He's 2!

Our big guy turned 2 on February 28th. 

At his two year appointment, he weighed 29 pounds (62% on the typical charts) and was 35.5 inches tall (77% on the typical charts).  They don't even chart him on Down syndrome growth chart because his growth curve is perfectly typical.  We had another round of blood work and are happy to report that his thyroid levels are all in the "normal" range!  Aside from this winter's respiratory illnesses, this kid is healthy! We are truly blessed! 

 At two, he's pulling to stand, climbing the stairs, belly off the floor crawling FAST, taking 20 - 30 steps at a time with his walker wearing his Sure Steps, and attempting to climb onto anything and everything he can (the couch, Penny's bed, toys, etc). I can't wait to see what he can do at the playground once the weather warms up! He's saying many words and doing many signs. His favorite songs are 5 Little Monkeys and Alex and the Kaleidoscope Band's Tyrannosaurus. You should hear him roar along!

We recently had our Early Intervention Annual Evaluation. Porter is doing so well in communication related and social related areas. His fine motor skills are developing so well! And, while we're well aware that he's lagging in the gross motor development area, we know that he will walk as soon as he's strong enough. In the meantime, all this crawling and climbing is doing wonders for his floppy core :) We also had a visit with Dr. Pipan at CHOP's Trisomy 21 Program. Dr. P spent over an hour with Mr. P. Our entire visit lasted three hours. We were seen by PT, OT and we enrolled in our first clinical trial that will allow the researchers to use the information from Porter's annual visits at Tri21 over the next ten years to gain insight into Down syndrome medical and developmental issues.  We're excited and happy to be part of this study and look forward to hearing more about the progress over time. The team at CHOP confirmed that we're on track and that our EI team is amazing! Dr. Pipan offered so many insights. She did confirm that Porter's biggest battle is low muscle tone and said that she's happy he's not walking yet, as he would be destroying ligaments and building bad habits due to the fact that his muscles just aren't strong enough. We just need to get him stronger!
OK...enough on the developmental update. Let's get down to the fun! 

Mr. Porter had some very special visitors for his birthday.  Grammy and Pa made the trip from St. Louis to celebrate with Mr. P! 

Penny wasted no time and got straight to her favorite activity with Grammy- baking cookies. I think Pa and Daddy also love that Penny likes to bake with Grammy :) 

 Porter helped with some of the measuring, but decided that he would rather help build his birthday gift with the boys :)  This lucky boy got a set of building blocks just like his daddy had as a kid.  Right now he's best at demolition, but he's getting pretty good at stacking!

 After dinner (Penny decided that Porter's favorite dinner is quesadillas), we got down to the birthday business.

 We hoped Wegmans would have Elmo cupcakes, but these Kermit ones were pretty awesome! And fun!

 Porter definitely enjoyed his cupcake.

 And, he wanted to give you all a giant hug as soon as he was finished!

Kisses, hugs and birthday love! Happy Birthday Porter!