“Oh, Matthew’s unique. He’s awesome. Every day is a surprise with him.”

“He’s very responsive to music. So, that’s kind of where he’s learning a lot. He loves guitars. He has little Mickey Mouse guitars and he’s, like, just jamming along. And then drums. He’s gone through two different drum sets because he basically just ruins them. Because he plays so much with them.”

“He has a lot of energy.”

“The goal is to get him tired.”

“I know.”

“That’s the goal.”

“Here, Matthew. Clean your hands. And your mouth. Good job. High-five.”

“I mean, that’s pretty much what he does. He just runs around and plays with his toys. There’s not a lot at age 4.”

“I mean, I guess the whole point is that there’s nothing different from any other child. You know? And I was surprised at how he did with Isabella. We were, like, nervous how he was going to react with her. But he’s so loving. He’s loving to her. And it hasn’t been an issue.”

“He says ‘I’m sorry’ with this, right?”

“Yeah.”

“And then ‘thank you.’ He signs and he also, like, speaks, you know? When he wants things. You want milk? Matthew…Milk? Leche?”

“That’s another thing that they told us. Like, “Oh it’s too confusing for a child, especially with Down syndrome, to speak bilingual. Because two languages are going to confuse him. I was like, “you must not know Matthew. Because he understands you.” My parents only speak Spanish to him so. He understands them. And we speak both.”

“Well, having a kid with Down syndrome didn’t make any difference to me. He’s my son. And I would say not to be afraid. Every kid is different. Even a kid that has no problem, they’re still going to struggle.”

“It’s really hard, and I completely understand that what’s really scary is the future. But it’s not because of them. It’s because of everybody else and how they react to them. So it’s all about finding what he’s good at. Finding what works for him. Finding something that he likes. Every kid has that. They’re going to be good at something. They’re great at something. They’re going to hone a skill and attack it. He loves music, he loves singing, he loves dancing, he’s very social. So we’re going to play on that. And just nurture that. And see where it goes.