All Around Blogland ...

October is upon us. Makes me miss my Upstate New York upbringing. There is nothing like fall on the East Coast. Nothing. The leaves and their colors, are spectacular and will be peaking in their full beauty, anytime now. But their appearance and soon their disappearance, is a reminder of the long, cold winter that lies ahead. Something I do not miss. 25 years there was enough and my heart belongs to California now. But I digress.

October in Blogland, brings Down syndrome Awareness Month. Everywhere you turn this month, you are apt to find bloggers committed to posting 31 for 21. That is, 31 days of the month in October, to blog each day, about the magic of that extra 21st chromosome. The diehards will succeed. Beautifully in fact, but me, I am not even going to attempt. Not because I don't care and not because I am not up to the challenge, because anyone that knows me, knows, the bigger the challenge, the more likely I am to take it on. I am a tad bit competitive like that. In this case however, I just am at a point that I have to pick and choose where I spend my time. Time, on and time off, the computer. I am desperately trying to find the balance in this life of mine. Something has got to give and this, has got to be one.

Anyway, I will try and  post a few things here and there throughout the month. And after all, since Zoey tends to monopolize this little space of mine here, and she does sport an extra little something, something in her DNA, she will often be my very own, easy to access, always super darling, spreading the love and awareness, post.

I won't try and tell you that my little love is no different than her typical peers. I know we like to say and maybe we actually would like to think, that our children are more alike than different. But for me and my child, she is different. And sometimes, she is more different, than she is alike. And that is not necessarily a bad thing. Different is underrated in my opinion. For me, I spent a great deal of my young life trying to be the same as my peers and it wasn't until I was much older, well into my adult life, that I said, screw being the same, I think different is much, much cooler.

Last week at Joe's soccer game, Zoey made her way over to a group of little girls who were coloring. She scooted over on her bottom, lickety split, and literally pushed her way into their little circle. They were very patient with her and that wasn't easy either, since Zoey tends to seek and destroy and  usually proceeds to throw, most everything she gets her little hand on. We all looked over at her, amongst these girls who were just a bit older than her, at least twice her size and obviously leaps and bounds ahead of her developmentally and we  saw all too clearly just how different she was. But mostly we saw how happy she was, plopped right down in between these girls and we saw just how little she cared that she was different. In fact, she had no idea. Zoey could have cared less. She just soaked up the moments without caring. And although those in your face moments, can hurt your heart, that day, just how different she was, didn't matter. Her precious smile and carefree spirit, made sure of that.