Mama knows...

I don't know why I say it, or where it comes from, but when you are really upset, when I say "Mama knows" in a soothing voice it helps soothe you. You are a weirdo, huh?

March? I have not written since March? Dude, kid. You are keeping me so busy!

We have been busy 'splorin the city with you. We take you on frequent trips to the Wild Animal Park - you even got to see the baby cheetah on it's very first day coming out to meet the public. It was just you and Daddy, but he says you went wild over the cute little creature and wouldn't stop saying "cat - cat - cat- cat". In fact, Daddy told me that you were so cute, the person who was watching the baby cheetah thought you were the cutest.

We took our first family trip to Disneyland and you had a blast. You didn't quite get where we were, what we were doing or who all those giant characters were that kept hugging you, but hey, It was an experience. You were fantastic the whole time, no melt downs, you didn't cry on any rides and you liked the Dumbo ride the most. Daddy's favorite memory of the whole trip was when you fell asleep on the Haunted Manson. HA! That is the first time you have EVER fallen asleep mid activity.

Your love for the beach has done nothing but grown. You like to dig in the sand, crawl through the water and charge the waves. You don't care how dirty you get, how cold the water is or how much of it gets in your face. Kid - you are a trooper.

Summer is creeping in and your Dad and I are beyond excited to take you on your first trip to the pool. I don't know if you will love it or hate it, but we can't wait to try it!

So what skills and quirks have you developed over the past two and a half months, well...

-YOU WALK! You started taking steps right before you turned 9 months old. Then you decided that taking steps wasn't your thing for a week or so, but when you started back up you were amazing at it! Just a couple days shy of being 10 months old and walking is your preferred method of transportation.

-You can say MAMA, DADA, CAT, DOG, NO, NO NO DADA,

-You shake your head Yes appropriately (only for commonly asked questions. When we sign "all done" you shake your head yes if you are)

-You can feed yourself with a spoon

-You can blow bubbles

-You are starting to be more gentle with the poor cats. Their nerves need a break

-You love to "read". You will crawl off to your bookshelf, pull off some books and flip through them. You also love the book "baby giggles". It makes you smile.

-You would much rather be outside than inside.

-You are starting to leap

-You can climb up on to the couch.

-You love when we sing to you

-You cry when Daddy goes to work

-You give kisses

-You blow kisses

-You wave

-You LOVE. L.O.V.E other kids. Bigger kids are your favorite.

-You melt everyone's hearts

If we thought you were a little person at 7.5 months, wow! I don't know what you would be now? An old geezer? You are so loved boo-boo. Your Dad hates to go to work because it means he is away from you, and I snuggle you every night in bed (This is where the no no- dada comes in. You want nothing to do with him at night time).

We can't wait to explore the summer with you my littlest love. We have lots in store, from going to the pool, hanging out at the fair, a few camping trips are planned, fireworks are for sure in there somewhere, but most importantly,

YOUR FIRST BIRTHDAY IS ONLY TWO MONTHS AWAY.

Aye, aye, aye. I may cry. They will be happy tears, but if you were 13 years old, you would totally roll your eyes and ask me to leave you a block away so your friends don't ever meet me.

My poor sweet baby!

My poor sweet baby, you are sick!

Today you were grumping while cousin Lia was here, which is odd for you. You love Lia. So, we went to take your temperature and the thermometer hit us with 101.2 and 100.6 before bed. My poor sweet lovie bear. The worst part is, we don't know why! You don't seem sick other than being a bit grumpy, more sleepy and more clingy than usual - our guess is teeth you drool monster you.

Only time will tell!

In other news, you are 7.5 months old and the ccuuttteeesssttt. Oh my goodness Wes. I can not do your sweetness justice with words. You are turning into such a little person, and after much discussion your dad and I have come to the conclusion that our favorite thing about you, is that you love to be a family. Sure, you love your dad and I, but you love to be a family with us. You don't care what we do, it can be folding laundry, grocery shopping or .....

....this will have to wait, you are up crying.


...and back, you just needed a back rub. Now, where was I? Oh! Your love for family. You don't care what we do, or where we are. You just like us! This is working out splendidly.

