Learning

Something has been coming up occassionally and it bothers me. I am having a hard time reading about my 2 month old baby's future as a kid with "lower-than-average cognitive ability" or "The average IQ of children with Down syndrome is around 50, compared to normal children with an IQ of 100.^" This brings up so many mixed emotions as I think about Liam's future.  How can I look at my perfect baby and be told what his intelligence will be? It just seems so totally absurd.  And then we could talk about what intelligence really means, or different kinds of intelligence.
Will he be integrated in a "normal" classroom, or in Special Ed?  Will he go to college? How much will his life differ from the "normal"?  Not that "normal" is good- argh! it's getting confusing even trying to figure out what I want to say.  I feel like I know so little about what life will be like with him- yes, yes I know, no one does know their kids future.

A good life lesson here I think.  I want to be very present with him.  Enjoy and learn from every moment.  Life will offer us so many teachable moments and I want to take advantage of all of them.  Slow down.  Do projects. Get messy. Play outside. I have worked as an art teacher and I feel like my best art projects should be with my kids and I don't think I've done that with Lupe. I'm always too tired or busy or soemthing. I don't want to be like that anymore.

Footnote: Last night I was reading and found put that Dr Sears- you know, author of many baby books- has a child with Down Syndrome- somehow this felt reassuring.