Yesterday I took Wes in for his 18-month checkup. He hates sitting on the doctor’s scale, but eventually we found out he weighs 18 lbs 4 oz. And he’s 29 inches long. He’s come quite a way from 3 lbs 15 oz and 16 inches!

Even so, he doesn’t show up on the regular growth chart. Well, technically, he’s there…just at the very bottom. He’s in the .05 percentile for weight and .36 percentile for height. Translate these figures to the Down syndrome chart, and he looks slightly better–closer to 15% for weight and 25% for height. We have a skinny midget on our hands.

I asked the doctor about potential medicine to help Wesley’s reflux, but since his spitting up isn’t acidic and doesn’t hurt him or prevent him from eating, it doesn’t seem like it would do much good. It wouldn’t decrease the quantity of spit up, anyway.

Just as we were wrapping up the visit I mentioned to the doctor that Wes still doesn’t have teeth, and what should we do? He was sort of flummoxed by that, since the latest he’s ever seen a baby get teeth was 16 months. But I know of at least two other kids with DS whose teeth came in later (17 and 19 months). We’ll give it one more month, and if still no pearly whites, then we’ll take him to a pediatric dentist for X rays.

I also need to take Wes to the hospital lab for a blood draw to test his thyroid again. Thyroid problems are common for people with Down syndrome. We tested it at 12 months, and one figure came back borderline high, so we need to see how it looks now.

Wesley is walking like a champ. And he gives you big, slobbery kisses on your cheek (or nose, if you’ll let him) when you least expect it. (Kiss from Wesley = open-mouth slobber glued to your face.) He is a slobbery skinny midget.

Now that Wesley is about eighteen months (he turns on Wednesday) he can attend playgroups at Kids Who Count, which is the program for kids with special needs in our area. On Friday I took him to his first one. It was his first-ever structured playtime.

The playroom at Kids Who Count is terrific. It’s full of lots of toys that kids don’t normally have at home, like a table of sand they can dig through, a trampoline, an indoor playground, a cage with plastic balls in it, plus a whole assortment of smaller toys. And the toys are cleaned and sanitized every day so you don’t have to worry about germs.

The playgroup Wes attends is for kids eighteen months to two years, but he was by far the smallest kid there. The first half hour is toy time. At first Wes just looked around, checking things out. After a while he started to chew on the toys I kept trying to give him, but he wouldn’t play with them.

Then it was mat time. I helped Wes walk over and the teacher handed him a mat to sit on. I sat behind him while the teacher handed out objects, like bells and Slinkys, that the kids used as they (optical communicationread: the parents) sang songs. The teacher was really good in keeping things moving so the kids didn’t get bored.

Next was craft time. They have a low table with small wooden chairs that were the perfect size for kids as small as Wesley to sit in. His feet almost touched the floor. The craft was a hand puppet made out of a paper bag. Wesley enjoyed making watching me make it.

Lastly was snack time. Wes had to wash his hands before he could eat, and I realized it was the first time I’d ever washed his hands before (rather than wiping them with a wet cloth). There were two low little sinks, and Wes liked having his hands washed. Snacks were Cheez Its Party Mix and mini colored marshmallows. He didn’t like the marshmallows, but he ate six Cheez Its. There was also a small Dixie cup with water in it, which was good practice for Wes, since he’s not good at using a cup yet. I helped him hold it with both hands and bring it to his mouth, where he chewed on the edge more than drank the water. We were the last ones done since this took some extra time to practice. Then the kids (or, actually, their parents and the teacher) sang goodbye to each other as they put on their coats and left. Wes fell asleep on the way home.

Then, on Sunday, I took him to nursery at church for the first time. There were fourteen children there, ages eighteen months to three years. I used to think the chairs in the nursery were tiny, until I saw Wes sit in one. His feet barely come past the edge of the seat. I was worried he would fall off, but he managed to hang on OK. Snack time was first, with animal crackers, pretzels, cereal, and marshmallows. He still didn’t like the marshmallows, but the animal crackers were a hit. I watched him gnaw slowly on the corner of one for a while, then I looked away, and when I looked back the animal cracker was gone but Wesley’s mouth was stuffed full. It took a couple minutes for him to gum the cracker enough that he could swallow it (still no teeth!).

He sat through a lesson, and then had coloring time. He’d never seen or held a crayon before then. I helped him hold it, and tried to keep him from chewing on/throwing it. Together we managed to get a little coloring done.

