Something VERY big happened in our house yesterday! Unfortunately I was at work when it all went down, but I got an immediate phone call from Alex. When I answered the phone she was out of breath and I could tell she had a giant ‘shit eating’ grin on her face…. “OH MY GOD HOLLY, JAXSON JUST ROLLED!!!!”

Of course I was absolutely thrilled and fiercely proud of this new trick Jax had mastered on his own, but I don’t think anyone could be more excited and happy than Alex was at that moment.

By default and definitely against everything we had planned for when we got a child, Alex ended up being the one to take the parental leave and stay at home with Jaxson (for now). Alex is the one that shuttles Jax around to all of his appointments when we are unable to schedule them for my days off. She’s the one the spends 24/7 with him (which I am VERY jealous of). She keeps the house in order and literally has dinner on a plate the second I walk in the door. She’s the one that is up with him in the middle of the night when I’m working. She’s the one that get’s all of her school work done all while tending to Jaxson’s every need. Did I mention she is working towards her physiotherapy degree? Which mean she’s the one that does majority of the ‘physio’ work with Jaxson.

We have been saying for literally 2 months now that Jaxson will be rolling any day  now! For 2 months he was SO damn close, and yet SO far….. It’s been a running joke in our house where I would come home from work and say “did the boy child roll on his own today?” and Alex would have a different smart ass reply every day “nope, he will be off to college before he rolls” or “Nope, but he did start walking”.

Even though we constantly joked about it, this ‘hang up’ was a HUGE frustration to Alex. A few weeks ago I asked her why it bothers her so much that he hasn’t yet rolled. Her reply “I know it will take him longer to learn these things, but he has been so developmentally on track thus far. I just thought that maybe he would be that little boy with DS that proved everyone wrong”. And there you have it, the truth…..

Of course we know that Jaxson’s development, especially with gross motor skills will lag significantly behind typical kids. Still there’s that silly idea in the back of your head that maybe he will prove everyone wrong. I think every parent of a child with special needs has that thought at some point or another.

Yesterday Jaxson taught his fiercely competitive, determined, stubborn momma a lesson about patience. Today, 1 day after mastering rolling I know they they will be on the floor practicing the next milestone he will eventually conquer. Keep up the good work momma!!

And here it is. Just over 7 months old, and 19 pounds of rippling muscle and brute force, here is our little chunk showing off his new trick….