Heebie Jeebies

You know a spider is insanely huge when Lisa, lover of all things natural and organic, puts up zero resistance while I unload half a bottle of Ortho Home Defense on its leggy nastiness. Despite it being outside her house, it was truly too close to home for me to tolerate.

People, if that thing showed up in my house, I would probably wet myself.

Update

Since you've all been clamoring for details (ahem....crickets. is anyone still out there?), here's a word-picture of Wyatt at 11 months:

1. stats: 17 lbs., 3.5 oz. and 27 inches tall. Both are well below average but we're tired of caring too much. He also has eight teeth and so much drool again that I'm worried more are on their way.
2. favorite foods: tomatoes, peaches, mandarin oranges, cheese in all forms, avocados, bananas (preferably bitten directly off the fruit, not cut up), waffles, yogurt and anything you're willing to share off your plate.
3. least favorite foods: carrots, anything that isn't his idea.
4. tricks: crawls at high speed, still with a nice little side-to-side wiggle; pulls up on just about anything (Millie included) and cruises with ease; claps and waves on demand; makes a funny growling sound if you ask him what a dog says; looks up at the mention of airplanes; flirts shamelessly with any cute, slightly Asian-looking women; flashes his sly little grin if he thinks he might be doing something wrong; feeds Millie from his highchair and knows exactly what we mean when we tell him not to.
5. words: many combinations and permutations of "da". Can be guaranteed to say "da-da" if we ask him to say "ma-ma". He also seems to be working on saying "outside", especially in reference to airplanes. We first noticed this on Tuesday night after we saw a tanker through our bedroom window and he's repeated it a few times since. He knows "please" and "all done" in sign, but prefers his grunting method. Grunts are also the method of choice when he is trying to will something his way (as in, grunt and make a serious face and stare really hard at whatever it is you want, and hope that it somehow levitates toward you.)
6. favorite toys: the little people barn, the music table, the plastic box of blocks, any balls, and stacking cups (which must be quickly unstacked with vigorous arm swinging). He also really appreciates the chance to play with any shoes, the dishwasher and the water cooler.
7. miscellaneous tidbits: he loves water, thinks it's hilarious when we sneeze (real or fake), still refuses to hold his bottle, will drink water out of his sippy cup, tries to pet Millie by grabbing and pulling, is getting better with the separation anxiety but still lights up when yours truly enters a room, crawls down the hallway as fast as he can when daddy walks in the door every evening, thinks hiding behind the curtains is great fun, loves being outside, turns toward Nathan and Lisa when I ask where either one is, looks for Millie first thing every morning and has a great smile. Oh, and he points to his mouth every time we read the part of the book where Elmo points to his nose.

There. Now you know.

Water Baby

We've had a sneaking suspicion that Wyatt likes water. I mean, last night he strained to get his little chin over the edge of the tub so he could watch his bath fill (so sorry I don't have a picture of that - it's pretty cute to see his small-but-perfect naked self doing pull-ups on the side of the tub). Even so, his vigor at the beach today was totally amusing. As soon as we could see the water he started giving us the universal sign for "let me down NOW people!" (it involves lunging away from the restraining arms of a parent toward the sand and lots of grunting). He had protested his morning nap, so we weren't sure how he'd fare but it's safe to say he's a beach bum in the making.

First we sat right at the water's edge which was all well and good until the waves would ebb away from him; that just brought on more frustrated grunts. Then we moved to the let's-see-if-he-likes-the-floatie stage. He does. He especially likes leaning waaaayyy forward and splash splash splashing until his face and head are soaking wet.

Then we moved to the daddy-swoops-you-through-the-water stage. Also super fun!
Next was the calm floating stage. Not as much fun since the ability to splish-splash is diminished. He tolerated it but definitely prefers to be face toward the water, sometimes even face IN the water.
Then we had hey-you-look-like-a-prune-so-let's-sit-in-the-sand time. It's apparently very frustrating to be able to see the water and not play in it. Beach time was not his favorite. Therefore, we moved back to floatie time and quickly discovered it was time to pack it in since Wyatt leaned back and started to nap (no kidding) in the raft.

Needless to say, he didn't stay awake for our trip home. That 10 minute drive was just too much for our sleepy, sunwashed, salt-soaked island boy.

Didn't I Just Mention This?

Please reference the butterfly park entry - the one where I mentioned my Reptile Gardens fun at the ripe old age of 10 - and then guess what we did today? That's right! We went to the Habu Museum, where I got to do this:


Don't worry, it's not a habu, just a python. Cool, huh? This was one HEAVY dude (hence my strange posture) and braving the stage/python/photo thing earned me a round of applause from the Japanese audience.

Oh, and I'll say it for you: nice hair. It's time for a cut.

It Has To Be Said.....

...Nobody puts baby in a corner.