New things:
-You say mama
-You can stand on your own for a second or two
-You have two bottom teeth, that you cut with little to no effort
-You Dance to Will I Am's Sesame Street video
-You love your normal baths, none of that baby bath tub stuff for you
-You LOVE LOVE L.O.V.E the beach and just charging into waves
-You got whacked by the cat, you no longer love the cats. In case you were wondering, you were kinda asking for it.
-You adore your family, all of them.
-You hate to stop and eat
-You hate to stop
-Oddly, you do listen a little.
-More often than not when we make monkey noises, you make some resemblance of a monkey noise back.
-"Old McDonald" is the only song that will make you stop crying in the car. Sometimes I run out of animals and it gets us into weird situations. There is no roller coaster on the farm for future reference.
-You love red meat
-Sadly, you also love cows. I don't look forward to the day where you put these two things together.

Today also marks an interesting point. The introduction of a bit of formula. You are so on the move, you have no desire to stop and nurse, so your beloved milk supply has taken a hit kid. I can't get you to stop moving to eat, but you do take a sippy cup. we are going to have to figure this dance out over the next month, but you don't love this whole formula thing yet. You would rather have some more brisket mmmmmkay?

I would also like to share with you that researching the nutritional difference between the various types of formulas was quite frustrating. If I google "Nutritional differences in formulas" You know what doesn't help me make an informed decision? Tons of women flaming other women for using formula, and telling them why their choices suck. *sigh*. By the time you read this Wes, I hope the popularly dubbed "Mommy wars" are over, and there is more information out there - not people using exclamation point after exclamation point after stating that breast milk is the only thing you should give your child.

You know who didn't help inform me about anything? THAT PERSON.

Alright my love, it is late, you don't need to care about mommy wars while you sleep off your fever. So I will leave you with something simple to think about.

I love you.

Life Rearranged

Dear Baby,

If we can even call you that anymore. Do you know why there are no posts between the one I promised to write more in, and this one? It is because you my love, are you.

People frequently comment that you are not a typical 6 month old, and to be honest, I agree. When you were born you rearranged the strings of our heart, now that you are 6 months old you are rearranging our physical living space (which is getting kind of costly might I add). You keep trying to walk, "cruise" as they call it, and this is proving dangerous enough for me to consider putting you in a helmet, shoulder pads and whatever other hockey gear they may make for a 6 month old. This cruising leads you to too many falls on the TV stand with a foot that juts out, sowe have a new, lockable, flat faced TV stand to protect you from yourself.

Next on the list, a new bed. Your father and I awoke several time through out the night, to you, meandering around the bed, trying to bail on us! WE JUST WANT TO SNUGGLE! You can't avoid our love for forever kid. We will just get to you when you are older, and your screams are less ear piercing. We will snuggle, but for now, you just try to escape the very tall bed. Waking up at 3am with just enough time to catch your foot as you try to leap off the bed is just not working for my sanity.

Ikea, you are our savior.

Okay, so what can you do now?
- You are such a good crawler you can follow us around the house from room to room and keep up! This makes you seemingly very proud of yourself.
-You eat. Wait, let me rephrase, you will eat anything, from spaghetti (NOT UNTIL 10 MONTHS!), the inside of a sweet potato fry, chicken, turkey, wild rice...anything really, and then you ask for more
-Dude, you eat. A LOT.
-You can cruise
-We are pretty sure you say "Mama" when you are sad at night and want me.
-You jabber away, none of it means much, but you have a sweet, soft little voice.
-You are such a good baby, we can not tell you this enough, you are such a good, good, good little boy. We can take you to do anything, and you might want to crawl, or have us hold your hands while you walk, but you put up with soooo much!
-You know the sign for "milk", it makes you laugh.
-You know the sign, and word for "cat", it makes you look around the room for Sita and Gwen.
-You love rough housing with your father
-You might be stingy, but you give big old wet kisses...and like to slip us the tounge
-You love playing with toy cars, and you can play with them properly.
-You like to play in your crib. Not a travel crib, your crib. It makes you happy.
-You sleep best in the Ergo
-You are a mama's boy through and through (I will be sure to remind you of this when you are 16, just before leaving for prom)
-You can pick up any object, no matter how small, and maneuver it. Your manual dexterity really is impressive.
-You love, love, love other kids.

