Life of Wilder: Week Thirteen

This week Wilder asked me to make him a shirt that would express his excitement about coming to visit his Tennessee family and friends in just a few days. He told me he's really a Southern boy at heart ;)

The past week has mostly been spent looking forward to and preparing for our trip next week. The forecast calls for a cold front with a high of 40 degrees to move in to TN the day we get there of course! So we had to make a few cold weather purchases...

Last weekend was nice and lazy. We just went shopping, took the dogs to the park, and hung out around the house. The hanging out turned fairly eventful though actually. On Saturday I was playing on the floor with Wilder when he flipped onto his side like he's been doing and then proceeded to scream like someone bench-pressing too much weight as he tried to roll on over. Even though he sounded like he was being murdered, I just sat there and watched him for a minute to see if he would do it. I knew if I helped him instead of letting him figure it out it would take him a lot longer to learn. After a minute or two that felt like an eternity he made it onto his belly. I didn't get it on video that day but I did get a picture of him immediately afterwards. I will never forget the look of surprise on his face. It was priceless. :)

I was more prepared with the video camera a few days later when I realized he was about to try it again. Warning: Might want to turn your volume down low... he's pretty intense about it. Oh and after he gets onto his stomach he looks like he has awful head control but he's really just doing his newest cute thing, which is burying his face when he gets excited. He does this when he sees himself in the mirror too. It just melts my heart :)

On Sunday we put him in the Johnny Jump-up for the first time. It's pretty funny how serious he is about it. He got a few good jumps in that day and I've put him in it a few times since and he's gotten better at it each time. It's also really helped him hold his head up better. Now, when I'm holding him, I don't have to support his head anymore, yay! Plus it's great exercise for him. 

Also on Sunday we finally tried letting him sleep unswaddled for the first time. I've been putting it off because I was afraid he wouldn't sleep well and it would break his sleeping through the night streak. He must have been ready for it though because it didn't faze him and he slept great. I'm sooo glad we're past that now. It's a lot quicker/easier to put him to bed and down for naps, plus he looks so darn cute in his little footed sleepers :)

He keeps insisting on rolling onto his stomach to sleep though and it scares the crap out of me when I wake up and see him like that on the monitor. I always jump out of bed and rush in there to make sure he's still breathing. I know you're not supposed to put them on their stomachs to sleep but what if they roll over in the night themselves? I can't find anything that addresses this and I'm so worried about SIDS. Supposedly they are most susceptible to it between 2 and 4 months old so that makes me worry even more. Anybody have any thoughts on this?

Monday I ran some errands and went to my new favorite place -- Toys r Us. Believe it or not I've only been to Babies r Us once and it was just to buy a changing table. I didn't even register there. That store is so freaking huge, it's kind of overwhelming! But I decided to brave it this week because I'm tired of Target's clothing selection. I accidentally looked up directions to Toys r Us instead though and didn't realize it until I got there. I didn't even know they had baby stuff but I went in anyway just to check. MUCH better! They have all the baby stuff you would need but in a smaller, more concentrated section that you aren't in danger of getting lost in. Plus, really cute clothes and great sales! I've been there twice already this week. I'm pretty excited about my new discovery... Paul is not so much :) 

Tuesday was a really fun day. Wilder and I drove up to San Juan Capistrano about an hour north of San Diego and met my cousin Amber and her little boy Henry there. We went to lunch first so I could feed Wilder. It was the first time I had given him a bottle myself and it took a little while to convince him of it but he finally cooperated. Of course I had to sit there staring at my delicious Monte Cristo sandwich while he took his time eating... oh the life of a baby! Anyway, after lunch we walked over to the Mission, which was absolutely gorgeous! It was such a nice day and we had a great time walking around looking at everything. I'll definitely be taking anyone who comes out to visit up there. After that we walked around the cute little main street area for a little while before heading home. 

Wilder was super interested haha

 Henry trying to check out who that is in the other stroller

I love seeing these two boys together... how cute are they!

