++16 Months++

Through all the chaos that has been our life the past couple of months, the little one continues to grow and thrive. He turned 16 months over the weekend (the same day Daddy turned 30...but I think he prefers that we don't linger on that one). Sometimes I can't believe that he's already that old. Other times, I can't believe that someone only 16 months old can seem like such a complete person. It's like we can tell already what he will be like in the years to come. I think we are going to like him...so that's a good thing.
Here's a quick low-down on what we are treated to every day:
Likes...
...Eating all fruits and vegetables (especially applesauce and peas)
...To play in his Dad's closet. Especially if Dad joins him.
...To go outside...or anywhere other than home. He'll let you know it's time to go by bringing you his shoes and standing by the door.
...Raisin Bran better than Cheerios or Kix.
...To run around the house with found treasures. Usually these are not toys.
...Trucks and trains. He is starting to push stuff around and make noises for them. It's fun to watch.
...His Little People bus. He spends nearly 25% of his play time putting the people in and out of the bus.
...Duplo block people. He spends another 25% of his time putting the guys in and out of the blocks with doors and trying very hard to fit two in and the same time (a feat that I finally figured out how to do. hint: turn one upside down).
...His new stool in his bathroom. A great spot for looking at himself in the mirror or brushing teeth (two of his other favorite pastimes).
...Putting money in his piggy bank. We now have to hide all spare change or we lose it to the big pink pig.
...His Lovey. The buddy extraordinaire accompanies the little guy everywhere, until something more interesting comes along at which time he throws him down.
Doesn't like...
...Sleeping in (we are greeted cheerfully between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning).
...Bread or cheese. Go figure.
...Loud noises.
...Not getting his way.
...Sitting still.
His vocabulary:
--DaDa (which depending on the intonation I think is meant to be many different words).
--Daddy (he says this one very well and uses it appropriately...notice the lack of "mommy" on this list?)
--Bye Bye
--Bompa (for my dad...but he has started pointing at all old men and saying "Bompa")
--Bubble (heard over the weekend)
--Bus
--Dog
--Down (which thankfully he says before he starts to attempt to descend our steps).
--Up
--and the basic baby signs that he is VERY good at when he really wants to get his point across: eat, more, all done.

Here's our little 16-monther...

...with one of his "found" treasures

...admiring himself in the mirror

...doing a good job getting most of his yogurt into his mouth

...snuggling with his mom on the bed

...modeling his outfit on "wear your pajamas to school day"

++In case we were wondering++

If we weren't sure if Wyatt liked going to "school" or not...he woke up on Wednesday morning and went directly to his shoes and brought them to me. As if to say, "let's go!" I must say it is such a treat to have such an adaptable child. We went to the club instead. That's a treat too. 8:30am and I had my pick of treadmills and elliptical machines. Living in fat country is looking better and better.

++A visit from red on the head"

When we lived in Atlanta we had a gym teacher who used to tell my sister "I'd rather be dead than red on the head." It's a good thing we liked him so we let it fly. I don't think he'd get away with that these days. Me, I was red on the head's sister.
We had a quick 48 hours with the red head. Wyatt had fun with his aunt. I had fun being her shopping assistant.

Reading with Aunt Susan

The result of our attempt to watch Ocean's Thirteen. Ok, it was slightly staged because Mark tripped while trying to sneak in the photo. I don't always sleep with a smile on my face...
Cyber-visiting. Susan and Brett's good friends Scott and Jonnett came over for brunch. They visited with Larson on the webcam. We're excited because they are new to Memphis too (he's a fellow at St. Jude's) and they also need friends!!!
Even the cutest Packer fan ever couldn't help his team out on Sunday

Wyatt survived day 1 of his "pre-school". He took a nap on his little mat (which totally dumbfounded his father and me) and didn't seem overly eager to leave when I came to get him. I decided that 4 1/2 hours of shopping is a bit much for me. I think I'll spend Thursday at home. I did get our new living room chairs ordered and did some looking for a rug. It will be nice to fill up our empty rooms with something other than stray legos.

++Too Too++

Here's a quick summary of my visit with my Nana and Bompa (as dictated to my mother). I hope you like it. Wyatt.

I like to have my Bompa build me towers so I can knock them down. Don't you love my face. I think I would get penalized in football for excessive celebration.

Our new town, Collierville, has an old-fashioned town square with a really old hardware store. My Bompa went there to buy something to fix the closet door. I liked their dog.
Here we are with the town sign. I guess there was a civil war battle here.
There are two big trains parked in the square (isn't it awesome??). One is just for looking. The other is a restaurant. Mom and Dad said I can go there when I will sit still for longer than five minutes, or when my cousin visits. Whatever comes first.
Here I am up on the train. No jackets in January. Isn't this just the best?

My Nana let me stand on this end of the train too. I wasn't so sure I liked it.

Then, as if that wasn't enough. A real live train went by right when we were standing there. It was pretty noisy but I didn't even cry! I got to hear it's whistle and now when my mom asks me what a train says I tell her, "too too".

Just as we get things settled from the previous visitors, we are hosting again this weekend (and then again next weekend too). My sister has a rare three day weekend and is flying down here by herself. It should be fun to hang out and do a little shopping (what we do best). I really don't enjoy shopping with anyone unless it's my mom or my sister. I'm still adjusting to the 9.5% (or something god awful like that) sales tax down here. I think that alone justifies a few shopping trips to MN every year.

