Baby Hulk ~ He Don't Need Yo Affirmation

     Lately I have been getting extra annoyed with the things people say to me about Baby Hulk or others with Down syndrome. It has taken a while to figure out why that it is. I have always gotten these comments so why is it bothering me so much now? There is the "God only gives special children to special people" (don't even get me started on that one!) and "Oh people with Down syndrome are always so happy" I have seen blog posts by other parents of kids with Down syndrome upset by all the things people say and I just finally realised why these things people say piss me off so badly. I figured it out shortly after I received some newspaper clippings about how scientists have figured out how to "turn off" the extra chromosome. Why do we need to fix my baby? He is fine. That's when I figured it out. It's like people feel the need to find some way to make things better, to make my baby's extra chromosome a positive thing. Sure in the beginning these comments were good. I was freaked out and upset and needed comforting but my child is 10 months old now! I'm over it and I love the crap out of that kid and he can kick your baby's ass any day! My baby is awesome and I don't need your positive spin on things, random stranger! I already know my baby is awesome. It would be like me coming up to you giving you a sideways, pitying smile and telling you, "Awe, all the blonde babies I know are always so agreeable!" ...yup... dumb.

     So please. I don't need you to try to make things better. My kid is awesome. It is nothing to be sad about.



     Baby Hulk is 10 months old now! He is soooo close to being mobile. He gets onto hands and knees and just bounces but still only goes backwards when he tries to crawl. He will travel across the living room backwards and often gets stuck under the coffee table. He claps too! Hooray! We are working on signing now. He doesn't sign back but understands some of the signs, like when I sign "mama milk" to nurse. He has signed milk a couple of times but I don't think he sees why he should have to when he knows I already know exactly what he wants. So if I sign, "milk" and try to get him to sign it back he just gets mad and screams at me as if to say, "Woman, you know what I want, now give me the boobies!" I am pretty sure he understands the sign for"no" too but what kid ever listens to that anyways?

     September 19th the South Puget Sound Up With Down Syndrome group had their first meeting after summer break and we finally decided it was time to see what they were all about. Darling Husband has gone to a couple of their board meetings to talk about his car event he put on but this was the first family friendly meeting for us. It was held at the Hands on Children's Museum. They brought pizza for everyone talked a little about the Buddy Walk that is coming up October 5th in Lacey, WA and then we all got to mingle and the kiddies played. I wasn't nervous to be going. Darling Husband kept asking me if I was. I really wasn't. Then we got there and I met a horribly tacky woman. Okay I never actually met her. I think she formed her opinion of me the moment she saw my LGBT Obama sticker on my car. She didn't look at me once. Just very loudly told her husband about the hilarious bumper sticker the other day that she totally forgot about (until she saw my bumper sticker of course)! "Ahoihoihoi (do that laugh in that hoity toity my feces have no odor kind of way) Oh honey, I saw the funniest bumper sticker the other day! It said Obama Bin Laden! Ahoihoihoi!!!" That tacky woman's poor husband looked soooo uncomfortable. Way to welcome the new people to the group, lady! To make matters worse with that semi racist comment, her son with Down syndrome is adopted... I know this because he is black.
     So we started on that note and then I was nervous! I really hadn't been before but then I realised the thing we all shared in common, the reason we were all meeting here was not going to be enough of a reason for some to be friendly and get along. I was on edge when we got to the room, it was back to reality and these were just people... I don't like people. They do what I was now doing, they judge. They see my blurple and pink afro and my kooky baby carrying ways and they make assumptions. I did the same. We had pizza, I honestly have no idea what that horrible woman did the rest of the night My slight terror of the whole thing kind of gave me tunnel vision and then I found families who were nice. After I made my assumptions I decided the people with the child in an ergo carrier were my people, they wear their kids in hip friendly carriers... Nope my thoughts of how things would go were wrong again. I need people to make the first move, they didn't so we never spoke. Another woman did engage me though. A woman who had somehow seen pictures of Baby Hulk in his hip helpers. I wanted to ask how she had seen pictures of him before but I didn't want her to feel like a creeper... I am a creeper myself so I personally don't think it is a bad thing but I know others do. I didn't want to call out her creeperness. She was nice but I think I was too young of a mom for her. When I told her how old I was she seemed to kind of backed off and started talking to another mom closer to her age. Oh well. Her loss I suppose. Baby Hulk and I spent the rest of the time hanging out on the floor playing with toys.

      I am glad we went though. I don't think I met any potential new BFFs but it was nice to meet the other families and also really nice to see how Lumpy and Mr. Grey interacted with the other kids. I already knew Lumpy would do fine since Tsunami is in his preschool class this year. He loves her and is always playing with her but I haven't ever seen Mr. Grey around another kid with Down syndrome. I was so happy to see him playing with one of the little boys there. He played nicer than usual even. He would hand balls to the little boy he was playing with so he could put it in the tube that sucks them up. He didn't even ask why the little boy had a tube in his nose or anything like I know I would have as a kid. He just played with him! All in all it was a good night.
     I can't wait for the Buddy Walk! Find your local Buddy Walk! If it hasn't happened already GO!