This is What It’s Like to Live with Down Syndrome
My son talks so much; interacts so much;understands so much; I am confident of his brilliance. I wonder, like every other mom - what he will be - what he will do in life. He’s already bilingual, plus he can use sign language (in Spanish and English). There are days I go about my merry way with my regular-old-little boy.
Then, there’s this walking thing. He’s 2 years and 2m months, and he can’t walk. He can scoot on his butt and when driven enough, he crawls on his elbows, pulling his body along. The most well-intended people offer suggestions, therapy (always more therapy), and I begin to doubt what I am doing. Am I doing all I can? Could I do more?
I am constantly torn. I live a duality of normal and this thing…this…thing we’ve all got…Down Syndrome. But then there’s this little boy that has me and my daughter whipped, whipped in love with him and I catch myself feeling, gosh, feeling so normal. So, which world do I live in? After the round-about-year I’ve had with a few "normal" people out there, I am beginning to think that the world of the abnormal is much closer to fine; a much saner place to be.


Alison on 23 Oct 2007 at 10:24 am #
Look at him! He’s up. Questioning the way we deal with our kids is what we’re supposed to do.
Mommy to those Special Ks on 10 Dec 2007 at 4:25 pm #
He’ll walk when he’s ready. No amount of extra therapy is going to change that. I wanted Kennedy to walk SO badly. If wishing could have made her walk she would have been walking at 9 months old. Didn’t happen! LOL She started walking right around her 3rd birthday… now I tell her to sit down and be still for just ONE second! HA! It’ll happen :o).