Lucas at 31 Months

It's amazing how time flies...I've been noodling the idea of providing monthly updates on Lucas' developmental progress -- both as a means to chronicle his development for future reference, and so you can share in his growth too. I got the kick in the pants I needed when I visited Bridget's Light and saw her mom has been doing this on a monthly basis since she was wee little; I figured it's time for me to get with it too. So here's Lucas at 31 months.

Lucas is weighing 30 lbs. and stands 36 inches tall -- he's at the 50th percentile in both height and weight on the typically developing chart which is good news for him (I've been telling him, the only thing that will encourage any height will be the fact that Daddy is 6'0 -- I sure am not any help in that department).

Lucas is becoming a chatterbox -- he has approximately 40-50 spoken words, and many, many more word approximations -- he's trying to repeat many of the things we're saying, including 2 and 3 word phrases (approximations). He loves music and likes to sing along to nursery rhymes during circle time at school, he enjoys doing the actions and "singing" to "Pat-a-Cake" and other favorite tunes.

Lucas is counting from 2-5 (we have to start with "one" and encourage him to count).  He especially likes counting "Five Silly Monkeys" -- we may have a budding actor on our hands since he likes to act out the "monkey fell down and bumped his head".  When you ask him how many Goldfish (favorite snack) he wants, he'll tell you either "two" or "five".  He loves animal sounds and can say "cow" and "pig" and make their respective animal sounds; he also does sheep, snake, horse, and monkey. 

Lucas loves reading books -- we're going to start him on a reading program from Down Syndrome Education International in the UK -- kids with DS are visual learners and he's going to pick up sight reading pretty quickly which will help with his budding speech and vocabulary. 

Every day on countless occasions he's signing and asking for "Tee" (TV) and climbing the couch to get to the remote controls which he's trying to figure out how to use. Although he enjoys "Mickey's Playhouse" and "Handy Manny" his favorite DVDs are "Signing Time" where he's picked up approximately 140-150 ASL signed words.

Lucas recognizes many body parts including hands, feet, toes, knees, head, face, mouth, eyes, nose, ears, tummy, pee-pee.

Lucas washes his hands and face, and brushes his teeth every morning and night (sometimes with resistance).

Lucas is feeding himself with a spoon and fork.  Every morning he goes to the fridge, asking for help opening it so he can scour it and pick out yogurt -- his favorite breakfast item.  He opens the yogurt on his own -- we give him some fruit which he likes to add to his bowl.

Lucas is walking everywhere, he climbs stairs with assistance, is starting to run, and is trying to jump -- he bends his knees and often kicks his leg up.  He enjoys playing on his little gym, the swing is a big hit, and he gets positioned on the slide so when we say "ready, set", he yells "go" and shoots down.  He likes "driving" his Jeep 4-wheeler. We're working on kicking too.

Lucas enjoys playing with Playdoh, bubbles (although he blows bubbles out his nose -- he's got blowing his nose mastered; it's blowing out his mouth that's still a challenge).  He's recently discovered building with mega blocks and says "choo choo" as he pushes trains.

Lucas likes going to school, and playing with his friends Cecilia "Cece", Max, and Luca.  He says hello and good-bye to many people when we're out -- this kid is friendly!

Lucas is helping more and more to put on and take off his clothes.  He can take off his shorts and pants (as long as we undo the zipper), socks, and shoes.

Lucas enjoys putting together puzzles and "catching" fish with a magnetic fishing pole. He also likes pretend play -- putting Handy Manny to sleep, feeding him, and cooking for him -- he's got a new kitchen he's experimenting in, just like Daddy.

Lucas is now wearing pull-ups exclusively and tells us "pee pee" so we're spending a lot of time with him sitting on the potty and singing silly songs -- he's had a couple of successes at home and at school.  Any suggestions here would be GREATLY appreciated.

He's getting to be more fun by the day, and loves to learn new things.