Kimba

Mi familia

Hi. My mom and little sister (my other one) flew in today. This is what we're going to be doing for the next few days.

I'm lookin' forward to it.

Morning breaks

My favorite part of the day is in the morning. It's usually early, 7:30ish, and the summer morning light is streaming through our blinds (we need to get curtains...). Once Wyatt wakes up I bring him in bed with me, change his diaper, and we play for about an hour or so in our pajamas. I lay around, watching him and The Today Show, and he squirms this way and that, practicing getting up on his knees, as of late.

It's quiet, calm, and everyone's happy.

In between playing he gets distracted by the TV, and stops everything he's doing.

The only thing you're missing is the squawking, shrieking and bubble blowing. And the consequent drool.

It is the perfect way to wake up. I highly recommend it.

Lazy, HOT, weekend

I caved this last week, and bought Sophie le Giraffe.

I found it at a store near here for cheaper than I could get online, and I only wish I'd done it sooner. It's made of super soft rubber, perfect for little teething mouths, and Wyatt chews on it until it's slick and wet. Thankfully for now, I think we're through the last tooth.

Thank goodness, too, because it was a doozy. (Doozie?) I was starting to think I'd have to do everything with this little monkey strapped to me.

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In other news, and I'm not even sure if I should share this for fear I'll jinx myself, but Wyatt slept last night from 7:30 until 5:45.

That's PM to AM people, and it's funny, because while I couldn't be more excited, my first reaction when I wake up at, oh, 4 am, and realize he hasn't woken up yet, is to mildly panic. Something must be wrong! He's sleeping! A lot!

The first night it happened, a week or so ago, I actually got up and went to check on him. I found him in the stink bug position, breathing soundly. I have to keep reminding myself that this is normal, that soon he'll sleep THE WHOLE NIGHT, MANY NIGHTS IN A ROW. It's just strange to go from waking up at least twice a night for....7 months.....to getting a decent night's sleep.

Strange, and wonderful.

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Also, I think I caught the bottom-lip-sucking.

We're starting to wonder if we've got a shy kid on our hands, but no matter. I sort of find it adorable.

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And lastly, my recent visit to see Abby got me thinking about planting an herb garden. A portable herb garden (everything's got to be, when you're renting).

So I did, in ridiculously hot weather. Honestly, I swear we hit the 100's this weekend.

That's dill, chocolate mint ('tis all they had...), provincial lavender, chives, lemon thyme, flat leaf parsley, lemon basil, and sweet basil.

Ready for the plucking!

Special thanks to Kelly Anne, for helping with the "plucking" advice....

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Oh, and one more thing. I finally saw The Other Boleyn Girl this weekend, and I can't stop thinking about it! What a MESS! What a waste!

Also, I think every important historical event should be memorialized in video, I swear I retain more that way.

That, and they should always include ScarJo, Eric and Natalie. Is all I'm sayin'.

New developments

Oh......my......

No. Seriously. This is not happening.

Oh, but it is.

Neither....

is....

this...

Seriously. Someone. Help.

It's going to happen soon, isn't it? I'm going to have a mobile baby. Je suis effraye.

Incisors

Wyatt is cutting a tooth. His top left if you must know, and of the three teeth he's got, this one has been the worst.

The day starts off fabulously with lots of grins, squeals and laughs, and continues on this way until after his shorty-third nap. From then until bedtime, the only thing he wants to do is be held, climb all over you, and maybe bite off a finger or two, which hurts a bit, what with his bottom two teeth jutting up like tiny razors.

So story time with Daddy is a welcome respite after three hours of baby wrangling.

It may be small, but it's a milestone nonetheless

It took seven months, but last night we finally created our first bath mohawk.

It's tiny, sure, but it's there.

Summer Solstice

For Father's Day weekend, I evened up the boy / girl ratio in the house. My little sister Liz came to visit. It was an excellent weekend.

First, we went to the beach. It was, after all, fabulous weather, and you can't really pass that up here. You're practically drawn to the cool beach breezes.

Wyatt spent most of the time sucking on the ties to his swimsuit. It's pretty much his favorite thing to do.

Then we decided to introduce him to the sand. It was quite the experience.

He loved the sand, grabbed fistfuls and let them fall through his fingers. We let him, until this happened:

...aaaaaand we were done then.

Even with sand in his eyes, he loved it. It completely wore him out, but he loved it.

On Father's Day I woke up and went to make German Pancakes, Caleb's favorite, but I quickly realized I was short two eggs.

I'd used them to make him lemon bars.

So we made crepes instead.

Then we got ready for church, and I had to take a picture of my handsome men.

We had a lovely time at church, and then went to Mark and Bridgette's for a barbecue. The perfect way to celebrate Summer Solstice. The longest day of the year.

It also happened to be Liz's birthday. Lucky girl.

So we celebrated with a cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. And to make a long story short, our cake wasn't ready and so they ended up putting together pieces from several cakes to make up ours. Only important because it appears that Caleb picked the wrong piece. Picked the short straw. The dud.

He spent some time with our toilet, is what I'm sayin'. Poor guy, on Father's Day and everything.

