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This is a picture of Mikey when he was one day old. He slept like a little angel. The red marks on his face are from scratching himself. That is the reason he is wearing the boxing gloves. Even though he was a month early, he had no problems from being premature except that he was jaundiced.

This is a picture of Mikey taken at ACDS when he was 7 months old. At that time he wasn't using his left side (sometimes he didn't even seem to realize he had a left hand). You can see that his left arm is very stiff and he is holding his left hand with his right. This was caused by a sensory integration problem that was helped by Mikey's Occupational Therapist. The teddy bear was put there to give him support since he wasn't sitting up on his own yet.

This is from Mikey's 1st birthday party. By the time he was one he was able to: sit by himself, pick up and play with toys, roll over, bang objects together, shake them, visually examine them, and suck on them. He was able to play games like "peek-a-boo", clap hands, and laugh and giggle. His therapists had really helped Mikey come far. Just a short time after his birthday, he started to crawl. Mikey is speech delayed so he doesn't really say words yet but he does use signs!

Here is Mikey in November, 1998 at 19 months. This is his school picture from ACDS. Mikey is able to walk while holding on to something. He has stood by himself without holding on for a couple of seconds at a time. His physical and occupational therapists are thrilled with his progress and expect him to start walking soon! He is speech delayed which is quite common in children with Down syndrome although he understands things when you speak to him. He has had an aversion to any food that requires chewing although his speech therapist is working with him and his eating is getting better.

Here is Mikey's 1998 Christmas picture. It seems like every picture we have of him, he has red cheeks! Mikey has a condition called atopic dermatitis. Basically that means he has dry skin on his cheeks and chin. Michel has been working hard to keep his skin clear. We have eliminated dairy from his diet (now he drinks only soy milk) and we use Aquaphor on his skin. We had tried everything including prescription medication from the dermatologist but the Aquaphor has worked the best.

Here is Mikey's school picture taken in November, 1999. As you can see, we had been avoiding getting a haircut although we did finally get him one just before Christmas. And you can see we are still having skin problems. We are still having problems with eating and Mikey has some health problems related to laryngomalacia but overall things have been going well. Mikey started walking shortly after his second birthday in April. He isn't speaking yet but he uses quite a few signs. Mikey goes to school every day where he gets occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, music and dance therapy, group time and more. He gets along wonderfully with his sister. We couldn't imagine our lives without our little guy.