I know there is so much more to tell you, about you, but it changes daily, and you can do so much, that it would be hard to list it all.

You are not our little baby anymore. You are not the big lump of love we brought home from the hospital, we can't call you an infant anymore. You are a little boy, who is working to do all those dangerous things little boys do, and I am the mother of a little boy, who is working at not having a mental break down every time you do all those dangerous things little boys do.

Mr. Alder, to be honest, the point of this post isn't to ramble on about what an active baby you are, it is to let you know, that as you are snuggled up to my back, asleep in the Ergo, all warm and cozy, I want to let you know how loved you are. Your father and I adore you more than you will ever know, sometimes after giving you, your last bottle and you have fallen asleep (sorry Dr. Smart, that is just how we roll), we just look at you and talk about what a fantastic creature you are, and how blessed we are to have such a happy, healthy and loving little boy. We kiss your face, and rub your head. We blink back tears because you really did rearrange not just our physical living space, but our heart too. We had to clear out all the old junk, and make room for a love so big, we have to blog about it.

Our hearts exploded....all over this website.

Wesley, as you grow, and have bad days and get plauged with social interactions....and enter Junior high, I know it won't be cool, or popular, but never doubt that you are loved so very deeply, by so many in this world.

12.5

Baby, baby, baby.

Mama has been lagging. Really lagging (there has been a lot of repetition in this post already). I can't even begin to describe to you how far you have come since I wrote that last post. I talked about milestones that you have reached, how you have grown by leaps and bounds, but that was NOTHING!

I don't even know where to start, so, let's begin with a list, shall we?
*Rolling over, you have been doing this for well over a month, but you are good kid! You roll every which way, you roll to get an item you desire, you roll over in your sleep to give me heart attacks ("I tried explaining the back to sleep" campaign but you didn't listen), you even roll to try to escape us. HA! Didn't work sucker, we caught you.
*Sitting up - you are getting good my love
*Maneuvering yourself to see/hear/grab whatever you wish
*Scooting backwards - and backwards, and backwards. You just keep going till someone stops you. Usually it is the couch, sneak bastard. However, Tis the season, and that Christmas tree has been getting in your way.
*Raspberries - enough said
*Finger/Hand/Toes sucking
*Eating rice cereal - YOU LOVE IT!
*Going to see Santa - YOU LOVE IT...less than rice cereal though
*Sleeping more - WE LOVE IT! ...more than rice cereal
*Tibetan monks sing you to sleep - so sometimes you chant yourself to sleep. It is quite amusing.
*You tolerate weekly trips to the library
*You ADORE, and I very much so mean ADORE compliments from strangers. I don't know how, but you know what they are saying and you soak up every compliment with that big ole goofy grin that looks like it weighs you down
*You went camping, and took sleeping in a tent, in the cold, snuggled between dad and I like a champ! Also, you didn't suck on the 4.5 hour trip there and back
*You were a trooper on Thanksgiving, being carted around and then passed around like a football, you did it all with a smile on your face.
*The cats...ooohhhhh....The cats. Poor souls. You love them. You love to pet them, you love to think you are petting them when in all actuality you are thrusting your hand into their fur and grabbing on for dear life. Sita is an angel (for this reason she hasn't been tossed out on her tail by now) and Gwen, well, Gwen hasn't been to fond of this activity, but she loves you in her own way. When you are not looking she will come sniff you then you turn your head and BAHM. CAT. This amuses you to no end. Oh, how you love those cats, and how they ....well...how they...accept you....sometimes.

Oh, my love, you are so very, very loved. If only you knew how excited your dad was to come home to you each and every day, how blessed I feel to be able to stay home with you every day, at least for now. I am good at being cliche, so let me just say, you really are the light of our life, and you really are the perfect addition to our family. Your dad works hard so you can be at home with me, and I work hard to keep you entertained, yummy food in our bellies and a house that is a little less chaos and a bit more cleanly (Your dad is a bit better at meeting his goals than I). We do one new thing a day, anything from reading a new book, to going to Canterberry Gardens (AKA The place Santa threw up) with your Grandma, and Great-Grandma.

