Sometimes when Wes is playing with his playgym, he’ll pull so hard on the toys that the gym collapses on top of him. Doesn’t seem to bother him, though. It brings the toys closer to his mouth, so maybe he’s actually doing it on purpose!
Three weeks ago Wesley’s physical therapist noted that Wes was “really ready” for supported sitting. I hadn’t realized it. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone else tell you these things.
So we’ve been working on it. His therapist came again one week ago and said Wes had improved a lot since her last visit. His progress is so gradual to me, who sees him every day, that it’s also nice to have someone tell me that, too.
She said that it’s common for kids with Down syndrome to want to fold over when you hold them in a sitting position, but Wes fights to hold himself upright. He doesn’t fold over.
Wes seems to enjoy sitting up and having a better perspective of the world. He loves to look around him. Lately I’ve noticed him watching our two cats scamper around. And when I take him outside he watches the cars drive back and forth on the street by our house.
Now that I’m paying attention, I can tell he’s getting stronger at sitting up. Sometimes he’ll let go of the toy he’s using to prop himself up, and for a moment or two he’ll balance himself upright without clinging to anything. It’s great to watch him grow up like this. Last night I watched a few videos of Wes when he was seven and eight weeks old, and he has come a long way in seven months!
Last night John and I were watching a 20/20 report of weather myths that included a segment on lightning safety. I couldn’t help but remember the time John was nearly struck by lightning.
(Aside: John would title this post differently, of course. Last night I reminded him of when he was nearly struck by lightening and he just laughed saying, “I wasn’t nearly struck by lightning. It struck clear across the street!” Well, I’m writing this post and I say that lightning striking across the street from you means you were nearly struck by lightning, so I’ll title my post however I want.)
We were living in Provo and had just gotten home from dinner or someplace. It was dark and windy and looked stormy, although it wasn’t raining. As we walked from our car to the front door John said he thought he’d go for a walk. I said, “Suit yourself,” and off he went while I headed inside.
Once inside our condo I put my stuff down on the counter, checked our messages, and turned to head back into the living room. As I did I heard a loud boom and saw an enormous flash of light through the dining room window. It was brilliantly bright. I figured lightning must have hit a house or tree nearby, and I thought, “Wow! How amazing that I happened to turn just in time to see that!”
Not thirty seconds later John came back inside.
“That was a short walk,” I said. I noticed he seemed a little more excited than usual, which was due to the fact that he had nearly been struck by lightning and Could. Have. Been. Dead.
He had been walking around our block and was partway down 500 East when the lightning hit. It struck the tree diagonally across the street from where John was standing, maybe thirty-five feet away.
I think I was more shook up by it than he was. (How can guys get so excited by stuff like that when all the wife can think is, “Thank goodness I’m not a widow, thank goodness I’m not a widow…”?)
The next day we walked around the corner and saw the damage. The tree had been blown to smithereens with only a jagged stump left.
Moral: Don’t walk around the block in a lightning storm. Not even if it there is no lightning but could be. Especially if you’re married and your wife isn’t ready to be a widow yet. Do like the report on 20/20 said and stay home or in your car, but don’t hide under the tallest tree or on top of the Empire State Building or anyplace else prone to lightning. Otherwise you could end up like that jagged stump of a tree.
How can our baby be seven months old already? We’ve realized that he’s officially over that six-month hump and into the latter half of his first year, which means in a handful of months he’ll be a whole year old. Crazy. Who’d have thought we’d ever have a one-year-old?
Wes is doing well. His latest favorite discovery is shaking his arms. With this new skill he can hang onto toys and shake them like crazy, and sometimes he’ll shake his arm at you as if he’s saying bye-bye (even though he doesn’t know it). Here’s video proof, but you’ll have to endure hearing me talk like all moms do to their babies. We just can’t help ourselves.
A physical therapist visits twice a month because of his Down syndrome, and she says he’s doing great. She came last week and was impressed at his readiness for supported sitting, so we’ve been working a lot on that. We set a toy in front of him and help him sit up (holding onto his legs only) so he can play with it. He doesn’t like to sit up for long, though. He’d much rather stand up!
Though he’s seven months old, he’s still working to grow into his three-month size clothes. He sleeps great through the night (and has since he was three months old), although sometimes in the morning I’ll walk into his room to discover all his covers kicked off and Wes lying diagonally in his bed, completely outside of the positioning blocks we set him between at night. I don’t know how he wiggles himself out of those.
He’s only had one cold this whole winter, and he wasn’t even grumpy during it. We feel so lucky to have this little kid as part of our family.
1. Instead of getting current top-40 songs stuck in your head, you find yourself humming the most popular tune in your own house–the one on the Fisher Price musical caterpillar: “Five little ladybugs meet for lunch, five little ladybugs munch and crunch. One, two, three, four, FIVE!”
2. When you get undressed at night you discover a used burp cloth between your t-shirt and sweater layers.
3. You can do anything one-handed.
4. When you’re shopping alone and you hear a baby cry you look around for your own baby, even though you know he’s at home with Dad.
5. Another person can throw up on you, pee on you, and sneeze in your face, and it doesn’t even faze you.
6. Sometimes you call another adult for no reason other than to talk to another adult.
7. Diaper coupons are equivalent to gold.
8. It feels weird to drive the car by yourself with no one in the backseat.
9. Showering is as luxurious as visiting a day spa in terms of being alone and smelling nice afterward.
10. You shop for a stroller with the same intensity as you would a new car, and look for all the same features: maximum storage capacity, best maneuverability, most cup holders.
I think Wesley’s hands are so expressive. Sometimes he uses them in such interesting ways, which, I’m sure, are entirely by accident.
Sometimes the way he positions them reminds me of a very wise person. (If you discount the devil horn tangles in his hair. He was having a bad hair day.)
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