Now that fall has started every Saturday we take Wes to BYU for Athletic Connection. It’s a program for people with Down syndrome to connect them with BYU athletes. Every week a different team comes to play with the kids and adults for an hour. Needless to say, Wes LOVES playing ball.

And Carissa? Well, she likes to watch and snack on crackers.

August in a wink:

My Birthday

John watched Carissa in the morning while Wes was at school so I could get my hair cut and have a pedicure. Later my neighbor watched both kids so I could enjoy a peaceful lunch at one of my favorite places with this guy:

It is always so much nicer to eat without children around. And I got my birthday ice cream.

We kept it simple with pizza and a cake from Costco. My sister and her family shared the festivities with us.

Popcorn

Mail and Name tags
When Wes finished his summer session of preschool he brought home his name tag. Carissa instantly cottoned on and wanted one of her own.

She hand-decorated it with her signature scribbles.

Wes saw a segment of Sesame Street where Elmo talked about mail. And all of a sudden he was really into writing letters and posting mail. I think he likes to lick the envelope best, and Carissa likes to put on the sticker-like stamp best.

Our cousins, aunts, and grandmas and grandpas have been getting a lot of mail lately from Wes and Carissa.

Olympics
We watched the Olympics on TV a lot, which Wes loved because he is really into sports. He cheered on the athletes, and if they struggled or missed a shot he’d say, “Oops, try again!”

I started to recognize the influence the Olympics had on Wesley pretty quickly. He started doing flips and gymnastic-type things like headstands all over the house, and I caught him directing an Olympic-style race with Carissa, complete with the crouched start.

Sundance
A week after my birthday I got the other thing I wanted (the first being a lounge chair for the backyard so I can appropriately lounge while the kids play): a night out to watch a play up in the mountains. The performance was “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” one of my favorite musicals of all time.

John had a headache, and I didn’t have Tylenol with me like I usually do, so he spent the first half of the play like this:

During intermission I asked random people if they had any Tylenol or such, and I finally found a nice girl in the ladies’ room who led me back to her seat and gave us a couple from her purse. Relief! And John could enjoy (as much as he can enjoy) the rest of the musical. I loved it.

Carissa’s 2nd Birthday

This little princess turned 2.

I wanted to get her a special girly cake for her birthday, but as I looked around they were all so expensive. I decided to compromise: I made the bottom layer myself (using cake mix, even) and bought the top mini cake at a grocery store. I ordered the little Dora figurines online for just a few dollars.

My thoughts about trying to make a cake myself: 1) I’m not very good at it. It looked kinda sloppy up close, but from a distance it wasn’t too shabby. 2) I’m not 100% convinced the saved money was worth all the time it took to bake, cool, frost, and decorate myself.

But, she had a cake. And it was pink. And it had Dora, her most favorite character in the universe right now.

The cousins came over to share her birthday.

Wesley blew out her candle, but she didn’t mind.

After cake the kids went outside for ice cream cones (“ice keen cones”)…

…and to play.

The kids trooped back inside for gifts.

With cousins around, there were many helpers to open the gifts.

This was the first time we got Carissa real girly toys, geared directly at her; previously she just played with the toys we already had, which were originally Wesley’s. The verdict: She LOVED her new toys!

We got her some Dora the Explorer books, which even now (two months later) are her favorite books.

I found a used play kitchen for cheap in the online classifieds.

Her aunt Tara gave her a doll, which she instantly fell in love with. Add the doll to her new baby stroller and toy purse, and Carissa was in full Mommy mode. She loved it all.

Cruisin’
One day I looked out back to find the kids and didn’t see them anywhere.

Upon closer inspection…

They live the good life, for sure.

Carissa’s Outfits
We are constantly amazed at Carissa’s creativity and strong-headed independence. Wes is a little (a lot) more subdued. For instance, he doesn’t care what he wears, but she usually has an opinion about what shoes to wear, whether or not she wants to wear a hat, or if a walk outside necessitates certain accessories like a backpack, purse, and balloon.

Her favorite accessory is definitely her pink Hello Kitty sunglasses. And her favorite place to eat anything is the back steps. She likes cereal and milk, which is also different from Wes. Her favorite kinds are the Dora the Explorer cereal and Cocoa Krispies.

Water
Wes loves playing in the water. He wanted to go to the swimming pool a lot (like, almost every day), but I just did not have it in me to take him more than twice (it’s a lot of work for me). As a consolation prize we have a wading pool in the backyard, which he still really enjoys. He likes to put rocks in the water and toss them around. I also invested in a water squirters, which both kids like.

Umbrellas
I found Carissa’s pink umbrella for 50 cents at a yard sale. She likes it almost as much as her sunglasses.

Here’s everything I neglected to blog about in a more timely manner from July.

Our wedding anniversary. Our marriage is 10 years old. To celebrate we got a sitter and went to a free heritage days celebration that included interesting displays from the Pilgrim days and presenters demonstrating the work of colonial bakers and blacksmiths. It was actually really fun. And so NICE to be out without children. Good thing, too, because they would’ve been jealous of this:

My dad’s side of the family had a reunion near enough that we attended.

The kids loved the pinata. Not the candy so much as the hitting.

Cousins Carissa and Ashley.

My sister, brother, and me with some kids.

Girl cousins.

Wes went to preschool four days a week for about 2.5 hours in the morning. This was his aide assigned to give him a little extra help.

And while he was in school Carissa and I did motherly-daughterly bonding activities like drinking frozen hot chocolate at the mall.

One day I found that Wes had scribbled on the table. But when I looked up close and saw how nicely he had written the letter “W” over and over again, I couldn’t be mad.

The kids are joined at the hip, sometimes…

Playing in the sink.

In the sandbox.

In the wading pool.

