Last night, Sophie and I settled in on the couch for what I euphemistically call a “reading party.” Well, I settled in. Sophie was back and forth to her room for more books, finally deciding on Judy Blume’s “Then Again Maybe I Won’t,” begging for another round of Go Fish, scooting all over the place […]
I got up too early yesterday morning. Stumbling around the kitchen, making coffee, I noticed something on the windowsill above the sink that gave me pause. Two terrarium refugees (because, as it turns out, I can’t even keep succulents alive) were watching me and while the plastic toys had been there for a while, they […]
As I might have mentioned earlier, I am not a big fan of National (fill in the blank) Day/Month/Year/Moment. This might be because as a journalist (particularly one who edits a food blog) I find myself bombarded constantly with PR requests to cover National Margarita Day by writing about a client’s tequila or to celebrate […]
When Sophie announced that each of the kids in her fifth grade class had been invited to attend parent/teacher conferences this fall, I knew we wouldn’t get much done at the meeting. She was so excited about this morning’s conference that I only had to remind her a half dozen times to get dressed, and […]
I called my mother early yesterday morning to report that I’d solved the problem of where to send Sophie for junior high. “OK, here’s what we have to do. Get Chuck Coughlin’s wife pregnant. She’s older — maybe she’ll have a baby with Down syndrome. Then he’ll solve the problem.” If you’re lucky enough to […]
More and more, these days, I find myself thinking about salad. Not that kind of salad. I’m actually about to make a meatloaf this evening. The Salad Days. I’ve written about them several times before — prematurely, sort of like how I decided to have my midlife crisis at 38. But now they are upon […]
About halfway through the “how to teach your child with Down syndrome about puberty” seminar this past weekend, it dawned on me that everything I learned from puberty came from Judy Blume. Okay, if we’re going to get technical, you can throw in a reel-to-reel film they showed in third grade and a pair of […]
I neglected to mention the other day that I haven’t had the nerve to actually watch “Pink Slip” — the decades-old instructional video about menstruation created for girls with developmental disabilities that we used to show at parties for laughs — since Sophie was born. Here’s my post from the other day about Down syndrome […]
Note: Apparently the link in this post to Pink Slip is broken. Here’s one that works for part one and one for part two. Sophie’s bra collection is far more extensive than my own — a fact that will likely make you smile, if you’ve met both of us. As of this morning when I […]
I think I am being tested. The meeting last week with Sophie’s team went well, I guess. I shouldn’t say that — it definitely went well, in the way that those meetings often do. Everyone goes around the table and talks about how wonderful Sophie is, lists ways to make her even better, and I […]