In case you were worried, there isn't a second of the day where you go unloved. I think you might be able to tell that by the way I gush about you.

So, to sum up your life since I last posted, I will do it with one single picture, which, oddly enough for myself, is quite easy to do.

Ugh, look at you my sweet! THAT is a happy boy.

8.0

Who took my newborn and gave me a real life, giant, beautiful baby? When did this transition happen?

You are 8 weeks old today...EXACTLY...as I write this, wow, Mommy has good timing. As I write, you are asleep on your Dad's chest. You have me worried that you have whooping cough. Why? Well you see, you have a sniffle, so naturally, you must have some awful illness. Isn't that how it works with new mom's thoughts?

You have come so far over the past 8 weeks, from being a big wrinkly lump of snuggly love, to a real baby who smiles at our kisses, wraps your arms around our necks, squeels with delight, tries to suck on his thumb, and is starting to get his motor skills down to crawl. Which, you almost have. You can get your little toes under your foot to propel you, you can make the motions with your legs and hold your head up, but when you start scooting yourself across the blanket, you start to cry. It isn't your favorite activity, but you are doing wonderful at it.

This past week your Daddy started feeding you a bottle every other day. It has been hard for me to give up that feeding to your Dad, but it had to be done. You both adore it, you stare at him like he is a god, and he stares at you like he doesn't have eyes for anyone else. I just asked your dad what he wanted me to add about you, and your life thus far. All he said? "Just write that he loves his daddy" and it is so true.


In other news, you are showing more interest in the books that I read to you. You don't sit and cry - it was just all about the position. I lay you on your back as you wiggle, and hold the book above our heads as I read, and you love really looking over the pictures. Right now, the book you stare at the longest is "The Curious Garden" by Peter Brown. We got it because of the beautiful illustrations, colors and the message of getting off the couch and doing something for the world. I am so glad you enjoy it.

Wes, you are so beyond loved, I have written it out before, but it can't be said or written enough, we love you with all of our hearts and feel so blessed that you have made your way into our lives and hearts. We cherish every second with you.

Right now we are off to our 8 week photoshoot, and I can't wait to take some handsome pictures of my handsome little man.

At 8 weeks:
You Like: Kisses, Eating, wiggling on your back, snuggling in any form, florescent lights
You Dislike: Sleeping in your crib or anywhere other than someone's arms, gas, fingernails being clipped

Mommy Likes: Your Contours Options Stroller (although I don't like how the wheels melted while it was in the car and the company tried to say it was our fault), your fun etsy blanket, Dr. Brown glass bottles and everything about you.

7.5

We had a wonderful weekend as a family, there was a ton of running around but we did it together, and we had fun (even you!).

On Saturday we went to the Wild Animal Park. We have been going there on weekend mornings to go for walks. It is beautiful to walk around and see all the animals, scenery and people watch. You couldn't care less that we go there, but we have a great time. Your dad always has to take you to the Gorillas and while you look cute in photos...at almost 8 weeks, we can only pretend to ourselves that you care.
Great Grandpa Sherman stopped by to say hi, you always give him the sweetest, well timed smiles that seemingly make his day. Speaking of making things, you also helped us make some homemade veggi sushi. I haven't seen your dad so excited about a homemade meal in quite some time, he is still talking about it days later. You must make some amazing sushi.

You continue to grow at lightening quick speed, smile at us and while I can't tell people you are laughing, you do gurgle when you are happy. You reached a new milestone and can hold your own head up for45+ second look left, look right, look center. Baby, you can do it all!

7.1

I write this quickly, as, yet again, you have decided that naps are pointless. I feel like a monster as I let you cry in your crib, but you were a wreck yesterday after not napping for 11 hours. You only nap if you are in my arms, but I can't sit still enough for the two hours you like to nap. You hate the swing, you hate the bouncer, you hate the stroller, you my love, are a snuggle bug. A snuggle bug who likes things one way, and one way only. Snuggly.