What we did last weekend: backyard camp out, roasted hot dogs, made s’mores, made silly faces.

Today marks the start of Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Like in years past, I feel kind of ‘meh’ about the whole idea of awareness. I mean, most people are aware of Down syndrome, right? Like, there aren’t huge populations of people who don’t, at least, know that there are people with Down syndrome in this world. Awareness is largely meaningless when most people are aware of it. It’s what you do after you become aware that counts. What I want is simple: I want you to accept that my kid’s diagnosis doesn’t define him. I want you to see him for who he is. I want you to accept him for who he is. I want you to respect him as you would respect any other human. I want you to do this for ANY person with a disability that you might meet. No false platitudes, no sympathetic noises, most definitely no inspiration porn.

I might post more this month about Down syndrome. I’m not going to post a list of facts. I’m not going to post pictures of lots of cute kids (other than my own, of course). I’m just going to show our life. It’s a life that’s both entirely affected and entirely unaffected by the presence of Down syndrome.