Life slowed down today. We went to the park. Carissa sat on a pink blanket in the shade while Wes played in the playground. He mostly stood and watched other kids. I wasn’t sure why he was watching more than playing, but he seemed content. After a while he discovered a girl from his preschool class. She was with a small group of kids, and they were running around together. He joined in and was finally having a blast, laughing and smiling as he ran after them. It made me happy to see him so happy.

After a minute or two they raced around a giant evergreen tree on the far side of the playground by the road. It’s so big that they all disappeared from view for a few seconds. I saw all the other kids emerge on the other side, but not Wes. I squinted and saw another little boy playing inside the hollow space beneath the branches, and I wondered if Wes was in there, too, but I couldn’t see him.

I left Carissa and walked over (had I known better, I should have run) just in time to see Wes in the street. A man stood in the street next to his minivan, holding up one hand to stop traffic, and using his other hand to push Wes back towards the sidewalk. I don’t know if this man had been pulling out of his parking space along the side of the playground when he saw Wes, or if he had been one of the cars driving down the street. All I know is that I saw my little, unassuming boy narrowly escape what could have been a devastating accident.

When we left the park and drove down the same street where he had been found, I pictured what it would be like for me as a driver if a little kid ran out onto the street from between the parked cars. I knew the kid wouldn’t have a chance.

I pray for my kids’ safety, and today a prayer was answered.

As I took Wes home I thought about how different things could have been. It could have involved a hospital, or much, much worse.

I held him tighter today. I gave him extra kisses. In a split second things could have been different. But I’m so glad they weren’t.

Want to do something small that makes a BIG difference? This week Heather Fillmore is raising $1000 to contribute to the adoption fund for Ian, a boy in Eastern Europe with Down syndrome (like my Wes!). Please click on this link here and donate.

Heather’s family just adopted a little girl from Russia named Anya who is not much older than Wesley.

Where Ian and Anya live, kids with DS are undesirable and live their lives in institutions without family. It’s mind-boggling to me. But it’s reality for them.

This is the blog address for Ian’s potential family: http://bring-hope-home.blogspot.com.

And by clicking here you can learn more about Reese’s Rainbow, the organization that helps get homes for children with Down syndrome and other special needs. I cannot look at the pictures of all those beautiful children and not wish I could do something for them. This at least is one small thing I can do to help.

Please help his family bring Ian home to a better life!

What if it were Wes over there??

When Wes started preschool in September he wasn’t terribly vocal. His school year just ended, and I am amazed at the words he uses. Sometimes it takes me several days of hearing the same thing over and over until I realize what he’s saying. Some of his new words and phrases are:

“Um.”

(I love that he says this sometimes when I ask him a question. “What do you want?” He’ll look pensive and say, “Um…” If I were a public speaking teacher I would probably try to break him of this.)

“Don’t!”

(I don’t love this one. It’s new as of last week and it’s probably the #1 word he says, all day long. Kind of like when he mastered “No!” Everything I try to get him to do, he says, “Don’t!” To everything the cats do, he says, “Don’t!” Even poor Carissa has to hear him tell her, “Don’t!” Maybe it’s a phase…)

“I said no!”

(I’m pretty sure this is what he’s saying. Wes bosses the cats around, and I let him. Because it’s the only thing he can even pretend to be in charge of, and they just ignore him anyway. When he sees them sniffing his food or doing anything else Wes deems inappropriate, he’ll say, “No! I said no!” That might be a little mini-me coming out in him already.)

“That one.”

(He says this a lot. It’s actually a great thing, because for the longest time I couldn’t get him to identify what he wanted. Even pointing to an object was a long time coming. So for him to tell me “that one” is pretty great.)

“Pretzel. Show. Train.”

(Wes is still at the stage where he mainly identifies objects rather than speaks in sentences. He doesn’t say, “I want pretzels.” He says, “Pretzel!” He prefers to eat his snacks in front of a show when I let him. Frequently he’ll say, “Pretzel. Show. Train.” which means, “I want pretzels. I want to watch a show. I want to watch the train show [Thomas the Tank Engine].)

“and”

(I just noticed this today. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard him use a conjunction. He was transferring two pear halves from a Tupperware container to his bowl. He said, “One” as he put in the first one and then… “and, two!” I was kind of surprised. And proud.)

“Me!”

(He learned this at school. When he wants to do something himself he says, “Me!” I guess independence is a good thing. While we were in line at Walmart a few days ago he pointed to Carissa and said, “Issa!” then to me and said “Ahm” [“Mom”] and then to himself and said, “Me!”)

“Stuck”

(This sounds like “Guck.” A couple times he’s been caught and it took me a while to realize he was saying he’s stuck.)

