23 Things About You at Age 23

 

1. Your Italian/EU dual citizenship has been adjugated, now we are just waiting for some bureaucrat to sign some piece of paper to finalize everything.
2. You read Don Quixote recently and it is your favorite book ever.  And now you are listening to Man of La Mancha on repeat. 
3. You like reading about other cultures and things like hygge and jeong
4. You are only working one full-time job right now.  You go in around 4 a.m. and are done around 1 p.m., which means you go to bed really early.
5. You bought a car a few months ago and are really enjoying that independence and being responsible for payments and insurance, and building up your credit. 
6. You would like a place of your own in the near future.  Buying something is your preference but renting would be ok until the right thing comes along.
7. You are still embracing a minimalist decor aesthetic, everything clean and simple.
8. You traded your bed for a futon on the floor.   
9. Still a night owl when the job allows.
10. You have recently become a vegetarian and are exploring new foods and recipes.  You like to browse the specialty grocery stores and come home with new ingredients.  A recent find was lotus roots.  You made spicy soup with them and declared it delicious.  You lived on dinosaur chicken nuggets and boxed mac&cheese when you were a little kid, so this is neat for us to see.
11. This Christmas and birthday you asked for plants and books and especially cookbooks.
12. You still like to wear hoodies but you have expanded your color palette beyond grey and black.
13. Your friend group continues to expand and you all have a lot of fun together.  You have gone to some music festivals together and you really enjoyed that.
14. You are generally good about texting us and let us know if you are staying overnight at a friends.
15. You are growing your hair out again and still using the curly hair products.
16. You are very helpful with cleaning around the house without being asked.  Though I'm not always sure where you put things away to!
17. You got Invisalign braces and are really good about taking care of your teeth and following that protocol.  
18. You still doodle a lot and draw.
19. You have several notebooks that you are always busy writing in. 
20. You go to the gym just about every day.
21. You are still very close to your cousins.
22. You want to have deep conversations with people about meaningful subjects.
23. You wanted to spend time with your brother this year, taking your day off to celebrate your birthday together on your own.  You had a big day planned - out to breakfast, a movie, the trampoline park and lunch or ice cream.  Not all of that happened and I think you were a little bit disappointed but you understand that your brother processes things slowly and has trouble going tooooo far out of his routine.  What you did get to do was a lot of fun though.

