Wyatt-isms

Wyatt is at the cutest age right now.  I think I probably say that at every age and stage, but there are just so many things he's doing right now that I will want to remember one day.  I'm not very good at writing this stuff in his baby book, so I know this blog will have to serve as my reference when I actually do sit down to catch up with that.  So with that, here is what W is up to lately .....

•  When he wants to be held he comes over to me, holds his hands up and says "hold you" (ahhh ... so sweet.  and its pretty rare when he actually wants to be held)

•  We were looking through a costume catalog the other day and he saw a little boy wearing a prisoner costume.  He pointed to the little boy and said "ZEBRA!!!".  Nope kid ... definitley not a zebra. 

• He has pretty much retired his high chair (which, I guess will give me a little extra space in the kitchen now).  If I tell him its time to eat, or that we're going out to eat he immediately looks at me and says "big boy chair?"  Its taken some punishments (i.e. - putting him in his high chair) but we're pretty much at the point where he will sit and eat his whole meal in the big boy chair.  The caveat to that is that I have to be the only one in the room at meal time, and I have to sit there with him and "coach" him to eat. 

• He is slightly spoiled.  Or maybe naive?  I'm not sure what the right word is, but every time he asks for something that we don't have he tells me to "go buy it".  Here are a couple recent conversations:

                 W:  I want to go beach          
                 K: Sorry, bud, we aren't close to the beach. We'll go again next year
                 W:  buy beach!

                 W: I want cupcake
                 K: We don't have any cupcakes at home. Sorry!
                 W: buy cupcakes!

• He is a negotiator.  If I am trying to bribe him with something I'll say "I'll give you 2 goldfish if you do ____" He will sometimes look up at me and say "pise goldpish" (five goldfish).  However, sometimes this works in my favor as I'll offer him a certain number and he will negotiate with a lower number .  (He knows how to count to 10, but I don't think he totally knows what the numbers mean)

• Another example:  I usually warn him when he's about to have to do something that I know   he won't want to like go inside, or leave the pool, or go upstairs for bath -- I typically give him a 5, 3, and 1 minute warning.  So now, after he's had his warnings and its time to move on and I say "come on Wyatt, time to go get a bath" he will look up at me and say "one minute" or "pise (five) minutes".   

• He loves his treats.  And gets them pretty much on a daily basis for various things (although to him one jelly bean is a major treat).  Anyway, several times a day he'll look up at me with the sweetest, most innocent smile and say "treat??" Its hard not to give it to him, but I usually wait until I need to bribe him!

• If he asks for a skittle (we have a jar in the guest bedroom) and I say no, he will say "one?"  As if to say "just one skittle momma, what does that hurt?" For the record, I usually do give in to that ....

• I don't know of any nice way to say this other than that he is starting to get slightly bossy.  He tells me where to sit, what cars I can (and can't) play with, etc.  If I'm trying to pick him up to make him do something he doesn't want to he'll say "momma back".  And sometimes, he'll tell me "momma go bye-bye".  He's a handfull! 

• He likes to "take".  Whenever we go anywhere -- from inside to out, upstairs to down, and from the car into the store, etc he has to take something.  Sometimes its his water, sometimes its his bagel, sometimes its a toy.  Sometimes all 3.  But he always takes something -- even to bed!

• He LOVES to jump on the bed.  Several times a day we hear "Wyatt jump bed" or "I want jump bed" ... and we typically let him as long as we can supervise.   

• He has an elephant's memory.  It amazes me.  Last night I took away one of his cars because he hit me with it.  (He acted like I had killed his dog).  This morning the first thing he said was "need car" and pointed to where I had left it on the counter.   I gave it to him because that is the rule - he gets toys back the next day.  As soon as I handed it to him he said "no no.  no hit momma" At least I know that he understands why he was punished ....

• For the last few weeks, his favorite books are "Llama Llama Mad at Mama" and "Very Hungry Caterpillar" .... we read these every. single. night.  

• Because I love his mis-pronunciations ... I need to keep track of them. There are probably more but these are my favorite ones ...


• Horse = ro or rody
• Motorcycle = quey or motorquey
• Umbrella = umbre-bre
• Five = pise
• Firetruck = poitruck (he cant say his f's yet ... which is good since his daddy slipped up and used the f word the other day ... AND WYATT REPEATED IT!)
• yellow = dedow 
• fall down = pall down
• hamburger =  hamburburber
• chicken = cinken

Happenings

We've had a lot going on lately, none of which is really worthy of a whole blog post soooooooooo here's a little update!