Dirty Dancing was on TV last night while Wyatt was eating his dinner and every time the people would clap for the dancers in the movie, Wyatt would stop what he was doing and clap, too. Such a polite little guy!

And after dinner, while he was playing (at his music table where he always plays), we looked over and he was "dancing". Unfortunately I think he might have inherited my VERY white-girl dancing genes as his version was some random bopping up and down coupled with some crazy head bobs. It's much cuter on a baby than on a grown woman, though, so he pulled it off pretty well.

Firsts, Food & Family Values

(ed. note: this was written last night but &*#&@! blogger kicked our computer offline. Stupid program! So no pictures - check the flickr badge later, they'll update there.)

Another Okinawa first - the butterfly garden! I love it when we finally do new things and find out they're lots of fun. Luckily we had been told the butterflies love red, so we were prepared. Wyatt wasn't sure what to think but I think he had fun and we managed to not let him mangle any butterflies and that's about all it takes for me to think it's a succesful outing. Besides, I'm hoping that trips like that will make Wyatt a lot like me, the girl who requested to spend her 10th birthday party at Reptile Gardens in Rapid City, SD. I could've stayed in that butterfly house for hours. Next time I'm taking a snack and hunkering down. Oh, and I'm dressing Wyatt in red from head to toe.

How amazing is this? We haven't been to Pizza in the Sky since November but we walked in today and the girl said, "ah! Wyatt!" I kid you not. These people are incredible! As usual, they wanted to hold him and he wasn't all that cooperative. But we thought it was worth a shot.

Lastly, we had this awesome discussion about values today:

J: Wyatt, what do you think you'll want to do when you get bigger? Do you want to play baseball? Play soccer? Tennis? How about swimming?
Me: He could be a College Jeopardy champ.
J: Do you want to be a chess champion?
Grandpa: You could just be a ladies man. Get yourself a nice car and cruise around.

The Tail Tale

Yesterday was D-day for Millie's tail. I actually took some before and after pictures for you, but after reviewing them decided perhaps not everyone is up for that. I mean, I know some of you might be reading this while you eat and suffice it to say, it's not appetizing.

I wasn't prepared for my sweet Millie to have her hindquarters shaved and I wasn't really ready for the jaggedy set of sutures, but they tell us she did great during surgery and she's already wanting to play frisbee and run around the house. But the sight of that naked bottom wagging is pretty entertaining.

And it's funny how this has made me realize that Millie went from being our baby to being a dog back to being one of my babies. She's the best dog-ter a girl could have.

Penguins

Jeff has this saying that there are only so many penguins that can fit on an iceberg and he applies that as an analogy for how much knowledge his brain can hold. You know, like when I say, "you remember such and such", he replies, "hmm...must be too many penguins on the iceberg."

So I find it FASCINATING that his father must have one large iceberg. Because during dinner tonight, when Jeff said, "so when did your training start?" He didn't miss a beat before saying, "23 September, 1969." You know, because everyone remembers specific dates from four decades back.

And now Jeff's more recent penguins are plummeting left and right as he hears all the tales of the good ol' days (because he's begging to hear them, not because his dad is one just to sit and tell these stories randomly) which means that all the stuff we talked about when he got home tonight is probably not in that little cranium anymore.

Bye-bye penguins, it was nice knowing you. I hope you can stay a little longer on your next visit.

You Have the Floor

Dear Reader,
My offspring will be a WHOLE YEAR OLD in only 39 days and I need fun birthday party suggestions. I'm not looking for anything over the top or too difficult to pull off, but creative is good. Thoughts? I'm all ears.

-Me

And That's How It Works

Just when I was finishing that last post, Sandi went up to get Wyatt because he was nap-protesting with high volume. Lo and behold, she found Wyatt surrounded by blood. Scary! So we played like we were on CSI and decided (based on the spray pattern and other important pieces of evidence) that he had bumped his mouth on the rail and you know mouth injuries, they bleed, hence the large amount of scary-looking-but-innocuous blood. Don't worry, he's fine. In fact, he's now curled up with Grandpa in the black chair with an Elmo book. And Sandi's doing all the laundry off Wyatt's bed, so I'm free to blog. This is good stuff!

I Am So Boring. Bored? Boring.

Where did all my blog inspiration go? I used to be such a good little blogger, always noticing slightly amusing things to write about. Maybe I used them all up.

It's a super-rainy, gloomy, cool day here and, despite having gotten out for a walk, some shopping and a friend's fini flight, I feel very housebound. Kind of like I want to curl up with a nice cup of hot tea and a good book. So it's particularly painful that I finished my mindless beach book last night before bed. What was I thinking? On the other hand, I feel very cooped up. Like I should break out of this concrete pseudo-jail. Which leaves me in the place that has become very familiar: paralyzed by indecision. Go figure.