1. You still love going to CAPP every day and seeing your friends and doing a mix of volunteering and fun activities.  Your favorite activities are going to Meals on Wheels, Dog Ears Book Delivery and Cooking Group.  You love it when there are special dress up spirit days.
2. You have recently started buying a lot of pop on your outings, which you don't really like.  You will take a few sips but not finish it. I think you just want to do what everyone else is doing.  Staff is encouraging you to get iced tea or lemonade instead.  Sometimes you get coffee.
3. You very much want to do social activities now.  You love that interaction with friends and will choose that over solitary activities like swimming.  That is new because swimming was your thing for so long.  But we are taking a break from that and we'll see how you feel about it over the summer.
4. In the evenings, you have two fitness classes, one dance class, one cooking class, a recreational group, Special Olympics bowling and just started Special Olympics basketball.  You have PT too once during the week. By the time Friday comes you are tired!
5. At dance you still like to go into my office and steal my snacks!  And the swinging egg chair in the waiting room is a favorite too.  This year's dance is to one of your very favorite songs and all of you guys are getting a little solo.  You are thrilled to bits about that!
6. For Christmas this year you got a big bean bag chair with an ottoman.  We're still trying to figure out the best place to put it.
7. Meat sticks and pickles and craisins are still your favorite snacks.  Pasta is still your top meal request.  If there are leftovers from dinner, you like to have them for breakfast the next day. You LOVE salads.
8. Baseball hats continue to be a recent favorite, especially a new one with Snoopy on it.  You love spirit days when I let you wear some of your crazy hats, like the one that looks like a hamburger.  You like to take Dad's hats now too. Your favorite shirts are still the ones from Life Is Good.
9. Orange is still your favorite color, but now you like blue a lot too.
10. You wear your Bills tshirt when it is a game weekend.  Even though we don't watch the games.  More friend influencers LOL 
11. We are hoping for two respite weekends at Cradle Beach this year, hopefully one of them will be in the summer so you can swim.
12. You like piling up the pillows and stuffies in your bed, now a new big pillow in the shape of Snoopy's head has joined the crowd.
13. You still lobby hard for takeout on the weekends and planning what we are getting from where. 
14. You do NOT want to go to bed.  It can sometimes be a battle and you let us know that you are not happy about it.  And then in the morning you let us know you are not happy about being too tired!
15. You still love retelling stories with Dad, like the 3 Little Pigs or the 3 Kittens or the 3 Bears or the 3 Billy Goats. 
16. Every day you come home and tell Dad that you saved him some of your lunch and then when he opens your empty lunch box you laugh and laugh at the trick you just played on him.
17. Your verbal speech continues to improve.  
18. Your thyroid still normal!  Your cholesterol is under control since we started medication last year.  But you are in good health and staying active helps greatly with that.  You never complain about taking your meds and vitamins.
19. You put away your laundry and unload the dishwasher.  
20. You still really do not like dogs or any animals really, but you will tolerate Aunt MaryEllen's dog if she happens to come into the room, so long as she doesn't surprise you.  You still get spooked if she barks though.
21. You went to see Lion King at Shea's with Dad and really enjoyed that.
22. And going to the North Park to see movies is another activity you love to do with Dad.  And going to Spot Coffee for lunch afterwards.
23. You are so happy when Mark gets home if he has been at work or the gym and he is not here when you get home.  You LOVED taking the day off from CAPP and going out to breakfast with Mark to celebrate your birthday!  You couldn't wait to tell me all about it when I got home.  I think ice cream might have been involved in the day as well!

22 Things About You at Age 22

 

1. Your Italian/EU dual citizenship should be finalized any day now!
2. You have such a variety of interests -- I never know what you will tell me you are reading about.
3. You are only working one full-time job right now, which means we see you more and when we do see you, you are awake.  That's very nice!
4. You've taken on more responsibility at Tropical Smoothie Cafe, in addition to more hours.  You are a shift leader and often open the store at 6 am or close it at 10 pm.  
5. You are thinking about going back to school, exploring some options right now, no decisions yet.
6. Still a night owl!  But you also prioritize sleep when you need to.
7. You went skiing for the 2nd time and all your bones remained intact.  Parental Relief!
8. You spent a lot of time Christmas shopping this year and got very thoughtful, insightful things.  You debated about figuring out a "signature" wrapping paper and ended up going with brown kraft paper and white ribbon.  You had all your gifts arranged in front of the fireplace as you were getting them ready and some visitors thought it was decor.  
9. You used your tools and knowledge to hang a curtain rod for me.  Thank you!
10. You are a caring friend, always ready to help someone or provide a listening ear.
11. Your friend group does a lot of fun things together -- skiing and cookie baking and potlucks and secret santa exchanges and game nights and weekend trips, in addition to just hanging out.  
12. You are generally good about texting us and let us know if you are staying overnight at a friends.
13. You are interested in cooking.  Aunt Di taught you how to make Grandma's recipe for chicken soup.  She also taught you to make her specialty cookies. You bought yourself a rice cooker. You are still adventurous with the food you will eat.  Current favorite foods are salmon, collard greens and anything involving eggs.
14. You now use some specific hair products for curly hair so you always look your best.  You are very particular about how your beard is trimmed.
15. You're very interested in essentialism and have been purging things that you feel are unnecessary.  But I have to check the bags before they go to Goodwill because sometimes it's not just your stuff in there!  
16. For instance you went through your closet so you could maintain a "uniform" of grey/black/navy shirts & hoodies as well as dark wash jeans.
17. One of your goals for the future is to own property, both for investment purposes and to live in. You are asking lots of good questions about how all that works.
18. We got a third car and that has given you more independence.
19. You bought some storage furniture and attempted to rearrange your room according to feng shui principles.  As much as you could anyway given that you have no control over where the doors and windows are.  The beds had to go back to where they were before because there's no other way they fit in the room!
20. One of the things almost no one talks about when becoming an adult is taking charge of your own medical care.  You have been making your own doctor's appointments and getting things taken care of.  Filling out all those forms and learning all the answers to those questions you don't necessarily know because you haven't had to is a rite of passage that you are managing wonderfully. 
21. You are really good with little kids.  You listen to them and get down on the floor and play with them and just enjoy being around them.
22. We have a little whiteboard on the refrigerator and every so often a cartoon or a drawing appears on it.  But never when anyone can see you do it - you're like Banksy!

