I can't say there was anything really different that we noticed about our son when he was really little. When I was pregnant with him I did have some preterm labor, ended up getting toxemia, and was induced 3 weeks early, but he was born healthy at 6 lbs 15 oz.
In the first many months he had awful colic and reflux. I remember him crying and crying and there was nothing I could do to console him. I couldn't nurse him as he would just spit up everything.
Finally after some tests at the hospital we put him on some anti-reflux medications and we started him on formula which he took to with more ease.
He settled down and became a happy little guy.
Besides a little hyperactivity, I suppose there wasn't really anything to be worried about.
Our cute little boy had this little tapping action he would do with his feet and leg. I took it kind of like a sign of excitement when he saw us, but he would always thump his leg and foot on the ground and so he acquired the nickname, "Thumper", like the rabbit from the movie Bambi.
As to this blog, we will refer to our little son as "Thumper".
As he grew to age 3 and 4, I can't say he was a perfect child. He was always pretty energetic and enjoyed getting into everything.
We ended up putting a sliding chain lock on the pantry door so he wouldn't get into it and climb the shelves dipping loaves of bread into the sugar container.
There was that one incidence where he almost set the kitchen on fire by putting cloves in the microwave and melting it until it set fire to the microwave, but besides that (ha haa...listen to me talk like it was so minor!) there wasn't anything too eventful.
There was this issue with textures and sounds. He couldn't handle the way most clothes felt, or blankets or sheets that weren't "soft enough" could not be used. He was screech and cry by any loud noises whether it be someone just talking a bit too loud, or an alarm, a bell, a whistle. He would hold his head and ears and cry any time we turned on the vacuum.
Around the time he was 4, Thumper took up an interest in the piano and began teaching himself how to play. It was amazing to see this little boy with so much energy be able to sit down and focus all of that into playing the piano. For many months he would sit down and play the piano for hours and hours at a time, teaching himself how to play songs that most kids could only learn through piano lessons at a much older age.
Our Thumper amazed us by his abilities and true gift of music.
So, yes, I suppose he was different from other kids, but nothing that you would pick out as something "wrong". And we were quite sensitive to noticing little differences, as his older brother was recently diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, as well as the discovery that his dad had this form of high functioning autism as well.
We never had any reason to think of Tourette Syndrome. I suppose that is normal though. As we found out later, it isn't until about age 6 or 7 that most kids show any signs of Tourette's.
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