After all that, there was about 45 minutes of toy time. I left him alone for that. When I came back at the end the leader said Wesley did fine. With fourteen kids, and Wesley being by far the smallest kid there, I wasn’t sure he’d make it without being trampled/sat on, but he seemed to do OK. So I guess we’ll take him again next week, too.

The other day I left Wes alone in his room for a few minutes. When I came back:

He loves his books.

He’s doing well with walking. Once he figured out how to walk, crawling became a thing of the past. He walks everywhere. Toddles, more like. He’s still doing fine on the stairs, although yesterday he fell down a half-flight because he got to the top, pushed himself to standing, then lost his balance and fell backward. I was close by and nabbed him before he went all the way down. I credit his corduroy overalls for causing enough friction to slow him down so he slid more than fell.

Sometimes, when life feels a little heavy and it seems like all I do is clean up pools of spit-up, clean the house (and re-clean and re-clean), do laundry, and provide meals and entertainment, it’s good to pause and remember how happy our little family is. Wesley is doing great. Life is generally good for all of us. We’re happy. And the spit-up won’t last forever.

Just came back from teaching another Zumba class. I can’t help but love it. The class I teach on Wednesday nights is an eight-week course and will end in two more weeks. I’ll miss it, but I’m exploring options for starting other classes elsewhere. I also teach at Anytime Fitness twice a week. Next week they’re changing my schedule from Tuesday/Thursday at 9:30 a.m. to Friday at 6 a.m. and Saturday at 10 a.m.

I love love love teaching aerobics. It makes me stronger, fitter, happier, and introduces me to lots of people I wouldn’t meet otherwise. I think the best part of leading aerobics is seeing how you’re helping others be happier, too. Some people have told me they don’t know how I can have the guts to stand in front of a mirror and move and dance while a crowd behind me watches every move and follows along. But when I’m standing in front of people showing them how to move their bodies to the music, absolutely everything else is washed from my mind. Even tonight when I got to class early and was setting up I looked in the mirrors lining the entire wall in front and thought, “Oh. My. Gosh. I really could have chosen my outfit better.” It wasn’t especially flattering. But once the music started and I was teaching, it didn’t matter anymore. It was just Zumba. I feel so lucky to be doing something I love so much.

In other news, this little guy is quickly getting to be a pro at turning himself around and coming down the stairs. Here’s another video of him doing it, but you can see he initiates and does it all on his own. He’s getting super confident.

Video of Wes coming down the stairs all by himself.

He’s walking nearly all the time; I hardly ever see him crawl. He loves those feet and legs of his! He’s still a little guy, though. He’s seventeen months. but can still wear pants size 0-3 months (although he does also wear pants size 3-6 and 6-9 months, if they’re very elastic-y). His shirts and onesies are size 3-6 or 6-9 months. And his jammies are 6-9 months.

And, yes, we’re still waiting for his first tooth.

Sometimes I see other kids do stuff and it seems so effortless for them. Wes gets visits from three different therapists four times a month (occupational, physical, and speech). His physical therapist started coming last July, when Wes was about ten months old and getting close to crawling. Once he learned to crawl (11 1/2 months), she started working with me to help Wes climb the stairs. He caught on to that pretty fast. The next thing was to help Wes learn to turn himself around at the top of the stairs and come back down.

She told us to pick a single, short phrase to say to Wes every time he was at the top of the stairs so he would learn to start coming down when we said it. I chose, “Turn around.” Whenever Wes was at the top of the stairs I would say, “Turn around,” grab his legs and hips and physically turn him around and then help pull his legs downstairs.

I think we started working on this last August. Every month when the physical therapist came she asked how Wes was doing turning around at the top of the stairs, and my answer was always the same: He’s not. Not without a lot of direct intervention, anyway. Like, basically me doing it for him.

Then after a few months when I said, “Turn around,” he would actually turn himself partially (go from sitting up to putting his hands down on one side so he was angled away from me). This was major progress because it meant he was starting to connect “Turn around” with actually turning around. Then I would help him turn the rest of the way and help pull him downstairs.

After a while longer, maybe in December or so, I didn’t have to pull him downstairs all by myself; I could just nudge his legs and he would move them down on his own.

So envision working on a single skill with your baby for six months, with a lot of the time feeling like he’s not making progress at all, and then suddenly:

Video of Wes going down stairs 1. (Also check out some of his awesome standing and walking in this one.)

Video of Wes going down stairs 2.

