honey, i shrunk her confidence

two weeks ago my fam took a trip to visit some extended fam in san diego. my parents & beth drove down, and i flew in a day later. on this trip, Beth and I went to Disneyland. (she hadn't been to a theme park since Disneyworld in 04). we started out on Pirates of the Caribbean - a tradition - and I didn't take into account the fact that she has grown increasingly afraid of the dark over the years. she spent most of the ride clutching my arm, and i talked her through most of it to calm her. at the end, she said it was fun, but she didnt want to do it again.

from there we went to Splash Mountain - her apparent favorite ride. we shared the log with a family of four, and Beth & I got the back two seats. she wanted to sit behind me, so she had the very very back seat. she's a hefty girl, so it was hard for her to get in, but she made it. she enjoyed that one a ton - she read every sign out loud and laughed at all the critters. thankfully the family we went with had two girls around the same mental age as Beth, so they didn't seem annoyed at all. when the ride was over and we were getting out was when it got pretty bad: I would always get in rides and out of them first as to help her getting in / out. I got out of my seat so she could step on it, but as she went to stand up, she couldn't pull her foot up high enough to get it around the back of my seat. I tried in vain to verbally instruct her, but she sat back down and just said "I can't do it!" By this point I was pretty embarassed as we were holding up the ride and our log members were long gone, replaced by the new group ready to get the ride going. The woman getting in my seat after me went in to help pull her up. After a few attempts she eventually got her upright and her leg over, and I helped her out of the log. I was mortified and utterly embarassed not only by the hold up, but by the fact that I just stood there and let someone else help. I apologized profusely, but the lady who helped her told me she had two cousins with Downs, and she understood. We repeated some rides that day, but everytime Beth brought up Splash Mountain, I would have some excuse as to why we shouldn't go back. Secretly, I just couldn't stand to go through that again.



I know its not her fault, and my dad always tells me "that's life - people need to learn to deal with it!" but it's a lot easier said than done. I don't like holding people up, and I don't like what they say when they're getting impatient. I know she knows people don't understand her, and she knows she's different, but I'm glad she doesn't know what people say, or why they won't understand her...





this blog isn't going to be depressing, I promise! I've just not been able to get this bit off my mind..

chickenbutt

It's interesting, I suppose, that I start this up whilst watching the latest episode of Glee - the one where they tackle the 'discrimination' topic. This has been a frequent topic throughout my entire life. My eldest sister has Down syndrome (and my dad is mortally obese, but thats another story for another time). Although my mom talks about how hard my childhood must have been - from getting flipped off in parking lots at the ripe old age of four, to dodging thrown rocks on the walk home from school - I don't really know any different. My sister is my sister; always has been and she always will be.

I decided to start this blog for an inside point of view. I know there are loads of parents that blog about their children, but none of them really have the insight siblings do. Parent know a life before Special Ed classes, siblings don't. Some parents have admitted to complete ignorance before having their child, siblings don't need books or classes to figure it out. Having Beth as a sister is difficult, confusing, irritating and hard but I don't really know any different.


She's crazy, funny, annoying and loud. She loves anything Disney - especially princesses! - and any decent musical. It's impossible to wake her up in the morning, and if she's in the middle of a movie, she won't move not matter what. She takes a walk everyday, and practices for her weekly karaoke group every waking minute of every day. She could eat Mcdonalds for days on end, and she is always in possesion of some Sprite. She has Downs and a thyriod problem, and throughout the years she discovered it was easier to let other people talk for her, and that people will generally get frustrated with her for no reason. The truth is, she's a lot more intellegent than she is given credit for. She's goofy, and she's my best friend.