Down Syndrome Awareness Month

October is Down Syndrome Awareness month. It's a time to celebrate the incredible people around us living with an extra chromosome. I continue to be inspired by the amazing children and adults I meet with Down Syndrome, and I'm really proud to be able to say that I am a Mum of a fantastic little man with a little something extra. We're looking forward to joining with family and friends, old and new, on the Down Syndrome Buddy Walk in a couple of weeks. It's a day we really enjoyed last year. We got to meet beautiful brand new babies with Down Syndrome, and watch performances by some of the gorgeous older children and young adults. It was a great day out, and I'm counting down the days until we get to go again.

Felix's Simian Crease

Hugs at the beach

Like a lot of my friends within the Down Syndrome Community, I'm going to try and write a fact about Down Syndrome every day this month. Today's fact is that some people with Down Syndrome are born with a Simian Crease across the palm of one, or both, of their hands. It is called a Simian Crease, because Simian monkeys have a straight crease across their palms. Not the most flattering comparison! No one is really sure why people with Down Syndrome are more likely to have a Simian Crease than other people, although I have heard it said that because of their poor muscle tone, babies with Down Syndrome don't clench their fists in utero like other babies and that could be why their palm sometimes has this crease. I know that Felix always had his hands open during my ultrasounds, unlike our other children who always had clenched fists, but I guess we may never really know why it happens. Felix has a Simian Crease across one of his palms.

Today I took Felix and Isaiah (14) down to the beach to try out my new camera and experiment with it a bit. Felix had a great play in the sand, and is getting so good at walking that he was able to walk across the sand quite easily without falling over. Isaiah is such a wonderful big brother and was happy to sit and dig holes, and even let Felix cover him with sand while I took photos. We all enjoyed the sunshine and a little taste of Summer coming. The photos on my blog are a couple of my favourites from today.