Tonight I was making myself a smoothie in the blender for myself. It had skim milk, ice, banana, and chocolate (yummmmm). Wes was hanging around watching intently, and was a little fussy, so I thought maybe he was hungry, too. I’m trying to feed him more of what I’m eating so he can get more Big Boy Food in his diet (this morning he ate some of my pancakes and eggs, and sausage ground up in the grinder). But I didn’t want to share the smoothie because it had banana in it, and bananas mess him up in the diaper department. So I pulled out a jar of baby food, which I don’t feed him very often, except for prunes. This jar was macaroni and cheese. (It tasted bland to me, and I don’t know how babies put up with it when there’s Kraft in the world. I guess he’s better off not knowing what he’s missing.) He ate half a jar, and then I thought maybe I should give him some version of my smoothie. So I blended together whole milk and Ovaltine– which has vitamins in it, at least, on top of the sugar. I put it in a bottle for him and he seemed to like it.

So, essentially I fed my baby mac and cheese and a chocolate milk shake for dinner. I was aiming for something good, but maybe I missed the mark?

Wesley turned fifteen months old last week. I took him to the doctor yesterday for his checkup, and he was pretty unhappy to be there. Between the nurse and the doctor, Wes was measured for length four times because he kept twisting and trying to roll over. Then it took about five minutes to weigh him. Once he’s on the scale he has to hold still until the scale settles on an official weight. He kept reaching for the nurse, reaching for me, trying to leap off, trying to escape any way he could. Finally a second nurse came over and distracted him by telling him how cute he is. Then the scale slowed enough that the nurse took a close guess before taking Wes off. To top it all off, the poor guy came away with four shots, two in each leg.

On to the stats. The computer was down, so the doctor couldn’t pull up the Down syndrome growth chart. Instead he went away and came back with a book that has a chart in it that he used to generally figure out where Wes is.

Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz
Height: 26 3/4 inches (this started at 21 inches and went as high as 28…hence why they had to measure him four times)
Head circumference: 42 cm (16 1/2 inches)

This puts him in the 10-15% for weight and 5% for height. On the charts for normal kids he doesn’t even show up. At his 12-month checkup he was 15.95 lbs and 27.5 inches long. I’m not sure what happened to his length; did he shrink? I guess it wasn’t very accurate last month. I have to think that after four measurements his most recent length is probably more accurate.

At every checkup the doctor gives me a paper that says “What is Going on at (age).” I know Wes is doing great, but whenever I get these papers I read them and always go, “Wow! Kids can do that at this age???” It amazes me. Like, “Children at this age usually can walk well, walk backwards, and crawl up stairs.” We’ve got one of the three; he loves those stairs. Also, “They will scribble spontaneously, recognize themselves in the mirror, and find an object placed out of sight.” I’m not sure he does any of those things yet; possibly he might look for something out of sight. Then there’s, “By now your baby should have been weaned from a bottle to a cup.” We are far from that. The kid still drinks formula as his mainstay, but he’s eating more big-boy foods, like PB&J sandwiches. He’ll eat about a fourth of a sandwich if I tear it into small pieces for him to pick up. I also feed him a lot of prunes and yogurt and oat bran to help with constipation. And he likes graham crackers for snacks. Beyond that, though…life’s a little limited when you still have no teeth. If he is still toothless at 18 months he’ll get some X rays.

Last week I made chocolate chip pancakes. I made them for me, but Wes was eying them, so I popped him in the booster seat and gave him some. The result?

One of Wesley’s favorite pass times is playing with his burp cloths. I don’t know why they fascinate him so, but sometimes he can be playing with one quietly for a long time. He also likes the dishwasher. I have to be sure to push the dishes inside so he’s not pulling out plates and knives. And the other day I found him bent over with his mouth on the surface, sucking up the water that had accumulated there. No idea how clean/not clean that water was, so I pulled him back, but he kept going for it. So now I have to make sure the dishwasher surface is dry before he plays near it.

