Sometimes you’re moving along through life, feeling like you have certain things down, know others to be true, and something happens that just completely rocks your world and makes you question everything you’ve done as a parent. Or something like that. A few days ago, a Facebook friend and fellow parent of a kid with Down syndrome […]
Sophie took the stage one night last week in the junior high cafeteria. With a microphone in one hand and a large sparkly “slipper” (her nanny’s prom shoe) in the other, she performed a short monologue. She rushed and held the microphone too high, so I’m not sure anyone else could understand what she said, but […]
Today is World Down Syndrome Day. All week long, my Facebook feed has been filled with posts by devoted, prepared parents going to their kids’ schools to educate others about DS. They are bringing blue and yellow (the official Down syndrome colors, I’m not sure why) iced cookies, wearing blue and yellow tutus, printing tee […]
“Hey Mom come here, I need help with the green eyeshadow,” Sophie called from the bathroom. “Um, okay,” I said, taking in the situation, the big, blurry smears. “You want me to get it off your cheeks?” “No! I want you to put it on my eyebrows and all over my eyes,” she said, pointing […]
I don’t hear it so much anymore, so I was surprised. “I’m so retarded!” a brand-new employee said the other day, struggling to open a door with a new key card. We were coming back from lunch, and as we walked to the security office to get the key card, I’d winced a little, thinking […]
hi every one this is Sophie i am 11 and i got a phone so i did a sachions and the 1 one is cuddle the 2 is nils and the 3 is fashion and 4 is phpter i booth that was fun and the last a stumbler pray with my reply […]
For many years, I wrote about Sophie’s school without naming it. Now that she’s finished there — moving on to junior high — I have no reason to keep the name a secret — and every reason to tell you what a fabulous place it is. Was. Is — for lots of kids. Not for […]
I’ve never considered 11 to be much of a birthday. Shoved between 10 (a whole decade!) and 12 (last year before you’re a teen!) it’s always been an inauspicious no man’s land for me. Of course, there’s no such thing as a small birthday in our house (I blame myself — okay, and my mom) […]
The other day Sophie, Ray and I went for a walk. Sophie walked between us, and one point reached out and grabbed each of our hands. “Will we go for walks like this our whole lives?” I asked, saying it as much to myself as to Sophie. “No,” she said matter-of-factly. “I’ll go for walks […]
This morning Sophie burst through the kitchen door — fresh from a shower, wrapped in a towel — and announced, “I look like a full-grown woman!” I smiled. Adorable? Yes. Full-grown woman? Hardly. True, she didn’t have the towel draped over her shoulders like a little kid, but at 43 inches and 54 pounds, dripping […]
