++Testing, testing++

Bear with me. I'm practicing. I wanted to make the header for our blog look better. I have no idea what I am doing in photoshop. Before I spend hours making a banner, I decided to see if I could actually get something to post right into the blog space. It sort of worked (if you look closely it's outside of the lines on the one side). I'll keep practicing. It's a better way to pass nap time than cleaning house.
More later.

++Happiness is...++

...a breakfast of pancakes prepared by my little chef (photo taken by Dad as I was "sleeping" in bed)......a trip to the zoo and getting surprised by the train during our photo shoot...

...a fabulous new pan (and a beautiful hydrangea plant)...

...getting to pass my days with this little guy--his Dad isn't too shabby either! (Check out the shiner on his forehead. He reached too far between his legs for a ball and face planted on the driveway. You would have thought he fell from two stories up with the mark it left)....

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in my life!

++More random jottings++

The latest baby I have been awaiting was born on Tuesday. It wasn't much of a surprise since it was a scheduled C-Section. Lucky for Tiffany, she will never know what labor feels like! Maybe next time. Baby Deacon Patrick wasn't quite as big as they thought he would be either...ONLY 9 lbs. 13 oz (ok, so almost two full pounds bigger than W). Congrats Tiffany and Patrick!

No new photos to share. There hasn't been much photo-worthy activity here recently. Wyatt has been GRUMPY (which in turn makes me grumpy). I think we went teeth-cold-teeth over the last two weeks. Hopefully he will be done with this soon as we have a busy stretch of visitors and travel ahead of us. All he wants to do is watch "Narney" on tv (which could possibly be the most painful for parents kid's show ever made). That, and this live-action train documentary I got from the library.

More rain today. Half of my flowers in my back garden are dead already. I am so defeated. I know what to do when your flowers don't get enough water but I'm not sure what to do if they get too much. The good news is that I dug them up and returned them at Home Depot and got new ones. Hopefully these will fare better. I miss the great midwestern soil.

I finally finished putting all the photos from the first year of Wyatt's life in an album. It bums me out that I didn't get the new camera until he was 9 months old. It's amazing the difference in the pictures. For those of you who are mislead and think I am so on top of things because I post photos regularly on this blog here is a little secret: the album ends in July because that was the last time I had photos printed. I want to get better at photoshop so I can make them look a little better before I pay to print them all. Maybe by the time Wyatt is five? We did, however, make some generalizations on babies after looking through the progression. Basically the first 3 months is not so fun. Months 5 and 6 are great for photos because they can sit up and they smile a lot but they can't go anywhere. His ninth month is full of photos of him climbing on all sorts of things he shouldn't be on. That was officially when my freedom ended. Now I am lucky if I can get a picture of anything but the back of his head. Thank goodness for digital cameras.

++Fast Food Nation?++

This picture is here just because I like it. The real stuff starts below.

I don't think I have alluded to this in the past, but I have a new guilty pleasure: garage sales. They make it pretty easy down here. All the neighborhoods only allow garage sales twice a year on predetermined days so it's not like you have to drive all over for one garage sale, there are like 15 of them all in the same neighborhood on the same day. Most of it is junk. I only shop for one thing: toys. I figure that really it is the one true thing that could still be perfectly good but the kids are just too old for it. I've seen this happen with Wyatt already. So, I drive around and look for brightly colored plastic stuff and if I can see it from the street, I stop. If not, I go on. Here are a few of my recent finds (all of which Wyatt seems to like better than toys purchased at full-priced fancy toy stores).
--Fisher Price Little People Airplane (to supplement is Little People bus passion)

--Plastic Lawnmower. Super cheapy. I paid 50 cents for it. He and the neighbor kid, Alex, are constantly vying for it.
--Plastic toolbox and tools.

--Various Thomas and Bob books.

