A couple of weeks ago the 3 of us were chilling on the couch one afternoon. Jaxson was under the weather (and he still is, pretty sure he’s battling RSV yet again) so we were curled up to watch a Disney movie. Jaxson lost interest in the movie and had a sudden burst of energy. He started throwing himself onto Alex and giggling his sweet little face off. Wrestling is probably his favourite activity at the moment, and he could spend an entire hour on the bed throwing himself at you without losing any interest.

Then he saw me beside alex and it was on. He was going to figure out a way to come and wrestle me….. Alex was roadblocking him from crawling over her lap, so he had to figure out a different way. He started pushing alex forward quite forcefully. She would help him out a bit and lean forward. He saw a new route! within seconds he was diving behind her back, making more room, giggling and panting like a little puppy dog. He was working so hard, pulling and kicking his legs. It took him a little bit, but he got through! He never gave up and he never slowed down. The look of pure satisfaction on his face when he made it close enough to “get me”. Priceless.

Alex then said something very interesting. She said “You know what the best thing about Jaxson having Down syndrome is? It’s the fact that he’s SO smart, cognitively I don’t think theres much of a delay if any. But his body is so behind”. She saw the confusion in my face, why is that a good thing? So she kept on. “It’s so cool because it’s like we are watching a super smart 7 month old baby. When typical babies start crawling they kind of just do whatever with little thought. They go, but there’s little purpose, they just do it. Not Jaxson, he thinks, he plans, he plots, he heavily interacts. Then he carries out his plan. It’s so cool to watch!”

Alex is SO right! It’s pretty awesome to watch Jaxson problem solve, and formulate a plan to carry out. I’m serious when I say you can literally watch him plan and think. If there were legitimate gears you would see them spinning at full tilt. Jaxson also just doesn’t just ‘go’ for no reason. Thats the lazy baby in him! Because every movement is extra hard for babies with low muscle tone, it takes much more energy to do things. Which means there is still lot’s of cuddle time for mums ❤

That being said he has become super quick, and turning your eye from him means he will crawl across the living room and kitchen to dump the dogs water dish in 5 second flat! Life is more hectic, crazy and fun with a crawling baby. We couldn’t be more proud of his accomplishments and hard work!!

Also, HAPPY DOWN SYNDROME AWARENESS MONTH!!!