1. You graduated from North High School in June 2023. You started going  to a People Inc Dayhab Without Walls - Lincoln CAPP in July 2023.  You LOVE it!  You do a mix of volunteer things like Meals on Wheels or helping at the Senior Apartments as well as some fun things like bowling and playing mini golf and cooking classes.  There are several other participants you know from school or dance or bowling so it was nice to go in already having friends.  The staff there is really great too.  We are all very happy with this change in your daily routine.
2. You carry your own money every day in your wallet so you can make purchases and pay for activities. Sometimes you come home with receipts from your purchases and I see that you have gotten a Mountain Dew or an Iced Capp with praline syrup.  These are not things you generally like *at all* When I ask if you really drank/ate that, you give an enthusiastic yes and then you laugh and laugh.  So I don't know for sure if you really did?
3. You love it when Mark picks you up from program because you stop for snacks!
4. You still go to dance once a week and swim twice a week and bowl every other week.  At dance you like to go into my office and steal my snacks!
5. In big bowling news - you now just walk up to the line and throw the ball.  Right out of your hand on the first go! No more swinging the ball ten or twelve times before you let it go.  We're not really sure what prompted the change but a game takes less time now and I'm also sure it will be noticed in your next chiropractor visit!
6. New this year were two different fitness classes, one of Mondays and one on Fridays.  The Friday one is over for now so we may look into a gym membership to keep that momentum going.  Miss Christine works all of you hard but you like it and are very proud of yourself when you come out of class.
7. When we are driving to and from "work" you sit in the front seat.  When we are going to "fun" things you insist on sitting in the back LOL
8. Meat sticks and pickles and craisins are still your favorite snacks.  Pasta is still your top meal request.  If there are leftovers from dinner, you like to have them for breakfast the next day. You LOVE salads.
9. In big hat news, you have decided that you like baseball hats now!  Your favorites are a new burgundy corduroy one you got for Christmas and an orange one that Dad brought you back from Florida. Your favorite shirts are still the ones from Life Is Good.
10. Orange is still your favorite color, but now you like blue a lot too.
11. We are hoping for two respite weekends at Cradle Beach this year and a session over the summer.   
12. You got a new Toy Story blanket to use just for camp.  The other one was getting too worn but I know you like the routine of what you bring there.
13. You still lobby hard for takeout on the weekends and planning what we are getting from where. You and Dad will often go out for lunch on Saturdays which you love.
14. You are starting to like staying up later at night and sleeping in (somewhat - getting up at 9 am is really late for you!)
15. You take a long walk with Dad almost every night and you have a routine of retelling stories on - your versions of the 3 Little Pigs or the 3 Kittens or the 3 Bears or the 3 Billy Goats.  And then you mix-in all your other favorite characters from various shows and family members.  Elmo is Piggy #1, Anthony Wiggle is Piggy #2, Kipper is Piggy #3 and Mark is the Big Bad Wolf.  You laugh and laugh. Sometimes you get so involved with the storytelling that you have to go down a few more streets until you finish the story.
16. We have noticed a real improvement in your verbal speech.  Whether that is being out in the community more and having to interact more or maturity or I don't know what, but it is lovely to hear.
17. You grew 3 inches this year!  Your thyroid still normal!  Your cholesterol is still somewhat high but all your exercise and being active throughout the day is really helping with that.  We did decide to start a low dose of medication to help with it, which I think we avoided for as long as we possibly could.  The reality is that DS already makes you susceptible to Alzheimer's & Dementia and high cholesterol increases that risk even more.  So we've got to keep that risk as low as we can for as long as we can. Whatever we have to do to keep you healthy!
18. You love going to the grocery store.  Pushing the cart, picking out the items, putting items up on the conveyor belt or scanning at the self-checkout, you are there and ready to help!  You come home and help put things away too.
19. In fact you have been really taking the initiative to help around the house with all kinds of things.  You would always help before when we asked you to but now we are finding that you have already unloaded the dishwasher or switched the clothes from the washer to the dryer or taken the dirty clothes down to the basement ready for the next load.  Wow!
20. You went to the dermatologist recently to have some moles and skin tags removed.  You were really great about it and didn't complain at all.  Except about the band aids, you still hate those.
21. You still really do not like dogs or any animals really.  You still meow a lot, sometimes we have whole meowing conversations which we both find hilarious.  But an actual cat?  No.
22. Going to Disney on Ice is still one of your favorite things to do each winter.

