Evie the Extraordinary and Her Mommy: The Journey As We Go

I'm not talking about signing up with a dentist here...this blog post is about the Department of Developmental Services .  The DDS is fully funded by Social Security and is meant to create partnerships and opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to " participate fully and meaningfully in, and contribute to, their communities as valued members." The way I understand it is that DDS is more to help adults with disabilities to engage and function and contribute to the community.  So why are we signing up little 3-year-old Evie?   I'm still figuring that out. I hear that getting into DDS now can help to make the transition easier as she becomes an adult.  The questionnaire to apply was already quite length for Birth-5 years old, so I imagine that it's even harder answering the questions for a teenager.  We can also be connected with the local ARC to have more resources for Evie.   When Evie is older and transitioning to more ...

This year was Evie's first Valentine's Day as a preschooler.  I found out that her class wasn't swapping individual Valentine's Day cards, but that there was an option to put them on the cubbies for each child.  I've been waiting for a very long time to be able to do Valentine's Day cards for my daughter, and darn it, it was going to happen! This is actually for a friend, but shown here for demonstration purposes.  What's inside?  Party sized Playdough!  Envelopes and stickers from jane.com. I want to share why Valentine's Day cards are extra special to me.  Ever since little Evie was at just 10 week of gestation in my womb, I had to process a lot of fear about what it would be like to have a child with Down Syndrome.  One of those fears was that she wouldn't have any friends.   Yesterday, when she came home with a pile of Valentines, I was pretty excited to go through them.  The ones that unexpectedly most touched my heart were ...

Something I never thought I'd have to do when I first got pregnant was that I'd need to explain to the other kids in my daughter's class what's different about her.   And honestly, after spending a month in preschool, I don't think the other kids see too many of the differences.  The letter is more for the parents, so they won't be caught off guard if a child goes home talking about a "plastic tube that goes into Evie's stomach," or asking why Evie has a wheelchair and a walker. Evie modeling her pink wheelchair!  Insurance wouldn't cover the light-up wheels I selected (for some reason...) Our preschool team has been amazing, and one of their suggestions for the transition was to write a letter to the other families in the preschool class, explaining the g-tube in case the children asked about it.  They put me in contact with another mom, whose tubie is now in 3rd grade and flourishing. So a lot of credit goes to this mom, who gave permi...