Ava-Jane

It is hard to describe a child. They are so unformed that you have fewer adjectives at your disposal. Ava-Jane is just two, so all sorts of characteristics are undefined as yet – ambition, intelligence, kindness, humour, the words that we would use to describe an adult are vaguely inappropriate. At that age they are cuddly, cute, bouncy, call them anything else and you are being somehow uncharitable. You can probably get away with “a bit bossy” or similar.
Describing your own child is probably even harder as any opinion you put forward will always be tempered by your complete devotion to the child, or that is certainly my case. In Spanish they would say “se te cae la baba” – “you are drooling” (it doesn’t sound so sleazy in Spanish) when I describe Ava-Jane. Even my own mother teases me about being doting, so please bear this in mind when I attempt to describe Ava-Jane.
Ava-Jane has Down’s Syndrome so that will affect the way she is. The chances are she won’t be academic or sporty. On the other hand we can probably say that she will be kind and innocent.
All I know is the way she is now. She brings something to the world that touches people. Fo describes the way she is when she is in the doctor’s waiting room. She will go round the whole room and smile, catch people’s eyes and wave until they smile or wave back. Gary, our builder is devoted to her and used to carry her around the building site while he explained to Fo why the walls had fallen down. When the postman found out what had happened to her he brought a teddy the next day. This wasn’t any teddy, it was one from his antique teddy collection in a special hand-painted box.
She has always been the easiest baby to have around. Never cries much, unless something is wrong, smiles when you look at her. Until recently she ate absolutely everything. Though over the last few months she has started to impose her will a little and refuse food on principal until we have offered it to her a few times and she has made it clear that she is now good and ready and will deign to accept your unworthy offering. So yes, smiley, cuddly and all the rest of it but also with a will of iron. When she wants something, she fixes you with her gimlet eyes, points at it, gives a little grunt and then another, and another until you buckle to her desire.
Oh and the cuddles, yes, yes, I know they are all cuddly but she is to an unbelievable extent. I always say that she might be a bit behind on all sorts of developmental milestones but she can outcuddle the best of them. And she is generous with her cuddles – if she likes the look of someone, she’ll fling herself into their arms.
We are sharing a hospital room at the moment and I am typing as I listen to her snore. The nurses come in two or three times a night, take her blood pressure, give her a shot of chemo, squirt some vile stuff into her mouth and she hardly stirs. So far the whole experience has not dented her grin at all. She has got all nurses and doctors round her little finger.
I took her for a long walk today. It was a wonderful time for us together. Saw some geese and ponies, she did lots of pointing and signing. Neither of us knew the makaton sign for geese but we felt that duck would cover it.
She will probably start to feel grim in about a week or so. Soon the doctors will want to isolate her to keep her away from infections.