--A Wiggles CD (I had to see what all the fuss is about...still not quite sure)

The problem with garage sales is that you have to make spur-of-the-moment decisions. No time to think about it and come back later, you snooze, you lose. I made one of those decisions on Friday and spent the rest of the day wondering what I got myself into. Meet Wyatt's new toy:

Do you see the smile on his face? How could I resist? Did I mention it makes all sorts of fabulously appetizing sounds like grease frying and burgers sizzling?

It also came with an extra cash register with a scanner (never seen them scan anything at McDonald's but Wyatt thinks it's great).

Finally, it's not just the kids that get to have fun with these toys! (Sadly, this event happened after Wyatt was in bed...hey, I need to keep my job skills up somehow!)

So here was my dilemma---yes, the thing is fun and I would have LOVED it as a kid (there's a drive-through--or should I say "thru") window and everything---but what am I teaching my kid? It violates a lot of my parenting principals on so many levels, yet I bought the thing! It didn't come with any food or cups or accessories. I looked online and I can get a whole bag of stuff for about $10. Should I stock it with authentic food or should our McDonald's sell fruit? Ok, so I am over thinking it. I would never have bought it if we didn't have a big room upstairs fully devoted to play. If Wyatt has a weight problem or never aspires to be more than a fast food worker, I can only blame myself :)

On another note, today was Collierville's annual "Fair on the Square." Now that we have Wyatt we are all about any free event with lots of people and stuff to look at. It was a really nice day and we had a good time. He went to the petting zoo with dad (I stayed out to "take pictures" a.k.a. "animals like that scare the crap out of me"). He loved them all and fed them right out of his hands.

Here's a close encounter with a goat.

We had lunch there as well. Here's Wyatt telling me all about what he saw.

We also hung some more pictures today. One step closer to finally being done with that task. Phew.

++Random Jottings++

Wyatt lost his toenail on his middle toe. Does this really happen to one-year-olds? I thought that only happened to old people. The funny part is that there was another one already underneath...I think he was born with two on that toe. Good thing that's the worst defect we've discovered so far.

We still have about ten pictures left to hang in our house. I feel like we have been hanging pictures ever since we moved in. Mark did promise me that there was a point in our previous house when we no longer had anything left to hang. I'm sure we'll reach it just as it's time to sell this house.

I've had a stretch of sad news recently. Nothing too close to home, but close enough to get you a little down. First I learned that one of my new friends down here, Sarah, lost her brother in a car accident. Then I saw this really sad story in the Strib. I knew the name sounded familiar and Mel confirmed that he went to Hopkins with us. It's a sad story either way, but seems that much worse when it was a classmate. Then I learned that my friend Linda's new baby Chloe has been in the hospital twice now in her short life. She's going to be fine, she just needs to learn how to gain weight. Then today I found out an ECFE friend of mine is getting a divorce because her husband was having an affair. Her son is Wyatt's age. So sad. Can't imagine what she is going through.

Glad to see the magnolias are about to bloom here---it will be like a giant bouquet of flowers every time I turn around. How can that not cheer a person up? I'll be sure to take a photo of them as it's a southern thing...

Another random jotting. In my effort to be more green, I took a lamp that was broken in the move to a lamp repair shop to see if it could be fixed rather than just throwing it away (they gave us the money for replacement). They can't make it good as new, but for $20 they are going to turn it into a different kind of lamp! How good am I for recycling broken things? Mark thinks I am nuts for getting excited about this. Did I mention that I had to drive to a place where all the parking lots are fenced in with barbed wire? That's something else that we didn't have in Minneapolis.

Finally, for those of you in MN: Mark your calendars for the great Pacyna northern trek. I booked our tickets tonight. July 2-8. We'll spend some of the time in Point but will be available for gatherings Sunday and Monday.

++19 Months++

So, who pushed the fast-forward button on our life and how can I get pause instead? I feel like I just finished typing the 18-month entry and here I am again. Wyatt is so fun right now that we really wish we could stop time and just sit around and laugh with him all day. As he gets better and better with talking we're able to really know what he is thinking...and realize that we should watch everything we say. Not because we have dirty mouths, but because if we don't want to go outside, or bye-bye, or upstairs, those words should not exit our mouths in any context. This morning I told Wyatt he couldn't go outside because he didn't have shoes on. This afternoon, he spent five minutes walking around the house saying "shoes" until he finally found them and handed them to me.

