Sydney and I went to a “Ghoul’s Night Out” party tonight. It was a costume party for my women’s group. It was supposed to be just a ladies night, but we lost our sitter this afternoon, so I had to make Sydney’s costume in two hours today instead of tomorrow night. Anyway, I got enough done to be presentable. Here is my little PEBBLES.
This is give-away #3. You can submit an entry for all three give-aways. Each of the three necklace sets are blue and yellow glass beads with silver in honor of the Down Syndrome official colors. I will take entries until midnight on October 31st. The winners will be announced on Nov 1st.
Giveaway #3: Leave a comment and nominate someone in the blogworld who you feel would appreciate this gift and why you chose them. You can nominate more than one blog, just make a separate comment for each nomination. (I chose a butterfly, since DS creates a transformation into a new world that gives us wings)
This is give-away #2. You can submit an entry for all three give-aways. Each of the three necklace sets are blue and yellow glass beads with silver in honor of the Down Syndrome official colors. Don’t forget to check back each day. I will take entries until midnight on October 31st. The winners will be announced on Nov 1st.
Giveaway #2: Leave a comment and tell me something that inspires you: a quote, a song, a person, a piece of art, a place, etc.
Glass beads with a Sea glass wire wrapped pendant
Only one more week in October, so in honor of Down Sydnrome Awareness month, I have made three necklace sets that I will be giving away. I will post each one over the next three days and will announce the winners on Nov 1st. Each of the three necklace sets are blue and yellow glass beads with silver in honor of the Down Syndrome official colors. Don’t forget to check back each day. I will take entries until midnight on October 31st. (Yes, I will be awake).
Giveaway #1: Leave me a comment on how Down Syndrome has touched your life. It can be as simple as a short and sweet comment, or you can send me a link to something on your site that you have already written.
[Caution: your image of me might skew after reading this]When you are raising two boys, you realize quickly that they have natural tendencies to be… well, let’s just say boys can be gross. I am specifically concerned about their lack of table manners. Oh, now they are good with saying grace, washing their hands before dinner, and they keep their elbows off the table. BUT, we have noticed a behavior that would make Miss Manners swoon. That would be my 4 year old’s propensity to belch quite loudly. Immediately following this interruption he and the 8 year old erupt into uncontrollable laughter. Personally, I am torn.
Having grown up the little sister to a brother who was quite musical in his many bodily expulsions, I learned as a child to “hang with the boys”. I won my share of spitting contests, I could burp the alphabet down to about “K”, and I could wallop a spitball across the room with pinpoint precision. So, part of me wants to say “GOOD ONE”, then try and show him how it’s REALLY done. But the mom in me who wants to raise nice mannered boys, just cringes when he does this. (my mom is SOOOOO laughing while she is reading this).
So, this is what we decided to do about it. When we all sat down at the table this weekend for dinner, I said “There are two new rules”. Of course that got the “Awe, man!” looks from both boys. I put on my authoritative voice and said
“Rule #1: If anyone burps or makes any “rude” noises at the table, they have to leave the table for five minutes and then they can come back”.
They both looked at me and didn’t think this was unreasonable. Then I sat up straight again and said
“Rule #2:If you eat without putting your napkin on your lap, you have to get up from the table, run to the front door and hit it so that we can all hear you, then you can come back”.
Now, rule #2 is something I sprung on them. We have never asked this of them before, but I thought that I could slide it in with the other new rule. Well, the boys thought that this rule was GREAT! They took great joy in “Catching” each other eating with their napkins on the table. There were many trips to the front door that night. The funny thing is, they accepted the rules, I think it is because I didn’t invoke it immediately following a violation. It was out of the blue and they were good with it. The 4 yr old even had to sit in the living room TWICE that meal, but he was fine with it. Now they are on a mission to catch mom or dad violating one of the new rules! (Yes, our house is strange. Poor Sydney!)
The Buddy Walk on Sunday was so much fun. There was SO much for the kids to do: climbing on firetrucks, two helicopters, a huge playground, pony rides, games, a petting zoo… etc. They all had such a good time. The walk itself was a lot of fun. As you know we were Sydney’s Saints and we sported a Mardi Gras theme. We had on Green and purple t-shirts and everyone had a ton of beads. One of the most fun parts of the walk was giving away the beads to EVERYONE! Why do people love beads? I don’t know, but kids and adults all got excited when the beads were flying through the air. Our walkers were having fun giving them away. After the walk I handed out a bunch of little (and I mean little) tiaras to about two dozen little girls. Seeing the smiles of the kids getting beads and tiaras was so amazing!
One of the best parts about this year’s walk was that we were in a different place than last year. Last year Sydney was only 3 months old and we were still treading lightly in the world of DS. This year we are fully engaged. It was great to be part of the team behind the scenes. We are hooked and will absolutely be part of the staff again next year.
This year we also experienced another blessing. I talked to an expectant family on Saturday to arrange to bring them a New Parent Package when they told me that they were planning on going to the Buddy Walk. We met at the walk and after chatting with them about DS in general and DSACT, I invited them to walk around and check everything out. I also told them that they were more than welcome to use our team as a home base to sit down and relax in the shade. I was pleasantly surprised to see them in our group when it came time for the walk! They were not the typical pregnant couple who usually are so nervous at this stage. They were smiling and enjoying themselves and the Buddy Walk. Wow, it was amazing!
