Recently when Monica and her mom stopped by Gigi’s Playhouse, Lizz, the program coordinator, asked Monica about her job. Lizz asked Monica’s mom to write some notes so that Lizz could add this to her newsletter post about Monica’s participation at Gigi’s. Here is the post. https://gigisplayhouse.org/cleveland/participant-spotlight-monica/ Inspired at her favorite school OSU Lizz has been a great cheerleader for all the participants at Gigis. No shy bones there! She praises them for all their efforts and guides them to push themselves to do a little more. She has been a personal encouragement t ..read more

Nope! She is a guest speaker! First Year Students at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have a series of topics covered in Tuesday morning sessions. This week was Genetic Anomalies. Through a connection with the Upside of Downs, families with a member who has Down Syndrome were invited to meet with the medical students to talk about Down Syndrome. This was a great opportunity for us to show what a great life Monica has! While she has many challenges, she has many abilities and contributes to the world!  We wanted to help the medical students see that medical and developmental ..read more

Monica’s Dad loves to give Monica new challenges and watch her grow. He doesn’t let her go very long before trying something new for her. When Monica’s brother came home from college for a few days, he and Monica made the most of their time together. He is a lot of fun. Monica’s dad told them about a new indoor car racing place, so we went to check it out.  Boss Pro Karting is a family-run, privately held company in Cleveland. The owner and employees were very nice to us. Fortunately, it was a very slow time, the middle of a work/school day, so we had their undivided attention. When they show ..read more

April showers bring May flowers…and it doesn’t rain on Monica’s parade. Last weekend, Monica and I went to see Singing in the Rain at a nearby high school. The performance was very professional and a delight. Monica was dancing out of her seat. Having watched the youtube video clip of ‘Good Morning’ from the movie, she was thrilled to see it live and ‘feel’ the tapping on the stage. She has been smiling with a song in her heart all week. Spring weather finally came to Cleveland. Yesterday we picked up Monica’s bike from the bike shop. The last bike adventure of the fall had been quite a crash ..read more