He Gets It

Wyatt again is supposed to be sleeping and Jeff & I were down here reviewing the gajillion photos on the camera. All of a sudden we heard a big thud from upstairs, followed by silence, so I headed up to see what it was. Well, sweet Wyatt had removed a door from his nightstand and was holding it in his hand when I walked in (in his defense, it's a Japan purchase and has Asian hinges that make it fairly easy to pop in and out). So I asked what happened and he answered that it just came out.

Before I could ask the follow-up question (and point out that it was naptime) he said, "Mommy, what you doing downstairs while I'm supposed to be sleeping?"

Seriously, son. You crack me up.

Firsts

In the last week...

First time in the jumper for Natalie:



First solids (not a huge fan and a total spoon-grabber. She's going to be messy.)


First photo session sitting up the whole time:

First big boy bike:

First big boy bike maintenance session with Daddy:

First rocket launch. Not sure what made this hobby come back to Jeff, but it did and I think we're hooked. It was so fun! He and Wyatt built the rocket last weekend so today we took it to the park.

First Wyatt watched while Daddy set it up:


Then Wyatt flipped out at the sound of it whooshing into the air:

Then Wyatt spent the next ten minutes with fingers in his ears:

Then we went for launch #2, with Wyatt planted thisclose to me, further away from the launch site:
Then he got to play with the recovered rocket:

And here he is, loving this whole experience.

Good times.

Darn the Three-Year Old Mind

Wyatt's upstairs not going to sleep and while I try to let him just be when going to bed, I thought the sound of the closet doors opening and closing indicated he was, perhaps, no longer tucked in. So I went in, reiterated that he's to sleep and answered the age-old Wyatt question: "Mommy, what are we doin' after this?"

So I replied as always, "well, we'll play. We can ride bikes, we might go to a park, we'll do something fun tomorrow but we can't do anything until you sleep." So he looked at me in all his 38-month wisdom and said, "Mommy, maybe we can go to that place....that Chucky....where they stamp our hands. You know the one I'm talking about?"

Oh yes, son. I know the one you're talking about and you have no idea how my heart is currently in my stomach because you're talking about Chuck E. Cheese. Noooooooo!!!!!

With my body in flight mode, I decided to calmly fight and said, "we won't be going to Chuck E. Cheese, but we'll do something fun." He agreed and I breathed a sigh of relief. But as I was ready to go, he simply said, "well, maybe we can go this winter."

Please, please, please dear boy, forget about that dreaded rat between now and November.

Undercurrents

There's been a lot going on and I just haven't taken the time to tell you the stories (probably because they're moderately boring to anyone besides us, nonetheless I'll eventually make you want to poke your eyes out by telling them). However, amidst all other stuff, Wyatt continues to do and say things that make us laugh.

1. We've been having trouble at bedtime because we do the whole routine and then minutes after we leave, he calls us back because we "forgot" something. Often he's actually right, so we correct the injustice and move on. Last night, Jeff put him to bed and said, "okay Wyatt, I've hugged you, kissed you, given you a blessing, tucked in your arms, pulled up the covers, will turn on your music and run out. That's everything. Good night!" He was gone for no more than two minutes when Wyatt began yelling, "Daddy! Daddy! (long pause) I forgot to give YOU a blessing!" He got humor points for that one and gave Jeff a blessing. The bedtime routine...it is long.

2. I went on a shopping trip with friends over the weekend and was greeted like a small town hero when I returned. Wyatt said he missed me and loves me because "there are letters on [his] heart that say I love you Mom!"

3. Upon waking this morning, Wyatt wanted to know "what are we doin' today, Mommy?" I told him he has swimming lessons and that then we're coming home so I can take a shower. "And then what?", came the reply. "Well, it's Kristen's birthday, so Meagan's coming over and Isaac and Samuel are going to stay here and eat with you so Kristen and I can go to lunch." He replied, "ooh, and maybe if we're good direction followers and eaters then we can leave the table and play in my room or downstairs!" And I said, "yes, I think so. What do you think about that plan?" He looked at me in all seriousness and said, "I hope you have a nice lunch, Mommy!"


Alright, that's all for now. Young Natalie is shrieking and Wyatt is stuck in the corner in his Cozy Coupe.

Five Months

I have one, maybe two, months left to figure out how to freeze time. I love this stage of babyhood and it's moving too fast. Natalie at five months:

- weighs about 15 lbs.

- doesn't sleep through the night; she's up once between 1:30 and 3, then back to bed until 6:30 or 7. I'm only complaining a little bit since Wyatt was still up multiple times a night at this age (and that's where this blog is coming in handy: fact-checking my own life).

- has figured out how to blow raspberries but does it with less frequency and intensity than Wyatt did.

- shrieks a LOT, loudly, in Mariah Carey's upper register.

- has light brown hair all over her head except for the dark brown leftover newborn hair in two patches on the back. It's really quite an interesting style.

- smiles for her big brother, basically as soon as he looks at her.

- just figured out how to sit up on her own for brief stints.

- hasn't had any solids yet but keeps trying to take our food. She has recently grabbed my water glass, my cereal bowl and my triscuit. The inevitable mess of baby food is looming.

- has a hard time laying down without immediately rolling over. And over and over. Diaper changes get more interesting every day.

- loves holding onto her toes when paused on her back.

- takes great interest in Millie.

- likes being tossed (gently, of course) into the air for laughs.

- loves her bath.

- usually loves the pool.

- spends a lot of time in her exersaucer, most often chewing on the little stuffed flag or the top of the mirror.

