Wes has been blowing raspberries like crazy. He tends to do it more when he’s getting tired/bored instead of crying. Yesterday on our way home from camping he was getting ready for a bottle, but we were still a few minutes from town, so he had to wait. He was whining a little, but blowing raspberries more. John said, “Well, at least he’s got his boat to keep him happy.” Because that’s exactly how he sounds–like he’s driving a speedboat. He’d be really cute in a captain’s hat behind the wheel of a toy boat.

He’s also strong enough now that we can stand him up in his crib and help him grab hold of the side and then let go so he’s standing up essentially alone. He’s getting stronger all the time.

We took him on his first camping trip over the weekend to Camp Ensign northeast of Heber City. He hardly even knew he was in the middle of nature because he got to play and do everything like normal. Just in the middle of mountains and pine trees instead of in our living room.

We had hobo dinners and s’mores Friday night like normal campers, but we went to sleep in style. We brought our portable DVD player for the car ride, but it turns out that there was an electrical outlet near our tent site, and my brother managed to round up a 25-foot extension cord, sooo…we fell asleep watching Jimmy Stewart in Harvey.

We let Wes sleep in the car seat in our tent with several layers of clothing, hats, socks, and blankets. He apparently was so comfy that he slept soundly till 8 a.m. Saturday morning in spite of near-freezing temperatures overnight. I nearly iced over because it turns out I’m an idiot and don’t know how to properly bundle myself up in a mummy sleeping bag.

The next day we visited Smith and Morehouse Reservoir up the road where we enjoyed the hot weather and I got a Birkenstock tan on my feet.

Wes has his nine-month checkup tomorrow. Can’t believe he’s nearly a year. Time flies.

I guess when you combine one mom who loves ice cream with one dad who adores chocolate, you end up with a chocoholic ice cream addict baby.

Tonight we ate out at Olive Garden (my mom-in-law’s treat, as she’s in town), and for dessert I had some chocolate gelato. Wes sure seemed interested in it, so at last I gave in and let him try some.

He was really into it. Check out this video of him. Whenever he saw the spoon approaching, his mouth would open, his tongue would hang out, and his limbs would wriggle with excitement. This is one serious chocoholic ice cream addict baby.

It’s great that Wes is at an age now that I can plop him on the floor so he’s sitting up, drizzle toys all around him, and let him have at it. If he’s not hungry and he’s not tired, this keeps him entertained for quite a while.

Today I was sitting by him while he played, just watching him. He’s so happy. He chews on his toys a bit, then looks up at me and I smile at him and he smiles back, then goes back to chewing his toys. What a simple, perfect existence he has. His baby blessing in December said that he’s on Earth to gain a body for as long as the Lord sees fit. People with Down syndrome have a shorter life expectancy (about 55 years), which means, assuming that he’s healthy overall and so are we, we might outlive him. But it makes me happy to see him with a healthy body, playing with toys, exploring the world, finding joy all around him.

On Friday his therapist came and did a six-month evaluation for those record-keeping folk in the government who fund the program and want to make sure our kids are making progress. Well, Wes sure has come a long way in six months since he started working with a therapist. Most of it, really, is all Wes. I feel like the therapist and I help him minimally, that most of it is Wes making strides all on his own, at his own pace. But I still love that the therapist comes and shares my joy in Wesley’s progress and gives me tips of how I can help him along.

Wes is doing well overall. A few things to work on include helping him learn his own name and also recognize that I’m Mom and John is Dad. I hold him close to my face and say, “Where’s Mom?” And then I put his hands on my face and he smiles as I say, “There’s Mom!” Sometimes he puts his hands on my face on his own accord, but I think it might still be a bit accidental. In any case, he thinks it’s a fun game and he smiles big when we play it.

We’re also supposed to help him learn to put his arms out when we reach out to pick him up. I’m not quite sure how to teach him this trick. I ask him, “Do you want up?”, because I’ve been using the word “up” for a while and hope he’s figuring out what it means, and hold my hands out to him, but all I get in return so far is a blank stare. So we’ll keep working on that.

This past week John and I bought him a booster seat since we don’t have a high chair.

This was in part to help motivate me to persist in feeding him baby food. He’s still such a little guy that he doesn’t eat a whole lot–just six four-ounce bottles throughout the day–and he doesn’t need a lot of baby food. A single jar can last a few days. Besides, he’s still a spitter-upper, and Wes + baby food = colorful spit up. And that gets tiresome after a while. But I’ve been trying to be more diligent about giving him solids at least a couple times a day to get him used to it. I’m not sure when he’s going to start eating more than he does, but he is managing to gradually gain weight and grow bigger (he’s about 14 pounds now).

Wes has a new favorite chew toy:

Bookmarks are his new love. I take off the tassel so it’s safer to chew on. Still no sign of teeth.

Wes and I arrived back yesterday from Iowa. So much more happened in Iowa that I had time to blog about while actually there.

Wednesday, May 21

Today my mom, Wes, and I visited a friend from our church in Dubuque whose 18-year-old son, Ty, has Down syndrome. I remember after Wes was born she wrote me an email saying what a wonderful gift Ty has been to her family. It was such a joy to visit with her and Ty and hear about the great things Ty’s doing, including being on the high school swim team, playing baseball in the summer on a junior league, and playing soccer too. He was leaving the day after I saw him to be in the Iowa Special Olympics for biking and swimming. His mom told me that his HS swim coach has said that every team needs a Ty. No matter what his time is, no matter what place he comes in at, when he touches the pool wall and finishes the race he throws his arms in the air in exuberant victory. It’s not all about winning; it’s about finishing the race.