We're getting to know more and more about our little boy's personality. He's a showboat and a jokester, but only at home with his parents. He signs "more" when we tickle him or cover him up and pretend to look for. He loves to run around with his dad. He rides on his back and tells him "stop" and "goooo". He loves to hide in his dad's closet. He loves books. I often find him sitting in a chair or on the couch just looking through a book by himself. We finally got a library card and he loves going to the library to pick out new books (and Mark and I enjoy the fresh reads). He still loves all things with wheels. He has now made the distinction between types of trucks: there are diggers and there are bulldozers. Don't worry if you drive by one and don't happen to see it. He'll be sure to point it out for you.

He is detail-oriented and serious about his "work". He loves to scoop and dump stuff (water, sand) and seems to have a serious three-step process of filling one cup to another to another and then into the flower pot. He would prefer to be outside all day long. He loves nature. Grass, weeds, mulch, mud puddles...you name it, he likes it. He has also become enamored with the friends he has found outdoors: birds, turtles and the neighborhood dogs (much to Mark's dismay). He loves to go "bye-bye" and requests in frequently. I'm not sure exactly what he has in mind, but he loves to get out and see new things. The grocery store is a favorite (perhaps it's the truck carts). We drive by it on the way to school and he always whines when we don't turn in. He has also charmed the deli lady who now gives him a piece of turkey every time. He knows to expect it. I love it. It keeps him busy for half the trip. When it's daddy's turn to do the bedtime ritual, he does nothing but request "mom-meeee". When Mark is at work during the day he is always asking for "dad-deeee". When we're both around he has a cute combo word for us "mommy-daddy" perhaps his way of saying, "I don't really care which one of you...but will someone do this for me?"

I think Mark and I say to each other on a daily basis how lucky we are to have him as our kid. I am sure every parent feels this way...and that is the way it should be. Who knew my best buddy in all the world would be a little pint-sized blue-eyed puddle-loving giggle-happy kiddo?

Here are a few highlights of life with Wyatt these days:

Lovey (a.k.a. "wah wah") is still his best friend.

Hiding in the closet.

Playing in his sandbox after he helped his dad build it all day. It was hard to coax this smile out of him. Digging in the sand was serious business!

As for the rest of us. We're getting along just fine. Each week seems to get a little easier. It's nice that the weather has really turned and more and more people are outside. We're meeting more neighbors and getting to know people better. The pool opens soon as well! Saturday night I headed downtown with a couple of neighbor friends for a girls night out. We saw a broadway show and went out to eat. It was fun! Mark and Wyatt went to Chick Fil A. Mark starts training this week. He has completed the first part of his job down here (can you believe he's been doing this job for 7 months already?) and now is in sales training. He'll be able to tell us far more than we care to know about how our spines work.

++Wyatt at work++

In our effort to instill a strong work ethic in our son, Mark and I have decided that it is important that we put him to work around the house sooner than later. Here are some of the jobs we have him doing.

Helping mom cook dinner.

Fixing his trike. This comes with a lot of sound effects that can't be captured in a photo.

He even has been hired by the zoo to be a cheerleader at the Sea Lion show!

Is there something wrong when one of your child's first 100 words is "weeds"? Notice the garden gloves as well.

We've been having a lot of fun outside now that the weather has really warmed up. I hear that April and May are the best time of year here so I've been trying to enjoy it while it lasts. All of the azaleas are blooming and it's gorgeous. Of course, we don't have any pretty flowering stuff in our yard...figures. Speaking of pretty flowering stuff. Here's the "after" project. It doesn't look like much yet but we see this view out all the back windows of our house and it is such a treat to have color. The phlox in front are already done with their blooming for the year but the rest of the stuff should keep color for most of the summer. I was promised that the roses in the back were easy to care for. We shall see! As for the rest of the yard. We're taking a break for now and contemplating hiring it done.