He started doing it all by himself last Thursday. He’s 17 1/2 months old.

It makes my mom-heart proud.

Wesley has learned how to play Peek-a-boo. At first, I would cover up my face with my hands, say “Where’s Mom?”, then pull away my hands and say “Peekaboo!” I’d do the same to him by covering up his face and saying, “Where’s Wesley?” He really liked that. But this week he figured out that he can do the same thing by pulling a blanket or burp cloth over his face. It’s really cute to watch and it’s rewarding to see that he’s getting it. Sometimes it seems like we work for so long on something, or a lot of things, and he just doesn’t get it. It gets frustrating to try to teach him something for months and months without any apparent progress, when you know other kids get it just like that. But then he surprises us by figuring out something on his own that we weren’t even trying to teach him, like how to play Peek-a-boo.

For Christmas Wes received a few new toys, courtesy of the grandparents. One of them is a Bounce & Spin Zebra that he can sit on and, well, bounce and spin on. The box says it’s for ages 12-36 months. Wes is 15 1/2 months, but I think we’ll have to put it aside for a few months until he gets tall enough that his feet can reach the floor while sitting on the toy. Right now we have to hold him on it and he’s kind of like, “What am I doing dangling here?”

Wes has to gain over three pounds before I can get him out of the backward-facing infant car seat and into the Big Boy front-facing seat. Whenever we take him into restaurants we always carry him in the car seat and we always specifically request a high chair. And the server always arrives with a sling for the car seat instead. When we ask for the high chair again, the server usually says, “Oh, sorry; people who want high chairs don’t come in with car seats.” I didn’t think it was that weird to carry Wes around in the car seat. Is it?

For Christmas John gave me the DVD of Anne of Green Gables. I finished watching it today. It is like a breath of fresh air. And now I’m dying because I don’t have the sequel to it. I might just have to go online and buy it as a belated Christmas present to myself…

And, speaking of movies, I saw Twilight for the second time this week. And it was so much better than the first time. I liked it OK the first time, but I could really get into it the second time around. How much better will it be the third time, I wonder? Has anyone else seen it twice?

Wes has made two major breakthroughs! (And no, I’m not taking about teeth, which we’re still waiting for…)

Friday we went to Tucanos for lunch. Oh, the yumminess. I had brought a PB&J sandwhich for Wes so I could enjoy my own lunch without having to share much. I ripped off small pieces and put them on the (Wet-Wiped) table surface for him to pick up and eat. After a while John pointed out that Wes seemed to be rubbing the table with his hand when his PB&J pieces were gone, like he wanted more. I’ve been doing the “more” sign to Wes for months and months, and although this wasn’t the actual “more” sign he was doing, he appeared to be doing it deliberately. I had ordered a smoothie with mango and pineapple and banana blended with ice cream. I poured a little into a kid’s cup and helped Wes drink it. Have I mentioned that Wes looooooooves ice cream? Giving him this drink kicked his sign-making into high gear. Whenever I pulled the cup away he’d start rubbing the table top like crazy and smiling. I wish we had our camera with us. We were so proud of him.

Yesterday at lunch we gave him more pieces of a PB&J, and although I had to leave mid-lunch for an appointment, when I came back John said that Wes was still doing the table-rubbing. So maybe he’s finally learned his first sign! Even if he did make it up himself.

The other good news is that Wes seems to be getting the hang of turn-taking. His speech therapist first visited him five months ago when Wes was ten months old and asked if Wes would mimic sounds or actions. That answer was a big fat “no.” But turn-taking is one of those skills that kids need to have in order to be successful with speech, so we’ve been working on it and working on it (without much success; he’s really good at staring at you, though). But the other day Wes was making noise and I started making noise back to him. He’d yell, then I’d yell back. He thought this was the funnest game ever, and it made him giggle. He was purposely “talking” so I’d talk back, and he thought it was hilarious. I’ve tried this game in months past, but he didn’t seem to get it like he gets it now.

Several months ago I took Wes to library time where they were learning baby signs. There were babies there six, seven, eight months old who were making the sign for “milk,” and I thought that was amazing. The director asked me if I’ve been doing signs with Wes, and I said, yes, ever since he was about a month old. Then she asked if he’d ever done them back to me, and that answer was no. Never. She recognized his Down syndrome and said that kids with DS get it, but they get it when they want to get it.

So maybe things are starting to click for Wes. Two big milestones this week. Maybe the next one with be a tooth….