The Doctor’s Visit

    For two mornings in a row, Ricki complained that her mouth hurt. We had been to the dentist just the previous week for a checkup, so that was one fear less. In addition, she specifically told me that it was her tongue that was bothering her. I looked at her tongue at the first complaint, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. The second time, I told her: “OK Ricki, I don’t see anything, but today after school, I’ll take you to the doctor” (which happens to be three buildings away).

   So at 6:20, expecting her home any minute, I went downstairs to await her arrival.

   And waited…. And some more…

   Finally she showed up.

   “Well, I went to the doctor,” she chirped; “He said it was nothing. It’s OK”

   Ricki had taken her nice new health-fund card, and had GONE BY HERSELF TO THE DOCTOR. She told me that she had shown her card to the secretary, and gone in by herself, telling the doctor that her tongue hurt.

     Later I even passed by the office, and checked with the secretary if all had really gone as smoothly as Ricki had claimed. And it had.

Supper, Ricki-Style

Wednesday evening, As I was reading a novel (I was DEEP into it....), Ricki surprised me. She offered to make me supper. And it wasn’t in order to have supper herself. She wanted to make me an egg, and since she had already made herself an egg at breakfast, she wanted soya hot dogs for dinner.
And she did a REAL good job. She fried the egg, spread cheese on the bread, and even made a salad to go with it all. Than Ricki served me, and toped it off by offering me some diet cola. The only “not perfect” thing was the large amount of black pepper in the egg.
But what impressed me the most that NOT that she made the egg (including lighting the stove), but that she looked beyond her own needs, and thought to make ME supper. She did a kindness. This is not the belligerent Ricki I often face. This was something different. Several older moms (ie, mothers of older children with Down syndrome) have told me that as our teens get older, their “rough edges” (like any teen’s) smooth off a bit, and they start being more aware and thoughtful.
Could it be that my almost-fifteen year old is growing up?
For more of "31 for 21" (blogging in October for Down syndrome awareness)go HERE

“I Was Really Surprised”(and so, Unfortunately, was I)

Some special-education-teacher students from our local teacher’s school are studying music therapy. So, I agreed to let Ricki be one of their “trial students” as they learn. Last week was her student teacher’s first session with Ricki. Ricki, as I had warned her, spent most of the time testing the waters, if the “teacher” would set limits or not. I gather that the “teacher” did, as this week she reported that Ricki had been a very active participant in the session. She added: “I was really surprised! She is AMAZING! She correctly identified the violin, piano, trumpet, flute, and drums on the picture I showed her. She knew the instrument names! And when I played a recording of the instruments, she was able to tell me which instrument made the sound!”
Well, I don’t know who was more surprised: her, or me! [I was shocked on realizing that she- - a future special-ed teacher - - didn’t expect a 14-year old teen with Down syndrome to recognize and distinguish between, a flute, trumpet, violin, drums, and piano!]
And PS. The “trumpet” was a saxophone. I labeled it correctly and told Ricki the correct name.

…..And then education authorities wonder why I would be so “stupid” as to choose inclusion over “special ed ……..