Mumma, just ignore it!

Today is 3.21. No big deal, really. But special nonetheless. 3 copies of the 21^st chromosome map to this date and make it special. So, if I can call out this co-incidence to bring attention to and awareness about down syndrome, then why not.

We don’t know what we don’t know, but what I can do is share a little bit of what we do know. One of the easiest ways for me to do this is by sharing some of my favorite memories with Samaira in the last year or so.

• Sammy running to her class singing “no one knows…how far it goes…” from Moana. Very loudly. Every. Single. Day. My heart aches when she sings the line “I wish…I could be the perfect daughter…” But, it secretly makes me proud. So, I let her be loud when she is singing this song. It is her inner voice...and she should be loud and proud. Songs come and go, but I will be sad when she will move on from this song!
• She is obsessed with water! She can spend 2 hours in a pool, followed by some time on the beach, followed by food, followed by pool again. This was what she did most days in Mexico when we were down there during Christmas break.
• I like how she enjoys her Aikido sessions with Sensei Bill. She comes home and demonstrates it for her 2.5 year old brother, Kabir, so he can get some advanced lessons. He is quite charmed with Sammy and is in complete awe of her. 
• Samaira is convinced that anytime Siddharth and I go on a date night, we are actually going for some concert. We are probably way cooler in her head than we are in reality. I am going to make no attempts to correct her notions until she figures it out on her own!
• My absolute favorite is Sammy pretend playing with her brothers as if she is an eye doctor and the other two are her patients. She pretends to pull out some glasses from a pretend frame-wall and puts it on Kabir. She then tells him to read what’s written on another pretend wall but cheats a little. She basically tells him what to say. “Kabir, say 1.” ”Now say 2.” ”Now say 3,” “Perfect, now let me try these other glasses.” This can go on for easy 30 minutes and I don’t know where time goes when I am watching her play.
• She is happiest when she sees people around her be happy. I think it is a very kid thing. Natural. Pure. Unbiased. Unadulterated. It inspires me to be happy! 
• Samaira is fearless! Most days it scares me. I wish she was a little fearful. But I also wish I could grow up to be like her! I can use monsters to scare my boys (I am definitely not awaiting any parenting awards for this tactic)! But not Sammy. She challenges me and goes behind the curtain to tell her brothers I am bluffing and there is no such thing as monsters! And I am frikkin scared of monsters!
• The other day I wanted to work with Sammy on reading, so I told her “Sammy let’s study.” Her response to me was “What does study mean?” I responded with “I mean, let’s read a book” Hmm…. We are either doing something really wrong, or really right. I can’t tell which one!
• She came home from school one day and told me “Felix snatched my hair tie”. I asked her what she did in response. She said “I ignored him. I sat on another table. And I told him I don’t like it.” Now, I don’t know if that’s what really happened, but I was quite impressed with her response nonetheless.
• This girl often is my voice of reason. I realize one of the side effects of having kids is not realizing when & how often my pitch goes from normal-talking to yelling within 5 seconds. Samaira, of course, realizes I am angry and somewhat irrational so she comes up with the best response anyone possibly can. She tells me “Mumma, just ignore it!” It works!

Happy down syndrome day, people!

Sammy figured it is about time she wears my scarf.

Sammy doing what she loves most!