Tonight Wes was playing on his changing table while I changed the sheet on his bed. His favorite thing to do there is flip over from his back to his tummy and look around. I kept glancing over while I was working on the bed (the table has safety rails, but they’re kind of short and Wes frequently hooks his legs and arms over the top of them, just to test my nerves, I’m sure).

All was dandy until I looked over and saw that his lips were covered in white goop, and it wasn’t spit-up. He had grabbed a trial-size package of Desitin that had been torn open and he was smearing it all over his mouth. Apparently it tasted good? That would surprise me, considering how badly that stuff reeks. Then again, formula reeks, too, and he downs four ounces of that every three hours.

I quickly cleaned him up and checked the Desitin package and, of course, there’s a poison warning on it. But I’m fairly certain he didn’t actually ingest any (or much) of it. That trial-size poison trap is safely in the diaper bin now.

Lately we’ve been helping Wes tuck his knees underneath him when he’s on his tummy and up on his forearms to get him closer to crawling. I didn’t think he was getting much out of it until I checked on him while he was sleeping last night and saw that he was on his tummy with his knees tucked under him and his rear in the air. I call that progress.

Also, while John and I were helping him with his knee-tucking this morning we watched as he held his knees under him and rocked a little on all fours before collapsing. Every time he fell down he’d move backward, and after a few times of that he had actually scooted himself backwards clear off his blanket. So he’s starting to move…even if he doesn’t know it yet.

We’re in St. George this weekend to see family, and tonight my mom-in-law was feeding Wes ice cream. I know I’ve posted a similar video on this site already, but I think it’s so darn cute to watch Wes get all excited about what he’s eating.

I also caught Wes on film recently eating something else–a toy. It’s not unusual for him to have something in his munchers, but normally when he lets go of the toy it falls out of his mouth. Not this toy.

Last week I took Wes to Walgreens to get his photo taken for a passport. John and I are updating ours, and we figured we might as well get him one, too, in case we decide to go someplace.

I got my photo taken first, which was no big deal. Then came Wesley’s turn. I had to hold him up in front of a white screen while the guy tried to take his picture. “Try” is the operative word here. For passport photos you need to be looking at the camera, without smiling, at a specific angle. But when Wes saw the guy holding the camera he started smiling at him like crazy. (I thought this was very generous of Wes, considering that the camera guy was ultra-serious, not kid-friendly, and really not worth smiling at.) Then Wes got distracted by a nice girl standing nearby and wouldn’t look back at the camera. Then he wanted to know what the white screen behind him was and twisted around in my arms to check it out. When he finally cued in on the camera guy again he thought the camera was a great toy and tried reaching out to grab it.

Finally, after about eight tries, the guy got a shot. “It’ll do,” he said.

This is Wesley’s passport photo for the next ten years. Like a deer caught in the headlights.

Wes turned nine months old last Thursday. It’s hard to believe we have a kid who’s three-quarters of the way to a year old.

The doctor says Wes is looking good. But it’s routine for kids with Down syndrome to be checked by an ear-nose-throat doctor before they’re a year old, so we’ll be heading to Primary Children’s Hospital soon for that. Kids with DS commonly have problems with their ears and nasal tracts because they’re narrower than in other kids. I’ve met a lot of moms whose kids have tubes placed in their ears when they’re quite young. But I’m not too worried about Wesley’s ears; he obviously hears just fine and hasn’t had an ear infection. Our doctor tried to take a look at Wesley’s ears but there was so much wax it was hard to get a good view. He even scraped some out and still had a hard time. How can one kid have so much ear wax?

At four months, he was:

9 lbs 7.5 oz (7th percentile on DS chart)
22 inches long (13th percentile)
14.6 inch head circumference (20th percentile)

At six months he was:

11 lbs 13 oz (11th percentile on DS chart)
24 inches long (16th percentile)
15.4 inch head circumference (26th percentile)

And this month he’s:

14 lbs 4 oz (23rd percentile on DS chart)
26 inches long (25th percentile)
about 16 inches head circumference (26th percentile)

The nurse has to print out his measurements on the special chart for boys with Down syndrome, because the curve is different for regular kids. She was having trouble getting the DS chart up at first, so she printed his stats on the regular chart. Compared with normal kids, Wes is in the 1 percentile for weight!

He’s obviously growing and doing well. He’s doesn’t seem much interested in learning to scoot or crawl, but he’ll lift his legs and feet and walk if we hold him under the arms and help him a little.

Here are two pictures to show how far he’s come in nine months.

Wes is ten days old in this photo. I’m dressing him after a bath in the hospital. He’s wearing preemie diapers and clothes–both of which are far too big for him still.

Wes is almost nine months here. He’s sitting up, eating solids, wearing 3-month-size clothing and size 1-2 diapers. And smiling as usual.