Wyatt has officially decided Grandpa is cool stuff. They're buddies. And Grandma worked her charms while Grandpa and I were at the squadron, so I'd give it another 12-24 hours before I'm superfluous (p.s. I love that word! I just like the way it feels when you say it). It's very relaxing to have two extra sets of willing hands helping take care of the little man. For the first time in ages, I was able to look around 100Y at a leisurely pace and I actually got to eat my lunch while it was hot. How great is that?

And the one amusing thing I'll leave you with today is Wyatt's new toy from 100Y. It's a toy airplane cleverly named the "BOING 787". Boing! Boing, boing, boing! I bet that thing bounces like a superball. But they must have known I would think that, because the wings say it's a "Superplane High Performance" and the back says "How Safe!!" So there you have it.

Confirmed.

Nothing like having family in town to confirm that yes, we do have a great kid thank-you-very-much. Grandpa and Grandma Rock have been here for a couple of hours and Wyatt has already run through his gamut of tricks and showed his full range of emotions. And they still think he's fantastic! Life is good.

Ducks in a Row

I feel like I'm checking milestones off my mental list. Farewell dinner? Check. Change of command? Check. Baby shower that's I've been looking forward to hosting for the past 7 months? Check, but with a hitch. We had planned a garden party but the weather didn't so much cooperate. As in, it's been raining here for approximately 48 hours. The other hostess - whose yard was housing the tent and tables for the garden party - kept calling the weather shop on base and they kept telling her it was going to stop in time. They were wrong, not that I found that too surprising. I always assume if you go 180 from what they predict, you have a pretty good forecast. So we had a lot of people in a small space but it was still good. And we had yummy duck sugar cookies, too! I think if I had a little more artistic talent and a slightly larger kitchen, I could really get into making sugar cookies.

Assignment wish list? Check. As of Friday, Jeff's wish list for his next assignment is complete. Strangely enough, I'm not really feeling opinionated on where we should try to go. I feel like it's completely out of our hands and I don't think either one of us would've predicted the path we've taken thus far, so why mess with a good thing? Besides, I really just want him to have a job he enjoys - Lord knows he spends enough time there that it could be miserable if he didn't - and I think we can survive living anywhere for only 3 years. Before we get lots of questions, the list is merely a suggestion to someone in an office somewhere. Translation: it doesn't mean much. There are a lot of combinations possible based on the list of his preferred jobs - locations ranging from England to Japan, and Florida to Alaska - so no, we don't have any idea where we might go (and that's not counting the gajillion other jobs available that he didn't rank). We'll be sure to share our news as soon as we hear anything, but don't hold your breath because we'll be well past the next solstice by the time we find out.

Next up: the Granparents Rock are coming for a visit! Wyatt is getting very excited because he remembers that they make funny faces to make him laugh. Jeff & I were contemplating a trip to Korea (sans child) while they're here but have pretty much decided against it. It might be something we regret (the DMZ tour piques our curiosity), but neither one of us has a burning desire to be gone for 4 days. You wouldn't think it would be hard to go to Korea for a weekend, but it is. Too many plane changes to make it a quick trip so our idea of going up Friday morning and coming back on Sunday afternoon isn't feasible. I might regret not amassing a collection of faux designer bags, but I think it's a risk I'm willing to take. Besides, maybe if we save the money we would've spent on a hotel, food and fake Louis Vuittons, we can buy another piece of furniture before we leave.

I'll leave you with a picture of Wyatt, a.k.a. turbo-crawler (he got really fast while we were in Hawaii, apparently, because now he can scoot down the hallway in record time), holding court under the dining room table. It's good to be king, no? Speaking of...I need to get started planning a 1st birthday party! Where does the time go?

Quick Note

You should be glad I'm not feeling verbose tonight because it would be all sentimental and "I love my life " and the like (it's farewell/change of command week in our squadron and some of our closest friends are getting ready to leave so I'm having lots of "my God we're so lucky to live this life and know these people" moments). Oh, and if I could, I would post the video that was made for Saint's dinner tonight because it was HI.larious. I tell you, not only can these guys fly jets but they're also wicked clever.

Anywho, just wanted to update the health department that Wyatt is feeling much better. He's quit gagging every time he coughs - though his last incident of that ended with me wearing a bra full of partially chewed peaches. yum! - and is back to his normal playing self. He stayed with a sitter tonight and apparently did just fine. His appetite seems to be on the upswing too, which is good since he was losing weight and, in case you hadn't heard, he's not exactly Paul Bunyon. The kid at three slices of cheese (along with a couple other things) for lunch today. And it was the high calorie stuff! Woo hoo!

Must go to bed...tomorrow's another big day.

P.S. I hope you noticed the flickr updates....shame on you if you didn't!