A small pat on the back

Sam had his 3 year check-up the other day and I'm happy to report that he's a whopping 29lbs. That may not mean much to you but what it does mean is that he's in the 25th percentile for his age. What? You're still not impressed? How about if I told you that most children with Joubert Syndrome affected to the same degree as Sam... and some less affected... are fed via g-tube? And some of these children have had g-tubes put in as late as 3 years of age due to an inability to receive adequate nutrition by mouth. I'll make sure not to leave out the part about it taking us 4 months of working with Sam until he could properly latch onto a bottle and coordinate his suck-swallow-breathe reflex. And despite his recent set-backs in feeding due to illness he's up in rank on the growth chart from his usual 10-15th percentile. Of course, some of this success is due in part to the extreme stubborness exhibited by David and me, and our near refusal to let any doctor cut a hole in our little boy's tummy. But a big part of the congratulations should go to Sam and his amazing propensity to awe even us with his multifarious abilities. Good job, precious boy.