Sunday, April 27, 2008

Discrimination

Lauren has been involved at Crossroads Bible Church in Bellevue in their fabulous Wednesday night kids program for the past 2 years. Mark was a small group leader the first year, but due to his travel schedule, was unable to be a leader last year. So, since the responisbility of transporting to/from the church every Wednesday fell to me, I decided, I'd sign up and commit to be a group leader for the fall.

On Thursday, I notified Faith (one of the admin. assistants) that I would like to sign my son (who has down syndrome) up for the Wednesday night program, but would prefer to place him in the pre-K program (vs. Kindergarten). I also explained that he is currently attending preschool, but in the fall will be in Kindergarten at our neighborhood school in the general education population. Last, I stated I would like to be a group leader for the fall and would like to teach my son's group. With excitement, she said she'd pass the information on to the new program director. I received the registration packet for Mason in the mail on Saturday.

So - I thought I had covered all basis. I was wrong.

Today (Sunday) I received the following voice mail message (on my machine) from Elizabeth Tasha, new Team 3 Director for the Wednesday night program at Crossroads Bible Church.
"Hi this is Elizabeth Tasha, Team 3 director. Unfortunately, my assistant Faith was not aware of our special needs policy." "We do not admit special needs children to our program". At that point, I started to replay the message, thinking, I must have misunderstood. Sure enough, after the third time of playing the message (and writing it down verbatim), I got the picture. Yes, it took THREE times, I'm slow! The message goes on to say, that Crossroads Bible Church is happy to let us purchase one of their books so I can study it AT HOME with my son.

After her "delightful" message was over and I was able to close my mouth, I went up to the computer to look at a few Bible verses. Apparantly Crossroads Bible Church policy does not "jive" with the following verse...Matthew 19:14 - Jesus said, "let the little children come ot me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these". I guess their philosophy is to hinder any child who is not perfect by their standards.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

We love spring in Washington

This morning we woke to snow. I am in no way joking. So help me, we woke to snow. We turned on the news at 6:15am and listened as the newscaster said "no snow in the forecast for today" (as it had also snowed in some areas yesterday). Mark & I laughed as we looked outside. The trees were covered, the ground was covered, the deck was covered, the streets were covered. And, it was still snowing heavily! After Lauren woke up, we darted outside for our usual snowman building and snowball fights. The snowman was deemed "Pinocchio". We didn't have a big carrot for the nose, so Lauren planted a large branch. I also might add, we did all this before 8am!
After our snow play was over, we went to church. When we came home, the snow was melting. By tonight, the snow is gone. All except for Pinocchio.

If you did the crime...


do the time.


I'm a bit late in posting this. Life just got a bit crazy this week. Anyway, let's take a few steps back to last Monday. I'm getting ready to go to work. I'm going in early, since Mark is home & he offered to take the kids to school. My goal was to leave around 7:30. At about that time, I hear (coming from the bathroom), "get me some towels quick". I grab a few junk towels and race to the bathroom. After breakfast, a few minutes earlier, Mark needed to use the facilities. Apparantly he clogged the toilet. As I'm tossing the towels, he's exclaiming, "I didn't even use that much toilet paper". By now he's turned off the water to the toilet. I get the plunger and hand it over to him. So, what was I to do? Well, I said "bye hon" and headed for work. A few minutes later he called me and said the crisis was over - plunger worked - toilet back to normal.

What he forgot to mention, is that, although he soaked up the overflowed water...he did not mop. So, when I returned home (after working, picking up Mason, etc), I did what any other woman would have done. Mopped the bathroom floor and cleaned the toilet.

My question is this: Shouldn't thee who "dirtied" the bathroom be responsible for completely cleaning it? I guess not!

Friday, April 11, 2008

The pros (or cons) of speech therapy

Mason started speech therapy at the age of 1. Up until age three, while he was in a 'birth to three' program, he had speech once a week. Initially we started with sign language. After he had his first set of ear tubes, he started making many more vocalizations, which eventually turned into words. Prior to turning 3, we added private speech therapy once a week. His private therapist focuses on PROMPT (a type of speech therapy). After age 3, Mason started preschool at an integrated preschool and continued with weekly speech thru the school district. The preschool focused more on PECS - a picture exchange system. Since he was talking more, we dropped the signs and added PECS to augment his communication. Now, at age 5, Mason is quite verbal. We only occasionally use signs, such as when he's across the room and being reprimanded. Occasionally we'll add PECS. All in all, he's using sentences and we can usually understand him. From time to time we have difficulty understanding his words - especially when he's tired or talking too fast. Speech therapy has done wonders for him!

Well, this week, I'd like to tell you the cons of speech therapy. Sometimes it's better not to know what your dear, sweet 5 year old son is saying! Here are a few examples from our vacation:
1. To Lauren when she took the ball away from him in the pool: "I hate you Lauren"
2. To me, when it was time to get out of the pool: "You are mean Mommy. I don't like you".
3. To me, at nap time: "I'm not taking a nap because I don't have to".
4. To me, at nap time, and this was WITH attitude: "I can do whatever I want".
5. To me, when Mark & Lauren were golfing: "When Lauren is done with golf, it should be my turn".
6. To me when giving Mason a time out for punching Lauren: "I'm not in time out - YOU are in time out Mommy".
7. To me, again when giving Mason a time out: "You go to YOUR room Mommy - you not behaving".
8. I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture!