Index nieuws

Jun 2003

Thursday, 6/19/2003
ENT
Today Bram was seen by a pediatric ENT. We went to Newark for this, to a department of the university hospital. This was quite a positive experience. The ENT suspects his problems are being caused by fluid in the ears. Also that he only has a mild hearing loss that's structural. The mild hearing loss was no surprise to us, this had already been detected during the hearing test that was done under anesthesia last year. Bram is more prone to developing a greater hearing loss in the future, but right now this is not our biggest worry.
Bram will get tubes in the ears in a little while. These should help prevent the many ear infections he has had lately (winter time). First we will have him tested again by the Audiologist he's been seeing so that we can determine the status of his hearing right now. Depending on this we will decide if it is sensible to wait a few more months before placing them. These tubes do fall out after a while, because they are growing. This we preferrably don't want to happen during the coming winter.
To be continued again.

Teeth
Vera has her 1st tooth, we felt the tiny point in the center of the lower jaw.

Friday, 6/13/2003
Imitation
This morning during his session with teacher Eileen, Bram has imitated a horse's sound after he had heard it in a toy. He did so twice, so it was not coincidental. He is imitating sounds more and more. We all had wet eyes because of this and immediately phoned daddy to notify him. Bram also shows great understanding of what we are talking about and ask him. One of the ways we notice this is that he started looking for a toy that 'we could not find'.

Crawling
Today and yesterday evening Vera has crawled about half a yard on hands and knees. She then proceeded the army style.

Monday, 6/9/2003
Army style
Tonight Vera has started to crawl army style, she got over a yard far the first time. She then decided to go on practising. She starts off at hands and knees and wants to go forward. To accomplish this she slides on her tummy and pulls herself forward with the arms.

Walking (2)
At the evening of June 3 (yes, his birthday) Bram has walked solitary for 4 steps! As soon as he discovered he was doing so (I guess we just too obviously cheered "hooray for Bram, doing great"), he sat down.
Up till today (June 9th) he has had several 'walking moments' a day, but he still seems to be a bit scared.
Wait and see, he has improved dramatically anyway.

Friday, 6/6/2003
Vera sits up
Today Vera managed to sit up by herself for the first time. Initially she was on all fours, and it took her about 5 minutes before she managed. It looked like it was quite an effort, and it looked a bit clumsy as well, but she was very happy with herself when she finally sat down on her bottom.

Thursday, 6/5/2003
Pediatrician
June 5th
Both Bram and Vera had to see the pediatrician today. Vera only had to get a shot, which she got. She appears to be completely healthy, for a complete checkup she has to go back in August. Bram has had his 2 years check up. He too is doing very well, being 25lbs 4 oz and 35,5" tall, he is exceptionally tall and tiny. This is accordingly the special table for children with Down Syndrome. We still are very happy with the fact he is high functioning, even though he is behind compared to 'typical' children. This birthday entitled him to a range of extra check ups: he has to go to an ENT (which we were already waiting for), to an eye doctor and he has to have bloodwork done.

Wednesday, 6/4/2003
Bram's birthday on June 3rd
Yesterday Bram had his 2nd birthday. Grandpa Karel and grandma Annemie were here to celebrate this with us all. They brought presents from several people (who know themselves, thanks again on this spot) and some cards. Also via traditional mail and email many people sent cards (senders know who we are talking about here, thanks to you all too).
As soon as Bram woke up and entered the living room, he spotted the flags Erik and I (Wilma) had put up the night before. He also thought it quite different from the usual when we woke him up singing 'happy birthday to you'. While he was napping we made him brownies as his birthday cake. No cake makes Bram more happy than brownies, so we decided to get him these. We put on 2 candles, so it looked quite festive indeed (picture included ).
In the afternoon his friends Eva and Timothy came by accompanied by their moms. This way he had a real party.
Even though it was extremely busy at work, Erik got home at a decent hour, biggest party imaginable!

Tuesday, 6/3/2003
Trip to Niagara Falls
On Saturday May 31st we dropped off Bas and Bert at the boarding house around noon. Then we drove on to Niagara Falls, American side. There we checked in into a motel after a drive of 9 hours (including several stops) in the pouring rain.
On Sunday June 1st we drove to the Canadian side. We had heard this was prettier than the American border. It indeed was awesome, too impressive to really describe. We saw both sides of the falls. We managed to get a decent look of both the American and the Canadian sides of the falls. We also had great weather: about 70F with sun.
We took a walk behind the falls, took the boat trip to the falls (got soaking wet of course,which was part of the fun). Also we walked the 'white water walk' boardwalk and checked out the butterfly conservatory. We all had a great time, Bram might have enjoyed the conservatory most, because he got to see and touch quite a few flowers. For more: have a look at today's pictures.
That night we checked in into a hotel in Canada, we had a jacuzzi suite...........WONDERFUL. Especially after this day of loads of walking in the outside air. Bram simply loved this: have a look at his picture.
On Monday June 2 we drove back home. We left after having 'brunch' and arrived home at about 11pm. We did some local roads to see more of the environment and of course had to make several stops again.
© Wilma & Erik van de Pol, 2000-2008