Sadie eating her first ice cream cone

I ordered Sadie her first Ice Cream cone from McDs yesterday. I only asked them to fill it to the top of the cone. She was so cute, she mostly ate the bottom first with it upside down.

Sadie's First Tooth

Sadie lost her first tooth this evening. Awe, so cute with that little gap.

the retard word strikes my heart again.

A FB friend, who I would consider an acquaintance more than an actual dear friend, posted this comment last night, which was directly after asking people to visit her little country store in the rural area of our city. 

"I am so tired of dealing with socially retarded people. They just go through life with no filter on their mouth. They say whatever is on their minds without thinking of how it might be hurtful to others. I never know quite what to say to these people. Do you call them out right then and there? Ignore them? Shoot them? " ~ "FB friend"

I guess that's the danger in facebook.  We read thoughts and post from "friends" who don't actually know they post words that are hurtful to our family, most directly hurtful and painful to Sadie and others who are offended by the r-word (most of my real friends are extremely offended by this word).


Her post has been bothering me all night and all morning, as I see people "LIKE" her comment, and even comment, with little regard to her use of the r-word.  


I get it, so called "normal" people who act like jerks, or assholes, or flat out just don't give a hoot if they offend someone.  But my FB friend did the ultimate, she associated intellectually disabled people with jerks, by directly calling them socially retarded.  


But even so, I find it extremely ironic that she is actually contradicting herself by posting such an ugly statement about people in general.  What is "socially acceptable" about posting a comment like this on facebook, when she has over 300 friends, and her business page has over 1000 "Likes."


Here is a link to one of my favorite bloggers...he says it pretty well... http://www.schuylersmonsterblog.com/2011/05/just-word.html

Here's another powerful message from Glee.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T549VoLca_Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player

"Not Acceptable" is a powerful and compelling 30 second television PSA which gives voice to a variety of diverse communities each of whom expresses that it is not acceptable to call them by what were once common words, but are now recognized as offensive slurs. It culminates in actress and self-advocate Lauren Potter from "Glee" stating that it is not acceptable to use the word 'retard' and she and "Glee" co-star Jane Lynch make a call to action to stop using the word and to promote the acceptance and inclusion of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to make their pledge online at http://r-word.org.

The bottom line...find a better word to describe what you want to say, or better yet, If you don't have anything nice to say...say nothing at all.  People are offended.

zoo

We had a pretty exciting trip to the zoo on Thursday.  We were lucky enough to walk up to the Tiger exhibit to find one of the tigers in the water next to the glass.  Even the zoo employees were standing in awe.  They said the tigers rarely come that close.  Unfortunately, we were only able to see him for about 1 minute that close before he swam back to land.

Inclusion Manual or Plan....what is the difference?

Fellow Partner writes to her child's school requesting the ever confusing Inclusion Manual that is called the Inclusion Plan at the school level, but at the system wide level called the Inclusion Manual. Are you confused yet? Me too!

Here's the link to her Blog http://anyasjourneytoinclusion.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-letter-to-principal-and-assistant.html

Special Ed preschool exit

Today at Sadie's IEP meeting, she will be exiting from the reverse mainstreaming class and entering Kindergarten in the fall.
She was found eligible to continue to receive special Ed services next year, but her label must be changed from "developmental delay" to another label before her 7th birthday. Label options are testing for the Intellectual Disability label OR Other Health impaired (OHI- meaning a medical explanation for her "issues."
Placement, self contained classroom with only children with disabilities OR an inclusion settig will be determined at another IEP meeting soon. Stay tuned...

today in the backyard

being kids, climbing trees, swinging on swings, laughing, watering the garden....all fun, all inclusive, all reflects being a child....