It is World Down Syndrome Awareness day today and we are wearing our colourful 'lots of socks' and going to a party at Bristol Down Syndrome Trust dressed in PADS colours.

I thought I would share the piece I wrote for Frida's nursery as it covers a few bits that we have been doing with Frida recently.

Frida has been going to a really brilliant nursery since Last August and has settled really well. She is one of the gang in the baby room and every Thursday morning as I hand her over to one of the brilliant staff, I know she will have a fab day. She is comfortable, well understood, loved, respected and like every other child that attends her nursery is treated like the individual she is.

Frida turned 18 months on 20 January. It feels like a pretty big turning point. We move up a group on the PADS Facebook groups from ‘New Parents’ to ‘Pre-schoolers’ and in doing so have left behind the safety of the baby group. It also feels like we are leaving behind the safety of Frida being a baby. We now move towards learning about Frida as a child. I’m more frequently spotting where she is not doing some things that the majority of her peers are, whereas previously the differences were not so obvious. That said, I don’t see this as a negative and it’s not getting me down as she is constantly moving forwards, learning new skills and loving her life. We love having her in our life - she is incredible.

My list of what she does this month (I make one every month or so to reflect back on how far she has come and I love it!) includes some really cool things which has helped her become even more independent.

‘At 18 months I:

On world book day I just wanted to check in with how we are progressing on our ‘That’s Not My....’ books. I posted previously about starting to read these with your baby early on and I thought it would be a good time to update you as to how Frida and I are getting on. I had to have a little break for a couple of weeks, but we are back at them now. I tend to pick one for two for a week and rotate them.

We read one most nights and she will also peruse one from her potty. She definitely recognises and enjoys them.

She now turns most of the pages herself, seeks out the sensory spot and we spend time looking at what is on the page. I’m trying to get her familiar with words like ‘find’, ‘look’ and ‘where’ and these books are great for that. I’ve started asking her to look for the mouse on each page and signing that to her as it’s a fun sign. She isn’t yet pointing to it but I’m staying strong and doing it for every page as I’m pretty sure it’ll come eventually.