Eating ice cream.

And apples.

Making a birthday card for their grandpa.

And getting messy doing it.

Eating breakfast on the couch.

Wes likes to put toys or DVDS (which I have since hidden) on the treadmill (which is unplugged) and push them down the conveyer belt, go to the other side, pick up, and repeat.

He also likes to build tall towers, but sometimes he likes to line up the blocks instead.

He is a climber.

Carissa loves her teddy bear.

She’s also a pretty good shopping companion.

She is a painter.

This is her favorite place to sit–on the back steps.

Picture time.

One day I took them swimming. I don’t have pictures of the pool, but of them enjoying their post-swim milkshakes in the car.

We had a church party in the canyon that involved playing football…

…and wading in the stream. Which I wasn’t willing to do, but a kind neighbor was.

About five seconds after we left, this was the kids:

Our grass mysteriously died in patches while we were on vacation in the spring. John miraculously brought it back to life after careful reseeding and diligent watering. Another reason I’m grateful for a husband; if it were up to me, the grass would’ve just died and that would’ve been that.

Park morning with cousins.

“Airplane!”

We took the kids to a Taste of the Valley event. Here’s us leaving.

And I took the kids to a small local parade. To say they loved every second is an understatement. Wes loved yelling “hi” to the floats, Carissa loved grabbing as much candy as she could, and Wes loved throwing the candy right back at the throwers.

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.

Making forts (“tents”, as Wes calls them).

Reading books.

Eating crepes (Wesley’s favorite, especially with Nutella and bananas…or, really, just Nutella).

Falling asleep in the highchair.

Playing in snow (finally took the tags off the snow boots I bought them in November).

Making pizza and breadsticks, which I am getting surprisingly better at (thank you, Best Bites).

Snacking on breadsticks.

Reading. Here Wes is reading the dictionary. He was reading this for about 30 minutes. The other night he was reading a textbook, flipping through page by page until he came to each chapter heading, when he’d yell out the chapter number: “1!”, “2!” and so on. He’s good at reading AND counting.

This morning I took both kids to the pediatrician’s office. It was Carissa’s 15-month checkup, and the doctor needed to make sure Wesley’s ear infection was better.

Since Carissa’s forehead had a run-in with a metal rod a couple weeks ago and she had to get stitches in the ER, she’s been super-extra clingy to me, and as soon as we walked into the exam room and the nurse wanted to touch her, she was NOT happy. I think she was flashing back to her ER experience.

The good and problematic thing about Wes is that he’s so sympathetic to other people’s feelings. When someone else is upset, he is upset. Therefore, when Carissa is screaming her head off Wes tends to follow suit.

The nurse was great and tried to get through everything as fast as possible. The downside is that some of her measurements were clearly off and the doctor had to do them again (head circumference jumped from 45th at 12 months to 95th percentile…he remeasured and it was the 56th percentile).

She’s doing fine. She’s nearly 21 pounds and about 30 inches tall (that’s one of the measurements that we’re not sure about).

We talked about Carissa’s apparent allergy to nuts (she’s gotten hives around her mouth the two times she’s eaten peanut butter and one other time I cut her food with the same knife I used for hazelnut spread). We’ll be getting in touch with an allergist. But, boy, Carissa getting pricked by nurses doesn’t sound like a good time.

After we finished at the doctor’s (Carissa topped off her experience with three shots in the legs) I took the kids to IKEA. It was a gift to myself.

I had a specific mission in mind: a toddler size table for the kids. We already have four toddler size chairs that we got for free a while ago. I’ve looked elsewhere for tables and knew that IKEA’s prices were very good.

John and I went to IKEA once in San Francisco while on vacation with his family. This was long before we had kids, and we weren’t looking for anything. So I wasn’t really into it.

Today, walking into IKEA, I was a little blown away. It’s the most family friendly store I’ve ever visited.

They got me first with the family restroom right up front that’s big enough for you to take in your whole cart, a child-size sink, complimentary diapers if you forget yours, and a comfy chair for nursing. Not even Babies R Us is so nice.

Then it was the giant elevator that takes you to the second floor showroom that was big enough to fit probably four or five moms with their carts, kids, strollers, and purchases comfortably.

Then it was the children’s IKEA section full of gorgeous little lamps, rugs, toys, storage, and, yes, tables that are not only cute but affordable. I found a two-pack of artist smocks for Wes and Carissa for $5 and a two-pack of big plastic bibs for Carissa for even less than that. Then I picked out the table I wanted, wrote the product number on the “shopping list” printed on the back of the store map (which is ESSENTIAL), and moved on.

We ate lunch at the IKEA cafeteria-style restaurant. I got Wes a kid’s meal for $2.49 and got Carissa some baby food (!!! Who else thinks to sell baby food in the cafeteria? Genius). We ate by a window overlooking the parking lot and busy freeway.

Wes loved his french fries and juice and watching people and cars outside.

Carissa liked her food, too.

The food was pretty good, but it didn’t hold a candle to the food in the Provo LDS Temple’s cafeteria. I’d eat there every day.

We went downstairs to the Marketplace, which is less of a showroom and more of a regular store setup. I walked into the kitchen section and I might have drooled a little. It was fun to walk through. I only bought one thing that cost 99 cents, but I sure thought about more.

We strolled through the rest of the place and ended up in the warehouse part where you go find the product you want to buy. It’s easy to locate the aisle and bin number. The box was so well packed and light that it fit easily under my cart. The checkout is a self-checkout (that actually works, not like Wal-Mart’s). And then, ta-dah! we were done.

The only thing left to do was get the free frozen yogurt cone that we had a coupon for at the Bistro by the exit.

Wes ate it all.

And I mean ALL.

IKEA, IKEA, what a wonderful place.