They didn't say it...

I've never personally heard someone call my kids retarded, stupid, or annoying.

Ever.

But I've had MANY people give the look or body language that that is what they are thinking.

I can't really be mad at them.

They probably don't have anyone in their lives the they care about who have any sort of disability or impairment.

I can feel sorry for them though.

Again, today, after taking the girls to summer camp I took Brother with me to do some grocery shopping.

I was a little sad because a couple of times this morning while getting the girls ready he kept saying, "I don't have summer camp, huh?" "That's OK, I don't have summer camp." "Can I go to summer camp."

It broke my heart a little so I wanted to make our errand running a little funner for him so he helped me with the grocery shopping.

Brother LOVES apples. They have to be green—golden delicious or granny smith. So we went to the market to pick up some apples and he was so excited to help pick them out. I was teaching him how to tell if they're crispy or not and in his excitement and desire to learn he made a couple apples fall.

A passing patron noticed and gave me a dirty look as if I had thrown them at her or something.

When he'd find an apple he thought would be really good he would sniff them and try to put it back if it didn't smell good enough. When he smells things he makes sure to press his nose right on whatever he is sniffing so I was trying to catch him each time so I could put those specifically smelled ones into our bag.

Again someone standing next to us looked disgusted and appalled that my son would act this way.

Brother was having such a great time helping me and getting the produce bags for me and helping me pick out fruit and vegetables. I was teaching him how to shop for fresh foods and he was smiling the whole time, so proud of himself.

I was looking at something, I can't remember what it was, but Brother decided we needed a bag for that. I hadn't noticed that he had walked in front of someone who was looking at produce so he could get a bag for me. When I realized what was happening I politely told Brother that it is not nice to stand in front of people and to wait for a better time. I told him to say sorry but he was too embarrassed so I apologized to the lady for him.

She ignored me but made sure to look at Brother with slight disgust.

This is where I start to feel embarrassed and I start trying to get Brother to stop acting like him... how sad. I became embarrassed because I was hurt by how people were reacting. I kept trying to shush him and started to discourage him from helping me.

I didn't want people giving us dirty looks and rolling their eyes as they walked away.

I think at that point I become defensive of both mine and Brother's feelings.

Then, I was quickly relieved of my worldly cares when Brother nonchalantly moved a lady's cart to the side so we could get to the chicken. I immediately leaned over to Brother and explained he should ask first and the woman interrupted and smiled at me and said, "It's OK."

Thank you.

To the lady that had enough sense and decency to see that Brother was only trying to be helpful and not trying to be rude or disrespectful, you are one in a million.

Maybe I've been that person at one point or other that gives the dirty look or the passing judgement.

If I ever have, I hope I never do it again.

I spent the rest of our shopping trip focusing on the people who were kind to Brother, like the sample guy at Costco who just chuckled when Brother snuck and extra piece of jerky or the lady who smiled when Brother was touching all the little girl night gowns deciding which one Baby would like best or the time he yelled at me and I told him, "I love you too," and people smiled.

So my UP today was the people who understood and accepted that today was my day with my son teaching him how to go grocery shopping, regardless of how many things he did out of the ordinary.

One of his proud selfies

Day 162 of 365 Days of Up