Wes has been blowing raspberries like crazy. He tends to do it more when he’s getting tired/bored instead of crying. Yesterday on our way home from camping he was getting ready for a bottle, but we were still a few minutes from town, so he had to wait. He was whining a little, but blowing raspberries more. John said, “Well, at least he’s got his boat to keep him happy.” Because that’s exactly how he sounds–like he’s driving a speedboat. He’d be really cute in a captain’s hat behind the wheel of a toy boat.

He’s also strong enough now that we can stand him up in his crib and help him grab hold of the side and then let go so he’s standing up essentially alone. He’s getting stronger all the time.

We took him on his first camping trip over the weekend to Camp Ensign northeast of Heber City. He hardly even knew he was in the middle of nature because he got to play and do everything like normal. Just in the middle of mountains and pine trees instead of in our living room.

We had hobo dinners and s’mores Friday night like normal campers, but we went to sleep in style. We brought our portable DVD player for the car ride, but it turns out that there was an electrical outlet near our tent site, and my brother managed to round up a 25-foot extension cord, sooo…we fell asleep watching Jimmy Stewart in Harvey.

We let Wes sleep in the car seat in our tent with several layers of clothing, hats, socks, and blankets. He apparently was so comfy that he slept soundly till 8 a.m. Saturday morning in spite of near-freezing temperatures overnight. I nearly iced over because it turns out I’m an idiot and don’t know how to properly bundle myself up in a mummy sleeping bag.

The next day we visited Smith and Morehouse Reservoir up the road where we enjoyed the hot weather and I got a Birkenstock tan on my feet.

Wes has his nine-month checkup tomorrow. Can’t believe he’s nearly a year. Time flies.

I guess when you combine one mom who loves ice cream with one dad who adores chocolate, you end up with a chocoholic ice cream addict baby.

Tonight we ate out at Olive Garden (my mom-in-law’s treat, as she’s in town), and for dessert I had some chocolate gelato. Wes sure seemed interested in it, so at last I gave in and let him try some.

He was really into it. Check out this video of him. Whenever he saw the spoon approaching, his mouth would open, his tongue would hang out, and his limbs would wriggle with excitement. This is one serious chocoholic ice cream addict baby.

Some cities have bus stops. In Iowa, there’s tractor stops.

Actually, my mom sent me this photo today of my dad returning home late from church meetings after a torrential rainstorm wherein their driveway became flooded.

They live in a flood plain, so high water isn’t unusual in the spring. Thank goodness for tractors, right? They’ve also used a canoe to get from the highway to their house in a pinch.

It’s great that Wes is at an age now that I can plop him on the floor so he’s sitting up, drizzle toys all around him, and let him have at it. If he’s not hungry and he’s not tired, this keeps him entertained for quite a while.

Today I was sitting by him while he played, just watching him. He’s so happy. He chews on his toys a bit, then looks up at me and I smile at him and he smiles back, then goes back to chewing his toys. What a simple, perfect existence he has. His baby blessing in December said that he’s on Earth to gain a body for as long as the Lord sees fit. People with Down syndrome have a shorter life expectancy (about 55 years), which means, assuming that he’s healthy overall and so are we, we might outlive him. But it makes me happy to see him with a healthy body, playing with toys, exploring the world, finding joy all around him.

On Friday his therapist came and did a six-month evaluation for those record-keeping folk in the government who fund the program and want to make sure our kids are making progress. Well, Wes sure has come a long way in six months since he started working with a therapist. Most of it, really, is all Wes. I feel like the therapist and I help him minimally, that most of it is Wes making strides all on his own, at his own pace. But I still love that the therapist comes and shares my joy in Wesley’s progress and gives me tips of how I can help him along.

Wes is doing well overall. A few things to work on include helping him learn his own name and also recognize that I’m Mom and John is Dad. I hold him close to my face and say, “Where’s Mom?” And then I put his hands on my face and he smiles as I say, “There’s Mom!” Sometimes he puts his hands on my face on his own accord, but I think it might still be a bit accidental. In any case, he thinks it’s a fun game and he smiles big when we play it.

We’re also supposed to help him learn to put his arms out when we reach out to pick him up. I’m not quite sure how to teach him this trick. I ask him, “Do you want up?”, because I’ve been using the word “up” for a while and hope he’s figuring out what it means, and hold my hands out to him, but all I get in return so far is a blank stare. So we’ll keep working on that.

This past week John and I bought him a booster seat since we don’t have a high chair.

This was in part to help motivate me to persist in feeding him baby food. He’s still such a little guy that he doesn’t eat a whole lot–just six four-ounce bottles throughout the day–and he doesn’t need a lot of baby food. A single jar can last a few days. Besides, he’s still a spitter-upper, and Wes + baby food = colorful spit up. And that gets tiresome after a while. But I’ve been trying to be more diligent about giving him solids at least a couple times a day to get him used to it. I’m not sure when he’s going to start eating more than he does, but he is managing to gradually gain weight and grow bigger (he’s about 14 pounds now).

Wes has a new favorite chew toy:

Bookmarks are his new love. I take off the tassel so it’s safer to chew on. Still no sign of teeth.