Much to my dismay we didn't make it to yoga on Wednesday. Wilder got thrown off his nap schedule that morning and didn't end up falling asleep until 15 minutes before it was time to leave and I wasn't about it wake him up. With the trip coming up I'll probably miss it for the next two weeks too :(

It's been kind of chilly here for the last half of the week so other than a trip to the dog park we've mostly just played inside. He's getting to be so much fun to play with. He's always been interested in his reflection in the mirror but now he loves watching himself. I was holding him in front of it yesterday and when he first caught a glimpse of himself he pulled his head back and opened his eyes wide like he was surprised, then he stared intently at himself for a minute, and then started to smile. When he saw his reflection smiling back, he smiled even bigger and then laughed out loud a few times and buried his face in my shoulder. Gah, he is just so adorable! I can't wait for all of our family and friends to see him again or meet him for the first time! I know it's going to be pretty stressful getting him there by myself and trying to see everyone but it will be so worth it. I'm so looking forward to heading to the Southeast on Tuesday! 

Oh, and I almost forgot... This week is our two year anniversary of moving to San Diego. It was a big decision for Paul to switch from Engineering grad school to Architecture grad school and an even bigger decision to leave all our family and friends and move 1,900 miles away, but I'm proud of the life we've made out here and I absolutely love living here. We definitely want to be closer to home eventually but I wouldn't change a thing about the last two years. This adventure has brought Paul and I so much closer as a couple and stronger and more open-minded as people. It has also made us appreciate where we came from and we'll return to the South, when we do, happy to be back. 

Here are a couple of more cute pictures from this week:

Getting into prime rolling over position

Wore himself out playing

Testing out our inclement weather 

gear at the dog park

Alright y'all, have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing a lot of you next week!

Life of Wilder: Week Twelve

I can't believe Wilder is three months old today. It's such a weird feeling. It seems like he's always been with us but it's also going way too fast. How strange to feel like something has lasted forever, but is flying by at the same time. Every day I think I couldn't love him any more than I already do but every day I do. I feel so lucky to be able to spend all day with him and every night before we go to sleep Paul and I watch him on the video monitor and marvel at how amazing he is. He is such a precious blessing and the best thing that has ever happened to us. 

I was kicking myself two weeks ago after I announced how well Wilder had been sleeping only to have him revert to his old ways that very night. So, in the interest of full disclosure but also in the interest of not jinxing it again, let's just say he may or may not have slept 7 PM to 7 AM every night this week since Saturday. It may or may not have been totally amazing and I may or may not feel like I could conquer the world due to how much sleep I may or may not have been getting. Here's to hoping he keeps it up! 

And there's a good chance he will now that he's implemented a new and improved sleeping position. He now works his arms out of the swaddle almost immediately, rolls onto his side, sticks one or more of his fingers in his mouth, and conks out. I think, before, he was waking up in the night, not because he was hungry, but simply because he needed something to suck on. A pacifier just made it worse because it would constantly fall out of his mouth and we would have to go put it back in over and over. Now that he's gotten coordinated enough to get his fingers in his mouth, problem solved. The only time he woke up in the night this week was if he turned all the way over onto his stomach and got stuck that way, which he did a couple of times. I can totally deal with getting up for 2 minutes as opposed to 40+; plus now we know he can, at least unconsciously, roll over from back to front. 

He also discovered a new sound this week that he now makes when he thinks we're not paying attention to him. It was funny at first but I think we're going to have to invest in some ear plugs pretty soon haha :)

I also got a cute video of him trying to put the ball in his mouth.

It's been a good week. On Saturday Paul and I walked Wilder and the dogs to Bird Park, which is this beautiful little grassy space at the very north end of Balboa Park a little over a mile from our house. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, the kind of day that reminds us why we moved to San Diego. We laid in the grass and since the park is up on a hill we could see some of the air show over the bay celebrating 100 years of naval aviation. It felt so good to relax, get some fresh air, and just enjoy being together. 

Sunday was suuuper lazy. We didn't even get out of our pajamas. It's nice to have one of those days every now and then. Oh, but I did make the onesie that day that he's wearing in his 12 week picture. It's the San Diego skyline. 

