The little bits of happiness and a beautiful life with Down syndrome.

The last time we took Parker to the dentist he was still so small that the dentist held Parker’s head in his lap and Reed held Parker’s feet in his lap.  Me?  I prayed like hell this would hurry quick and be over.

Yesterday we took Parker to the dentist again.  This time he climbed right up in the the chair as though he were the King and the office his Kingdom.

I love the look on Parker’s face as the Dentist walked in. He’s saying, “Dude, any funny stuff and your butt’s headed straight for the dungeon.”

As we walked back to the car, the nurse and I would count to three and then tell Parker to jump! “One, two, three…….JUMP!” And you know what?

Parker did.

Now this may not seem like a big thing to you. But at our house mastering the skill of jumping is HUGE. It talks much more effort for a kid with low muscle tone to jump than it took any of my typical kids.

That’s not all though. Parker jumped on command. He jumped when the little made up rhyme told him to. Or when we told him to ‘jump like a little bunny‘. Okay. So rabbits actually hop. Sue me.

Parker and his beloved nurse, using the iPad to communicate what to do next.

Last week three beautiful female deer wandered into our neighbor’s back yard. Usually when we point and try to get our Hero to look at something specific, he looks everywhere but where we are frantically trying to address his attention.

This time though? This time as we were frantically signing ‘deer’ and trying to get Parker to notice them, Parker not only saw them, but turned to us with a look on his face that plainly said, “Seriously? These things actually exist? I thought they only lived in the pages of books.”

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that we need to run with.  The little things that we need to celebrate.   Big things are great, yet infrequent.   Life is filled with many more of little the bits of happiness that cause our hearts to sing.

It’s taking the time to gather up all the little things, and showing gratitude for them, that create the real joy in life.

What’s the latest ‘little thing’ that you’ve celebrated lately?