Thursday, September 14, 2006

docile i am not


Aaron was chosen as one of the three kids to be on a Down syndrome awareness bus ad this fall. His photo shoot was last night.

The two other children there were little girls, who obediently obeyed every single thing the photographer said to them.

They were picture perfect little models, posing and hugging and smiling.

There were bright lights, a lot of people, and noise. Aaron sat cooperatively in the chair beside the little girls for about 15 seconds. Then one of the girls bonked heads with him.
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Then he was done with the blasted photo shoot. For the next hour, he laid on the ground and wailed, picked his nose, ate the contents of his nose, screamed when a little girl came near him, yelled 'Mom! Mom!' when the photographer tried to adjust his position, ran around looking for the door, stuck his hands down his pants, sat with his tongue hanging out and kicked a hole in the background paper.

The picture you see above may be the best photograph taken of Aaron all night.

Thank god for the magic of cut and paste and Photoshop.

Aaron's part for Down syndrome awareness is making us aware that kids with Down syndrome aren't all docile. Many people with Down syndrome are super high energy and all have very distinct minds of their own.

3 Comments:

Blogger jennifergg said...

My son is painfully shy. I thought all children with Down syndrome were outgoing? :)

Love this post.

9:01 AM  
Blogger CJ said...

You mean they're supposed to be docile?? Wow, I missed out on THAT one twice! I love how our kids defy the stereotypes. I bet the photographer had a much better story to tell about YOUR son than those prim and proper little girls!

12:11 PM  
Blogger Kate said...

Let's here it for breaking down that docile stereotype! In 11 years of teaching with maybe a dozen students with Down Syndrome I have taught or consulted with I have had exactly NONE that were docile. Rowdy, mischievous, aloof, ornery, hilarious, hard working, kind, outrageous, stubborn, generous, and everything in between, but never docile. They have all been good dancers though!

7:33 PM  

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