Monday was Valentine's Day of course. This V Day was really special because of all the love Wilder has brought into our lives. He was extra sweet that day and I had so much fun hanging out with him. It was a long day for Paul and he had class late so we didn't end up eating dinner until after 9:00. We grilled some delicious steaks and had homemade garlic mashed potatoes and baked asparagus with parmesan... sooo good! I also made Nutella cupcakes (who knew those even existed!) from a recipe I got from my friend Kristin. Delish! I'll put the recipe at the end of this post. 

Now is that not the sweetest little

Valentine you ever saw? :)

Tuesday was pretty much a total loss of a day. Wilder has been spitting up a LOT more than usual and drooling a lot and I read that those could be symptoms of acid reflux so I called the pediatrician on Monday to ask what to do about it and they wanted me to come in the next day. I guess since it was a last minute appointment they had to fit us in between other appointments so we sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes and in the room waiting for the doctor for 20 minutes. Finally she came in, said it probably wasn't acid reflux since he wasn't acting like it was painful when he spit up, and told me everything to do to minimize the spitting up that I already knew from reading about it on my own. What a waste! Oh, except we did get to weigh him so I know that officially he weighs 14 lbs. 6 oz. and at least we're pretty sure he doesn't have acid reflux. When we got home we were so tired that I don't even remember what we did the rest of the day except nap.

On Wednesday we went to Mommy and Me yoga again. It was a hard workout this week and I'm still sore from it, but I'm addicted. I just wish it was more often than once a week! It totally wore Wilder out and he took a 2 1/2 hour nap when we got home, which is about an hour and a half longer than usual. So, um yeah, looove that yoga class!

Thursday we took the dogs to the park because Rider gave me the hugest guilt trip. I was in the kitchen that morning when I heard her rummaging around back in our room. I went to see what she was getting into and found this:

I swear that dog is human sometimes. That's a picture of herself on a hike with her backpack on that she dug out from under the bed... I don't think a bigger hint was possible haha. I promise I did not set this picture up. I felt so bad; it was like she was saying, "Remember when you used to love me enough to frame a picture of me?" So anyway, we went to the dog park that afternoon and have been giving her a little extra attention ever since, poor girl!

Wilder and I also ran some errands yesterday afternoon. There are times when living right in the middle of the city drives me crazy, like when I'm woken up by a homeless guy noisily digging through our garbage cans at 5:00 AM or when my neighbor decides to practice the same song over and over and over on his guitar with the amp turned up to 11 (notice I said "practice" not "play" -- there's really nothing worse than being forced to listen to someone learning a song). But there are also a lot of things I love about the city. One of which is being able to walk, instead of drive, to the grocery, CVS, the post office, etc. I don't know what I would do if I had to get Wilder and the stroller in and out of the car at every stop we had to make. Probably be a lot less productive than I am. 

I'm so so so glad it's Friday. Paul usually reserves the weekends for spending time with us but since his midterms were this week he had to work a lot of last weekend. I'm really looking forward to getting to hang out with him for the next two days. I just love seeing him with Wilder. It makes me so happy. :) I think this weekend too we're going to have to try out the Johnny Jump-up we got Wilder for Christmas. It's still a little early since he's not completely holding his head up yet, but whenever he's laying down he's kicking his legs and whenever we're holding him he's trying to "jump"/"stand up". The boy is so freaking active he needs a way to get some exercise and move around. Plus maybe it will encourage him to hold his head up more. I don't know, we'll see how it goes. 

Oh, and we'd also like to wish Wilder's Daddy G a very happy birthday on Sunday! He's the type of guy who always wants to be doing something, is always full of ideas, and always makes sure everyone is having a good time. I think Wilder is going to be a lot like him :) We love you, Mr. Gary!

I can't believe I leave for Tennessee a week from Tuesday! There is so much to think about, do, and pack that I should really have already started. Frankly, it's a little overwhelming. Not only everything I have to do to prepare for the trip, but also everything I have to do when I get there. I always say everyone is going to have to come to us, but it never quite works out that way. I have so many places to go that I had to start putting them in my calendar on my phone just to keep up with what I'm doing each day! Luckily Wilder is usually laid back and just goes along nicely so let's hope he doesn't pick that week to start being unruly. If anyone has any tips for traveling with an infant they would be greatly appreciated. 

