Standing on top of the stair in hallway, facing front door
Looking into the master bedroom
Here are two random videos of the boys.
Both boys can roll and Zander rolls all over. As soon as I put him down he is gone. If I leave the room, he disappears. Thankfully I know where to look for him because he usually only rolls to the left. Connor usually stays where I put him. He is such a content little boy. Neither one is crawling, but Connor doesn't even try. Zander will be getting physical therapy to help him reach certain goals because he is falling further behind because of his high muscle tone. Connor is starting to learn to sit up by himself. Zander is getting it a little also. They both have two bottom teeth and Connor has one fang coming in and Zander has both fangs coming in. They are usually such happy boys. They are so much fun! (I never thought I would be saying that 6 months ago). They love their big sister and love it when she plays with them.
"In addition to Barack Obama making history as the first African American
to be nominated for president and Sarah Palin taking her shotgun to the
glass ceiling, there was a third civil rights barrier broken at the
political conventions this year.
Trig Paxson Van Palin -- pronounced by his mother "beautiful" and "perfect" and applauded at center stage of the Republican convention -- smashed the chromosomal barrier. And it was all the more moving for the innocence and indifference of this 4-month-old civil rights leader. It was not always this way. John F. Kennedy's younger sister Rosemary, who was born in 1918, had a mental disability that was treated as
a family secret. For decades Rosemary was hidden as a "childhood victim of
spinal meningitis."
Joseph Kennedy subjected his daughter to a destructive lobotomy when she was 23.
It was the remarkable Eunice Kennedy Shriver who talked openly of her sister's
condition in 1962 and went on to found the Special Olympics as a summer camp in
her back yard -- part of a great social movement of compassion and inclusion.
Trig's moment in the spotlight is a milestone of that movement. But it comes
at a paradoxical time. Unlike what is accorded African Americans and women,
civil rights protections for people with Down syndrome have rapidly eroded over
the past few decades. Of the cases of Down syndrome diagnosed by prenatal
testing each year, about 90 percent are eliminated by abortion. Last year the
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended universal, early
testing for Down syndrome -- not just for older pregnant women. Some expect this
increased screening to reduce the number of Down syndrome births to
something far lower than the 5,500 we see today, perhaps to fewer than 1,000.
The wrenching diagnosis of 47 chromosomes must seem to parents
like the end of a dream instead of the beginning of a life. But children
born with Down syndrome -- who learn slowly but love deeply -- are generally
not experienced by their parents as a curse but as a complex blessing. And
when allowed to survive, men and women with an extra chromosome experience
themselves as people with abilities, limits and rights. Yet when Down
syndrome is detected through testing, many parents report that genetic
counselors and physicians emphasize the difficulties of raising a child with
a disability and urge abortion. This is properly called eugenic abortion --
the ending of "imperfect" lives to remove the social, economic and emotional
costs of their existence. And this practice cannot be separated from the
broader social treatment of people who have disabilities. By eliminating
less perfect humans, deformity and disability become more pronounced and
less acceptable. Those who escape the net of screening are often viewed as
mistakes or burdens. A tragic choice becomes a presumption -- "Didn't you
get an amnio?" -- and then a prejudice. And this feeds a social Darwinism in
which the stronger are regarded as better, the dependent are viewed as less
valuable, and the weak must occasionally be culled.
On the same day, the Post carried a sad tribute to the father of an adult Down syndrome child who died trying to rescue his son. Not only did Thomas Vander Woude allow his son, Joseph, to be born 20 years ago, he gave his own life when danger struck two decades later. On Monday, Joseph was working with his father in
the yard when he accidentally fell into the septic tank. While waiting for
the rescue workers, Vander Woude jumped in the tank, submerging himself in
sewage so he could push his son up from below and keep his head above the
muck. When the rescue workers arrived, they pulled the two out, but Thomas
was unconscious and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. His son,
Joseph, is reported to be in critical condition in the hospital with double
pneumonia.
It's hard to reconcile these two articles and the vast difference
in perspectives about the worth of children like Trig or Joseph. I grieve
for what a double-minded culture we've become. We are pro-life when it comes
to baby seals or endangered species, but not when it comes to human beings
with development disabilities. We campaign for women's rights in our own
nation but ignore the estimated 100 million missing girls worldwide who have
been victims of sex-selective abortions. We seem incapable of recognizing
the hypocrisy of protecting a "woman's right to choose," even if such a
choice is made at the expense of another's life--and a female's life at
that! "