For the time being though, it was lovely. Delicious. Perfect.

That's what I'm talkin' about...

It was an excellent evening, hopefully us "old-marrieds" didn't bore Liz too much. I suppose she got a glimpse of married life - evenings spent watching TV while the kids sleep.

Other highlights of the trip included shopping in downtown Los Gatos, a lunch of "the best sushi ever" (I'll have to take their word for it - I chose to eat COOKED meat), and more shopping. And more eating.

It's what we do best.

A good trip, that as always, is too short. We miss you already, Aunt Yiz!

Wyatt: 7 months

When we're out in public people always ask me about Wyatt, and his age is always one of the first questions. I can't believe I'm now answering with, "7 months", because I feel like I just started saying six. Honestly. I think this last month was one of the fastest, and it's starting to scare me. He's changed SO much in the past thirty days, and I know it will just continue this way.

I swear I can literally see him changing, just this morning I sat and watched him try to get at a few banana chunks that had fallen onto the tray on his high chair. He'd move his hand around and then stop to look at his fingers and then try again, this time trying to work those pinchers. He hasn't quite got them down, but I'm sure it will only be a few days before he's perfected it.

I can't believe what a month has done for his mobility, he doesn't stay anywhere for long. Changing his diaper is tricky, he needs something in his hands, and there can't be anything within his line of sight, or he flips over so fast you don't have time to react. TV remotes or cell phones are particularly enticing. I'm not sure why, but those seem to be baby magnets, nothing excites him more than a remote control. Except maybe Daddy coming home.

(picture via Caleb)

His sleeping is the same, I'm hoping that we'll eventually start skipping one of the nightly feedings soon. I hear all sorts of stories about babies sleeping through the night at a much younger age, I don't even know what that would be like. He's such a good baby I can't complain, but I will be very happy to finally get a full night's sleep. Someday.

He's sitting up much better, practically a sitting pro. (I hear they have prizes for that...right?) He's getting good at reaching for toys and righting himself without falling. I'm still amazed at how quickly he learned it, and how grown up he seems doing it. My baby, sitting up all by himself, grabbing toys like nobody's business.

It's been a month, and he is finally doing really well with solid foods. It took a good few weeks, a few different foods, but he's got it down. Every once in a while he'll put up a fuss, but for the most part he cooperates. He's even enjoying rice cereal, which was a total dud at first.

He still doesn't like peas, though.

But we keep trying. We ain't quitters.

The highlight of the month was our trip to Oregon, and again, despite his constant waking up, he was such a good, happy little boy. Caleb and I constantly reminding ourselves how lucky we are, what a good little guy he is, and I can only hope the rest of our kids are so good natured. Even when he's teething (which we seem to be in the throes of currently) he's not very fussy. Our pediatrician did tell me that when they cut teeth so early it usually hurts them less. A blessing in disguise, I suppose. Our reward for starting the teething process so early.

I don't know if it's his age, or his personality, but he's very quiet when we're out in public. He stares, he sucks his bottom lip (something I find to be adorable, I need to get that on camera), and rarely makes a peep. If someone stops to talk and smile at him he'll usually reward them with a little smile of his own, but it's not guaranteed. Of course, this does not apply while at church, where he seems to reserve his loudest shrieks.

Just in the last few days he's started the beginning of a babble. It seems to be the same as before, just noise, no consonents, but now he does it with his mouth in a little "O", his tongue getting in his way and making adorable little sounds. I could listen to it all day.

Except at nap time, of course...

I don't know how it's possible, but I really do love him more every day. I know that's cheesy and corny and cliche, but it's true. Nothing is better than getting a good smile out of my little boy. Nothing beats kissing those big chipmunk cheeks. (I swear he's got something in there. They're so big.) We will try anything to get him to giggle, will face complete humiliation to get a belly laugh. This is certainly the most challenging thing we've ever done, but it is by far the most fun and rewarding. How can it not be?

Have I mentioned how much I love his little hair growin' in? And that hairline? Well. I do. I love it very much.

Packin' on the LB's

Wyatt's list of acceptable foods is expanding. It now includes apples, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, anything offered from my hand (bread, plain cooked rice), watermelon and peaches. Peas and butternut squash are not among the list, despite the fact that I have a bag full of them in the freezer. We'll get there, I haven't given up yet.

The result is delicious baby thighs.

And equally yummy baby knees.

It's almost more than I can take.

Seriously

Seen Monday at the Portland airport:

One twenty-something year old girl with a lanyard around her neck. At the end was a binki. Like, a real live binki, the exact same kind we had for Wyatt when he was a newborn.

Like so.

And this girl? This twenty-something girl? She was SUCKING ON IT. And not just for a few seconds, no, I watched. I paid attention. This wasn't some I'm-gonna-hold-it-in-my-mouth-while-I-do-something stunt. It was the only thing on the lanyard. And she was sucking on it. And there was no other sign that she had any children.

So. There's that.

And I can't stop thinking about it. I think it's behind the headache I've been battling all day long.

Someone please help me. WHY IN THE WORLD?!