All Grown Up! Two! Peppa Pig! School! Cake!

Morning,

Can't believe our Ava Bear is Two! Her birthday was at the start of April and we had all her friends over for cake and balloons!

Also today is a big day as Ava starts going to school on Wed as well as Monday. Her schedule is pretty jammed now with School Monday / Mothers Group on Tuesday / SKIP on Wed AM / School on Wed PM / Extra swimming sessions!. Busy busy especially for Duffo!

To celebrate this milestone she has a new schoolbag which will debut today.

Not all roses in the garden however in that although she is picking up loads of new Lamh and now saying "Yes" and understanding loads she has yet to master the ol walking but is slowly getting there.....not a moment too soon!

Ava Doin Her Thang!

Family Guy....

I watch Family Guy a lot. I even watch repeats I have seen before when there is nothing else on. I often am shocked at how they push the envelope and watched the 'Down Syndrome' episode with major trepidation.
Definitely not a good episode humor wise but I was not personally offended. I was pleased to see the character was played by a woman with Down Syndrome (Andrea Fay Friedman). I have watched Palin on Fox and also The View discussion and tried to get a sense of what people think out there.

Personally it appeared to me like inclusion with of course some jokes at her expense but they have done far worse in the past to other people and other disabilities (Michael J Fox etc).

Interesting Article from Irish Times 02.02.10

My sister gave me a heads up on this article from the Irish Times last week, well worth reading a good news story when you constantly hear about cuts.

Down Syndrome Centre ThinkTank

Evening All,

This morning myself and some other parents attended the Down Syndrome Centre Think Tank in PWC Offices in Dublin. The aim of the event was to outline challenges and solutions related to new parents and the first year of dealing with a child with DS. I gather this is the first of several Think Tanks.


We all got to input our thoughts on the kind of challenges one can expect and solutions to them. In addition we got to suggest resources we found useful and I even managed to hear some new ones myself. As with all such discussions there is always a tendency for parents (myself included) to focus on their own unique situation and ramble on. The unique format of the event, using a laptop based collaboration system, kept things mostly on track however and I think the key points were definitely captured.

Down Syndrome Centre should be commended as this was extremely well organised but this is what we have come to expect from this highly progressive organisation. I spoke with more than one parent who felt the same way afterwards. As a facebook user I am often delighted to see their informative articles appear on my news feed and they are also on twitter!

I'm Down With You

I saw this just now on Facebook (from Sophie McCaughey post) and *love* it, I really like the intro especially and how he describes people with down syndrome. Love it Love it. Hope you all enjoy it too.....

I'm Down with You from jagatjoti Singh Khalsa on Vimeo.

A New Arrival

So we have a new arrival, Dylan James born yesterday Dec 11th weighing just over 7 and a half pounds. Ava now has a fab new little brother and we are delighted.It was kinda crazy going back to the Rotunda and the same operating theatre area (Duffo had a second scheduled section delivery for medical reasons - not posh spice reasons!). We met most of the same staff even and we were worrying for months about this baby but he seems to be perfect....but then again so is Ava so mixed emotions all round.

We have great friends with one kid with DS and one without and it seems to balance so well.

Happy Days!