21 Things About You at Age 21

 Adults!  For Real!  I'm sure you were babies just a few minutes ago...

1. This past summer you were able to go to Italy with your cousin, G.  We were amazed that you two saw so much of the country in just 10 days.  Milan, Venice, Rome, Naples, Florence, Pisa, the Amalfi Coast, Sienna, Cinque Terra, Pompeii -- Sienna was your favorite, Naples was your least favorite.  Coffee was surprisingly just ok but gelato was awesome.  Water was expensive.
2. Your Italian/EU dual citizenship is in the works, right now it is in the Italian court system.
3. You are happy the border is open again and looking forward to going to Canada again.
4. You have a very nice group of friends that you met when you all worked at Spirit Halloween. 
5. You are a caring friend, always ready to give a ride or help somebody out.
6. You are saving up for a car.  Or an apartment.  Both.
7. Weekly D&D nights with your cousins don't happen as often as before due to everyone's work schedules but you do play as often as you can.
8. You are a hard worker - you have 4 or 5 jobs.  Personally I think that is a bit much and I remind you to keep at least a day free in the week to see your friends, sleep, and play. 
9. You still have the part-time job with Lakeshore School Supplies, delivering and putting together furniture and other items for local schools.  That has slowed down quite a bit but they still call you from time to time. You like getting called for the "away" jobs that involve an overnight stay and free hotel breakfast. You work at the local Lowe's in the evenings, usually 4 or 5 nights a week, with a day shift every so often. Tropical Smoothie Cafe keeps you busy in the early mornings into the afternoons.  That started out as one day a week, but some weeks you work 3 or 4 days. When the apartment complex in the neighborhood needs extra help, you'll do snow removal, salt the sidewalks and other maintenance work. And you have an online coding job that I do not even pretend to understand. :-D
10. You are still a night owl though these early morning jobs are making you go to bed much earlier than you would normally prefer.  A few times you have fallen asleep in your dinner.
11. You went downhill skiing for the first time recently.  It was fun! But you experienced your first sports injury ever and first broken bone ever.  You slid headfirst into an electrical box and broke your nose!  You said it didn't hurt that much though the blood was a bit alarming.  The ride on the snowmobile with the ski patrol was fun.  No concussion due to wearing a helmet and a visit to the ENT a few days ago fixed your nose without needing surgical intervention.  That was a big relief to all of us.
12. You still do a lot around the house without being asked.  
13. You planted a tree in the backyard!
14. You still don't seem to feel the cold when outdoors but you will put on more layers without rolling your eyes too much at me.
15. You quietly listen and pay attention and that makes you an inventive and thoughtful gift giver.
16. You still love turkey subs with lots of veggies.  New favorites are white pizza (with spinach!) & Rueben sandwiches.  You like Greek, Indian and Thai food.
17. You cut your hair short again and your curls are back.
18. You still love a hooded shirt and a leather jacket.  You "borrowed" your brother's fleece-lined hoodie and have lived in it this winter.  Yeah, he's not getting it back.  (I did buy you one too that's exactly the same but... ?)
19. You are always up for playing with the little cousins.  You are great with little kids, very patient listening to them and getting down on the floor to play with them.
20. You often house & dog sit for relatives.  You like the little bit of independence and privacy and love their dog.  Whenever we go over there she is so happy to see her buddy and stays glued to your side.  
21. You spend an equal amount of time telling Paul to stop singing so loud as you do hugging him.  You are always aware of where he is and what he is doing.  He prefers it when you are "in charge" because you let him eat snacks!

