Joaquin continues to eat more and more variety and textures of foods. His absolute FAVORITE snack is nori. Yes.....indeed. He loves dried seaweed.
We break it up into little pieces and he readily opens his mouth and let's it quickly dissolve. It's a great way to get a "green" vegetable in him. As a matter of fact, it's Diego and Mateo's snack of choice as well.
Another fun snack we've discovered is fruit leather. All natural, organic, 100% dried fruit strips that I break into small pieces and Joaquin gobbles it up. He still continues to eat brown rice puffs as well so now we have a nice variety of easy to travel with snacks that don't spoil or require any special handling. These snacks and his straw sippy cup full of water are all we need and we are ready to go!
Joaquin is still officially vegan and I'm still breastfeeding a couple times a day. He has never had dairy, meat, wheat, banana, nightshades, citrus or corn. He eats a variety of fruit (apples, berries, mangos, peaches, pears, plums) and vegetables (peas, spinach, squash, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, turnips, broccoli, beets) and he eats flax meal, brown rice, coconut/olive/grapeseed oils, lentils, beans (kidney, black, pinto) and oats. He is thriving, healthy, has tons of energy and has a really gorgeous glow to his skin!
The only supplements we use currently are B-12 once a week, occasionally some probiotics and when I feel like it a multivitamin.
I highly recommend trying the seaweed. It might become your little one's favorite new snack!
Things are looking up. Joaquin is still battling some congestion but after two rounds of antibiotics back to back, his ears look good. He is eating again and seems to be in the midst of a reawakening of his senses and his abilities.
Wow.
So we are getting ready for our second visit to the Institutes in Philadelphia. We leave December 9th and I'm getting together all our documentation, videos and notes to report back to our advocates. I have to admit that it's been hard to keep up with all the things they intended for us to do. Life sometimes gets in the way. 
I was so touched by this article that I have to share it. 
Here is Joaquin right before his surgery last Thursday. In a nutshell, the surgery was a success. The doctor said that she found lots of thick fluid stuck in his ears. She was able to suction it all out and then placed itty bitty ear tubes to help drain any more fluid that might build up. She said that Joaquin might be extra sensitive to the sounds around him and that he would be hearing clearly for the first time in his life. She said we might even need to keep the cotton balls in his ears for awhile to muffle some of the noise around him.
Last night Jen went out with her girlfriends and I was in charge of 3 kids and the daily post. All 3 kids went to bed like usual, no problem. Joaquin did his normal talk routine right before he fell asleep, very cute. So I turned my powerbook on and started thinking about something to write. I was having trouble thinking of something, so I decided to check some of the blogs that Jen follows. I found this post by Jennifer Groneberg from 
I really want to see this movie so I've put in a special request to Netflix to see if they will buy a few copies and make it available to the public.
One of our posts from this blog was selected to be published in a book called "Gifts: Volume II" due late 2009 or early 2010!!! We won't tell which post so it will be a surprise but we got word on Friday that the editor had selected us and we will start working with an editing team in December to fine tune the essay.
In honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month, I wanted to welcome any questions you may have. Often when I see people and Joaquin is with me, there is a lot of interest about some of the physical markers I noticed on Joaquin when he was newborn....the sandal gap on his toes, the crease on his palm, etc. At the Buddy Walk on Saturday, there were myths and facts posted along the path to help educate the public about DS. Please, if anyone reading this blog has any questions at all, I would love to answer them. Really, anything is open for discussion! I'd also be happy to answer any questions about the program we are doing with the Institutes. You can post your question in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them all. Fire away!!!
A few days ago I was chatting with my nephew Santiago and as always we talked about our families. "How is everyone doing?" Never anything too deep but I love how polite he is, always concerned about every single one of us. So I went through the motions of asking him about his brothers Juan Pablo and Andres, while I was trying to do some work on the computer at the same time. After I asked him about Andres, I got a little curious about what life with Andres was like and we started talking about the things that Andres likes to do. Andres loves to type on the computer, not sure what exactly but Santiago says that he copies his favorite books. I asked Santiago to help create an email account for Andres so that we could write to each other. I would love to get to know Andres better and know more about his thoughts. I confirmed that Andres is in his senior year of high school and I casually asked Santiago if he knew what Andres was going to do after he graduated from school. To my surprise he responded "He is going to college, to la Ibero", that's La Universidad Iberoamericana, one of the top universities in Mexico. I'm not sure about any of the details or how it is going to work out but I was so pleased to hear that. Santiago didn't know much more about Andres' plans but I can't wait to hear more about it and what he plans to study.
Joaquin is now 7 1/2 months old and he just started solid foods. He's had peas, carrots, sweet potatoes and applesauce. He loves them all (most of the time) but I discovered after speaking with his speech therapist that I'm putting way too much on the spoon. We are supposed to feed him on alternating sides of his mouth which will help encourage him to use all the muscles of his mouth and tongue to move the food around and swallow. He has no difficulties swallowing and he loves to blow raspberries when his mouth is full. Too funny and very messy!
Most of you have probably heard of Ben Stiller's movie "Tropic Thunder" out in the theaters right now. Some of you might have heard about the controversy surrounding it. Jen brought it to my attention after emailing me a newsletter from the Down Syndrome Information Alliance warning that the language and content in the movie “Tropic Thunder” depicts people with intellectual disabilities in a derogatory and demeaning manner. When I read it I was upset and one of the first things I thought was to write something here so that the word would spread and more people would boycott this movie. But first I wanted to learn more about it. It is hard to have an opinion when you haven't seen the movie.
Over 90% of of couples who receive a positive result from their amnio for Down syndrome, terminate their pregnancies. That's a huge number. It's not only startling but scary.
It's still difficult to see adults with Down syndrome. Lately, I've run into some groups of disabled adults at the park and at the mall and there is always at least one or two adults with DS. It's very surreal for me as I look at them and then look at my baby. I don't think I've noticed as many Down syndrome adults in the past five years as much as I do now. Lately the groups of people I have seen are severely impaired and have the very typical behaviors that are often associated with severe disabilities. Their group leaders escort the adults through the mall, holding their hands or escort them to the park picnic tables where they all sit quietly with little or no interaction. This is so terribly difficult to see. I can't help but wonder.... what kind of childhood did they have? Are these the babies that were sent away to an institution? Are these the babies that were more severe and the parents weren't able to take care of them? Where do they live now? Are their families at all involved? Did they have services early on to help them achieve their potential or were they just left alone to fend for themselves? I have so many unanswered questions.
Some of the lectures we heard at the Institutes were given by the staff, but mostly by Janet Doman, the Director of the Institutes and Douglas Doman, the Vice Director. But some of them are still given by Glenn Doman, the founder. He sits in a chair at the front of the auditorium and uses cue cards that he reads. Every day, we were asked to arrive at least 15 minutes early in the morning so we could find our assigned seats because they shuffle everyone around. The last day Jen and I were lucky to be seated in the front row a few feet from where Glenn Doman was sitting.
So we completed the course "What To Do About Your Brain Injured Child" the first week at the Institutes. The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential is located in Chestnut Hill which is a suburb of Philadelphia. It is a gorgeous little town with cobblestone streets and lots of charm. The Institutes is located on a very large piece of property (something like 6 acres) and it is beautiful and green and lush. It was about a mile away from our rented apartment so Hector and I had a lovely walk everyday to and from the course.