Oh, and I'd also like to say Congratulations to my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Lauren, for getting accepted into MS State's College of Veterinary Medicine this week! What a smarty pants! She is so good to my brother and I'm so excited she'll be joining our family soon!

Here are a couple more cute pictures from this week:

We finally decided it was time to take the little newborn sling out

of the tub when I discovered he had gotten so heavy that his butt was

dragging the bottom. Not sure why we didn't do it sooner; I guess 

we just wanted to deny that he's growing up so fast.

Here he is trying to sit in the tub like a big boy :)

I got two of these adorable monogrammed diaper covers 

for his 6-month pictures we're having done in May. They're still

a little big but so cute I couldn't resist trying one on him. 

Thanks, Kara, for passing along the website. They came from

Monogram Chick, a Tuscaloosa-based store, and they make great

baby shower gifts!

Oh and here's the Nutella cupcake recipe:

Nutella Frosted Cupcakes
10 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

Preheat oven to 325F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners.
Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don't worry if the batter doesn't look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until batter is uniform and no flour remains.
Using an ice cream scoop, fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be 3/4 full, if you're not using a scoop. Top each cake with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 12.

Alright guys, y'all have a great weekend!

Life of Wilder: Week Eleven

Doesn't he look especially dapper this week, folks? :)

I cannot believe how much snow everyone back East is getting! I miss my family but I definitely don't miss winter weather. I don't know what Wilder and I will do if it doesn't get just a little warmer and sunnier by the time we come to visit. We'll probably both get sick, ugh! It will be worth it getting to see all our family and friends though. I am sooo looking forward to our trip!!

For the last week or so I tried pushing Wilder to 3 1/2 - 4 hours between feedings in hopes that he would sleep longer at night. My "What to Expect the First Year" book had suggested this but it also said that eating less during the day could have the opposite effect and actually make him want to eat more at night. Honestly, I couldn't tell a difference in his sleeping patterns either way. Some nights he only wakes up once or twice and some nights he wakes up every three hours no matter how I feed him during the day. I think for him it really depends on how active we've been that day. If we just bum around the house, he's not tired enough at night to sleep through. He's such an alert, active baby that he gets bored doing the same things all day. He really likes to go places and see new things and, especially if he misses his afternoon nap, this results in longer sleeping periods at night. Guess I'm just going to have to put aside my home-body tendencies and find stuff to keep us busy. I found a moms group to join so that should help. 

In that vein, we had a pretty busy weekend and week. On Saturday we went to a housewarming party at the home of a friend of Paul's from school. We were only going to drop by so they could meet the baby, but her Brazilian boyfriend was grilling and kept bringing all these delicious meats through for everyone to try so we ended up staying a couple of hours. Wilder had fun hanging out and staring at everyone. While we were there someone asked me if he was really sleeping through the night. That's the second person in a week who has said Paul told them that. I told them that Paul had misspoken... that he was the one sleeping through the night, not Wilder haha!

On Sunday we, along with 111 million other Americans, watched the Super Bowl. We were a house divided though -- Wilder and I were going for the Packers while Paul was unfortunate enough to be going for the Steelers, ha!

My boys watching their first Super Bowl together :)

On Monday Wilder and I had a play date with a friend from my old work and her 2-year-old son. When I was about 8 months pregnant she brought him into the office and told him that "Mrs. Emily has a baby in her belly" at which point he came around my desk and proceeded to stare at my bulging stomach with these huge wide eyes for, I'm not exaggerating, 10 whole minutes like he thought I was just hiding the baby under my shirt and he would come out to play any second. It was the most hilarious, uncomfortable thing that happened to me the whole pregnancy. She literally had to drag him away, haha! So anyway, it was fun to get to finally introduce him to that elusive baby who he calls "Wi-uh-duh." 

