The principal at Sophie’s school has a bunch of motivational sayings up all over his office — you know, about failure (not an option) and that kind of thing — but my favorite is on a small, square refrigerator magnet stuck to the door frame. Take care of each other. — Robert Louis Stevenson Take […]
I don’t know why I did it. Usually I fall all over myself in my rush to announce that Sophie has Down syndrome. But even though I’ve yet to really toss myself in the deep end when it comes to finding her a junior high option, I’m already feeling myself drowning. Yesterday I found myself […]
One night last week, we were up late watching TV and one of those lawyer ads came on. This one was looking for people who can’t work because they are mentally or physically disabled — talked about compensation from the government. It was one of those ads I don’t process, the stuff that slides off […]
Sophie’s not supposed to have a very good memory. There’s the whole Down syndrome thing, of course, and on top of that even though the sensors fell off and we never got good test results, she’s got to have pretty bad sleep apnea. Last night I found her asleep on the couch, sitting straight up, […]
Today is Sophie’s 10th birthday. She’s come a long way. Me? Not quite as far. “Mommy, what’s this?” Sophie asked the other day, holding up something small and hot pink. There’s a lot of stuff in Sophie’s room, and a lot of it is small and hot pink, and on this day a lot of […]
Dear Laural, I was busy getting my kids ready for school this morning and missed your post on the phxfoodnerds message board, in response to the Amy’s Baking Company craziness. A friend sent it to me. I hear it’s been taken off the board, and I applaud Dominic Armato, who runs phxfoodnerds, for doing that, […]
Yesterday afternoon, the following email from Sophie’s fourth grade teacher landed in my inbox, entitled, “little note from Sophie”: Hi Amy, I had Sophie dictate a note to you about a little haircutting incident she had today. She was working on her art project for the multicultural festival and it seems she wasn’t very interested […]
Yesterday I unfriended some guy I’ve never met for posting this status update: “I have to poo.” Really? Congrats. And goodbye. I took way too much pleasure in the act of deleting him and wondered, for the millionth time, why I (and almost everyone else I know) am glued to Facebook. Then I remembered a […]
When Sophie was 4, there was some question as to whether she actually qualified as mentally retarded (the official term they used then — and still do, to a large part). I really liked the idea of having a kid with Down syndrome who wasn’t retarded, even though all the medical literature tells you the […]
Dear Ms. Silverman, Thank you for writing to share your request. We certainly understand your desire for a My American Girl® doll with Down’s Syndrome. Over the years, we have received many requests for characters facing various medical conditions or physical challenges. We realize that girls want a character to which they can relate. All […]
