I have started calling Sophie Mrs. Whatsit. It fits with the stream of questions — I prefer the “whys,” though they’re harder to answer, but it’s mostly “whatsits” — pouring out of her all the time, even in her sleep. (Really! Neither of us has been sleeping well; I can hear her talking in her […]
As we left Starbucks this morning, I heard Annabelle instruct Sophie on how to put her “iced mocha” (a kid-sized chocolate milk with ice) into her cup holder. It was a rite of passage. As you might know, car seats don’t come equipped with cup holders. At least, ours didn’t when we bought them a million […]
It’s barely February, but talk has already turned to What Fourth Grade Teacher Should I Request for Annabelle and What Will Happen to Sophie in Second Grade? The special ed teacher called yesterday — it’s time to schedule the pre-IEP meeting. Let the games begin. Sophie’s main challenge, as predicted, is writing. I saw it […]
We all fall into patterns — some more flattering than others. One of my less becoming? I’ve fallen into a habit of dressing Sophie myself. She’s perfectly capable of choosing her clothes and dressing herself (with the exception of some shoes) and yet yesterday morning I realized that there I was — half-dressed myself, harried […]
Lately, I’ve noticed that I haven’t been writing so much about Sophie and Down syndrome, per se. Maybe it was the distractions of the holiday season, but I think it’s more than that. Funny, when she was born, the doctors and other experts warned us that as she grew, we’d see her differences more. Instead, more and […]
Time to strap on the helmets. That’s what I thought this morning as I watched Sophie learning to ride a scooter with her physical therapist. I should probably put one on, too. I have a feeling I’m pretty much Public Enemy Number 1 at school today. I’m not thrilled with that, but c’est la vie […]
This morning was my first chance this school year to volunteer in Sophie’s classroom. I scurried around, dropping the girls at school then grabbing Starbucks for Miss Y (and Ms X, of course), and I’d just skidded to a stop at the school office and grabbed the volunteer book to sign in when I saw the school nurse. She had […]
This is Sophie, posing yesterday morning just before school. A happy first grader, to say the least. What could be more important than that? Yes, at this morning’s parent/teacher conference, I was happy (though skeptical) to hear that Sophie is reading at grade level — not at grade level for a kid with Down syndrome, […]
I can’t sleep. Yesterday morning was pretty typical — we scurried to get ready, scurried out the door, scurried out of the car into backpacks and lunch boxes and over the crosswalk to school. When Sophie, Annabelle and I arrived, it was the typical rush of teachers opening doors in the carpool lane (it always […]
Last night, the girls and I sat at the dining room table to do homework. Annabelle had some fancy-schmancy assignment involving decorating her spelling words (some nights it’s drawing them in a shape of pyramid or making them blocks), so once Sophie finished reading her little book, I took her spelling words off the fridge, handed […]
