Little Red Riding Hood: A hero with Down syndrome

ONCE UPON A TIME...

in a quiet clearing in a faraway wood, there lived a wise, brave and beautiful young lady named Natalia. Because of her fondness for dressing in a velvet cape of crimson rose, and a frock adorned with pictures of her favourite woodland friends, she became known by all who loved her as Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Riding Hood had fought valiantly to become strong, overcoming battles of health and development with a smile. And each day she worked as hard as she could to learn the skills she needed to go out into the big wide world by herself, and each day she drew others in with her humour and vivacious spirit, so that she could teach them all about her inclusive community, her determined family, her zest for life and her famous way of turning Big Bad Wolves into the gentlest of puppies.

Down Syndrome Awareness Month 2013 #DSAM2013

As parents and siblings and carers of children with Down's Syndrome we very quickly become top experts in our field. 

We are: 

doctors 

teachers

speech therapists 

story tellers

geneticists

physios

occupational therapists 

play specialists

artists

tailors (I'm very good at sewing up hems on sleeves)

nutritionalists

campaigners

historians

fighters

carers

mentors

spokespeople

The list goes on of course, but I for one wasn't quite so knowledgeable about what it meant to have Down's Syndrome when Natty was born nearly 7 years ago.
It has very much been a crash course, with Natty as our greatest teacher.

So I think we should be a little gentle on those who aren't in the 'inner circle' and don't quite have all their facts straight. Those who don't quite get the terminology correct or believe an outdated generalism to be true. Why would they? 

Certainly everyone is 'aware' of the condition, knows what Down's Syndrome is, looks like at least. And for we parents and those in the charity and support sector every single day is Down Syndrome Awareness Day/Month/Year.

So why are we doing this...? Do we need a Down Syndrome Awareness Month?

Well, as long as new parents continue to feel as worried and confused as we were in the early days, as long as 92% of parents with an antenatal diagnosis feel that Down's Syndrome is so scary that a termination is the only answer, as long as a professional working with adults with DS exists in the land who comes out with bafflingly ridiculous statements like "He could speak really well before he caught the Down's Syndrome," and as long as individuals with DS are the target of hate crime, offensive language or inexcusable bigotry around the world, then I feel an Awareness Month can only be a good thing.

And to those whose heart is in the right place but who let insensitivities slip, we can gently put them straight.

So, to raise awareness of certain issues or causes that you are involved with, to iron out a few myths, to signpost support groups or invaluable information, to let us know about charity events or to share your all time favourite blog post or article, please attach them in the comments section below, or join the blog hop linky at the bottom of this post. 

A blog hop also means that you visit others' posts, so this is a super -de-duper way of bringing the Down's Syndrome community together, making us all stronger. You can copy the code at the bottom to add to your post and the others in the linky will appear on your blog too.

Let's see if we can get 31 at least, one for every day of the month. 

Let's make a change together.

Puppy Pippin joins Downs Side Up

Before someone helpfully leaps in and tells me that dogs aren't just for Christmas, I'll explain that we have been toying with the idea of a puppy for many months. 

I favoured something large and robust. Daddy Downs Side Up thought something tiny would be easier to manage and less threatening to the girls. He was right.

3 days after Christmas a friends forwarded an ad for Chihuahuas that she had seen locally.  That, as they say, was that. And the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

The madness and travel of Christmas had passed. We were ready and the ideal dog was waiting.

Here is a *CUTE PIC KLAXON* photo of Natty meeting her dog Pippin for the first time. What has been lovliest is that she is no longer the tiniest member of the G Unit, the one who needs toiletting help and explanations of how life works. She is now explaining and dictating to the micro-puppy, who, in DS terms, is just the right size for her to manage.