7 Quick Takes, vol. 71

1. I’m going to start out with two stories that bloggers shared about adults with Down syndrome. First, this story about a woman and her grown brother. It’s short and quite funny, but first you have to read through a vignette about her son.

2. The second is about a  woman with DS who got engaged and went trying on wedding dresses.

3. One last link that I thought was interesting–a CNN opinion piece on how transparancy has affected the political process–for the worse.

4. I’ve crossed to the Dark Side this week. I –gasp–have a working cell phone! But don’t ask me for the number, because I’m not giving it out. I capitulated only because I don’t want to be glued to the house while my kids are at school. The schools get it. The babysitters get it. NOBODY ELSE.

5. Plus, I’m actually–GASP–using formula. (Wince.) At Nicholas’s 9-month appt., the doctor scolded me that he wasn’t gaining enough weight. After the fact, I think it was an overreaction, but nonetheless like a good mommy I’ve been working hard to get him fattened up. We upped our nursing a bit and I started pulling out all the frozen breastmilk, which ran out a week ago. Coincidentally, a sample of formula landed in my mailbox at that time, and so, teeth gnashing, I’m running through that powdered “milk” in his twelfth month. But whether or not he’s 12 months old, when it’s gone, he’s going on real milk.

6. It’s been a week for Alex-isms. I wrote about one of them yesterday. I spent another conversation in the car trying to convince him that doctors and EMTs do, indeed, try their hardest to make Bad Guys better as well as Good Guys. He could not fathom that. Apparently Bad Guys who get hurt are supposed to be left to their suffering. “But God loves Bad Guys too,” I said.

Alex was scandalized by such a thought. “No, he doesn’t!” he said, and it took all my powers of persuasion and parental authority to convince him that God is like parents; he loves all his children, even when they do bad things.

And finally…

7. Christian, on Monday morning as he says goodbye to the kids: “What do you think, Nicholas? Do you want to come to work with me today?”

Alex (who incidentally  is naked), from the bathroom: “He can’t go to work with you! He has to eat! You don’t have a breast!”

Have a great weekend, everyone!