There was much happiness and jumping around by his brothers when Joel finally returned from his 2-month holiday at Sandakan with his ahpo and ahkung. It was as if he never left, as they run around playing chase in our small space we call home. And, as usual, it’s the little brother Ezra who’s doing the chase, unbeknownst to him.

Joel went a bit teary-eyed when he saw his grandparents left. I believe he really missed them, but partly I think he wanted to go out again just for the sake of it (“jalan!” he exclaimed, which in Malay means “let’s go!”). After this mommy gave him a big hug, Joel was back to his cheery self.

I am regretting doing one thing last night. I introduced Joel to a web site called StarFall (http://www.starfall.com), containing interactive ABC and reading games and multimedia (thanks to Hue Fen for emailing the link). He was so engrossed, tapping on the wide touchscreen monitor (that’s him in the picture playing the A letter matching game), that he didn’t want to sleep till it was almost one in the morning. Surprisingly, he was up by 7am!

It’s the mother who’s suffering from lack of sleep….

I recently found out that a couple of books that I was planning to buy are actually available online for free! These are highly recommended by parents in the Ds support groups I joined.

The materials cater for all age group, but as for me, I’m going to focus on reading the ones that fit Edry’s age group:

• An overview of the development of infants with Down syndrome (0-5 years)
• Speech and language development for infants with Down syndrome (0-5 years)
• Reading and writing for infants with Down syndrome (0-5 years)
• Number skills development for infants with Down syndrome (0-5 years)
• Motor skills development for individuals with Down syndrome – An overview
• Social development for individuals with Down syndrome – An overview
• Issues for families with children with Down syndrome
• Education for individuals with Down syndrome – An overview

I honestly love Downsed.org!