1) Ben's Birthday -- although this is totally worthy of a whole blog post, I'm nearly a month late on this.  SORRY!! (I did manage to post a FB shoutout to him on his b-day so I'm not on the shit-list entirely)

We spent the Saturday before his birthday at a beer tasting and after that we all went to Mom and Dad's house for a little pool party/cookout.  It was a busy and fun afternoon and then we prepared ourselves to spend the end of his b-day week in St. Simons! 

2) Tomatoes! -- a few days after we returned home (i think), i had a few tomatoes FINALLY turn red.  I thought these things would never get ripe.  Here are 2 from my very first harvest!! I've got lots more on the vine but it seems that there is a little varmint after them too so I better be quick!

3) Meals on Wheels -- One of the many awesome things about our neighborhood is that (mostly) everyone is just so kind.  Every time someone has a baby, surgery, etc many of the ladies rally and organize a meal calendar.  Sooo, I'm always on the hunt for new recipes to take to people.  I took these beef enchiladas to a new mama last week along with Mexican rice and candy brownies and made a second batch for myself.  They were amazing.  And even better re-heated ... so if you're on the hunt for a new enchilada recipe this one is easy and SO DELICIOUS! (even though this picture isn't all that pretty you should trust me on that)

4) Sunflowers -- ahhh ... who knew a few packets of seeds could make me so happy come June/July?  I loved these so much, but they were tall and got pretty scraggly about 2 days after blooming.  I cut off all the blooms from this mutant that you see (they're only supposed to have one flower head), then ripped them all out of the ground.  I figure we'll have another 2 months of summer most likely so I planted some new seeds.  These will be MUCH shorter ... tallest are supposed to be 5 feet as opposed to the first crop which were 10-12 feet.

5) Birthday/Anniversary gift -- I got Ben a big green egg for his birthday / our 5th anniversary.  We bought a charcoal grill right after we moved in the house, and he just absolutely loves it and has really learned to do a lot with it.  He has been hinting around about an Egg for a while though, so I figured this would be a good combo gift.  I think he likes it?  

St. Simons Island

This is about 2 weeks late, buuuut better late than never, right?

We spent the end of the 4th of July week with Ben's family down in St. Simons Island.   We try to get down there each summer with Ben's family and I have to say this year was probably the most fun any of us have ever had.  (A certain little 2-year old boy may have something to do with that??)

Wyatt loves everything about the beach -- playing in the sand, jumping the 'big waves', "pinding" shells ... everything.  We took him out to the beach first thing each morning and it just flat wore him out by lunchtime each day.  

We had several un-successful attempts at getting a family picture.

We practiced jumping in the pool.  Despite several swim lessons each week, he has just not entirely warmed up to the pool.

Wyatt played in the waves with Lolly ...

He also built sand castles with Great Aunt Susan.  There were 2 buckets and if Susan made the mistake of going to the ocean with only one of them, Wyatt would hand the other bucket and tell her to go get "more"

We did go out to dinner a few times.  Its always dicey with a worn-out Dubs .... some days he'll do great out to eat and other times it is just too exhausting to do.  I have to say that this particular night at the Crab Trap got interesting after he threw an empty water glass across the restaurant.  But other than that he was really good!

I love this picture - my camera had fuzzy lens here but he you can get the jist.  He was driving his trucks up and down my arms.

Obama says Wyatt didn't build this Lego tower .... but Great Aunt Susan saw him do so

 I love this picture too!  He was dipping his head in the tidal pool and then slinging it back up

Pops burried Wyatt in the sand!  He loved this

Wyatt helped out the King and Prince by watering their gardens each day.  And, um, also by putting a little mulch in their pool.  Sorry!

 He swam with Lolly

Another favorite photo of Pops helping Wyatt 'jump' the waves!   This got exhausting for Pops, I'm sure but Wyatt sure did love it!

We had a fabulous time.  Wyatt keeps asking when we can go back to the beach!

Easy Come, Easy Go

I think before Wyatt was born, and really even now, the things I've thought would be the biggest struggles have turned out to be no big deal.  I say that without exception.  Nursing? No problem ... that was easy.  Dropping mid-night feedings?  Not a problem. Weaning? Not hard at all.  Taking him out of his swaddle?  Easy peasy.  Moving him to the crib (from our room)?  No issues.  Taking away the bottle?  He never even missed it.