My friend Brandie, her son Junior, and Wilder...

Yes, his name is Junior (!) and yes, he's in 

his underpants... They're a little different ;)

Oh, and yes, she's the "well-meaning coworker"

On Tuesday Wilder and I (mostly I) started a craft project. I always see these cute onesies with things appliqued onto them but they look so simple I wanted to try it myself before buying anything. I remembered my friend and fellow blogger, Tiffany, had posted a while back about applique-ing a Thanksgiving shirt for her daughter so I got instructions from her website and then Wilder and I went to JoAnn Fabrics and Target for supplies. Sidenote: I love taking Wilder places. He's so darn cute everyone wants to talk baby talk to him and he gives them the biggest grins. I just love him! Anyway, after I put him to bed that night, I started on my applique project and it is SO easy that I've been doing it every night since. I've made him three adorable onesies and another that I'm giving someone as a gift. I'm generally fairly crafty (craft-y, not crafty like a fox haha) but not when it comes to working with fabric so I was pretty happy with my creations and I will definitely be making more. 

We went to that Baby Yoga class a couple of weeks ago but Wilder was a little too young for it, so I've been looking for a Mommy and Me yoga class ever since and finally found one at a studio just down the street from our house. We went on Wednesday and it was exactly what I've been needing. We started out doing just regular yoga poses, then did modified poses that incorporated the babies, and ended with baby massage. I definitely recommend it for any new mom -- it's a fun workout and really promotes bonding with your baby. Dork alert: Just for something to do yesterday, I made a short video demonstrating some of the poses we learned in class in case anybody wants to give it a try. 

Oh, and here's an "only in California" moment for you. When I got to the yoga class I suddenly remembered that, in my rush to get out of the house that morning, I hadn't put on deodorant and I was a little embarrassed. But then the teacher had us go around the room and introduce ourselves and our babies. Among the group were little ones named Taj (as in Taj Mahal), Piper, and Reef (who was wearing a tie-dyed onesie and tie-dyed socks) so I'm pretty sure those hippie moms didn't care that I wasn't wearing deodorant because they probably weren't either. Not that I really have any place talking about other people's babies' names (I sure don't know any other Wilders), but come on... Reef? Oh, how I love Southern California! :)

Yesterday was a weird day. Wilder was ultra-sensitive and didn't want me to put him down at all, not on his play mat or his Pack n' Play or even his changing table, which he usually loves. If Rider barked he would start crying and I even accidentally made him cry by making this weird sound at him in an attempt to make him smile/laugh. :( I felt so awful! So we didn't do much besides rock in the recliner, make our dorky yoga video, and take the dogs to the park. 

He seems better today thank goodness. We're going to wrap up this blog post and then walk down the street to the park, lay out in the sun, and enjoy living in the "warm" spot. 

So, I know my parents love seeing videos of Wilder and Paul's mom specifically asked me this week to post another video so here's a cute clip for your entertainment. I was in the kitchen making lunch one day this week and Wilder was playing in his Pack n' Play. He was obviously having a grand old time because for like 15 minutes I could hear him in there just talking away to all his toys. Finally I remembered to record it and I managed to capture a few minutes of it without him knowing. Have I mentioned how much I love this little guy? He just brightens my whole life up :)

Here are some more cute pictures from this week:

Wilder and his guard dog/foot rest

Helping Mama grocery shop

Daddy blowing on his belly

Well, I hope everyone has a great weekend! 

Life of Wilder: Week Ten

Even though it totally messes with my OCD to do this because I really wanted all of his weekly pictures to look consistent, I've made an executive decision to move the location of the photos to his Pack n' Play instead of his crib. He's getting too long to lay sideways in the crib and it's really awkward to take the pictures with him turned the other way (see picture below) and also the lighting is just soooo much better in the living room, doesn't everyone agree? Actually, the question should probably be: Does anyone even care? Haha :) Anyway, on to the week in review...

