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.