Wes wanted to wear my Zumba jacket.

I thought he looked like ET when he’s wearing the kid’s sweatshirt.

John thought he looked more like a Jedi knight.

What do you think?

Last week it was warm enough that Wes and I strolled over to our neighborhood park for 15 minutes. (It wasn’t thatwarm. I spent a good portion of the time wiping his nose.) He had so much fun that he didn’t want to leave. I hope spring hurries here.

Wes is so smart. He knows how to get into things I’m not ready for him to get into yet.

He loves it when we put toys…or things…on his head so he can anticipate them falling off. Hey, who needs fancy toys when we’ve got empty toilet paper rolls?

One thing I’ve had to work on with Wesley is eating. It’s taken a couple of months (at least) but just this past week he’s started using a spoon without me having to hold onto it with him the entire time. Before, he would use the spoon fine as long as I helped him guide it. The second I let go so would he. He still struggles to scoop up the food, but at least now he can get it to his mouth and feed himself successfully. I’m very proud and happy for this accomplishment.

He’s also eating more “big boy food,” which is good progress. For a long time he didn’t want much more than just his bottles of milk and baby food. His appetite seems heartier. His breakfast usually consists of oatmeal (maple and brown sugar–NO substitutes!) and often some yogurt or a piece of toast. He doesn’t always eat a real lunch because sometimes he falls asleep for a nap before I get around to making lunch for myself and John. But he’s always ready for dinner by about 4 o’clock. He’ll usually eat a couple pieces of toast, some mashed fruit (he likes pears and sometimes peaches), and if we happen to be eating around the same time he may sample what we’re having (no guarantee he’ll like it, though). He’s picky and very opinionated about what is allowed to stay in his mouth.

Some things he likes:

Starches: toast, bagels, oatmeal
Fruit: canned pears or peaches, mashed. Sometimes I’m lucky and get him to eat a banana, but not often. He’ll eat it in baby food form, though, no problem.
Veggies: still only in baby food form. I can’t get him to eat any “real” veggies except for a few bites of salad now and again. But he eats baby food really well: peas, green beans, carrots, and squash.
Dairy: yogurt. NOT cottage cheese.
Snacks: pretzels, pretzels, pretzels, did I mention pretzels? Also chocolate pudding and sometimes crackers.
Junk: french fries, ice cream, cookies (ONLY the fudge-striped shortbread cookies)

The other thing I’m struggling to transition him to is drinking from a cup, sippy cup, or straw. He doesn’t understand how to suck, so a straw and some types of sippy cups don’t work for him. He gets the concept of a cup but mostly he likes to chew on the edge and isn’t so interested in the purpose of drinking. Often the liquid goes into his mouth and spills right down his front and onto the floor. This is frustrating to me. We want him to be comfortable drinking liquids that are cold (like milk straight from the fridge rather than microwaved warm) before we go on vacation next month, but right now that goal seems waaaay off. And I haven’t even touched on the apparent impossibility of weaning him off the bottle. He’s going to be eight and taking bottles of milk to school in his lunch box.

In good news, though, his love for balloons has helped him say his first two-syllable word: “ballooo.”

Speech is notoriously hard for kids with Down syndrome. We’re just so happy that he’s making sounds that actually resemble words. He’s making good progress! In addition, he knows a lot of signs, more than we even realize (thanks to Signing Time videos). Some things he says that John and I recognize as words (he always accompanies these words with the signs):

“Dow” for down
“AyDuh!” for all done
“Mo” for more
“deesh” for cat
“balloo” for balloon
“no” for no
“wawa” for water
“dydydy” for dry (we always tell him, “dry dry dry!”)
“yay!” for yay

All in all, we think he’s one super smart kid.

Completely unrelated, here are some pictures snapped at one of my Zumba classes at BYU last month. I love teaching there. It’s one of the funnest ways I get to spend my time every week. If you haven’t tried Zumba, you should.

