Tonight we took Wes to the annual Christmas party for families who have kids with Down syndrome. It’s sponsored by the United Angels Foundation, which did a terrific job making it an enjoyable night.

Santa was there. We woke Wes up especially to see Santa, so when he finally got to sit on the jolly man’s lap Wes was still kind of groggy and serious.

But we managed to get a smile out of him.

(Here’s Wes on Santa’s lap last year when he was 2 months old. He must’ve been a smidgen groggy then, too.)

Then the Sparkly Pals performed. They’re a Utah dance group of kids with Down syndrome. When Wes is three years old he can join if he wants to. Now, you just try to tell me that these kids aren’t cute:

I rarely look at Wes and see Down syndrome in him. But after being in a room with lots of kids with DS running around it wasn’t hard to see the same features in Wes. He really is part of a special community, and what nice people are part in that community! We had such a good time tonight chatting with other parents and meeting their children. We listened to their stories of the various physical challenges their kids have faced and still deal with–multiple open heart surgeries, being on oxygen until they’re four, needing a gavage feeding tube for months or years, sleep apnea problems requiring a c-pap (oxygen mask–try forcing that on a two-year-old!), acid reflux requiring surgery to make the esophagus one-way, leukemia (which is more common with DS) and radiation treatments (the kid’s only eleven)… I could go on and on. Wes is really thriving. He has been blessed with excellent physical health and a strong body. People commented on his good muscle tone (because he can close his mouth all the way without his tongue hanging out) and how great it is that he’s crawling, standing (a little), and so active. Wes is doing great.

Today while we went to Salt Lake a wonderful family in our neighborhood looked after Wesley. When we came home and I went to pick him up their son said that Wesley was out shopping at KMart with his mom and grandma. So I went home empty-handed (which was fine–more of a break for me!). A little while later they dropped off Wes and, lo and behold, he had new shoes! He’s never worn shoes before, but doesn’t he looked very manly in them?

Wes will turn fifteen months old next week. He likes to walk when we hold onto his hands and help him. It makes him break out in a great big grin every time. And when he’s standing up with our help and we let go, if he doesn’t realize we’re not holding him up anymore, he’ll stand there for a few seconds all by himself. Today for the first time we saw him pull himself to standing and then let go of the object he had been hanging onto and stand for a few seconds. He’s getting braver, I think. The average walking age for kids with Down syndrome is about two years old, and I think Wes will come out ahead in that area. Especially now that he’s got these stylin’ shoes to sport everywhere he goes!