Southerners in SoCal: Life of Wilder: Week Seventeen

This week last year was the week that would begin a whole new chapter in our lives. A year ago Wednesday to be exact, I took four pregnancy tests and was in absolute shock and disbelief when one after the other came back with a little plus sign. I always thought when that happened I would be jumping up and down and screaming with excitement, but when I told Paul we just stared at each other like deer in headlights. We, of course, were beyond excited but neither of us knew what to say or do. We just hugged and sat on the bed together feeling amazed, scared, overwhelmed, blessed, and so so happy. I don't know about him but I also felt very small next to the significance of what we had just discovered. The love I immediately felt for that tiny sesame-seed-sized life inside me trumped everything else I cared about, wanted, or was afraid of. It was a miracle, it was life-changing, and it's a day I will never forget.

Now let's talk about that little life now that he's 17-week-old-baby-sized... On Tuesday I took Wilder for his 4-month check-up. He weighs 15 lbs. 8 oz. and is 25 1/4 inches long; both are 75th percentile. I really think he's a little longer according to my measurements at home but he was so squirmy for the nurse I don't think she could get an accurate reading -- she even ended up getting ink on his head trying to draw the top line for the measurement, that's how much he was wiggling around, haha. Anyway, the check-up went well. Wilder showed off his rolling skills for the doctor and smiled at her the whole time. Then I asked her to check out a birth mark he had developed on his booty and as soon as I took his diaper off he peed all over her. I felt awful, like I had tricked her into standing over him and then given him some kind of secret signal to "Ready, aim, fire." But she was very nice about it and luckily she has a son who is two months older than Wilder so I think she's sort of used to it, poor thing. So yeah, other than that, the visit went well. The vaccinations were pretty awful as usual, but they've got to be done and they just give me an excuse to cuddle him the rest of the day.

Wednesday was Paul's last day of school for this quarter (yay!!) so he wanted me to bring Wilder to the studio to meet everyone finally. Paul was such a proud daddy walking around with him and showing him off. It was so cute and just warmed my heart :)

Also on Wednesday I took Wilder and the dogs to the dog park where I started talking to another mom with a baby a month younger than Wilder. She had a 140-lb. Great Dane and I kept trying to decide which of us was crazier. In the end though I'm pretty sure two 100-lb. spoiled, maniacal beasts, one ball-crazy and one half-retarded, beat out her gentle giant. Anyway, she was telling me about the Gymboree class she had started going to. I looked at the website and it looks fun. Any of my readers ever been? I really want to get Wilder around other babies so I signed up for a free class on Monday to check it out. I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully it will be something fun for us to do once or twice a week to get out of the house and interact with other moms/babies.

Speaking of jumping on the mommy bandwagon, I bought Wilder a Jumperoo off Craigslist last weekend. This bouncing, flashing, musical, farm-themed hunk of plastic is seriously the gaudiest thing I've ever purchased but apparently the gaudier the better in a baby's opinion because he loooves it. He is so freaking cute bouncing up and down in it and spinning/pulling/hitting the toys and even though it's annoyingly hideous it's totally worth it to see this face every time he plays in it...

Here's a video I took of him in it the other day. He was just starting to get the hang of it and was enjoying himself immensely as you can see.

This weekend we're going to be cleaning out our storage room/garage so Paul can set up a mini studio in there and be able to work from home more next quarter. I'm so excited about having him home for his break over the next two weeks and hopefully more during the rest of the school year. Here he is working hard on his final project last weekend... He's so passionate about architecture and I couldn't be more proud of him!