Happy third Birthday, Lucas!

Lucas turned three years old on Monday May 19, 2014. 

We left Centro De Ninos y Padres at CSULA last week because the school policy is that when a child turns three years old, they are no longer welcomed at the center.  This leaves Lucas and me free for the whole summer before preschool starts in September. Although, we are still scheduled for his routine therapies such as PT, Speech and ABA.  We will also be starting Floortime in July.  OT has been discontinued by the Regional Center but I am hoping Floortime will take its place for the time being. Our IEP still has not taken place but is scheduled for the first week of June.  There was a delay due to the vision screening not being completed for the originally scheduled IEP date.  The school nurse was either incompetent or the equipment she was using was so outdated that it took us more than 40 minutes to try and get a reading, which we failed to do in the end.  So, I scheduled an appointment with a pediatric opthalmologist at Kaiser and she diagnosed Lucas with nearsightedness (-4.5)  We ordered the first pair which has a metal frame. After getting some feedbacks from the Dup15 moms on the facebook support group, they recommended a plastric frame brand called Miraflex so we decided to order those as a spare.  The challenge has been getting Lucas to keep them on his face.  Initially, he absolutely would not tolerate them and would fling them off but there was a definite recognition within him that things appeared different, clearer.  He was very quiet and observant of his surroundings.  It has been a week now and he keeps them on a bit longer than before.  But, still he will fling them off his face when I am not looking or he is in the back car seat while I am driving and can't get to him.

It has only been about a week since his fitting, but it feels as if he is more attentive to my ,movements and seems more engaged with his toys.  He still falls and swaggers when he walks but there is definitely a shift in his perception, if not his cognition of the environment.

First time getting fitted for glasses: the first 10 minutes: TIme lapse clockwise

We spent Luki's birthday weekend down in San Diego and visited Sea World.  His favorite thing in the world is water play and listening to music so I figured taking him to where they have tons and tons of water would be something quite enjoyable for him.  Unfortunately, he was not too impressed with the Shamu Show, dolphin and sea lions shows and slept for nearly two hours as his after noon nap.  This has been a trend for him recently, he just seems so wiped out by late afternoon that two to  three hour naps are a common occurrence. When he woke up from his nap, we gave me the biggest, tightest hug with a beautiful smile which pappa Gabe captured on camera.  He had never hugged me like that before! This is my all-time favorite picture and I still think about that moment and feel so warm and happy in my heart.


He did seem to enjoy watching the Madagascar Vacation music and dance show.  But, what he absolutely loved the best was getting wet playing with the water sprinkler in the Sesame Street Kid's Play area.  I don't think I had ever seen him sooo happy.  He got in there with all the big kids and was not shy about making his way right to the water hole.

He now flaps his arms when he gets excited or he doesn't want something such as when I try to feed him when he is not hungry.

We also celebrated mother's day this month by having brunch at the Ahlmansors.  Gabriel got me a dozen pink roses.  He is so kind and wonderful.  I can't believe it is already our third Mother's Day we celebrate with Lucas! We took a keepsake picture of this year's Mother's Day.

We leave Centro de los Ninos y padres with happy and fond memories and I will forever cherish the special mommy and me time I shared with Lucas there.  Here he had a giggle attack while playing in the outside play yard of the Centro.  

I am so happy in this moment in our lives.  We are all healthy, earning a living with steady good jobs with a little extra to go on short trips now and then and even do some home renovating.  I feel blessed, lucky and grateful to God for all the blessings.  The only thing that chronically stays with me like a dark cloud over my head is worry about the future.  Worry over the what-ifs in life that can jeopardize the little piece of heaven I have right now.  I wish I can shut that part of my brain up but it always rears itself to the forefront of my mind every now and then.

My signing off mantra:  I am always taken care of and the Universal Godhead is always looking after me and my beautiful family's best and highest interest.