Jonathan 6 Years Later!

This post is for Mom, who misses Jonathan's updates being available.

As of today, Jonathan is keeping us all on his toes as he attempts to learn to speak, play baseball, talk on the phone, and use a fork.  He's on his third pair of glasses (and probably due for a new pair soon) and is adjusting to life without Michelle and Hope home.  Weddings meant very little to him and it didn't make much sense in his mind that his sisters should keep disappearing when they really belong at home like everyone else.

The biggest challenge for him right now is learning to talk. He says many words and will follow chosen family members around repeating the last word of whatever sentence they just said; and he's also finally begun calling everyone by their own name instead of blanketing us all as one common name.  James has taught him to say "Please stop!" when someone's tickling him instead of just yelling inarticulately and he's then learned he can transfer "Please stop!" to anything that bothers or worries him - a good sign for someone who was trying to teach himself sign language rather than words!  He can't yet sit down and carry on a coherent conversation, however, and we've begun working on him more intensively to learn his sounds and words so he can say what he means instead of acting it out to get his point across.


His hospital visits for the problem with his floppy airway have decreased dramatically, but we still have to occasionally rush him in when he gets a virus as a sore throat can give him croup badly enough to actually swell his throat closed. We have prescription steroids on hand for this now (a big improvement!) but they take 12 hours to work and it's always a guessing game whether it's time to give them to him or not. If we guess wrong, it's time for an ER visit. He knows when that's happening now and the hospital is decidedly not his favorite place to be - a few weeks ago he realized he was being taken in and he took hold of the banisters and tried to stay home. We've been told he'll grow out of this and we are looking forward to the day he does!

His two new brothers are favorites of his - he seems to be more excited to see Michelle's husband than her, while Hope's husband goes out of his way to include Jonathan in Jonathan's favorite activities: anything including a ball. Baseball, basketball, football...if it has a ball, Jonathan's happy. He stood up in both weddings and did very well, though we have a lot of photographs of him standing up on stage with his head tilted quizzically to the side as if saying, "What on Earth is going on?" He really enjoys getting dressed up, though, and will earnestly admire anyone else who has unusual finery on - he was therefore very proud of being able to wear a real flower on his little tux and loudly approved all the girl's dresses (he very clearly says, "Oooh!  Wow!!!! Neat!!!!" when he's impressed).

He went to his first big-league basketball game this winter and was alternately thrilled and terrified.  He is still quite fearful of loud, inexplicable (to him) noises and will work very hard to make sure he can leave if there's a loud noise present.  But the spectacle of a whole bunch of men playing basketball on the court was very exciting and he seemed to have a lot of fun.

Overall, Jonathan has continued to be one of the most happy and peaceful members of our family. He is also an incredible mimic and will pick up mannerisms none of us even knew we had. In his mind, there is always a Proper Way To Do Things and he is very exact about how he follows his understanding of The Proper Way To Do Things. He's only lately stopped bending over at the waist when he says hello: it took us a long time to realize that he did that because everyone had to bend over to look him in the eye in order to greet him because he's so short. Little gestures like that are common with him - be careful what you do with Jonathan around because he will get it down exactly right!