The local Down Syndrome group offers incredible opportunities for our kids. Josiah bowled with them on Saturday and attended the Houston Astros baseball game with them on Sunday.  Last night he went to an Art Class and tonight he is going Go Cart riding.  The fun never ends and I love it.

The problem is, Josiah doesn’t seem to share the same level of enthusiasm as I do about all of these incredible opportunities.  Truth be told, our boy would prefer to stay home and do nothing.  He likes sameness.  He likes his routine and he likes not having any demands placed on him.  Venturing out to new places is not his idea of fun. That being said, he did do really well bowling on Saturday.  It was our 3rd attempt to get him to Bowling Camp and the first one in which he stayed and actually touched a ball.  So we are definitely making progress.

In Art Class last night, Josiah declined the protective apron.  No surprise there.  He’s never worn an apron and was not about to start now.  Did I think about that before hand and send him in old, it’s-quite-alright-if-these-get-ruined-clothes? Of course not.  In fact, his shirt was dirty right before we walked out the door, so I quickly changed him into a newer, cuter one.  Brillant!

Josiah was not too thrilled about being in the Art studio.  We found the most inescapable spot, in the back corner of the room and sat him down.  He was handed a paper plate with blobs of blue, green and white paint, a big brush and a large white canvas. Tentatively, he dabbed at it. It was slow going at first, but eventually, he seemed to get the hang of it and added some strokes on his own.  The colors were filling up the empty spaces. Then Josiah decided tasting the paint might be a better plan.

We switched him to a sponge to smudge the color around when suddenly we noticed he was painting his mouth more than the canvas. He added some paint to his hair before gripping the sponge so tightly with his teeth it took 2 of us to pry it away from him. Josiah had a death grip on that thing.

His amazing caregiver held his face still as I wedged my fingers between his teeth and forced them open to yank it out.

That pretty much wrapped up the painting fun.  By this point Josiah had endured Art Class quite a bit longer than I had anticipated anyway.  His masterpiece complete, he endured a few group pictures with some of the other artists and we took that boy home for a bath.  I’m not quite sure if more of the paint went on Josiah or on the canvas. It doesn’t really matter.

Josiah can paint his entire body if he wants, as long as he keeps on painting. We may be on to something here. In 2012, this painting sold for $32.1 million.