Hello October! 

Day 1 of the 31 for 21 Challenge!

Today I thought I would introduce you to why I think of my kiddos as my Oreos.  You see when Sydney learned we were having a third baby she wasn’t too happy but consoled herself with the hope she’d get a little sister she could boss around the way her sister bossed her around.  I think there might have been some desire to be that special person in a little sister’s life as well…but she fights hard to hide the love she feels towards her sister as hard as her sister hides her emotions as well… it’s a gift.  When Sydney learned that the baby was in fact a boy, well, she crossed her arms across her chest and started to cry…wouldn’t even look at Dad.  Not sure how she knew that the Dad is the one that determines gender, but she knew somehow, some way, it was his fault!  She got over it after a bit, we took her to buy a sleeper for her baby brother, but I told her to choose something very soft that she wanted to feel when she held him.  This being a little girl that loves her blanket, that appealed to her senses in positive ways.  So the tiny size got her, the feel kept her and she became more excited about getting a brother. 

Still, in her mind she was stuck with the idea that being the kid in the middle can be really difficult.  She came to us and told us through tears that being the kid in the middle she would be forgotten.  Assurance that she would always be our baby…that she is our Baby Girl…really weren’t cutting it.  After her brother arrived and brought with him his special extra chromosome; in my heart I knew that this middle child fear she was having would be tougher than we thought to deal with.  I put her on my lap and I told her that she and her siblings were like Oreos.  Since Oreos happen to be her favorite cookie, I had her at the “O”.  I told her that her sister and her brother were the cookies, they were the ones that kept the family strong, gave us our protective walls and caring arms to hold us.  And you Sydney, you are the creme in the middle.  You are the glue that holds the family together because without you, we’d all fall apart.  I wanted her to understand – and for her sister to understand that without the three of them there is no family, we are one family because they are all here and we are all together.  At five and seven, this was a good answer…now at 8 and 10 – well…they argue a bit because the creme is just the best part of the cookie so that takes some finagling on my part to keep the peace…but they see themselves as Oreos and they know, there are three of them for a reason and without one of them we wouldn’t be the family we are. 

So thank God for my Oreos.  My girls love each other, I’ve seen glimpses so I know this to be true!  But they both adore their brother.  And in his own way, Bradley and his extra chromosone is the extra something that brings out the best in their personalities and encourages them to try anything new and try harder at everything. 

It’s Down syndrome Awareness month!  Support the Oreos in this house, because we have one extra chromosome in our house…and it just puts a little over-stuffed goodness into our Oreos!  And doesn’t everyone love Oreos?