Wyatt and I started Little Gym this week. I was a little bummed because at first glance it didn't really seem like there were any people that I would have much in common with. I am likely going to have to change days though since I was able to get Wyatt into "Mother's Day Out." For those of you who don't know, it must be a southern thing, but a fabulous invention. Basically it's pre-school/daycare for one or two days a week. It's super cheap so it doesn't seem like quite the extravagance. I was only able to get him in a two-day program (darn?). What will I do with all that time? We also joined a gym. It seems really nice and the childcare is great. Wyatt didn't want to leave today. Anything we can do to offset the effects of living in one of the fattest states in the country...right?

++Move-in day++

Slowly but surely I am getting all caught up. Here's a few photos of Wyatt's first time in the house. It was empty which only multiplied the HUGE-ness of it for him. Needless to say, he had fun.

Running around in his new room.

"Whoa dad, this room is huge"
"Daddy is fun in the new house too!"
Checking out the moving van
Trouble junior and trouble senior
Looking at the car carrier. We kept Wyatt up from his nap to see this and one "swoosh" from the air brakes scared him so much we had to go inside. Great."Helping" mom and dad unpack boxes.

++Packing Up++

Our last day at the house in Minneapolis. I thought it would have been harder than it was. There was so much going on that it was really hard to feel sad about things. Wow...did the house look tiny when you took all of our things out of it.

Last look at Wyatt's room
Last lunch in our house: Lund's wild rice soup
Won't it be so fun to un-pack all of this?
Our driver Nino and his crew, closing the door on the truck and all of our stuff...next stop: Collierville, TN

++Christmas Revisited++

It seems like forever ago that we were in Wisconsin for Christmas. Wyatt had a fabulous time. He always does at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He surely didn't go hurting in the present category either. I think we could have supplied Toys for Tots for the entire town with his loot.

We're plugging along down here. My parents leave tomorrow. They've helped us tackle all sorts of random projects. My mother worked her sewing magic and my dad used his expert painting skills to tone down a few rooms in the house. Photos of the results to come soon.

Here's a little recap of our Christmas:

Watching Grandpa snow blow...which was a daily occurrence this year.

Cheering for Uncle Matt's juggling show
Opening our favorite gift...a vintage piggy bank from Busha. Now our little guy goes around collecting coins from anyone who will give them to him.
Reading stories with Busha (his 99-year-old great grandma)
"Um, Daddy...I thought we were playing"
Christmas morning Santa loot

Our little family on Christmas

Wyatt playing with his second cousin Jadyn

++Back-tracking++

As we move forward with life here in Tennessee. Our days without a computer left us with a bit of a lag in the chronological story of our move...so allow me to back-track a bit. Here is a little glimpse of Wyatt's last days in Minnesota.

Here's Wyatt at his all-boy party with his ECFE friends. It's hard to believe these kids were newborns when we first started meeting.

Reading the new Dog book that we got from Aunt Phyllis, Uncle Dick and Anne. Also proof that mom does spend quality time with Wyatt, despite the fact that the photos usually just show him with Dad.
Building his first (and only?) snowman with dad. We won't show the results...they weren't so pretty.
Wyatt's obligatory last photo in front of his first house. Eerily similar to all of my first day of school photos.


We're getting adjusted here. I'm glad my parents are in town because Mark had to travel to Chicago this week. The bright side? It was 72 degrees here today. It felt odd to pull out the short-sleeved shirts in January. More to come soon...

++Wow++

I thought I was ready for this madness. I was really good about not being too sappy about leaving my friends and our little house, etc. I think I really had myself fooled that this wasn't going to phase me. I was doing really well ignoring the small pangs of sadness and diving into box after box. The funniest thing made me feel sad, though. I went to the grocery store here and then it hit me...I'm not on vacation and I'm not going home...this is home now.

Still no pictures. I keep taking them though so I'll have lots to post later. Technically we don't have internet access yet. I'm "borrowing" it from some unsuspecting neighbor. There's lots to talk about. I'll add more details later. Here are the highlights of the move:

--new house: I think we are going to get along just fine. I love the family room and kitchen. In fact, that's pretty much where we live. The living room and dining room are empty right now.

--memphis: can't quite say yet. I didn't leave the house until my trip to Kroger this afternoon. The weather the first day was fabulous but today it felt eerily similar to Minnesota at twenty degrees.

--wyatt: he's getting by. I think he was pretty confused. He was away from his bed for ten days. Then he came to this new place...but all his stuff was there. He isn't sleeping or napping very well. I'm not sure if it is all the changes or the cold that he seems to have caught.

--irony: I never thought that there would have been so many things that I actually preferred about our little old house. Yes, the old bathroom was pink and black and the three of us shared one sink. However, in the new bathroom (which is far larger than our old bedroom), there is no place to hang our towels...go figure. Also, if you stand outside the house and look into the glass front doors there is a straight shot on the far left side into our clear glass shower. You can't see the bed, the sinks, the toilet. Nope, just the glass shower. Good thing we figured that out before we learned the hard way.

--savior: my father-in-law has been here with us the whole time and he has been great. He plays with Wyatt all day and helps us out at night. Yesterday they went to the park, but when he decided it was too cold out, they went to McDonalds for french fries instead. That's the kind of thing Grandpas do best.

We're hanging in there. We're down to the last ten boxes or so. All the things that were stashed in the basement because they didn't really have a home in the old house. Now we need to try to find a home for them here. Or just throw them away. That is what Mark will vote for I'm sure. My parents arrive on Friday and my mom can help me find the smart spot for everything. Everything in the kitchen is technically put away...just don't expect me to find anything.

Keep in touch! I laughed as I looked at our art collection. Half of it is Minnesota stuff. People are going to think we are obsessed...maybe they are right.