My Facebook status on Monday: "I don't want to jinx it but Wilder has slept for 8-9 hour chunks the last three nights! I feel like a new person!" Well, guess what? I jinxed it. Monday night he woke up three times to be fed and has pretty much done that all week. So, needless to say, we haven't done much this week except rest during the day. But, I caught a glimpse last weekend of what could be and now I'm convinced that he doesn't really need to eat more than once during the night. In fact, my "What to Expect the First Year" book says that, from a metabolic standpoint, once a baby reaches 11 pounds, he can usually go the whole night without a feeding. Well, this little heifer is a whopping 14 pounds, so I'm fairly certain he's just waking up out of habit during the night. 

Therefore, over the past couple of days, I've launched a "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" initiative. I'm trying to push him an extra half hour between feedings during the day and work up to an extra hour between so he'll get accustomed to going longer at night. Last night he slept for a 7 hour stretch so hopefully it's working. It better be because Wilder is less than thrilled with the situation. Besides his Week 6 growth spurt he's been eating every 3 hours since birth so it's definitely become a habit that he crankily informs me he would like to stick to. It's also throwing him off his nap schedule a little so I think that's part of the grumpiness. Luckily he will begrudgingly take a pacifier as a substitute for the extra half hour so that makes it a little easier. I'm determined to get him on a better schedule, however hard it may be for the next few days or weeks. And if anyone thinks I'm starving the boy by doing this, just take a look at this Week 10 photo... That's a 3-6 month onesie he's busting out of. Yes, I may have shrunk it a little in the wash, but come on! 

Last weekend was busy for us. On Saturday, we took Wilder to Liberty Station, where I used to work. It was originally San Diego's Naval Training Center during WWII and was repurposed and remodeled a few years ago to house offices, restaurants, shops, and non-profit organizations. It's a great place to stroll around because it has beautiful courtyards and a huge park. We grabbed some lunch at Five Guys Burgers (yum!) and sat out in the sun in one of the courtyards to eat and then strolled around the park. 

Then we went to Michael's, Target, and Petco and Wilder was absolutely pooped by the time we got home (maybe that's why he slept so well that night).

Then on Sunday we went over to our friend Corey's house to watch the golf tournament going on at Torrey Pines and the Pro Bowl. No one did very much watching though because babies and puppies trump boring sports on TV like golf and this year's Pro Bowl... seriously, how much of a yawnfest was that game?! 

Wilder and the daughter of a friend of Paul's from school.

She's six months old and only 2 lbs heavier than Wilder, haha!

What a little chunk we have!

Corey's two Labradoodle puppies... How cute are they?!

Wilder and our friend Rob. He's the first of Paul's 

friends from school to actually ask to hold Wilder. 

I was so excited :)

Like I said, we didn't do much this week except hang around the house. We did go to Target, the grocery, the post office, and the dog park, but that's not exactly blog material. All the good stuff happened here at home...

Wilder started grabbing things last week but he really started honing his skills this week. I was in the kitchen while he was playing in his Pack n' Play one afternoon and I started hearing a bunch of rattling. I came into the room to find him waving his rattle-ball all around. I wouldn't usually have the TV blaring in the background of a video but I had to grab my camera so fast to capture it that I didn't have time to turn it down. 

Also, every night now he escapes his swaddling blanket over and over. He can sleep this way but can't fall asleep unswaddled so for now we still have to swaddle him for bed. Anyway, every night for the past week I've heard him grunting on the monitor and when I look to see what's going on he's gotten himself into this position:

That's right, he can now roll over onto his side. The swaddling blanket in the picture is one that he actually can't escape from but that morning when I went in to get him, as soon as I loosened the blanket, he flipped over onto his side and stuck his hands in his mouth. It was like he'd been waiting to do that all night. It seems like everything he does these days is motivated solely by his desire to suck his thumb haha :) Apparently it's easier for him to steady his hands and get them in his mouth from that position. He's even been flipping onto his side during play time.

Here are a few more cute pictures from this week:

Anyway, this post is probably interesting to no one but Wilder's grandparents, but, hey, everyone's allowed to be boring every now and then, especially when you're sleep-deprived for going on three months ;)

Hope everyone has a fantastic Super Bowl weekend!