Just wondering to myself.....

So yesterday I took my nieces to a birthday party for a friend's daughter, it was a nice small gathering. Mexican birthday parties are usually more for the adults than the children, once the pinata was busted and all the candy was snatched up by the kids, big and small alike it was adult time. We sat out on the back patio watching the kids play and drinking... I was watching my nieces one is 4 going on 40 and other is 10. The 10 year old has down syndrome and since her 'dad' is 6'5" she is tall for her age, so is the 4 year old, BUT the 10 year old is close to be as big around as she is in height. BUT we won't discuss the problems with that situation at this time...

ANYWAY...the house that we were at has a park just out the back gate, maybe a half a block away, but you can see the kids playing just fine from the patio. So they all ran down to the park to play including my nieces...the four year old was running like speed racer the 10 year old was lumbering along behind but having just as much fun it seemed as the other kids. I wonder does she know that she is "different" than the others???? When the kids were eating some of the other kids were watching her eat out the corner of their eyes...no one verbally said a word tho. Then when the birthday girl was opening her presents you would have thought it was my niece's birthday party as excited as she was about each gift that was opened...WOW!!!! she said after every gift! The 4 year old was hardly paying attention because there was a Flintstones car in the backyard for her to play with so she could care less if the birthday girl unwrapped a million dollars, she had her car so as far as she was concerned she had a million dollars too. At the park my niece (the 10 year old) is hugging all the kids (strangers) so I make my way over there just to be sure everyone is okay and that there are no misunderstandings... She will hug anybody, wave at anybody or just start talking to ANYBODY...she does not know stranger danger or if she does she forgets.... SO we got back to the house and I ask my niece if she is ready to go home and she says yes, then she starts hugging everybody good-bye and saying THANKS! I called her dad to come get her and her sister, because when the adult portion of the party started I had some drinks....I had too they brought me Heineken... While we were waiting for their dad to show up the boys at the party were playing video games, I asked my friend's son if he would help my niece play and he said he would....good kid even tho his mom is CRAZY and his dad is and IDIOT! My niece was excited to play the video game with them I am not sure if she knew what she was doing the but the host said when he went in the house she was yelling...FIRE! They were playing a game that required shooting people and killing, I don't think they make any other kind game these days.... During the party I spent most of the time watching out for the 10 year old as the 4 year old is an adult trapped in a child's body, but as I was watching over her I wondered...what is she thinking? Does she care if the kids whisper around her? Does she notice that some seem afraid....maybe its just me being overly sensitive because I know how I felt when I was growing up and people would make fun or act afraid of my sister... If my niece did notice anything you couldn't tell it by looking at her because she had the biggest smile on her face the whole time!

It is August now and kids are going to be starting back to school soon...those of you who have kids big or small and those kids were BLESSED to be "normal" I am sure you are thankful...right?

See ya when I see ya!

Peace! Mattie