A dear friend, neighbor, and blog stalker read my post recounting my frustrations finding playsets on the online classifieds, and she came to the rescue by lending us their indoor slide for the summer.

Allow me to introduce you to Wesley’s new favorite activity and my new full-time job:

Video of Wesley on slide.

Another activity he enjoys is playing hide and seek. This is how you play: You sit on the floor, Wesley stands behind you, and you pretend not to know where he is. Then you turn around, discover him, and much giggling ensues. Check out his Sunday suit.

Video of Wesley playing hide and seek.

Wesley is also quite the Romeo. If you ask for a hug he’ll come over with his arms outstretched. If you ask for a kiss he’ll plant one right on you, wherever’s convenient for him–your cheek, mouth, nose, ear, hair, whatever.

Video of Wesley giving Mom a kiss.

Today John, Wes, and I went up north for some errands, and we paused to drop in to Cabela’s.

This was my first time at Cabela’s, which is the “World’s Foremost Outfitter.” Not sure exactly what that means, but I gather it translates loosely to the “royal wonderland for men who like deer, fish, and killing both.”

I’ve never seen so many men wandering around a store looking happy.

We had a $50 gift card to spend. By “we” I mean “John” (he got it for Christmas last year), but after putting things in our cart for both Wesley and myself (mini camp chair with armrests and seat belt for Wes, pool noodles to use in my upcoming Zumba Kids classes for playing limbo), I insisted that John better spend at least a minimal portion of his gift card on himself. He finally settled on a hat, three canisters of propane, and a bucket of beef sticks with the brand name “Intimidator.”

So my take on Cabela’s: Not my favorite place to hang out. BUT there’s a neat little aquarium where you can stare down large fish like trout and catfish, and I was surprised to find cute clothes for women with outdoorsy tastes that weren’t all boxy and unflattering. If you want a bikini in camouflage, Cabela’s is the place to go.

Last week Wes and I spent a quick hour in downtown Salt Lake City.

We walked to the park where John proposed to me in 2001.

This may or may not have been the bench where John popped the question.

Then we walked over to the LDS Conference Center to use the bathroom and see the art on display. Wes was small in proportion to the huge space, but that didn’t stop him from walking everywhere and making the elderly patrons smile as he toddled by.

Wes exploring the waterfall outside the window.

Today I stopped at Sports Authority to see if they had any New Balance cross trainers in my size, which is 7D. For those of you who have no idea what the D means (i.e., You Whose Feet Are Normal), it refers to the width. “AA” is narrow, “B” is normal, “C” is wide, “D” is wider, “EE” even wider still, etc. Some shoe manufacturers group “C” and “D” together as “wide,” although “C” size shoes are too narrow for me.

Anyway. At Sports Authority I went straight to their clearance aisle. They usually have a lot of New Balance shoes on clearance, but you have to dig through it all to know for sure. There was a young male employee on a ladder in the middle of the aisle rearranging the clearance shoes. He was in my way a little, but I tried to dig around him and his ladder as best I could.

After a few minutes he got down and asked if he could help me find something. I was glad he asked, because the shoes were all out of order and I thought he might know whether there was a shoe in my size since he’d just been rearranging them. I told him I was looking for New Balance cross trainers in 7D.

“Seventy?” he asked.

“7D,” I repeated, emphasizing the “D” sound, because to me it sounded like he had said “seventy.”

He looked a little confused and stared at the shelves.

“It’s always hard to find my size,” I said, making friendly conversation as I continued to root through the shoes. “7D isn’t a common size.”

He stared blankly at the shoes.

Finally he looked back at me with an apologetic expression on his face. “I don’t think our shoes come in that size. Seventy is a really high number,” he said, as if explaining something very obvious to an extremely dim person.

I tried to be nice and smile. “I know. I’m looking for 7-D.” And I drew a “D” shape in the air with my finger.

He got it. “Ohhh! Like 7D. I thought you meant…”

Then he looked back at the shoes and picked up a couple pairs, checked the sizes, and put them down again. “I don’t think we carry that size.”

I said, “Oh, you do. I always buy my shoes here.”

“Oh.”

“Maybe you should study your shoe section a little more.”

And then I left.

I’m not sure where Sports Authority is getting their employees from, but this guy sure wasn’t an authority on the shoes he was supposed to be selling today.

Today was the Twilight movie DVD release, and last night a few of my friends and I channeled our inner-teen and held a Twilight party at my house.

The table was decorated in black, red, and white with white tulips as the centerpiece.

I (yes, even I, the non-cook) made the main entree, which was breaded chicken breast and Alfredo sauce (both made from scratch) served over whole wheat spaghetti. I used the terrific and very easy-to-follow recipe from here. Friends brought salad and red velvet cake to round things out.

To add more ambiance I set out framed quotes from the books that I printed on old fashioned looking paper (which doesn’t show up in the photos).

We played games…

And at midnight the girls headed to Walmart to pick up our very own DVDs. It was busy! But we found a shorter line and only had to wait about twenty minutes. Then we came home and got our Edward fix!

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.