BUT.  the one transition that I was certain would be a problem for us is taking away his paci. 

See, from the beginning he was a paci kid.  I remember him taking it in the hospital and thinking "great ... there is one habit i'm going to have to break eventually".  But it soothed him and comforted him, and frankly kept everyone sane at times. 

We kept several in his room, and one in each of our cars. 

 Wherever Wyatt went, the paci wasn't far behind. 

Now, after he turned 1 I tried to limit car-paci use, and definitely didn't let him use it in public.  Mostly because I didn't want to look like a redneck.  Ben kept asking when we were taking it away and I kept putting it off.  At one point it was 1 year, then 18 months, then 2.  I nearly pushed it to 2.5  but decided against that. 

Although he wasn't using them in public, he did go down each night with a minimum of 4 pacis.  Ben and I would always go to his room and "re-paci" him before we went to bed.  He was addicted.  He knew where we kept them and would frequently go into his room to get them.

On a whim last Friday night, I just decided I would put him down without them and see if he asked.  He didn't and slept all night without a problem.

He did ask for them for the next few days but I hid them and have just changed the subject (or ignored the request) when he asked.  

He finally stopped asking.  We have had no problems with sleep interruption. 

I can't believe it.  The things I think are going to be the most difficult with this kid are EASY.

That all being said, I would be remiss if I didn't also point out that the things which should be "simple" with him are anything but.  Seriously.  Cooking dinner? Can hardly do it unless he's asleep.  Preparing one of his meals?  Practically impossible.  A simple grocery store run?  Pretty much rocket science ....

Garden!!

I definitely do not have a green thumb.  At all.  As I've mentioned before I have 3 live plants in my house and its all I can do to keep those alive (actually, the one I replace every 6 months is in need of replacing now).  But, BUT, BUT ... when I do have gardening successes you can bet that I'm going to show them off!

So, this spring when I was at Pike's picking out stuff for my front and back planters, I also picked up a couple of tomato plants just for fun.  I came home, put everything in my planters, and then planted both tomato plants in 12 inch pots.  They sat like this for a good few weeks until Mom finally had the grace to tell me that I really needed whiskey barrels.  But, stunted growth be damned, they are flourishing right now!!  We water every day and Wyatt tries to pull each and every "big ah-ma-mo" off the vine.

Look at these puppies!!! They're huge! Even Ben says he'll eat our home-grown tomatoes once they ripen.

These are the planters I mentioned.  This guy was near-death after I returned from Memorial Day weekend at the lake and it didn't get water for 3 days but I nursed it back to life!!

However, my proudest gardening accomplishment of 2012 is my sunflowers.  Look at this dude about to open .... the anticipation is killing you, right??

Here he is along with a couple friends a few days later.

Last night I was out watering and discovered that several of those sunflowers have multiple heads.  This is so much fun!!! I don't think you can really see well in this picture, but there is another little head about to bloom near that leaf.  Its such a happy little flower, isn't it?

I think you can surmise based on the empty space in my garden that I've no clue what I am doing.  I planted the sunflower seeds and then just got overwhelmed and didn't know what else to plant.  At first I wanted different flowers all summer.  Then I wanted things blooming spring-summer-fall.  Then I got all confused about how tall things were and the color wheel and all that stuff. Sooooooo I'm left with a lot of empty space.

I'll tend to that next year, I suppose.  Anyone want to draw up a plan for me though??

Amelia Island Vacation

I'm not sure where to start here ... this is going to be a pretty long post!

We spent the last week in Amelia Island with my whole family -- except for Ben :(  We all missed having him there, but duty calls so he didn't get to join us.

One of Wyatt's favorite activities as of late is jumping on the bed.  So naturally there was a lot of that taking place throughout the week.  As you can see, Ellie played right along!

We played on the beach

built sand castles

ate beach snacks

and also suckers

walked on the beach

ran down the boardwalk (this was after dinner one night while we were waiting to get the check.  wyatt made friends with every. single. person. around -- as we were walking back down the board walk to leave i must have heard "bye wyatt" at least 12 times! he makes friends with everyone ... just like his daddy)

we collected shells (and every shell is a big shell)

searched for turtles

walked on the beach more

got really sandy

wrote our names in the sand 

posed (reluctantly) for tree pictures

looked at the waves with meme

pushed big trucks around on the beach

played with the water hose

refused to cooperate for meme's pictures

ate ice cream

and caught really big snapper!  (The fisherman put this on his website.  I told dad he's as famous as I am!)