(You all love my descriptive 7QT post titles, right?)
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What a week! Monday I spent the day at the Cathedral selling books and playing backup singer/pianist/flutist for Danielle Rose. What an amazing lady she is. Tuesday was Nicholas’ 4th birthday, and in between Jazzercise, school pickup, and piano lesson transport, I interviewed Angela Baraquio, Miss America 2001. Another super sweet lady. Wednesday I went to hear my parents speak about their trip to Medjugorje. And then? Then came…dun-dun-dun…THURSDAY.
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Thursday was always going to be nuts, because I hadn’t gotten any of the week’s writing done, but…well, here’s the timeline:
4:45 when Michael woke me up crying for water and I never got back to sleep 5:15: Get up and go to Jazzercise
7:00: arrive home, start bread machine, help kids with breakfast,get Julianna ready for school
7:30: shower
7:50: wolf down a bowl of cereal and round up kids, coats and shoes
8:10: Nicholas and Julianna to school
8:30: arrive home, put Michael down for nap. Writing time commences, interrupted by three days’ backlog of email, including one from a TV reporter requesting an interview for World Down syndrome Awareness Day.
11a.m.: reporter calls back and tells me she’ll be at the house in 20 minutes. Get dolled up and try to contain the carnage in the living room.
11:20: feed Michael while answering questions on camera
12:30: scarf down some “lunch” (i.e. Michael’s rejects)
12:40: go pick up Nicholas from preschool
1:30: sitter arrives, leave for the local Catholic high school, where Christian & I are scheduled to speak to juniors about NFP.
3:30: arrive back home, provide snacks to bottomless pits kids
3:45: Julianna and the TV reporter arrive. More filming commences.
4:15: voice student arrives
4:20: Michael needs a diaper change
4:50: Throw together dinner for the family
6:00: Watch self on TV. (Top of the news cast, baby!)
6:15: Get teeth brushed and jammies on Michael.
6:40: Load the boys in the van and go to Alex’s Cub Scout Pack meeting while Christian runs to Target for the diapers we’ve run out of and then takes Julianna to swim lessons.
8:30: Collapse on the couch in exhaustion
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So: more Down syndrome notes, learned this morning at the presentation we helped coordinate for the doctors at the university hospital:
- in 1980 the average lifespan for a person with Down syndrome was 25-30. Today it’s 55-60. (Wow!)
- 60% of siblings of kids with DS go on to pursue “helping” professions: therapists, teachers, doctors, public life, etc.
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And you need another Maestra Julianna video this week, so here you go:
I’m going to start pulling C’s phone out at 8:00 in anticipation of her arrival. This is what she did when she walked in the room after religious ed. We had to stage it again for all of your benefit. 🙂
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Shortly after, Julianna needed to go to the bathroom. This was our conversation in the bathroom:
“How was church school, honey?”
“Good.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Uh, Dee-Duh.”
“Jesus?”
“Yah!”
“What did you talk about Jesus?”
Silence.
“Did he ride a donkey?”
“Yah!”
“Did they wave palm branches?”
“Doh!”
“No? Did they sing ‘Hosanna!'” (I sang the David Haas refrain.)
“Doh!”
“They didn’t? Yes, they did.”
“Doh! Hah Boh-day!”
(Sigh.) “No, they didn’t sing ‘happy birthday,’ sweetie.”
(Injured tone of voice) “Why?”
“Because they don’t know ‘happy birthday’.”
“Why?”
“Because it hadn’t been written yet.”
“Why?”
“Okay, it’s time to go back to choir practice now.”
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Alex & Michael have started a new game in the van. Brace yourself–this is revolutionary stuff. It’s called “Let’s drop the toy on the floor and make our brother pick it up.” I know. I have the smartest kid In.The.Universe. Because no baby in the history of the world has ever discovered this game before! At least, Michael doesn’t think so! 🙂
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I think I’ve earned the award for Longest “Quick” Takes in the History of Quick Takes with this post. It’s been a week for meditating on many subjects based on the many things I’ve outlined above, but I can’t do them justice now. Maybe next week. Happy Palm Sunday weekend…and First Weekend of Spring (har har, you’ve all seen the weather forecast, right?)
Kathleen M. Basi 
How DO you do all that? Congratulations on the tv spot!