Relations by Marriage

I am so grateful that so many of my family members have found great significant others to support them and live their lives together. I love so many of these relatives that have come into my life and I really love seeing my family members happy.

Road Trip

Today I'm especially grateful for an uneventful trip from SA to El Paso. My girls took it so well and are having a blast bouncing off the walls in our hotel room. Here's hoping that they aren't disturbing any of the other hotel guests. My mom is doing a fairly good job of keeping them from being too noisy.

My Image/Young Image Magazine

For my upcoming birthday, I got the five My Image and Young Image magazines that have been released to date. The magazine is offering the five back issues for € 20,95 here.

I received them on Halloween and between trick-or-treaters, I browsed through them. I really like a lot of their designs and would love to make a number of them. The instructions are either poorly translated or poorly written and I think that even the easy patterns will require some pattern knowledge to construct, but I hopefully shouldn't have a problem. I'll let you know.

Digital Cameras

I'm grateful today for living in an age of digital cameras. My parents bought me my first camera for my 10th birthday. It was a Kodak Instamatic. It would have been great except for almost immediately, Kodak lost the lawsuit with Polaroid and I could no longer use it. It took close to four years before they issued the credit for the new replacement camera which did not even cover the cost of the camera and I had bought a cheapo camera in the meantime. Even with close to three decades of practice, I'm still a fairly lousy picture taker. I take pictures of my girls almost daily (though I've gotten kind of lazy about posting them for the relatives daily) and I usually take a bunch and I still often have to settle for pictures that are less than perfect. I have a very nice camera that my mother bought me that makes a huge difference in the pictures and it is great to be able to have a semi-preview of what the picture is going to look like. I also love that I can go back and see almost a daily progression of how my kids are growing. I wonder if my grandkids will sift through my photos they way that I cherish each of those I come across that were my grandparents.

Grandmothers

Today, I am so very grateful that my daughters have three wonderful grandparents that are nearby. None of the three have had issues with the bear cub's diagnosis and all three work hard to accommodate the nerdlet's unusual needs.

My mom is always willing to drive an hour and a half (each way) to be there for my girls. She never tells or promises them anything without following through or having a really good excuse. She shares her creativity and whimsy with them. She gives them all love and attention and treats them as individuals. She is sometimes skeptical of my parenting techniques but is always follows through with my choices and helps me when I need it.

Q's parents are also great. His dad works hard to learn anything to help with his grandchildren. He is always willing to spoil them by giving them what they want and thinks of them and their individual interests when they aren't around. He is an award-winning photographer, and if there are any pictures of the girls posted that catch your attention from their greatness, it is one of his. For every event, he takes his pictures and makes dvds movies with music for all of us to watch.

His mom spends a lot of time giving the girls love and attention. She is constantly finding new things to buy for her granddaughters. Our house looks like a toy store exploded in it mostly to her efforts. If any of the girls need to be held, Grandma Elmo is always willing to pick them up and cuddle. She also does a mean Elmo impression (in case your wondering where the nickname came from). When we visit, Grandma Elmo will pop out the toys and treats before you are done saying hello.

Every kid should be as lucky as my three when it comes to grandparents.

Wonderful Little Girls

I have such wonderful little girls. I am so grateful for each one of them. They are so incredible perfect that I am astounded by them daily. Before Darth Baby was born, I would tell everyone that I would take two more just like the bear cub and the nerdlet. I don't say that I would like three more just like my three, but that is only because I don't think I could handle the six of them, and I would still take another one of any of the three of them.

Advocates for Ds

Today I have the first transition meeting for the bear cub to enter preschool. She is 31 months and the school will pick her up when she turns 3. I was trying to be optimistic about it since I do know people that it has gone well for, but I'm already having problems with the administration in that I received a phone call saying that she was too young, even though I know that children younger than her will be at that meeting today. That was cleared up. (I think. We'll find out when I get there.) I also had a few issues with their pre-registration form, which I think is really poorly designed and it doesn't have any explanations to guide you. Apparently, they don't believe that ASL is a language, which irritates me, and while the state took the 'r' word out of their vocabulary and abbreviations legally, this hasn't yet made it to the schools (or at least their forms).

Anyway, hopefully it will go smoothly. I bought a fancy digital recorder and made sure that I know how it works. I'll make sure to have a snack on my way in so that I don't turn into a grouchy mama bear when I need to be pleasant. I also am going to go with a friend to hers for support so I'll be getting a small preview of what to expect for mine which is shortly after.

So today I'm especially grateful for all the advocates that came before me: Those parents that fought so hard to not put their kids with Ds in institutions; The mothers that fought for their sons and daughters to be included in the regular schools, in regular classes, and receive the same instruction; The fathers who fought for the laws to change and give our kids the legal equality they deserve; The people with Ds that worked so hard to show that they are more alike than different and that they can achieve the same things that their peers without Ds can; and All those who know and love someone with Ds that have fought for those loved ones and given them and their families the support they needed to accomplish these feats. I'm am not unaware of how hard a struggle it was and while it isn't over I am so very grateful to have their shoulders to stand upon. I know that because of all of these people, my bear cub is going to have a real chance of meeting her potential and knock the socks off of those that think that people with Ds can only be busboys and dishwashers.