What I Love About Being a DS Mom # 6

Meet Ty's Friends

When you find out that your child has Down Syndrome, one of your many questions is, "Will he ever have friends?!?"  18 months into this experience, I realize what an outrageous question that was.  Ty has friends everywhere!  He has friends with Down Syndrome, friends without Down Syndrome, and friends who love Down Syndrome.  In fact, he probably has more friends than the average one year old, because of the incredible Down Syndrome communities that we are a part of.

Ty's friends are great, too.  As a parent, you want to make sure that your kid is hanging out with "the good crowd".  Now, I realize that being 1 1/2 years old, Ty isn't at a huge risk of falling in with the "dangerous crowd" yet, but I like to think he's off to a good start!

So, I thought it might be fun to introduce you to Ty's friends, and give you a little insight into the kind of kids he rolls with!

Two of Ty's very first friends were Jack and Kali.  Jack and Kali's moms are my good friends, and we were lucky enough to have all 3 of our babies within 2.5 months of each other!  Ty is the oldest (he has 19 days on Kali!), and Jack is the youngest (by 2.5 months!).   This was the first time all 3 of our 2010 babies met!

Kali is Ty's long-distance girlfriend.  She lives all the way in Texas, so we watch her grow up through pictures and videos!  How gorgeous is she, though?!  The first time Ty met her, he was all over her!  This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of them...Ty is showing his love for his first girlfriend! :)

Jack-a-roo is one of Ty's best friends!  He lives a couple of miles away, and the boys have been on numerous walks together as they've grown up!  For a while, they didn't pay much attention to each other, but now that they're older, they are quite the team!  Jack comes over to play often, and the two of them will read books together, chat in their "babble", and make lots of noise with every toy possible.  He encourages Ty to be adventurous, and to take more risks.  This is the two of them this past week...don't they just look like they're up to something?!

And then there's Connor...he is another one of Ty's best friends!  The two of them hit it off the first time they met.  They both love to crawl, so they scoot around the floor together getting into mischeif.  My favorite is when they hug though.  Nothing is cuter than two little boys showing that they're choosing to be friends!  The true test of their friendship was when they walked 7 miles in the NSTAR walk for Boston Children's Hospital together...on a cold, drizzly day!  The boys toughed it out though, and had a blast!  I can't wait to watch the two of them grow up together!

Julian and Khloe are two of Ty's friends from his playgroup.  We first met Julian and Khloe back in May, when they were all in the beginning stages of army crawling.  They were so funny pulling themselves along the floor to reach each other.  Julian is quite a cutie, and oh-so-sweet.  He rocks spiky blond hair, and is always dressed like the coolest kid around!  At our last playgroup, Julian and Ty stood to play together, and both were using sign language to talk.  It's such a blast watching the two of them develop these skills alongside each other!  And Miss Khloe....Khloe was a little spitfire!  She was always on the move, crawling, "walking", and climbing on someone!  She would try to climb on Ty too, but he wasn't having it!  Khloe was this little peanut of a thing, but could eat like a toddler!  The beautiful Miss Khloe passed away this summer, and she is truly missed by everyone who knew her, including her little playgroup friends.  This picture was taken of the three of them on the first day they all met in May.  

Little Lily is Ty's future girlfriend (in addition to his long-distance girlfriend, Kali, of course).  She is 9 months younger than Ty, and has the most beautiful smile!  I first met Lily's mom at my new school where I was teaching just 5 months after Ty was born.  She was also a teacher, and I remember asking her how she was feeling in the hallways.  She always told me how much Lily was moving around, and that statement is true even today!  Lily always tries her hardest to scoot forward on her belly, and will be quite the mover and shaker as soon as she figures it out!  I realized that I don't have a picture of Lily and Ty together, so here is one of the precious little peanut!

Clearly, my fears of Ty not having good friends in his life were not valid.  Each one of his little friends brings out a different side of his personality, and helps him to learn and grow in a different way.  I love the opportunities that we have had to meet new friends along the way, which we would not have had to this extent outside of the Down Syndrome community.  I truly look forward to watching these little kiddos grow and change together in the future!