My youngest has limited reading skills. But that doesn’t mean that I limit his access to books and other things to read. One of his most favorite things in life is Thomas & Friends. A couple of months ago I saw a great offer for a subscription to a kids magazine I thought he’d enjoy. Yes, that’s right, it was for a Thomas & Friends magazine. It was ridiculously inexpensive, so I ordered it. It said it would take a while for delivery to start, so of course I promptly forgot all about it.
Every day when my youngest gets home from school he likes to get the mail. Perhaps he gets it from seeing my Dad get the mail. My Dad LOVES to get the mail, his ring tone on my cell phone is the Blue’s Clues Mail song. Anyway. CJ and I always walk to the mailbox together as soon as he gets off the bus. I stand by while he opens the mailbox and gets the mail, then he carries it inside. It’s part of our daily routine. So yesterday he got off the bus and headed for the mailbox. He opened the mailbox door and took out a small pile of envelopes, underneath which was a very conspicuous Thomas & Friends magazine.
When I saw the reaction on his face I knew that taking the time to go through that list of all magazine prices had been a good move. He grabbed it out from under the envelopes, letting all of the mail fall to the ground. No big deal, noone actually rushes to open bills anyway, right? He ran in the house with the magazine and I picked up the mail and followed. I found him in his room sprawled out on the floor with the magazine. These are the moments that I love to see, because they are just so typical. My 16 year old always snags his Guitar magazine in a hurry. And I remember watching the mail when I was younger as well. It’s just proof that people with Down syndrome are more alike than different.
All people like it or not are more alike than different.