A Day with Blogging Friends... Ella and Deedah's Dad

So today was fun! We got to visit a bit with one of our blogging friends Denise and her sweet daughter Ella over at CHOC. Ella has been battling Leukemia and is in her 5th round of treatment...one more and she gets to go home, for good....what a fabulous day that will be!! All the way there Reid chirped Ella's name and he held firmly onto a little turkey art project he made for her...but when it came time to give it to her, well he kind of became an indian giver. (ooh, that felt kind of weird writing that...yikes I don't think that was politically correct...but let's just say he was none too happy seeing her walk down the hall with it). Pictures below of the art hand off... or should I say stand off! ;)

Denise...Ella is just so sweet and just so precious, we enjoyed our time with you!

"Hey...that's my tuuuurkey!"

But then...the fun continued. When I got back, sitting in my inbox was an email from Phil, "Deedah's" dad from the documentary I wrote about here stating that he was in town and would love to give the boys their own copy of Deedah... well, absolutely we were going to make that happen. A hop and a skip and a few left turns and we were there to meet another blogging friend. I love it...I love life's little surprises. So, this evening our own copy of Deedah was playing in the DVD player, what an absolute treat! I am placing the trailer in this post again in case you did not see it before. This is such a great tool to open the discussion with elementary school children about bullying... and these two siblings being the catalyst for that discussion is a perfect match. They are both adorable and articulate in their own rights! I could tell my Luke really enjoyed it as well...he and Charlotte who is nicknamed Deedah are the same age and are both the older siblings of brothers with Down syndrome and share many of the same concerns. Although Charlotte was very sweet in the way she discussed her concerns where as Luke got up off the couch and demonstrated how he would ...quote..."bash their heads in if anyone bullied Reid" ...so perhaps they are similar in "many ways" but not all ...oooh boys! ;) I think another reason Luke really enjoyed watching was that Charlotte was asked if she liked her nickname Deedah and she broke into a sweet smile and affirmed that she did because her brother gave it to her when he first attempted to say "sister".... Luke has the nickname Dah which was given to him from Reid when he first attempted to say "brother". So, I think it was very fun for Luke to hear there is a "girl version" of his nickname.
Okay...I just thought of one other thing and then I am hitting the hay because it is way past my bedtime. My last thought is this.... if this is used as a tool in schools to open the discussion of bullying which in big part is its purpose ....I just had visions of lots of brothers and sisters sitting at their desks as this documentary is being shown who have brothers or sisters that others might see as "different" in some way and I vision these young people almost sighing a sigh of relief that the elephant in the room has an opportunity to be talked about... that they can then share how much they care about their family member and share their experience and help them to have a voice where as they might not feel they can out on the playground. Hopefully the discussion will lend itself for change out on the playground for those children's siblings as well.... I have a huge hunch it will.
***turn off my music at the bottom of the blog before watching the trailer...

Deedah Trailer from Philip May on Vimeo.