Life is simple. It's just not easy.: Things are not always what they seem...

The first appearance deceives many, the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden. (Phaedrus)

I have this little daughter, Bridgie, she is small and very funny. *

She is two and toddlerish

Stubborn, Stormy, and sometimes Shocking.

Coy, Cunning, and Conniving.

A typical toddler.

There is something else about this typical toddler you should know.

Bridgie has 47 chromosomes. 3 copies of the 21st chromosome.

Trisomy 21 or Down Syndrome

A little something extra.

You may have heard that people born with Down Syndrome are so loving, kind, and sweet.

Laid back, easy going.

While some people may say Bridgie was born with more to love,

I am here to tell you that she was born with a little something else as well.

Spirit, Spunk, and Sassiness.

Our girl, well, she was born with attitude.

Could simply be her mother's Fiery Irish-Lithuanian background or her father's Hardworking, nose to the grind stone Czech heritage.

Could be that Bridgie is simply just another member of the every evolving, dynamic, and diverse group called the human race.

Bridgie is so much like her older sister and older brother. She looks alot like one of her cousins, my brother's daughter. She likes Mickey Mouse, baby dolls, and goldfish. She loves bathtime and screams because she does not want to get out. She feeds herself, says mama and dada, loves her big sister and instigates her big brother.

And this may be one of the areas where she is most like other little girls who are the baby of the family. Big sis is the light of her life, makes her laugh like no other, and has more concern for Bridgie's welfare than her own. Big bro is her nemesis. Since she was old enough to sit up in the jogging stroller she has been terrorizing him. Taking his blanket, his sippy cup, his lollipop, pulling his hair, biting his toes. Just touching him to be annoying. You know like you did with your brother or sister in the back of the station wagon?

Seemingly like alot of other little girls, baby sisters, Bridgie is well, how do I phrase it?

Bridgie.

Unique, different, diverse. And like....you.

One word, one category, one group, one characteristic, one action, does not define you.

Nor does the fact that you only have 46 chromosomes.

Down Syndrome does not define Bridgie.

Bridgie is unique and evolving.

At two, Bridgie is not yet walking.

Yet she is fast.

She has a champion 'scootch' and a warriors desire to keep up with the troop.

At two, Bridgie does not have very many words.

Yet she is a great communicator, engaging, magnetic, leaving her friends and family speechless and feeling as if they have just been with a long lost friend.

Some might say an 'old soul'.

In two short years Bridgie has provided me with opportunity, purpose, desire, drive, passion, a chance to come out of the fog that I was living in. A belief in my abilities.

Most of all, she has given our family love.

Great big, wet, sloppy, goldfish crumb-filled kisses and amazingly warm, purposeful, unconditional hugs for no reason and for every reason.

March 21, 2012 is the 7th anniversary of World Down Syndrome Day. In 2012, the day has been recognized by the United Nations.

The aims of World Down Syndrome Day are to promote awareness and understanding, seek international support, and to achieve dignity, equal rights and a better life for people with Down syndrome everywhere. (Muttiah Muralitharan)

World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated on March 21 (3/21) to represent the 3 copies of Chromosome 21 that is unique to Down Syndrome.

On this day I ask you to reflect on what it means to be a human being, how you like to be treated, how you treat others, and what you can bring to the table of the human race.

And in the words of the pesky Lorax

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothings going to get better. It's not."

As for me,

I am the mommy, and I'll yell and I'll shout for the fine things in life that are on their way out.**