Buddy Walk

I've fallen down a bit on my blogging duty here by forgetting to let you all know about a big event that's happening in Charleston (and all over the nation) in a little over a week:  the Buddy Walk, which raises awareness and acceptance re: Down syndrome.  Only those readers who live in NYC or Chicago will have the opportunity to participate in a bigger walk than the one in Charleston--we're third in the nation.  Amazing, right? 

It's truly great fun, and you should all go.  This will be Maybelle's third Buddy Walk, and this year she will actually be walking!  Not the whole mile, mind you, but some of it.  Last year Maybelle had a bunch of friends at the walk, including Eamon and Rosemary, in strollers to her right in this picture, both of whom are friends with Down syndrome, and Nina and Adam, walking flanking her stroller, who are friends without Down syndrome.  This year we have even more friends, many of whom have Down syndrome, and we may actually get the Ween up from her afternoon nap early to get as much time as we can at the party.

This is also a good post in which to let you know the news that Kevin forwarded to Trey, and Trey forwarded to me (always good to have a network):  on Wednesday of this week, the House approved a bill called Rosa's Law that will remove the term "mental retardation" from federal legislation, replacing it with "intellectual disability."  This is a lovely move forward, as the term "mental retardation" has been a slur rather than a neutral descriptive term for years and years now.  Everybody out there:  just stop using it.  Stop.