Things I Am Thankful For

Steve thinks I take perfectly good photos and go and ruin them with all of my editing. But there are two truths to this--first of all, I save all of the originals as well as all of my edits. Second, I often (but not always) take photos that had color or exposure issues and turn them into black & white because I liked the image and black & white was the only way I felt I could salvage it. I also have this obsession with that nostalgic, almost Victorian feel, especially when it comes to my naturally beautiful little girl. I swear, it hurts to look at her sometimes--I just feel like my heart is going to swell right out of my chest and I forget to breathe. When she was born, two words that I never, ever thought would be associated with my daughter were "beautiful" and "smart." I would freeze up any time anyone would joke about whose looks or brains she got. The jokes were meant the same way they would be meant with any typical child, but the image in my head of a child with Down syndrome was so old-fashioned and far from the modern truth that I thought anyone anticipating beauty or brains was just being cruel and blind. But I do know better now. I may be biased, but I think that children with Down syndrome are the most beautiful, exotic children, and they certainly can be capable of so much!

Things I am thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day:

1. My daughter--every inch, every cell, every chromosome.
2. My husband--devoted husband and father, great cook, brilliant sense of humor.
3. My family--my parents have done so much for us and helped us through a lot of challenging times. They brought me up with a wicked sense of morality and gave me a well-rounded childhood, which have shaped me to be the parent that I am.
4. The internet--what did we do without it? What would we have done without it when Samantha was born? It's such an amazing resource, and I've been able to connect with old friends many times over. The world has become so small!
5. No longer working in retail--whew, another holiday season that I don't have to work rediculous hours, babysit my staff and hold the hands of rediculous, spoiled customers.
6. My digital camera.
7. Sesame Street--sure, some of the characters have changed over the last 40 years, but I learned well from it, and so has Samantha. She just loves "Momo" (Elmo), "Weewee" (Zoe), "Babby" (Abby Cadaby), "Vuhvuh" (Grover), Cookie and "Nernie" (Ernie).
8. Modern medicine--I should have mentioned this earlier. I am very, very, very thankful for modern medicine. Sheesh, childbirth alone (not to mention open heart surgery!) is reason enough...
9. Milky Way bars and Snickers with almonds--eek! My hips just said that, not me!!

There are so many more things I'm thankful for. I'd wanted to list some funny ones, but my brain isn't functioning so well tonight after having scarfed a huge Thanksgiving dinner, and I'm fighting a bit of a headache. It's not even 9pm, and I'm about to go get into bed. Gotta hit the mall bright and early tomorrow morning! Samantha has her OT appointment tomorrow morning, as well, and I'm excited to actually be able to go to it, since I'm usually at work. Yes, another reason to be thankful for not being in retail anymore.