Maybe the next Zoolander?................

About a year and a half ago, I saw a message on the NDSS website about a modeling agent looking for models with "disabilities". Knowing that our friend Emma Sage http://emmasage.blogspot.com/ had done some modeling thru this same agent, I went ahead and sent in some photos of Ryan.

Well, he has since done about 10 photo shoots to date. He's been in the T*YS R US catalog, will be in some H*ughton M*fflin textbooks, and is also supposed to be on the cover of the next Fl*ghouse catalog. He has so much fun on these shoots, and to me, it's a great way to show "mainstream" America how "typical" a child with Down Syndrome is. (plus, oh yeah, he makes a nice chunk of change too! lol)

Anyway, in all of his TRU shoots, he's always modeling Thomas the Tank things:
The train set -



The inflatable ball pit -


and now his latest shoot took place last week, and he was modeling a red Thomas the Tank halloween costume.

This completely cracks me up because Ryan and I are both crazy about the band TRAIN and Thomas the Tank is, of course, a train. Coincidence? I think not! ;)

Here are a couple of outtakes from his day:
Getting his makeup done! lol

Playing around before the shoot:

So, be on the lookout for their Halloween ads in the upcoming weeks and if you see the ad, please let me know. There is a chance that they won't use his picture, (that's what happened with the inflatable - the ad came out, but it was a different kid in the pit! - the bastards! lol)

The irony is that this child that I was so afraid of at birth, has turned out to be the one I brag about the most! Go figure!