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.