Last May, I wrote about the day Girly Girl's Pre-Ballet teacher left the class to come out and tell me my daughter was refusing to obey ( Can I Be the Grandma Yet?Well, that particular saga continues. She battled her teacher through the end of the year, though she danced the recital beautifully (and perfectly -- except she can't skip ( Read more... )

"Hello, this is Mrs. Special Ed Teacher, and Girly Girl is standing right here next to me as I talk to you."

Any call that starts like that can't be good. I swallowed a lump of fear.

"We've been working with her on her spelling words..."

We've been working with her too, I thought to myself, and we thought she was doing great! Just the night ( Read more... )

Our school year is not starting well ( Read more... )

This morning I read Baby Belly, a blog entry by Jennifer Graf Groneberg (who also writes Pinwheels). Groneberg writes about seeing pregnant women and not knowing what to say when they glance at her son who has Down Syndrome and then at her. "I imagine the women with baby bellies don't know what to say to me, either. It's like trailing a pink ( Read more... )

Yesterday I mentioned that children with Down Syndrome are 13 times more likely to have leukemia than typical children. Gina, one of my writer friends (who also happens to have a child with DS), left a comment saying she'd been told the odds of the Big L were only slightly higher than usual ( Read more... )

Yesterday was field day at Girly Girl's school.

In my day, this was called Track and Field day, and it involved events like the broad jump, baton relay, 15-yard dash, and other traditional T&F activities ( Read more... )

Note: this is one of the essays I might have submitted for Gifts, had I written for it (though this story, unlike those in the book, is more about me than Girly Girl). I could also have written an essay about unconditional love, one about courage, one about persistence, one about patience, etc., but other women wrote those for me.Like most American ( Read more... )

I'm reading a book called Gifts: Mothers Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich Their Lives, edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper (aka Queen SereneIt's an amazing book, and I wish I'd had it when Girly Girl was born. I was so hungry both for information and for hope. Her birth felt like a death knell to my dreams (heck, I'd be caring 24-7 for ( Read more... )

Forgot to say one thing about the IEP meetingWe also discussed what accommodations Girly Girl would have when she took the WASL--the test Washington State requires all graduating seniors to pass. It's quite controversial, and everyone except the politicians hate it. It doesn't actually measure anything except the ability to take that kind of test, ( Read more... )

Yesterday was Girly Girl's IEP. It went well. Whew ( Read more... )