We are so blessed by our Down syndrome association and all of the wonderful people we have met! God has truly provided.
Today was our BIG DAY! It was amazing! We have 49 walkers (not including the 4 who couldn’t make it)! WOW! These were friends from all different aspects of our lives! We couldn’t have felt more blessed. It is late and I am flat out exhausted! I am going to post the team picture and a shot of Sydney on the walk. As you can see, she was the picture of enthusiasm. I will have Randall post an album tomorrow and I will add the details! Thank you to everyone who supported us! Sydney’s Saints were AWESOME!
I have been working on the Buddy Walk Silent auction stuff all day today. I am on this high about tomorrow’s walk. I just can’t wait! Well, my day came to a screeching halt this evening when I read my emails (imagine the sound of a needle scraping across a record). Folks, I stepped on a landmine (see last post) one that was pretty rough. In my inbox was a notification that someone new had left a comment on my website. I have it set up to approve all new people, mainly to avoid spam. I eagerly opened the email (because I just love comments) when I saw this awful message “Is this b*tch ret*rded, or no?” GASP! Who would say such a thing? (Okay blog world… calm down… if I can do it, you can…)
I cannot really tell you what went through my mind. (I think the FCC has fines against that kind of language) I mean REALLY. Who could have such hateful things to say about a BABY?!? What did she or anyone else do to this guy to warrant coming on to my family website and leaving such a nasty, mean-spirited comment? (explitive deleted) It’s not like I went out to another website and jumped on my soap box, or left a comment in a community forum… he came to MY website and left this horrible thing. I was hurt, ANGRY, disgusted and wanting resolution… and wanting it now. (a bit of my personality coming out here)
Obviously I did not approve the message and after I calmed myself, I looked for the source and it there was an email address. So, yes folks I did… I sent an email and simply stated “Why would you leave a message on my website like “Is this b*tch ret*rded, or no?” What was your point? To my surprise I got an answer within 15 minutes. He said “Ummm… I really apologize for any offensive comment left on your website. I hope and assume it has been deleted. Just for clarification, I did not write anything like that. I’m assuming somebody I know did it…” Well, regardless of whether he did write it or someone he knows did. The point is that SOMEBODY was mean-spirited enough to do so.
What is tells me is that I need to remain aware and alert that these types of people are out there. They always have been and always will be. I was picked on by them when I was a little girl. They seek out the weak and feed on torment. I cannot always protect my kids from jerks (again, explitive deleted) like this guy, but I will do my best. Ugh… tomorrow is our big day, and I will give this to God and hopefully sleep okay.
Just this week I talked to a new family who just had a baby girl and after she was born she received the diagnosis of Down Syndrome. Call me crazy, but I actually like doing what I do, talking to new parents. I remember the feelings and the fears that come with a cold diagnosis. I remember the statistics that the doctors give you. They are just a piece of the story and they are just estimates at best. The real story of Down Syndrome is one that must be told one at a time. It is a grass roots operation. Those of us who are proviledged to have one of these gifts in our lives have to be sure that we don’t hold those blessings to ourselves. This new family is wading onto the new scary road that they did not choose. They will find their way along the path. In time they will see the beautiful scenery and smell the flowers. We all know that there are potholes in EVERY road, so they will step in a few along the way. There are also some landmines that are unfortunately hidden along the path. Once in a while you will step on one.
Well, I stepped on one today. For me there are two types of emotional landmines, the ones that bring you a moment of grief and those that bring you a moment of anger or frustration. Today I stepped on a frustration landmine. I was picking up the t-shirts for our Buddy Walk team this afternoon and the lady asked what they were for. I explained what the Buddy Walk was and that my daughter had DS. Then I got the look…. you know the one… the “Oh you poor dear” look. UGH! I honestly don’t recall the exact details of the conversation, but basically she thought that we must be so challenged by this and that at least we live in a time where people won’t be so mean. I replied with, “It’s no big deal, really, our lives are pretty normal”. She glossed over that seemingly insane comment of mine and talked about how we all love our children regardless and that a mother’s love is something special. Again, I remarked that “She is just like any child and there is nothing to overcome”. She clearly wasn’t getting that there was nothing “wrong” that everything is fine. I said, “Oh she’s awake” and rolled down the car window and said “Here she is”. The woman did not move, she stood rooted in her spot. She saw Sydey through the rearview mirror on the seat next to Syd and said, “that’s a cool mirror”. Exasperated at her inability to open her world up, I said “Thank you for the shirts” and got on my way.
Driving away I couldn’t help but think that she really missed out on an opportunity to see a piece of joy. Her fears of the unknown stopped her, literally in her tracks. I know that my world is foreign to her, as it is to others. I am just so used to a warm welcome for Sydney, that it caught me off guard to have someone feel so nervous. This is all the more reason that we raise awareness of Down Syndrome. The fear of the unknown is the biggest barrier that our kids will face in this world. Breaking down this barrier is one of the main focuses of the Down Sydnrome Associations across the country. Go Buddy Walk!
