31 for 21- Day 6: One Thing I Love About Down Syndrome

 Here we are on Day 6 of the blogging challenge 31 for 21.  And today, a number of parents in the Ds blogging community I am proud to be a part of have chosen to write about the same topic: "One Thing I Love about Down Syndrome."

There are so many ways that our introduction to Ds has changed our lives, and changed them for the better.  Down syndrome is a part of Cora; a part of every little cell in her body.  It affects how she looks, it will affect her development, and it will likely affect her health to some extent.  That extra genetic material (most likely from yours truly) makes her just a little bit different, and contributes to who she is.  It's something we can never remove.  We can never know what she'd be like without it.  But that doesn't matter to us.  It's part of the Cora that we love.

Ds has also given us an incredible new community of people we would likely not have otherwise known.  I'm very grateful for that.  It's given our lives new perspective and new meaning.

But on a lighter note, the one characteristic about Down syndrome that I love and that keeps coming back to me when I consider this question, is Cora's little tongue.  It is one of the things about her that gets the most comments and compliments.  Everyone seems to love that sweet little tongue.  Some people may not realize that tongue thrusting, or a protruding tongue is a common characteristic of Ds.  And that as Cora gets a little bit older, her therapies will aim to reduce the tongue thrusting.



But for now, that soft little tongue is all over the place.  Everything she explores comes into contact with that little tongue.  It adds a dimension of cuteness to many of my favorite pictures of Cora.  And even though as she gets older it will probably not be considered quite so cute, for now I love the glimpses of my favorite little tongue.