“Finding Dory” made me nauseous, and not just because I’m prone to seasickness. The sequel to “Finding Nemo” was widely anticipated, particularly in the special needs community. All week my friends were sharing reviews that heralded the movie for celebrating people with disabilities, beginning with Dory, the blue tang with short term memory loss. I […]

I got a Facebook message the other day from a guy I don’t know well, an artist in town. He and his wife just had their second baby, he wrote. And the baby has Down syndrome. I invited myself over. He said okay. I think I went more for me than for them. It was […]

I’m going to begin this blog post the way I’ve started countless blog posts before. I’m going to to tell you a secret. Book publishing is hard. Okay, that might not be much of a surprise, but it bears mention. It’s really fucking hard. You spend a hunk of your life writing this thing (in […]

Dear Sophie, You know, I have been writing this blog for the last 8 years — I started it on your fifth birthday, to document your year in kindergarten — but I’m not sure I’ve ever actually written to you, only about you. So today, in honor of your 13th birthday, I thought I’d write […]

I was nervous about the Alzheimer’s studies that ask for brain scans and drug trials, but I agreed to the heart research that only required a blood draw and the saliva samples Ray and I still have to send in. And I was super eager  for Sophie to participate in the sleep study. There’s a […]

I am so grateful to Sophie’s teachers — past and present — and to everyone at her school (she pretty much knows them all by name!) for educating, enlightening and including my little girl. Sometimes, knowing where to begin to say “thank you” can be tough. As usual, Sophie gave me the best lesson when […]

One of my favorite parts of blogging — and social media in general — is the connections we make off the written page. When I contacted Chevalier’s Books in Los Angeles to schedule a reading from my book, the marketing manager (her name is Liz, so things get confusing immediately) asked if I was interested in doing […]

This is a piece I read last night at Bar Flies, the monthly spoken word series at Valley Bar in downtown Phoenix. In the coming months I’ll write more about the girls’ b’not mitzvah (that’s what it’s called when there are two girls participating) and how the process is working specifically for Sophie. So far, […]

Today began with a mad dash for an appropriate tee shirt. I was still on my first cup of coffee when Annabelle skidded into the kitchen, on the hunt. I had to explain to Ray what World Down Syndrome Day is. (“You know, like 4/20?”) This was followed by near-tears as Sophie realized that she […]

I have some news. I wrote a book. After Sophie was born, it took me a really long time to sort things out, and one of the ways I did it was by going back and reporting her story — our story, the story of what it means to have a kid with Down syndrome […]