Self taught

I still need to do a little research (and get on my laptop for once) to figure out how to add a "follow me" gadget to this blog for easier following... In the mean time, lets take the next few posts to get to know Jacob a little bit, shall we??

Jacob was diagnosed with Williams syndrome at birth, and his first few years were quite full of therapies to help him catch up developmentally. If I remember correctly, he walked around age 2, and talked around age 3.

One if the major things you will notice about Jacob, if you are around him longer than 30 seconds, is that he never stops moving. He is usually rocking, whether sitting or standing, or he is swinging his arms, bouncing, playing with his hands, or if you are especially lucky, you will see him doing what I like to call "Watusi dancing".... Look it up :)

He has been rocking for as long as I can remember, including as a baby, up on all fours, rocking his head into the headboard of his crib. Yes, I fell asleep many nights to the sound of his head, rhythmically banging on his crib... Precious.

Now, I make sure to provide him with a chair that moves, so he is less likely to break it, ha. He is usually "banished" to the office chair, or the rocking chair in the living room, to save my furniture, and my sanity. Call me mean, but if he sits on my furniture, and starts rocking, he gets to choose to stop, or move. The rocking chair is his, that way, when he breaks it, I can't get mad. We've replaced it 3 times in 4+ years. When we are in the car, he is only allowed to sit in "his spot" so that he breaks the springs in only one spot, instead of the whole car. Once again, call me mean.. I don't care. He REALLY likes to rock in the car. I don't know why. He gets the whole car a'shakin... Makes me wonder what surrounding cars must think :P I usually don't mind, the only exception is if the weather is bad and I really have to concentrate. To say his rocking is a distraction, is an understatement.

As you may have read in an earlier post, he has rocked at least 3 of my kitchen chairs into splinters. As most of my furniture has been hand me down or garage sale over the years, I haven't minded much. Last year, I finally bought a "real" piece of furniture- a new kitchen table and chairs. With Jacob in mind, I got pub height, thinking that his drive to rock would be lessened if his feet were dangling. Um, I was wrong. Now I feel the need to go to ikea, and get him a cheap chair, before he breaks a nice one.

His rocking isn't all, though, oh no. When he rocks, he usually also chants... More on THAT next time. Thanks for reading!