Life of Wilder: Week Twenty

I can't believe Wilder is 20 weeks old today! Since I always just talk about what we've done during the week, let me give you some facts about my sweetheart of an almost 5-month-old boy. He weighs 16 lbs. and is turning into a regular old roly-poly baby. His chubby little arms and legs are like sausage links and he's been wearing 6-month clothing for a while now. He's slowly getting more hair and it's blonde as can be. His eyes are lightening up but they are still blue blue blue. He's still eating every 3 hours during the day but he's sleeping 12 hours at night so I don't complain. He takes 2 or 3 1-hour naps during the day. We're going to wait until next month to start rice cereal/solids. He's a laid-back little dude but can definitely get an attitude sometimes and knows how to get our attention (see pterodactyl scream). He's not a squealer when he's happy, he's a chuckler. He adores Paul of course, but he has also become exceedingly fond of the dogs. Every time they come into the room he gets a huge grin on his face, like his friends have come to play. 

He always wants to be on his belly. Anytime I put him down on his back he immediately rolls over and will stay like that for as long as I'll let him. He's started to figure out how to spin himself around on his stomach if there's something behind him that he would rather look at. He's also found his feet but has yet to put them in his mouth. He looooves bath time and sits there happily kicking and splashing while I bathe him. He gets a bath every night as part of his bedtime routine and it really helps him get into sleep-mode. I read to him a couple of times a day but he is so not interested yet. Sometimes he even starts going "ahhhahhhahhh" over me when I'm reading to him, haha, and I've even tried singing books to him but it doesn't help. He'd rather eat the book. The English major in me is in serious distress over this but I know he'll come around if I keep at it. We don't let him watch TV for various reasons, except an occasional sporting event. He loves to be outside. He is the absolute joy of our lives and we feel so blessed to be his parents. 

Now, let's see, what have we done this week? The weekend was bittersweet because it was Paul's last before starting back to school. We spent a lot of time at home just hanging out (and watching the Master's). Wilder and I went to Gymboree on Sunday. 

Monday we had another play date with my friend from work, Brandie, and her son Junior (yes, Junior). We went to the park at Liberty Station and Wilder got to swing again, which he, of course, loved. I may have gone a little overboard with the sun-protection... sunscreen, socks, sweater, ugly fisherman's hat... but I would just die if he got sunburned so fashion be damned! 

 (Just realized he's upside-down flipping me off in this pic...

probably for making him wear this awful hat)

Junior wanted to hold him :)

Tuesday we went to the dog park. The sun protection that day was a little more stylish, haha...

I found these adorable Kicky Pants hats on Diapers.com. They are so soft, adorable, and breathable and since I can't put sunscreen on his head they're great for protecting his little noggin. I ordered a couple on Sunday and they got here Monday night. Now that's what I call service! Especially compared to my teething-themed order from Amazon, which I will discuss complain about below. Anyway, we saw our dog park friend that day and apparently we don't have quite as much in common as I thought. Last week when she invited me to go to the Mommy Movie Mornings movie this Thursday I went home and told Paul I hoped they were showing "Arthur." I think Russell Brand is pretty hilarious (hello, have you seen him in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" or "Get Him to the Greek"?) and I think that movie looks pretty funny. But when we saw her Tuesday she said disappointedly, "Oh, and the movie they're showing Thursday is 'Arthur' with that stupid Russell Brand so I don't think I want to go." Mehhh :( Oh well, I'm not a great friends-maker so I can't be picky plus "that stupid Russell Brand" isn't a deal-breaker for me as far as mom friends go so even if we don't have that in common I'm good. I just think it's funny that I was like "Oh I hope it's 'Arthur'!" and she was like "Eww, it's 'Arthur'" haha. 

Oh yeah, so I ordered a few teething items from Amazon on March 31st. Guess when they got here? April 12th! Seriously?? I love Amazon and have never had a problem with ordering from them but it should not take almost two weeks to get something in the mail. I will say this, when I emailed them asking about the package and complaining about how long it was taking they did refund my shipping cost, but that didn't really make up for having to wait that long for something I needed right away. Aaaanyway, as far as the products go, from our 3 days' use of them so far, I can highly recommend the Razbaby RaZberry Teether. It's easy to hold and since it's shaped like a pacifier Wilder knows where to put it and how to get it there. The little nubs on the berry part seem to feel good on his gums too.

The teething pain has subsided a little this week so we've only used the teething tablets once but they worked within five minutes when I was sure Wilder wasn't going to take a nap because of the pain. Lifesaver! The ones we got are called Homeostasis Labs Teething Relief tablets. So yeah, good products, just maybe get them from somewhere other than Amazon if you're in a hurry. 

We've been doing a lot of walking this week. Wednesday we strolled around North Park for an hour and a half. Thursday Wilder sat outside with me while I push-mowed the yard (so proud of myself, haha) and then we went to the dog park and walked with our dog-park friend for an hour and a half. The weather has been sunny and in the high 60's and it has felt so great to get outside and get some good exercise. 

We've had some very productive play times indoors too though. Even though Wilder much prefers to be on his stomach, I've been working with him on sitting up and he has now officially sat on his own several times!

At first I put the Boppy pillow around him just in case he fell backwards but he decided he liked laying across it better...

Now this happens every time I sit him up. He'll sit there for a few seconds and then he sort of throws himself to the side so he can roll onto his stomach. I would think the sitting position would give him a better perspective from which to look at his surroundings but apparently the stomach position is better for playing with/chewing on toys and that's pretty high on the priority list right now. Oh well, at least I know he can sit up if he wants to. 

Whenever the dogs bark I always try to smile at Wilder or make him laugh so he won't be afraid of them barking, which happens a lot since Rider believes her sole purpose on earth is to loudly ward off anything making any type of noise outside our house. The other day we were playing on the floor in his room and both dogs suddenly barked and Wilder automatically laughed at them. Since I love to hear him laugh I then proceeded to bark myself and he thought it was so hilarious. I tried to get a good picture but he tends to laugh with his whole body so they turned out pretty blurry. I think they're cute anyway...

Alright guys, I guess that's all for this week. Oh, and Paul got into a new honors' studio the school's trying out this quarter (go Paul!) and the teacher told them Monday that he wanted to take them to New York City to tour some buildings and, oh yeah, that trip would take place next week. Wow, thanks for the heads-up there, guy. Sooo, yay fun for Paul, not fun for Emily, especially since I woke up this morning with my throat killing me. Ugh, perfect timing :( I haven't been sick in the two years we've lived out here so hopefully I'm feeling better by next week. All that to say that there may or may not be a Mid-week Minute next week depending on my level of exhaustion. Y'all have a great weekend!