A SNAPSHOT OF DOWN SYNDROME

One of my favorite book series I have enjoyed reading to our kids is If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff.  I found it fun and entertaining for our three older children, but it has taken on even bigger mean with Jonah.  

These books describe Jonah's day to day life perfectly.  He jumps from thing to thing, we me often wondering how he made the leap from one activity to the other.  

For instance, one day at the supper table, Abigail and Andrew were discussing the upcoming presidential election and one candidate's talk about building a wall.  As the discussion continued, we noticed Jonah getting louder and louder in his chair as he was pretending to blow a trumpet.  We asked him to please be quiet because we are working on his manners and table etiquette.  However, he would not stop making noise.  Then the light bulb went on in my head- his favorite Bible story that week had been Joshua and the wall of Jericho.  We had been reading the story to him many times during the day as he would act out the story using building blocks and toy instruments.  As he was sitting at the table this particular day, he overheard the talk of "the wall" and just assumed his sister and dad could only be talking about the THE WALL OF JERICHO which automatically meant he had to act out the story.

This is also why he ended up in timeout at school because of continuing to knock down his peer's block towers- he was Joshua following God's command to knock down the wall.

I could give you countless examples of the funniness of Jonah: 

1. When helping in his classroom one day, we were reading a book when all of a sudden he got up and stood on top of a book and pretended to surf.  His teacher, of course, called him on it because that is not what you do to a book.  But I knew what he was doing- we had just read about a surfer.  
2. I also watched him playing with his peers and then all of a sudden climb onto a chair and then leap off of it.  He got scolded, but I knew- his peer had mentioned the word "superhero" and superheros fly right?

Yesterday I happen to catch a picture that captures Jonah to a tee:

When you are playing doctor, then go downstairs to get 

a fireman hat but end up being Santa=Down syndrome.  

P.S. All this is being done wearing a swimsuit because you also were playing beach like you saw on Daniel Tiger Neighboorhood,

and this was all in the past 15 minutes.

I just read a beautiful article by a mom of a kiddo with Down syndrome where she shared that she feels her son has taught her way more about life than she feels she taught him.  

Yeah, I have learned much from the wisdom of Jonah: 

Live in the moment, don't let your inhibitions stop you from living life to the fullest, and make the most of every opportunity.

Pretty wise for a five year old, right?