for a couple pictures...

5 month update

Isaiah continues to make progress even if it is small baby steps. He definitely NEEDS to be pushed and motivated or he would be content to just sit and look around most times. I'm not sure if it is a blessing or a curse for him that God gave him a "military sergeant" type of a mom but he got one as I just can't see him sitting around having no interest in anything. The past few weeks some of my (or Isaiah's) hard work is finally paying off.

I debated on buying Isaiah anything for Christmas as we have so many toys already that he could care less about. I took my chances and bought him a rocking type bike with musical buttons. It can also be turned into a sit and push type bike for later on. Anyway, the bike was a SUPER HUGE hit and he absolutely loved it. I hardly got any pictures as I was having fun videoing him as he was having a blast. In fact he was on for about 20 minutes straight and he was not happy when I took him off. Now him and Joey fight over this bike. Joey usually wins if no one is around to make him get off. Other times Isaiah will contently sit and watch Joey but as SOON as Joey gets off for a second to get something Isaiah QUICKLY takes his spot. That does not go over very well with Joey.




Isaiah has been exploring more on his own where before he would follow Joey most places. I have to be aware of where is at because I have found him in rooms with the doors shut. He goes in and closes the door and usually does not hollow to be found. I look forward to the day he empties my Tupperware drawer...something that I was SO tired of Joey doing at one point and could not wait for him to stop.

Isaiah loves the dishwasher, clothes dryer, and vacuum. He likes putting his face next to all of them when they are running. He just recently started climbing up on the dishwasher door and I think before long he will be climbing into the dryer too. He is finally able to climb up on the couch too.

Chewing has improved somewhat but will still swallow big chunks of food that are slippery. One night after supper while I was doing dishes I kept him in the highchair and gave him a celery stick thinking it would last all of 2 seconds but he loved it. He chewed and chewed and actually ate it but I made sure he didn't swallow the bigger stringy pieces...not sure how well the Heimlich would work for something like that and I wasn't about to find out. He had 2 pieces and his hand was all wrinkly like he was in the bathtub too long.


I've been getting tougher with him with holding and playing toys. I know, sounds mean, but like I said he NEEDS to be pushed. It was worth it because he will now hold and actually play with certain toys. Music is still a big motivator. If we are in one room and he hears music coming from another room his whole mind is in the room where the music is.


He has weekly Early Intervention home visits and monthly occupational (OT) and speech therapy (ST). He gets physical therapy (PT) twice a month in Bismarck and I work on muscle strengthening a couple times a day most days. I can really start to see the progress from that too. I will start him at the bottom of the stairs and he is up to the top within a couple minutes IF no one is by him. I have him stand up next to a wall so he can't plop down on his butt. We have our own version of "up downs" to work the legs/hips and also do the exercise ball to strengthen the core muscles. All this is needed to be able to walk someday and he is now able to stand and balance on his own...sometimes up to 30 seconds. He pulls himself to a stand much quicker now. I can definitely see he is getting much stronger.


Another VERY exciting thing that happened this past week was he learned his first sign...more. I used food for the motivator for this word. I've been working on this for weeks. Now I'm working on the word eat. A few weeks ago he learned to wave Bye bye but stopped doing it after a couple days. He does Peek-a-boo, So Big, gives 5, gives kisses (but they can be hard to get). He is starting to imitate certain play activities. Here he is signing more.


Isaiah is still a good sleeper but has started throwing a fit when I put him in his crib. I took his Nuk away because he was getting too obsessed with it by constantly playing with it and chewing on it. This is one thing that kept him from playing with toys. His hands needed something else to do. His teeth grinding has improved about 95%. Maybe it was a teething thing....who knows...but I'm super glad I don't hear it much anymore.

One thing that TOTALLY amazes me is how often he will pee/poop on the potty. I'm pretty sure he was "holding it in" back when he had all the constipation issues so I started putting him on the potty after breakfast and lunch and most times he would poop. He would always pee within seconds. The orphanage had to have been putting him on the potty for a long time for him to be able to do this. He still has constipation and I'm assuming always will due to Down syndrome so I give him something to keep things going everyday. He still poops in his diaper if he doesn't go on the potty so I don't at all call him potty trained.

Sometimes I'm not sure if he knows we are his family because he has no fear of strangers and growing up in an orphanage (well, 2 1/2 years anyway) with having all kinds of "moms" and all kinds of "siblings" makes me wonder if he knows we are his and he is ours. Last week we went to a wrestling match and he was just relaxed laying back on me looking around. Just then I was watching our 13 year old wrestler walk out to the mat for his match and I could tell Isaiah was looking in that direction and all of a sudden he sat straight up and stretched out his arms (something he does when he is super excited) and started making noises. There is no doubt that he saw Austin and KNEW it was someone who belonged to him. It is "little" things like this that are "HUGE" gifts to me.

Sometimes the past 5 months seem to have gone fast and other times it feels like forever. I knew adoption would not be all fun and games. Sometimes I find myself almost in a way mourning my old life but I just remind myself that I didn't do this for me but for God. I didn't ask Him if I could adopt as much as He asked ME to do it for Him and for Isaiah. Just like I can't imagine my 5 bio kids in some other family I can NOT imagine Isaiah in any other family but ours. Isaiah may be harder than I imagined in some ways but he is much easier in other ways and those are big blessings to me. He is such a sweet lovable kid who is so easy to take with me wherever I go...just like Joey. He gets so excited when he sees me getting the coats and shoes out and when I put him in his car seat he is SO excited and can hardly contain himself. If I'm holding Joey I can almost guarantee that within seconds of Isaiah seeing us he will be in my lap too and most times Joey is the one motioning for us to get Isaiah too. Isaiah is more of a "taker" at this point but he is always there to "give" love and smiles. There are times that I don't at all feel worthy to be the mom of these 2 boys who give and receive love so unconditionally but I am thankful God did pick me. My life may not always be "easy" but it is "good".

I was recently reminded of the bible verse Jeremiah 29:11..."For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not to harm you, plans to give you a future full of hope."