1. Final year of high school!  Senior Perks! You are still "the Mayor of North" and a walk through the hall is all fist bumps and high fives.  
2. You still go to the Harkness Center for half the day and have settled into that routine well. This semester your internships there will be with the Salvation Army and Joann Fabrics.
3. Your first district internship this year was at Anderson's Ice Cream and you *loved* it.  You did a really really great job and got a glowing report.  We really see the progress you are making towards working independently without your job coach being right next to you.  You just started this week at BJs and are very excited about working there.  Bonus that your uniform includes a hat :-D
4. We have started looking for adult day hab programs for you next year.  It's stressful for us but we are seeing some good options, so we are getting more confident that we will find a good placement for you.  Priorities are that you are with other kids your age, you are out in the community and have a variety of activities to keep you busy and engaged and active.
5. We went to Disney on Ice a few weeks ago and you loved it as much as ever. Dad and I enjoyed watching you just as much as the skaters.
6. In health news, your thyroid is still good & your cholesterol is too.
7. This fall you joined Unified Volleyball and you really enjoyed it.  You were a stealth point getter :-D  Special Olympics bowling is happening now, as is Unified Bowling with school.  You love having your own ball and shoes and being with your friends and teammates.  Unified Basketball signups are in a few weeks!
8. Adaptive Swim just started up again and you were SO happy to get back in the water!  We switched up the days a bit so you don't have more than one activity in a day.
9. Your teacher started a Unified Club after school once a month just so you can all do some social things and that has been a lot of fun.
10. Your recital piece for dance this year is going to be super heroes.  You keep telling Miss Chris that your favorite superhero is FoodMan (from a Wiggles DVD) and you laugh and laugh when you tell her that.
11. We finally made it to Gigi's Playhouse and you are taking a Narrative Photography class.  You were a bit hesitant at first being in a new place with new people but when they handed out the cameras your smile was so big!  There will be a gallery showing at the end of April with the opportunity to sell some of your art.
12. Your friends at school that you have speech with asked if they could have a birthday party for you since this is a "big" birthday.  I love that you all take care of each other and that you have such a big friend group.  Mrs. W. always gets the best photos of you all too!
13. Meat sticks and pickles and craisins are still your favorite snacks.  Pasta is still your top meal request.  Making your own breakfast almost always includes meatballs.  You like to lie on the floor in between the ottoman and the couch and have a little snack picnic, which cracks us up.
14. We had to get another hat rack to accommodate your growing collection.  It's still hard to choose the hat of the day each morning though!
15. Your favorite shirts are the ones from Life Is Good and your North or Unified shirts.
16. Orange is still your favorite color.
17. You have been listening to a lot of Elvis lately.  
18. We are hoping for two respite weekends at Cradle Beach this year (last year there was a lot of sickness/staff shortages so you only got to go once.) We are also hoping Kiwanis Camp happens this summer for a week.  That also got cancelled this past summer due to staff shortages but they planned a lot of lovely day things for everybody instead - a movie, a picnic, a boat ride, etc. so you still had fun.
19. You still love planning what we are getting for take-out on the weekends.  
20. You are starting to like staying up later at night and sleeping in when you can.  You complain loudly when it is time to go to bed.  
21. You still give out hugs with abandon.  Hopefully that never changes!  Dad and I get our fair share but Mark gets far more than us - than anyone - and you always look for him first no matter what.