My favorite gift from John:

A special, very unhealthy but fast-to-make treat for breakfast, from “Recipes Old & New, Tried & True, from The City Beautiful Nauvoo”:

“Golden Puffs”

2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
1 egg

Stir with fork until mixed. Drop by teaspoon into hot oil and fry until golden brown. Roll in sugar and cinnamon. Eat warm.

Meanwhile Wes has been busy, helping with the present trimmings:

And his favorite new pastime, which involves cleaning out his room and dumping the contents over the railing at the top of the stairs. He must have run out of books after I took the video, because next he started emptying out his hamper of dirty clothes. Yes, every day I carry a big pile of stuff back upstairs.

Today was a special treat: I got to go sans-child to SLC for a Zumba master class. It’s basically an extra-long Zumba class with a few extra incentives like refreshments and giveaways.

I didn’t think to snap any pictures BEFORE we turned all sweaty and un-photogenic…

There were a few other instructors there. Here’s me and Kate.

And me and Laura.

I even won something. I don’t know that I’ve ever won anything in a drawing before. I wasn’t even paying attention when she called my name and it took me a minute to figure out I was a WINNER!

Meet my new Zumba bag:

The other fun thing I got to do today was use a $100 gift certificate we got last Christmas for a swanky furniture/decor store. It was tricky to find things under $100 (or $200) so I wouldn’t spend anything out of pocket, but in the end I picked out some seasonal serving items and a covered dessert platter.

All for free! What is more fun than FREE?

On the way home I was dying of thirst and for once in my life I had no water with me. My brilliant solution: stop by Krispy Kremes and order a dozen donuts plus a cup of water. I have only been to Krispy Kremes once before, and today was the first time I’ve used their drive-through. How many countries in the world feature places where you can drive up to a window and get twelve fresh-baked donuts without even leaving your car? I love America.

спални комплекти

The best fun thing that happened today is we caught Wes on video trying to jump.

Wes is a picky eater. You can offer all sorts of foods but 99.9% of the time his response is a clamped-shut mouth and frequently, now that he’s learned a new word, “NO!”

But recently we’ve had some breakthroughs. A couple weeks ago John and I got a some things from the fine eatery at Costco (pizza and a chicken bake), which we split between our two plates. Wes sat on my lap. Occasionally I would offer him a bite (see above about clamped-shut mouth and “NO!”). So eventually I gave up and enjoyed the food myself.

Then, after a few minutes, to our great astonishment, Wes reached out and picked up a piece of chicken and put it in his mouth. And chewed. And swallowed.

And then he did it again. He even tried a piece of sausage from the pizza (which took him about five minutes to chew). He didn’t eat much, but we were so glad he was willing to try some food on his own accord.

The other breakthrough isn’t quite so celebratory of Wesley’s own initiative. I learned this trick at the playgroup I take him to twice a week that’s for 2-3 year old kids with developmental delays. They end every session with a snack that’s designed to introduce the kids to new textures and flavors (again, see above about clamped-shut mouth and “NO!”). Wes usually leaves playgroup hungry.

The excellent employees there told me that sometimes to get a kid to try something new you have to force him. It’s not always pleasant, but they’re right. It works.

Last night for dinner we had pizza. I offered Wes a bite (you can guess what happened). So I pushed the pizza into his mouth and forced him to taste it. The result? He liked it and asked for more. He polished off an entire piece of cheese pizza and half a breadstick. That’s the first time he’s ever eaten pizza.

I also gave him a shortbread cookie covered in chocolate. He looked skeptical but finally took a nibble. And then ate four of the cookies in rapid succession.

This morning we had pancakes. I gave him his pancakes plain at first, but then I thought I’d try to feed him a chocolate chip pancake with whipped cream. He wouldn’t try it. But I made him, and he wanted more.

It doesn’t always work, like if he really isn’t interested in the food, but so far I’m having success in getting him to at least taste stuff he normally would just clamp his mouth closed at and say “NO!”