Wednesday 4 December 2013

Free Fallin'

Those of you that have followed the blog from the start will know how much Rosie loves the Tom Petty tune 'Freefallin' (see The Tom Petty Effect). It has become a firm favourite of hers since we discovered at about 11 months old the calming influence it has on her whenever she's upset. Rosie regularly listens to it and has become so familiar with the tune that on Sunday she decided to have a crack at singing along to it. The video is really cute to watch but more importantly it shows another sign of progress – okay, if you didn't hear the tune in the background you wouldn't understand what she's singing and to many it will just sound like random babbling but she knows exactly when the chorus kicks in and seems to sing in time to the verses. It felt like quite a big step forward in her speech and I couldn't help feeling really proud listening to her sing along.

I mentioned at the end of my last post (with regards to getting onto her feet) how Rosie will do things when SHE is ready and how SHE wants. Well as expected she hadn't shown any further interest since getting the new shoes – that was until a couple of days ago when we discovered her, unaided, pushing her weight onto her feet, sticking her bum in the air and balancing on her head. It's difficult to explain but I got a quick snap (below) that I hope will help visualise it! We've never seen her do this before and can only assume it's her way of experimenting with balance whilst developing confidence to get upright. Maybe the next stage will be onto hands and feet then (hopefully) eventually fully upright. Knowing Rosie she'll never do it again but it has happened three or four times so we can always hope!

I've also included a poster below which I created with the hope it might help towards shifting some common misconceptions associated with Down's syndrome. If you like the poster please do not hesitate to lift it from the page and share as you wish on Facebook and Twitter etc.


Free Fallin' from SwissBaldItalic on Vimeo.


18 comments:

  1. I LOVE it! She knows exactly what it's saying and what she is singing! Thank you for sharing! I love seeing her in action! I love the poster too! Much love from Utah!

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    1. Hi Rosalie - thanks for your lovely comment always brings a smile to myself knowing we're reaching Utah :)

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  2. Wow Rosie, clever girl. What beautiful singing. Free falling is one of my favouites too, and I sing along at top volume. I'm definitely not a patch on you though. X

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    1. You have excellent taste in music :) I actually had a tweet from Tom Petty himself after he'd read the first post I wrote about it last year! Hope you're all well :)

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  3. Aww that is lovely. Clever girl. X

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    1. I was so proud listening to hear! Thanks for your comment :)

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  4. That is totally amazing, I'm blown away. I reckon I could've guessed what song it was. She is sooooo adorable. My 22month old does that position we call it the down dog, because it's like the yoga pose.

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  5. Amazing video, thanks for sharing!!

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  6. Yay Rosie! FREEEEE! Brilliant singing darling, we're joining in with you.
    H x

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    1. Thank you H. The beginnings of a new Girlband on the horizon me thinks ;) x

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  7. Hello Rosie's Dad - I see the many benefits of Music Therapy coming into your life :)
    We are talking about re-starting speech therapy with Marcus now that he has a great Music Therapist who he LOVES to learn with and is so focused and lucid every session.

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    1. I love my music so the children get no choice! Thanks for your comment. Best wishes to Marcus too :)

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  8. She looks absolutely gorgeous. I used your blog as a reference for a creative writing piece for my university degree. I am always inspired by you and could get some relevant information for my piece as I chose to write on post-natal depression, relating to down syndrome. Although this does not occur to you, your blog allowed me to show a clear contrast between people's associations with down syndrome and what it is actually like through the positivity of your blog. Thanks xx

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    1. Hi Alice, thank you so much for your lovely message. I'm really very honoured that you saw fit to include my blog in your University studies. Hope you achieve the results you need :) x

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  9. I found your beautiful blog this morning after receiving our nuchal screening results. Your daughter is just precious...and a much better singer than I. Thank you for writing this blog, we are off to speak to the hospital about our results tomorrow. I blog over at keep-up-with-the-jones-family.com, I'll be reading your blog from top to bottom now I've found you.

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