Visiting Allison

I have a dear friend that I have known for about 7-8 years I think. She live on the 'wrong' side of Sydney so today was the first time the twins and I ventured over since September last year. She has a 6 month gorgeous little boy and Eliza, who is about 4 months older than the twins.

The twins (and I) had a great time today. A simple lunch and an opportunity for the kids to play together. Kit and Eliza have grown and changed since our last visit - especially in looks and speech development. Hannah bear has also changed since last time.
Like last time, today she spent quite a long time in the sandpit with the other children and on her own. But this time eventually it was her own initiative that took her over to the cubby house. Last time she needed some help and as she was only taking small steps with assistance she commanoed over the structure. This time she walked over to it and climbed similar to the other 2 kids. She loved it.

What a difference 3 months can make!

At one point my friend asked me if I thought that more children with DS were being born because of the later ager of women having children. To be honest I don't know the answer to her question but I did get to say that many mums of DS are 'youngens' because they don't get 'the testing'. Blah Blah Blah ... I talked a bit about my feelings re all this - Allison much less crudely seemed to be implying that having a child confined to a wheelchair would be worse than having DS becuase it limits what you can do so much! (Mmm ... not a competition ... but did I mention that perhaps it was Hannah's intellctual disabilty that might cause me more concern?? ...) To which the response was something like: "but she'll be fine, she can do things. There is a girl at --- she catches the bus and works --- ". This is not a complete transcript of our conversation and I don't want to misrepresent my friend in any way - what I want to say is how I love that about her - in some ways she has NO IDEA! In others she is so spot on - it is why she is someone that I am glad to have as my friend - she really does just see Hannah as another kid running around her yard and at the same time she talks about DS when she wants to like it is 'just another topic of conversation' - not some awkward hurdle. So there it is - she is a great friend. She doesn't fully get it (how could she?) but she accepts Hannah and is there to listen if I need her too. I am so lucky to have such good friends.

Needless to say that all three toddlers where plum tuckered out after a very busy day. Kit went to sleep talking about playing at Eliza's house and I am sure Hannah is dreaming about it tonight.