Julianna is in love with Mary Poppins at the moment. She asks for the movie virtually every day the instant she gets off the bus, and sometimes before (although it comes out sounding more like “Harry Potter”). But Mary Poppins is a long movie, and there’s crying and drama every time we have to turn…
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Memo To Dog Lovers
**Note! Please take this as a lighthearted reflection, not finger-wagging! I’m well aware that this is dangerous territory. 😉 ** Dog lovers of the world–and I know there are a lot of you–I need you to listen closely. My daughter hates your dog. It’s nothing personal. She hates every dog. Every one. Every size. Every …
Read MoreSibling Love?
“I’m sure you know this already,” said Julianna’s teacher, sitting in our living room on Saturday morning, “but…Julianna is just so sweet.” Christian and I exchanged a glance and chuckled, because we hear it all the time. In fact, he’d heard it from the counselor at her school just a couple of days before. And…
Read MoreJulianna: Leaf Sprite
A Snapshot of a First Grader With Down Syndrome
It’s been a month of Tuesdays with Julianna in honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and I thought I would wrap up by giving you a snapshot of her academic skills two months into the first grade. Bear in mind this is only a snapshot of one child, a single individual; I know of children…
Read MoreWarts And All
As if Tuesdays weren’t enough of a zoo–Christian went downstairs to teach with the words, “Good grief! This is nuts!”–I went upstairs to get Julianna ready for swim lessons at 7:10 and discovered her wearing her sparkly new shoes….without the brand new, $1500 Sure Steps that are supposed to be inside them. “Where are your…
Read MoreIt Takes A Parish
On any given choir day, we are likely to lose a child for a couple of minutes. When Mommy and Daddy are powwow-ing with instrumentalists, conducting a four-part choir, setting up mics, testing levels, and leading Mass, it’s very easy for a child to pull a Houdini. For this reason we send Nicholas to Sunday…
Read MoreMoment
They sit at the kitchen table, my husband and my only daughter, going over spelling words on a Sunday evening. “Spell it, Julianna. Spell ‘we.’” “Dubba, yew.” It always reminds me of those “double mint gum” ads from my childhood. “‘W’-what?” “Dubba, yew, ee.” It’s a rare quiet evening in our house…well, quiet is a…
Read MoreJulianna’s Fan Club
The first few times it happened, I was disconcerted. Whenever I would take Julianna to Target or the grocery store, people would do a double take. As in, stop the cart, turn around and stare. Oddly, I never found it offensive. It’s all in the body language, and the body language in these encounters was…
Read MoreThe State Of Julianna’s World
It’s been a while since Julianna’s taken the spotlight. And considering that it’s taken until 8:45 in the morning to work up the post-viral energy to sit down and blog at all, I’m going to take it easy today and just share a few thoughts about the state of Ju-Ju-Bee’s world. She continues to be…
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Kathleen M. Basi 