Wes has a cough, a deep cough. I bought him some Vicks Baby Rub today, but not sure it helped. I took him shopping with me this afternoon (it’s supposed to snow tomorrow, so I got it out of the way today). First I took him to a toy store called Funfinity. I’d never really been there before. I bought Wes three Christmas presents:

– 3 Magnetic Farm Friends (for him to play with on the fridge)
– 20 Wooden Dinosaur Magnets (ditto)
– 30 Wooden blocks in a cart (for him to stack and to practice pulling the little cart)

Hopefully he wasn’t paying too much attention and will still be surprised. When I checked out the guy at the register asked if I wanted to make a $1 donation to Kids Who Count, and I said sure. He started to say what a great organization it is and I said, I know, we use it for Wesley. He told me about two disabled kids in his family and how great Kids Who Count has been, and I told him how Wes gets three therapists to visit him every month and how great they are. He asked me what Wes’s diagnosis is and I told him. And he said he thought DS kids have the cutest faces and smiles. Which of course they do.

Then Wes and I went to the Quilted Bear. I was looking for candy-making supplies, but alas, found none. I had Wes in the Baby Bjorn carrier so I wouldn’t have to hold him or lug the car seat with him in it. People always stare at Wes when he’s in the baby carrier like that, with his little face poking out the top. After Quilted Bear we walked down the strip to the Dollar Store, then Robert’s Crafts, and then Deseret Book. At the Dollar Store Wes and I bought some sandwich bags that have holiday motifs on them for giving away goodies to our neighbors and friends. And at Roberts I bought melting chocolate, sprinkles, and sucker sticks. Lastly, we headed to Kmart and bought three bags of double stuff Oreos. (We’re going to make some version of these.)

By the time we were in Kmart Wes was getting tired and very vocal. Not whiny or crying–just making noise. Kind of loud, insistent noise. “Ba ba ba BAH!!!” Then I dragged him one more place–the grocery store to get French bread for dinner. We had been out shopping for a while, and Wes fell asleep just as we got home a little before six p.m. He’s still asleep in his car seat. I should probably go wake him and see if he wants a bottle or a clean diaper or something.

Tonight we took Wes to the annual Christmas party for families who have kids with Down syndrome. It’s sponsored by the United Angels Foundation, which did a terrific job making it an enjoyable night.

Santa was there. We woke Wes up especially to see Santa, so when he finally got to sit on the jolly man’s lap Wes was still kind of groggy and serious.

But we managed to get a smile out of him.

(Here’s Wes on Santa’s lap last year when he was 2 months old. He must’ve been a smidgen groggy then, too.)

Then the Sparkly Pals performed. They’re a Utah dance group of kids with Down syndrome. When Wes is three years old he can join if he wants to. Now, you just try to tell me that these kids aren’t cute:

I rarely look at Wes and see Down syndrome in him. But after being in a room with lots of kids with DS running around it wasn’t hard to see the same features in Wes. He really is part of a special community, and what nice people are part in that community! We had such a good time tonight chatting with other parents and meeting their children. We listened to their stories of the various physical challenges their kids have faced and still deal with–multiple open heart surgeries, being on oxygen until they’re four, needing a gavage feeding tube for months or years, sleep apnea problems requiring a c-pap (oxygen mask–try forcing that on a two-year-old!), acid reflux requiring surgery to make the esophagus one-way, leukemia (which is more common with DS) and radiation treatments (the kid’s only eleven)… I could go on and on. Wes is really thriving. He has been blessed with excellent physical health and a strong body. People commented on his good muscle tone (because he can close his mouth all the way without his tongue hanging out) and how great it is that he’s crawling, standing (a little), and so active. Wes is doing great.

Today while we went to Salt Lake a wonderful family in our neighborhood looked after Wesley. When we came home and I went to pick him up their son said that Wesley was out shopping at KMart with his mom and grandma. So I went home empty-handed (which was fine–more of a break for me!). A little while later they dropped off Wes and, lo and behold, he had new shoes! He’s never worn shoes before, but doesn’t he looked very manly in them?

Wes will turn fifteen months old next week. He likes to walk when we hold onto his hands and help him. It makes him break out in a great big grin every time. And when he’s standing up with our help and we let go, if he doesn’t realize we’re not holding him up anymore, he’ll stand there for a few seconds all by himself. Today for the first time we saw him pull himself to standing and then let go of the object he had been hanging onto and stand for a few seconds. He’s getting braver, I think. The average walking age for kids with Down syndrome is about two years old, and I think Wes will come out ahead in that area. Especially now that he’s got these stylin’ shoes to sport everywhere he goes!

Tonight I caught Wes kissing (or possibly licking) his reflection on the fridge.

Video of Wes kissing the fridge.