“Out!”

(Wes has a bad habit of chewing on his fingers. Interestingly, two of the other kids in his playgroup for kids with Down syndrome do the exact same thing. I’m not sure why. Anyway, we’re always telling him to take his fingers out of his mouth. Poor Carissa, who is legitimately teething and sometimes chews on her fingers, has to endure him pointing at her and shouting, “Out! Out!”)

Wes can identify a lot of body parts that John taught him: cheek, ear, chin, neck, head, hair, etc. He knows the alphabet (and the sign language for each letter) and can count one to ten. He’s great at colors and their signs. He knows shapes and is learning prepositions like “in” and “on.”

My favorite thing, of course, is when I walk in the room and Wes says, “Ahm!”

(This is Wes obviously NOT ready for bed. He’s eating a late-night snack on the counter while I clean.)

Wesley’s preschool held their end-of-year program today. And yesterday. We actually got to go twice since he’s in both sets of afternoon classes.

Both days I met families who have kids with Down syndrome. None of these kids are actually in Wesley’s preschool (he’s the only DS kid), but one family has a 7-year-old with DS and another has a 7-month-old. It was nice to connect with their families.

The family who has the 7-year-old with DS told me that every day their 4-year-old who is in Wesley’s class would come home and tell them about his day, and that every day they would hear about Wesley. Apparently this kid and another of Wesley’s classmates liked Wes so much that they would compete to see who could be Wesley’s helper during school. I was happy to learn that he has friends at school, not only in his teacher but also his peers.

The mom of the baby with Down syndrome said that her preschool-aged son was the last picked up on the bus route, and that every day as she helped her son onto the bus Wesley (whose seat is up front) would smile and wave at her. And she said it just made her day, every day. I imagine that seeing Wes meant something more special to her after having a new baby with Down syndrome herself.

The kids sang songs and read a story together, and then we watched a DVD slide show of photos from their year.

The theme was “Spread Your Wings and Fly,” hence the bug hats (which Wes had a very hard time keeping on).

Wes did a pretty good job with the actions that went with the song they sang.

Jumping…

Rowing the boat…

Here they’re running through the woods as fast as they can. Wes liked the part that went really fast.

Wesley and his preschool teacher, Miss Rachael.

I forgot in my last post to mention Wesley’s latest biggest (in my opinion) accomplishment:

He calls me Mom.

Just this past week, he has started pointing to me and identifying me as “Mom.” He does the same thing for “Dad.” My biggest surprise this week was when I was upstairs in Carissa’s room and Wes came up the stairs calling “Ahhm! Ahhhm!” (“Mom! Mom!”), looking for me. What a cool feeling to be called Mom!

About a year ago Wesley’s speech therapist mentioned she had attended a workshop where a woman presented a program about how to use flashcards to teach young children to read. Our therapist said it wasn’t the same as, but was similar to, this book (and other books like it; there are several):

Our therapist said she went with great skepticism, but while there she met parents of some special needs kids she had worked with when they were in the same program Wes was in. And the parents said the reading program worked. The more our therapist listened, the more she started to think that maybe the lady was onto something.

At the time when she told me this I went to the library and checked out the book she recommended. I can’t remember if it’s the same one pictured above. I didn’t read it. Wes was only two and, given where he was at with his speech, I couldn’t comprehend me needing to know anything about how to help him with reading yet. It seemed so far in the future.

Fast forward to now, when Wes is three and in love with letters. We sing and sign the alphabet song when we change diapers, when we’re in the car, when we’re doing anything, really. He likes the Super Why program on PBS that features letters and reading.

Last weekend John and I were casually talking about Wesley’s interest in letters, and he suggested I make some flashcards with words on them. I remembered the reading program the therapist had mentioned. Like I said, I kind of blew it off at the time, but I did remember that one of the keys was writing the words in red. So I made ten flashcards out of card stock and red marker. They featured the words Mom, Dad, Stop, Go, Bus, School, Milk, Red, Sock, and Shoe.

The only other thing I remembered about the program is that it recommended flipping through the flashcards with your kid a few times a day. Just say each one once, and then you’re done.

So I did this. Wes liked it so much that once was never enough. We’d do them again and again.

After a few days I realized he was starting to say the word before I did. I was shocked and amazed! The first time Wes did this I looked over at John, who was watching TV, and said, “Did you hear that? Wes knows the word ‘bus’!” To which John shrugged and said, “Yeah, I know.” Like this was old news. Apparently I was the last to know.

It’s been two weeks since we started the flashcards. We don’t do it every day, but as often as I remember.

Here we are this morning reading the cards together.

He gets most of the words. With the words he knows he usually will accompany saying the word along with making the sign.