Good Life

You know the song Good Life by One Republic…

  It is so applicable to my life.  Every time I hear it, I melt.  I truly have a Good Life!

Woke up in London yesterday

Found myself in the city near Piccadilly

Don't really know how I got here

I got some pictures on my phone

With this verse I instantly think of Welcome to Holland by Emily Perl Kingsley

New names and numbers that I don't know

So true!  Majority of the names and numbers stored in my contacts are relatively new.  Granted I know them now.  Less than a year ago, I knew none of them.

Address to places like Abbey Road

Day turns to night, night turns to whatever we want

We're young enough to say

Oh, this has gotta be the good life

This has gotta be the good life

This could really be a good life, good life

Gotta be the Good Life?  Nope. This IS the Good Life!

I say, "Oh, got this feeling that you can't fight"

Like this city is on fire tonight

This could really be a good life, a good, good life

To my friends in New York, I say hello

My friends in L.A. they don't know

Where I've been for the past few years or so

Paris to China to Colorado

To some of my friends I do say hello.  To the others, they are the ones in L.A.; they don’t know my new life.

Sometimes there's airplanes I can' t jump out

There was a point in the past 16mos that I could completely visualize myself on the edge of the airplane door, ready to jump out.

Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now

There is stuff that doesn’t work now {relationships, techniques, systems, etc} and bullshit is exactly what it is.  

We are God of stories, but please tell me

What there is to complain about?

When you're happy like a fool, let it take you over

When everything is out you gotta take it in

What is there to complain about?  Nothing, I have a good life.  I occasionally need this song to shift my thought process, make me happy, and allow it to take over!

Hopelessly

I feel like there might be something that I'll miss

I do deal with a constant feeling that there is something that I’ll miss ~in regards to Natalie~ whether it’s a service, conference, seminar or class that I need to sign up for or enroll her in.  It’s a constant.  It will never go away. As she progresses and reaches milestones, as her parent, that means there's another step to be taken.

Hopelessly

I feel like the window closes oh so quick

This symbolizes my constant awareness that I need to be one step ahead.   If she misses something, if that window of closes to quickly; it’s my fault for not being there sooner to scoop up that opportunity. I am the only one to blame.

Hopelessly

I'm taking a mental picture of you now

My mental picture of Natalie is a side profile of her face.  I pray that it will be etched in my memory, forever.

'Cause hopelessly

The hope is we have so much to feel good about

I truly know that I have so much to feel good about!!

Oh, this has gotta be the good life

This has gotta be the good life

This could really be a good life, good life

I say, "Oh, got this feeling that you can't fight"

Like this city is on fire tonight

This could really be a good life, a good, good life

Oh yeah, good, good life, good life, oh, this is

This IS the Good Life!

     

Empathy, please.

 Sympathy~

fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, especially in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration.

Pity~

sympathetic or kindly sorrow evoked by the suffering, distress, or misfortune of another, often leading one to give relief or aid or to show mercy

Empathy~

intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

I don’t want sympathy.

I don’t want pity. 

I want Empathy. 

• Try to understand what I am going through.   
• I have embraced Natalie’s diagnosis and I have hope that you can, too. 
• I need you to understand, I am going through a challenging time. 
• I am busy.
• I am overwhelmed. 
• I often have too much on my plate. 
• I am immersing myself in so much. 
• Striving my best to make positive impacts in my families’ future and learning new and better ways to communicate with my daughters. 
• I’m not the Peg Bundy of stay-at-home moms. 
• I’m a pro-bono Occupational Therapy Assistant.
• I bust my ass day-in and day-out. 
• I ask that you have respect for me and my family and how far we have come in a little over one year. 
• I will be the first to admit, it wasn’t easy.  
• Understand that the road that lies ahead of us will be challenging and full of unexpected bumps and turns. 

This will never be an easy journey, but I am determined to make it as fun as possible!

Hooray for milestones!!

     Today was a BIG day in the Rohe household!!  We had to move Natalie’s mattress down a knotch from the infant setting {ok, I’ll admit…Ben did the crib shift!  I bathed the girls}.  She’s recently learned the proper way to go from prone into a sitting position.  Notice I said proper.  She’s notorious for using what I like to call her illegal moves.  Home girl will do a full on split, practically dislocating her hips, to get into and out of a sitting position.  She must be fairly flexible because the team at the Down syndrome Clinic, at A.I., have exclaimed “Wow, she is very flexible!”  They see children with Down syndrome ALL DAY and they are telling me that my child is flexible?!? 

   Anywoo, back to the point of my story.  We put Natalie in a halo every time she goes to bed and she is so small that she still wears a size 6 to 12 months. 

The benefit to the smaller size is that she can’t do the leg split, therefore she is (err, was) unable to get into a sitting position.  We’ve been working, HARD, on the proper way to get into and out of a sitting position; going over her hip, using her hands and arms to support her weight.  I guess it finally clicked for her and she is consistently & independently using proper techniques to get into a seated position.  That my friends, is a HUGE milestone achieved by my awesome girl, Natalie.