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The Power of a Pink Moon

© Rachael Smith

Let me start by saying I fully intended to cover a serious subject this time. Then, in the midst of my musing, my daughter began laughing hysterically. Innocently enough I turned to see what could possibly be so funny. I quickly discovered I had been baited into looking. There, in the middle of my living room, stood my petite daughter clad in little more than a t-shirt and a smile. What do you think you are doing, I asked and much to my chagrin, my cherubic faced little girl showed me exactly what she “thought” she was doing. Without so much as a flicker of hesitation she turned, stuck her tiny, pink bottom in my direction, slapped it a few times and said “Mom!”. Wait a minute, since when is the moon pink? Although I’m sure I don’t need to translate, I will just because it shows the incredible audacity and cunning that lurks inside my child considered “developmentally delayed”.

I have to say, with almost a ninety-nine percent accuracy, that my seven year old daughter just told me to kiss her butt. (I’d say behind to be polite, but it’s really not the same now is it?) Now, of course I’m not pleased with the concept of my child telling me where to put my lips, but I must secretly applaud the carefully calculated effort of a child who obviously cannot say the words “kiss my butt mom”. Gee, I guess it doesn’t take much to impress me, wouldn’t you say?

While I’m sure many people reading this are shaking their heads at both my daughter’s attitude and mine, I must say in my defense that no, I’m not crazy. You must understand that every effort a child with DS makes to communicate, is an effort best commended, no matter what the message.

Just imagine if suddenly you awoke one day to find that you had a vocabulary of about thirty words. Your mind was still intact and yet you just couldn’t quite get the words out. What would you do? How would you communicate? Remember, you can’t write it down and no, you most definitely cannot buy a vowel. Can you just imagine the frustration you would feel, or the mammoth amount of patience you would have to possess? Sure, you could communicate your basic needs and wants, but what about the fun stuff? How could you vent your frustrations or make your family laugh? It does give you pause to think doesn’t it?

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