- likes to jump.

- swims vigorously when laying on the floor and has pushed herself into a plank position once.

- has started going after toys (much to Wyatt's dismay).

- is still sporting a wide, gummy grin but it keeps seeming as though the bottom teeth could appear any time.

- thinks she can hold her bottle with one hand and often makes herself angry trying.

- wore a bow for the first time on Saturday.

- very much knows her name.

- definitely knows Wyatt's voice and looks for him as soon as she hears it.

- greets us every morning and after every nap with a big smile and happy wriggles.

- still just melts into us when we hold her making both Mommy and Daddy really, really happy.

Go Figure

Through the marvels* of Facebook, I've recently learned that someone with whom I was very good friends in high school is now living a very urban, successful life. As in, NYC and recently touted as one of the top 40 under 40 in her field. And she's in Geneva for work right now. Hmmm. It helped none whatsoever that I discovered this while Wyatt was tantruming (again) yesterday. He's been having some serious fits and we're doing our best to figure them out and work through them but it's exhausting, both physically and emotionally. So right then, Geneva, New York and creating marketing campaigns for internationally powerful consumer companies sounded very appealing. I might have mentioned all of that in a phonecall to my sweet husband who (appropriately) laughed at me and said, "huh. That's pretty cool." I might have begged him to get another international assignment and said that I needed to start dreaming bigger for myself. And then I went to put Natalie down for a nap.

So as I was rocking my baby, listening to the "mommmmmmmeeeeeeee" wails from nearby, I thought, what would I rather be doing? To what should I be aspiring? What did I used to think I wanted to do with my life? And then it hit me like a ton of bricks: I used to think I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom! So I'm attempting to embrace the crazy a little more. These children, these little people, they will grow up too fast. And they think I'm great (not guessing. Wyatt informed me (post second tantrum last night) that I'm his best friend. I cried.) so that's got to be better than a free trip in business class to Europe, right? None of this means I'm not going to gripe about the plight of a non-paycheck-earning mom, but it's a good resolution for my mental health. And it doesn't mean that I'm not going to keep looking for more ways to feel fulfilled, but it's just... This is what I'm doing and if I waste my days looking for something better, then I might miss the subtle greatness of my life.

*Facebook is sucking me in, so slowly I almost didn't notice it happening. I'm fighting valiantly, but I think FB is winning.

Update: said international traveler is now in Istanbul. Not helping my envy issues. Need an interesting vacation posthaste and to stop reading FB.

Hey

So, thanks everyone for the well-wishes for my kids. They worked, more or less. Natalie has no issues that should cause further UTIs so we're glad to have that behind us, even though it doesn't exactly explain what happened. We'll chalk it up to random weirdness. Wyatt, indeed, has croup and ended up at urgent care on Monday afternoon. It was largely the same staff that helped with Natalie and they were all, "oh hey! how are you? how's your little girl?" which was kind of funny and also made me feel like we're there a little too often. On our drive down there, Wyatt was saying, "hey Mommy, I think, I think, I think, Mommy..." and I said, "what Wyatt? Use your words" and he said, "hey Mommy, I think the doctors will think you're pretty." So there's that.


Now we're dealing with croupy croupness from Wyatt, who will not take the flavored prednisone prescribed to him. I mean, I'll agree, it tastes awful. However, he coughs like crazy when not taking it. It's a sticking point (read: stand-off waiting to happen) so I think we're just wasting that prescription. I don't really know what else to do because I can't find a way to mask it in any other food or drink. It's really strong. And while croup technically infects the vocal chords, it apparently also can infect attitudes. He's a belligerent mess. So we're working through that and might need to restock on our two-buck Chuck. Don't worry, there's no drinking while on duty, but when the littles are in bed, Mommy might be ready for a glass or three.


In happier news, we went to the beach over the weekend for the first time since we've lived here. Wyatt had a great time building sandcastles and digging through the sand with his fingers. Despite my best efforts, I could not get him interested in collecting shells. Whose kid is this? Everyone knows you're supposed to collect a bunch of random shells and then hold onto them for some odd reason until you finally, years later, realize they're just some random shells. I'll keep working on him. And if he won't buy in, there's always Natalie. Anyway, it made me realize that we should do that more often and that I'm a total beach snob who's looking forward to a trip to the in-laws' beautiful shore in a few months. You know, because I like to see my feet when I step into the water.

And I have to say, I'm really glad I looked at these pictures today because it was a rough lunch hour here and these just remind me how very lucky I am to have such spirited little people in my life.

Well Hello, Monday

Today is Natalie's follow-up appointment at the hospital. It will involve ultrasounds and a cath and x-rays. I'm not really looking forward to it except that at least this time Jeff will be with me.

Or would have been, if Wyatt hadn't gotten sick. I swear we're clean people. Why are the little people in this house making me feel otherwise? So instead of Wyatt staying home with our favorite sitter while we go to Natalie's appointment (and then maybe to the tile store because that's hard to squeeze in without kids and we've learned that Wyatt + tile store = inner circle of hell), Jeff will be coming home so I can go it alone while they poke and prod at my baby some more. Awesome.

And Wyatt? Well, he's had a fever off and on for a couple of days, randomly complaining of a stomachache but otherwise acting fine. Then he had to toss his cookies last night, get miserable and require me to sleep on his floor, waking every hour or so with some general malaise and misery. And he seems to also have croup. Super awesome.

To steal a line from a friend, Monday isn't here to get me down, just to keep me on my toes. If I say that enough, perhaps I'll buy it. Bring on the coffee!