"No Fair"

My brother Timmy had this to say the other night while we were all eating dinner...

" No fair, Nathanael gets to have Down Syndrome and I don't!"

We were watching an advert on tv and there was the sweetest girl showing how competitive she is in sports, she happens to have down syndrome and her school coach said (and I paraphrase)"The thing we try to emphasize at our school is that we are all the same, just we all learn and progress at different speeds".

Amen.

Ignorance and not so much bliss in my local paper

Here's the article in my local newspaper:

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080814/NEWS/80814006

Just copy and paste link into your browser :)

I hate when people act ignorant at others' expense....

Happy Birthday #3 Nathanael!!

To my precious little boy, Nathanael:

On the day that you were born
The angels they did sing
For on this day a piece of heaven
To earth your birth would bring

To others you may seem different
Your purity they would not see
For what may seem as "not quite right"
Is quiet innocent perfection... completely

I wish you love on your special day
The day heaven and earth did cheer
We were chosen by God to be blessed
A bit of Heaven will reside with us here.

God bless you Nathanael, love, Mom

Ban Tropic Thunder!

Please, if you do nothing else today, PLEASE read this article found on 5 Minutes for Mom blog and then sign the petition found at the bottom to ban Tropic Thunder.

http://www.5minutesformom.com/4010/once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-retard/#comment-790938

On this page you'll read of this atrocious movie Hollywood's trying to put out that not only portrays the intellectually disabled in a horrendous light but they promote/condone the use of the term "retard" in this derogatory way that's supposed to be "funny". As the author of this blog segment wrote "my son has to fight for his life every day, he shouldn't have to fight for acceptance too".

The obstacles and challenges that those with intellectual disabilities are far-reaching and varied. We don't need the entertainment industry making things 100 times more difficult. A portion of people with these disabilities can't speak for themselves, we need to speak FOR them. Like I'm speaking for my Nathanael today.

In a society that strives for perfection, what is missed is that people like Nathanael ARE perfection. I wish I could be more like him.

Trip to Ben ~n~ Jerrys

We were in Burlington getting Daddy's bus pass so he can commute to work and we were all roasting hot and hungry so I splurged (shhhhh don't tell anyone!!!!) and got us cones. Nathanael wasn't interested in ice cream..just the napkin.

This shope is really close to where the original Ben and Jerry's ice cream stand stood back in the day.

A cut out of Woody Jackson's holstein cow art work that has made B ~n~ J's famous:


Nathanael hanging out at Ben and Jerry's:


Tim living it rich and living it large!


Amalie showing us the good stuff!


Amalie and Tim showing us what living truly is:


The lil guy:



Thanks for having some cool fun with us!!