A few weeks ago Rachel came to me with great seriousness and said, “All of the girls at school bring egg lip stuff in their backpacks. I’m the only one who doesn’t have one.”  I replied, “You have two in your room. You can take one in your backpack.” She then told me, “Mine are pink. They all have the mint. I’m the only one who doesn’t.” Of course my response was, “Every single one of them has a mint one?” “Yes,” she said in her most pathetic voice as she nodded.  I couldn’t help myself. I started laughing and told her I doubted she was the only girl who didn’t have a mint egg but I would see what I could do.  Afraid of the answer I inquired, “Where do they keep them?” She informed me their pencil bags.  This could cause me to have a meltdown but I managed to control myself. Her notebook is already packed with so much stuff that you can barely get it in the backpack so I couldn’t begin to imagine how one would put a lip balm egg in there, but I decided to just go with it.

As you can see, she now has assorted eggs.  Does it fit in the pencil bag? Yes, but then the notebook is about another inch thicker and it takes all kinds of bodily contortions to get the notebook back in the backpack.  I can do this for a few more weeks though. Right? She is a very typical teenage girl.

Once again for all of you who are concerned that your kids with Down syndrome will be different. Trust me, they will be more alike than different!