What would a mommy be without a pink purse?

Today I needed a break from the house. We’ve been working on potty training all week, which means we’ve been fairly homebound. Funny thing that a “break” for me entails taking the kids and doing something that they might enjoy. But at least we got out of the house.

I took them to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. It was our first time. Wes was pretty brave but Carissa was more timid about getting too close to the animals.

She was brave enough to touch the cow a few times.

They liked the duck pond. Wes spent most of the time tossing gravel at to the ducks. Carissa spent a bit of time watching the little birds land near her on the bench and fly away again.

Two kids and two kids.

They brought a miniature donkey out for kids to pet. Wes was more than willing to help by holding the lead rope. Carissa wouldn’t go near the donkey.

Wesley’s admission included a pony ride. He loved it and I had to use some serious persuasion skills to pull him away from there when it was over. We also got a wagon ride around the property that both kids liked.

After an hour or more I dragged them inside to wash up. Once Wes discovered that you turn the water on by stepping on a bar near the floor he was happy to stay there all day and play in the water.

It was lunchtime but I bought the kids suckers that Carissa picked out. She likes suckers; Wes not so much, but he took a few licks anyway. They were the kind that turn the tongue colors.

On the way home.

Every year in January I start looking forward to attending the Parade of Homes in June. It’s where home builders showcase some new homes that you can visit and walk through. I’ve gone every year for the last five or so years. Each year gets a little more challenging to attend as I add children and they get older.

This year I got to go a few times, sometimes with both kids (challenging, especially with Wes), once with just Carissa (blessedly easy compared to having both kids), and even once by myself (wow!!).

I had my camera the night it was me and Carissa. She is a fun little girl to hang out with. Because it was just me and her, and I didn’t have to keep a hand on Wes to keep him from running off or touching things or slipping under the barrier tape, we had time to slow down and enjoy each house we visited.

We saw some nifty things, like this live plant mural on the wall inside an ultra-mod house.

The same house had a rooftop deck with amazing valley views. We hung out here for a while, enjoying the warm breeze and soft pillows.

Another gorgeous house we walked through was very child-friendly. Carissa saw this reading nook and made herself right at home.

She’s really into trucks, motorcycles, cars, and buses, so this book she found was hard to drag her away from.

Visiting new, sparkly, innovative homes is fun. But sometimes after seeing such amazing houses it makes the sparse white box you live in feel a tad inadequate. Look at these two kid’s rooms. Somehow Wesley’s bare walls and unadorned bed seem kind of sad. At least he doesn’t care.

In June we had a free pool morning at this beautiful pool, courtesy of the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation. Wes loves being in the pool so we knew we had to go. It’s always nice to see other families with kids with Down syndrome. I’m used to how Wes looks; he just looks like Wes. But when we’re in a group with lots of people who look like Wes, I remember that he really does look like he has Down syndrome.

Carissa is pretty timid in the water. She warmed up after a while.

But Wes is always all smiles in the water.

John and I took turns with each kid.

The pool has a small water slide for the littles and a couple big slides. Wes kept asking to go on the giant slides but we made him stick to this little one.

Wes had fun.

Carissa is a couple months away from turning 2 and has more than enough massive curly hair to pull back into a pony tail.

Sometimes when she goes out to play she insists on wearing a hat–but it has to be Wesley’s baseball cap. It’s too big, so I put it on backwards so it doesn’t fall into her face.

She likes to play piano.

I enrolled Wesley in summer preschool this year, for the first time.

His preschool during the school year is actually a free service (because of his special needs; it counts as his therapy offered through the school district), and I have to pay for summer preschool, but my hope is that it’s worthwhile because 1) Wes loves school and 2) he gets speech therapy as part of the package. His speech is improving tremendously all the time, but the more help he gets, the better off he will be. Carissa is catching up to him pretty quickly.

He started this past week. The #1 awesome thing so far about this preschool is that it’s at a university, which means they do research, which means each classroom is attached to an observation room, which means I can sit behind a one-way mirror and watch Wes in action at school to see how he’s doing.

Before preschool started I met with the director, his teacher, and three aides (it was a little intimidating! I thought I was just going to meet with his teacher) and we talked about what they needed to know to help Wes succeed this summer. Their first question: “How does his regular preschool work with him?” My answer: “I have no clue.”

Which is absolutely true, although I wish it weren’t. During the school year Wes gets picked up by the bus, dropped off by the bus 2.5 hours later, and what happens in between is a total mystery to me. My only clues are the pictures he brings home and the quarterly speech therapy report.

I can ask Wes about school but he has no ability (yet) to feed me any information. I know he’s happy and I have to assume he’s learning. But WHAT he’s learning and HOW he’s learning it–no idea.

So now I can sit and watch. Also, the week’s classroom agenda hangs on the wall in the observation room. I can study it to see what books the class is reading, what themes they’re working on, and what activities they’re doing. That’s helpful.

(Oh, and in case you wondered, the other major questions the preschool people asked were, “Is he a runner?” and “Does he have a problem keeping his shoes on?”, both of which I answered with a big “Yes.” They’ve had other students with DS and know that they are masterful escape artists and, for some reason, hate keeping their shoes on.)

So far Wes has been given a lot of one-on-one time with an aide who has been shadowing him, although that probably will happen less and less. The director purposely kept the class numbers down a little to make the teacher/student ratio a little better so Wes can have extra help if needed. I appreciate that they’ve been keeping him in mind.

I’ve seen him push a toy train around, color on the white board, pet the class bunny (he liked that a lot), sing songs (also liked that a lot), sit in large group time (a little wiggly), and eat snacks. I did one time pass by the playground during outside time and was a little heartbroken to see him standing by himself, clinging to the bars of the fence, looking out instead of playing.

But I know he likes this playground because I’ve taken him around on it. It’s a nice set.

Wes seems to like snack time. It’s interesting to see him interact with and eat among other kids. In this picture he’s helping himself to another helping of yogurt. He was one of the last kids done eating.

He has six more weeks to go, a month off, and then he returns to his regular preschool for one last year before kindergarten.

I admit, while Wes is in school, Carissa and I–when not sitting in the observation booth–have been shamelessly enjoying some mother-daughter time. One day we drove to a bakery and got a piece of bread to eat. We sat outside and Carissa tossed little pieces to the birds on the sidewalk, which totally delighted her and was fun to watch. Another day we visited a bagel shop for breakfast and ate together while she looked out the window and exclaimed “Bus!” or “Truck!” every time one passed by.

And, yes, OK, one day we went shopping. Just for fun and no other reason. Carissa is the ideal shopping companion (UNLIKE Wes). She likes to touch the clothing and try on the sunglasses and bracelets.

Trying on maternity clothes (19 weeks).

I think this week we’ll hit the library, the animal museum, and take more walks around campus. It is summer, after all!