This month my parents came to visit. We had lunch with them one afternoon at Sizzler. When the kids saw the ice cream machine it was like they had hit the jackpot.

Wes and Carissa had been asking to go back to the car wash ever since I first took them in November, just before Elizabeth was born. I never took them before because I thought it would scare them (Wes is sensitive to loud noises). Turns out I was wrong! I acted all excited and so now they think it’s cool. So I took them again. In spite of the semi-scared faces, they enjoyed it.

Carissa lassoing a wild shoe.

Elizabeth sleeping. She is three months now. She is a good, happy baby. I don’t really keep track of her hours sleeping, but it seems like sometimes she’ll take one good, long nap during the day that lasts 3+ hours. At night she’ll fall asleep between 9:30 and 11:30 and I usually only have to get up with her once in the night, around 4-5 am. I keep a portable DVD player in her room, and I have watched many, MANY movies in the last three months. Her hair is thin and delicate and kind of balding in the back. I feel a little bad because she had cradle cap, and I gave her head a good scrub, and now she’s kind of balding in front too. I hope it grows back before long! She really is a good baby and smiles often. She has been healthy, and we feel lucky to have her.

I don’t have a picture of this, but we just noticed that Wes is getting another tooth. He’s 5 1/2. His teeth have come in at weird times and in weird orders, which is normal for kids with Down syndrome. His first tooth didn’t come in until 19 months. One of his canines (I think) never came in, and the dentist wasn’t sure it every would. Maybe it didn’t exist. But, it’s coming in now! I don’t know that there’s even room for it. I should maybe take him to the dentist again. Joy, oh, joy.

Two and a half weeks ago I somehow summoned up enough courage to start potty training again. In August I worked on it with both Wes (almost 5) and Carissa (almost 2). I gave up after 2 weeks. It was EXHAUSTING. Neither kid was willing enough to cooperate, and I needed a break. So this time I’ve just been focusing on one kid. One day I showed Carissa her little basket of underwear (Dora and Hello Kitty, of course) and told her she could wear it if she used the potty. So she ran right into the bathroom and went, and put the underwear on.

John and I visited Walmart and bought a few books and toys we could use as incentives. I’ve been trying different things to see what works. We keep a sticker chart where if she goes 5 times without an accident she gets a package of fruit snacks. If she has an accident we take the stickers off and start again. During the first couple of days I thought she’d never earn anything. But then she did. After that we set it up so if she went 10 times without an accident she earned a toy (or “present,” as she calls it): a Dora the Explorer book that plays music. I really thought she’d never make it. But then she did. And she went on to earn another 10 stickers and get a second book.

I was frustrated because I would have to ask her all the time if she needed to go potty and basically had to make her go and sit every hour. My neighbor told me that her 2-year-old boy who was potty training tells her when he has to go. Carissa wasn’t doing this. I asked her how she got her son to do that, and she said the magic was in the mini-marshmallow he got for telling her he needed to go. I invested in a package of colored mini-marshmallows. She gets one (PINK, naturally) if she tells me she has to go, and another one for going. We would practice: “Now what do you say?” “I hafta go potty, pwease!” I wondered if she would get it, and after a few days, she got really good at it. Now I don’t worry about her having accidents during the day. She’s pretty good at recognizing her need to go and coming to get me when she does. I’m really proud of her progress!

We’re still working on the nighttime. She wants to wear underwear to bed but she doesn’t always make it through the night. I get a little tired of the laundry, and changing her and her sheets in the middle of the night when I’m tired.

The other thing we’re working on is poop. She wasn’t being so successful at using the potty for that, and didn’t seem to care, so I made a separate sticker chart for it. If she went poop in the potty just two times without an accident, she would get a really awesome present: A family of ponies. I had originally pulled out a little ambulance that makes noise, which she seemed keen on, but no progress was happening. So then I showed her the pony toy. Whether by accident or because she wanted it enough, she got her two stickers and earned her present. She was so thrilled! She ran and told Daddy and then we sat down together to open it. She was all smiles as she combed the pony’s hair. It came with a mommy pony and two baby ones, plus a comb, mirror, hair clips, and a battery-operated hair dryer. She plays with it all the time. It was so rewarding to see her earn something that made her so happy.

Next I’ll have to work with Wes. I think he’s probably capable of being potty trained, but I’ll have to find the right incentives for him because it is so much easier to just use a diaper. And he doesn’t really care about wearing underwear like Carissa does. But it’s nice for now to have one less kid in diapers. Two is nicer than three.

This month:

1. Carissa got her first taste of cookie dough. Her first taste because she’s allergic to eggs so I’ve never given her a taste of any kind of batter or dough that has eggs in it. But she clearly wanted to taste whatever I was mixing, so I looked up a recipe for eggless chocolate chip cookies. Instead of eggs it calls for cream cheese. Other than that, it’s a pretty standard chocolate chip cookie recipe. Instead of butter I used coconut oil, which is a healthier fat option. And they turned out great! Soft and chewy. Carissa was a happy cookie-dough eater.

2. Carissa learned how to use scissors. And boy, is she good! It’s a milestone that makes me happy-sad. Happy because “scissor skills” (as the schools call it) is an important skill to have, especially as she enters school later. But sad because her older brother Wes has such a hard time with the scissors still, and he’s three years older. She picked up the skill so quickly, without me even realizing she was learning it. Wes likes to try to use scissors, so he’ll get it someday, but he needs a lot of help. This isn’t unexpected or anything, for a child with Down syndrome. It just blows me away sometimes how fast she can learn something when it takes Wes so much longer. He gets it in his own time, in his own way.

3. Carissa has started to ask questions. “Why, mom? But WHY?” It’s cute. So far. She also asks things like, “What is he doing?” It’s another notable milestone. Wes has never asked “Why?” but he does ask sometimes, “What is that sound?” He’s not big on questions.

4. There has been much kissing of the baby. Elizabeth is 2 months old. She’s smiling and getting bigger. She weighed in at 10 lbs at her 2-month checkup, with a healthy rate of growth. Wes likes to hold the baby’s hand like she’s waving at us and say, “Hi mommy!” He is very gentle with her and is good at replacing her binkie and saying sweet things like, “It’s OK, it’s OK.” Carissa likes to play with the baby’s toys. She lies next to her on the floor and basically thinks Elizabeth’s play things are her own.

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.

In September Wesley turned five.

His day started with a cupcake for breakfast. Or, more specifically, with cupcake frosting for breakfast.

Then he went to preschool with a special homemade “Today I’m 5” badge.

He came home from school with a cool crown.

His Grammy was in town and bought him a nice Thomas the Tank Engine cake. So glad I didn’t have to make one.

The frosting was ultra-blue.

Wes enjoyed the frosting best of all.

Presents! His Aunt Tara made him a cool book with pictures of his family. He loves books like that.

His Grammy gave him a water table for outside. All the kids enjoyed playing in it.

And before the night was through a box came from Grandma and Grandpa in Iowa with a train set. A kid’s dream-come-true.

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.