Here’s Wes and Ty.

And here’s Ty playing soccer (sort of) with Wes.

Thursday, May 22

Today we all drove 3 1/2 hours south to Nauvoo, IL to see the LDS temple (where John and I were married in 2002) and enjoy the historical sites.

We dressed for nice weather, but it turned cold and rainy on our way there. We stopped for lunch at the Nauvoo Mill & Bakery. It’s our favorite place to eat in Nauvoo. They sell a lot of whole wheat bakery items, and their sandwiches are tasty.

Then we bundled up as best we could and walked around the temple grounds.

John and I posed for pictures on these stairs on our super-humid wedding day six years ago.

These statues of Joseph and Hyrum Smith have been added since I got married.

The temple is set high on a hill overlooking the Mississippi River valley. Here’s my little bro Matt and me with the Mississippi River behind us. Matt’s a great photographer.

Friday, May 23

Today I had a party! My best friends growing up were in my girl scout troop, so we had a Troop 74 reunion that included all but one of us (we missed you, Katy!). Plus, this is the first reunion that included babies, since three of us had kids this year, and two significant others. Here we are with the Baby Girl Scouts (except only one of them’s actually a girl) and The British Fiancé.

I was also so excited that four of our moms came (five if you count my own). Here’s Cheryl with Wes.

And here’s me, Erin, and Steph.

I had so much fun seeing everyone and am glad we could all get together. I didn’t get many photos because I was having too much fun mingling. Thanks to all who came. I have the best friends on the planet.

Sunday, May 25

On our first day in Iowa we went to Walmart and I saw a whole shelf display of weather radios. I thought how odd that was, since we don’t use weather radios in Utah. I bet no one there even knows what a weather radio is. It’s a handy contraption to have when you live someplace like the Midwest where severe storms and tornadoes can form suddenly. Whenever the National Weather Service issues a watch or warning a super-loud alarm sounds, followed by the official information. Tonight, starting around six, my parents’ radio was going off about every five minutes as a storm developed and drew nearer. We were glued to the TV for about three hours, waiting to see where the storm would go. As it happens, the worst of the storm missed us, but spawned an F5 tornado in Parkersburg about 120 miles due west that did extreme damage and claimed several lives.

I took some video of our evening. Here’s Wes, completely oblivious, using his great new holding-up-his-own-bottle skill while the weather radio is blaring in the background.

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Here you can hear the tornado sirens.

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This shows a bit of the TV weather news. By the way he’s dressed, the meterologist looked like he just came to work as quick as he could to get on air. You can hear the thunder outside.

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And this is the coolest video because it shows the lightning and–right at the end–a lightning bolt. The flash of light that you see right before the bolt is so brilliantly bright that if you pause the video on that exact moment you can see my family’s farm lit as bright as if it’s mid-day. The flash of light actually startled me enough that my finger reflexively hit the “off” button on my camera, and I missed recording the super-loud BOOM of thunder that closely followed the lightning bolt.

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Wes has only been in Iowa for six days, but the Iowa corn air must be good for him because he has picked up several new skills since coming here.

1. Holding up his own bottle

John’s been working on this with him for months, but suddenly, when John’s not here to appreciate it, Wes decided to start holding up his bottle by himself. I find it extremely liberating for both of us. Now I can eat my own breakfast while he eats his.

2. Eating in high chair

We don’t have a high chair at home, but my folks have one. Yesterday was his first eating-in-a-high-chair experience.

3. Holding onto feet

A few months ago his therapist asked me if Wes was beginning to grab onto his feet yet. I told her that I thought he didn’t know where his feet were and didn’t care. Well, all at once he’s found his feet (finally) and likes to hang on to them, too. Yesterday I saw him sucking on both big toes simultaneously.

4. Playing in bath

At home Wes sits in an infant bath that is reclined and not roomy enough for toys. But my parents have an inflatable rubber ducky bath that lets Wes sit up while he bathes and has room for him to play.

He loves it. He’s not totally stable because the bottom of the bath is inflated like an air mattress, so he bounces around while he plays. But he generally manages to keep his balance.

Here are a couple videos from bath time. After the second video ended Wes reached so far forward to grab a toy that he fell face-first into the water. I pulled him up before he had a chance to inhale, but that was the end of bath time.

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Wesley and I are still in Iowa. Wes has been playing a lot, and smiling a lot.

Wes has been playing lots with his cousin Savannah. She’s 18 months old, ten months older than he is.

They get along very nicely.

Today he got to try out the swing with his grandpa Holt.

On Friday I went with my sister to our old high school where we thoroughly embarrassed our seventeen-year-old brother by conspicuously carrying our kids through the halls and pausing to exclaim at all the photos of the former academic and sports award winners that we used to know. He walked twenty feet in front of us, trying to pretend he didn’t know why these two girls with babes in arms were following him around and occasionally calling out, “Hey Matt, when’d they change this?” But we very sneakily stashed our camera in the diaper bag and pulled it out when no one was looking.

On Sunday my little bro graduated from high school.

Here’s Wes, watching the ceremony intently on my dad’s lap.