Life of Wilder: Week Twenty-Four

It’s already Friday?? I'm not going to lie, I kind of don’t know exactly what we did all week. I’ve been a little bit of a zombie because for some inexplicable reason, Wilder decided he needed to wake up at 5:30 Tuesday and Wednesday morning. It's been slightly later each morning since then but he's still waking up before the dogs and that says a lot. Some moms I complained about this to this week were like “That’s not bad at all” and then proceeded to tell me their babies’ schedules, after which I realized that I’ve been totally spoiled by Wilder sleeping 7:00 PM – 7:00 AM for the last few months. They’re right  -- 5:30 AM isn’t bad…. unless you didn’t go to bed until midnight the night before because you were counting on not having to wake up before 7:00 the next morning. Looks like I’m going to have to renounce my night owl tendencies until I can figure out what is causing him to beat the rooster to the crowing. I have racked my brain the past few days trying to find the culprit: Soggy diaper? Hot? Cold? Hungry? Teething? Too much light in the room? Scratchy new PJ’s? Alas, I’ve remedied all of these possible problems to no avail. Apparently Wilder’s just decided to take advantage of the only time in his life that it will be acceptable to wake up before the sun and make someone else wake up too and entertain him. Man, babies have the life, for real! Anyway, although I know you're dying to know every minute detail of our week, you'll please forgive me if I just give a brief overview that I'm remembering by going back and looking at the pictures I've taken. 

Apparently on Saturday we hung Wilder's new outdoor swing in the yard. OK, kidding, I do remember that. We finally got it in the mail last Thursday... a week and a half after ordering it from Amazon. I know I should have learned my lesson from the teething products order but obviously I didn't because I ordered from them yet again and again experienced a shipping snafu. A week after ordering it I checked the status and it still had not shipped. I called Customer Service and they said the swing had been backordered, which they never told me, and my order had been placed in "limbo," which in Amazon terms apparently means "canceled." They said if I reordered it they would give me free two-day shipping so, once again, they made up for the mistake but still... DO NOT order from Amazon if you are in a hurry (or want your shipment in a timely manner) and please remind me to not do this again either! Anyway, finally on Saturday we had time to hang the swing. Dads are good for that job...

Wilder wasn't too sure about it at first, as you can see from his face in the picture below, haha...

But we've used it at least once every day since and it's definitely grown on him. Now whenever we walk out there he reaches for it.

Sunday was my first Mother's Day. We had big plans to eat a good lunch and then take Wilder and the dogs to Fiesta Island, but it was totally overcast and chilly so we opted for just the lunch. We walked down the street to Urban Solace, which is one of the best restaurants in SD, in my opinion. They feature Southern comfort food with a twist so it's right up our alley. They have an awesome Bluegrass Brunch on Sundays with a bluegrass band and a menu that's out of this world. Seriously, just drool over the pictures below for a minute...

We started with a homemade buttermilk cinnamon roll

with cream cheese frosting and butter pecan sauce

 Then I had the Eggaroni: cheesy macaroni and egg baked

casserole w/ smoked ham and charred tomatoes

 And Paul had the Kitchen Sink Biscuits: sausage, brown sugar

slab bacon, and fried eggs over homemade biscuits and gravy

I'm drooling now just thinking about it. This meal plus the charming company completely made my Mother's Day. Afterwards, it was probably a good thing that it was overcast because we were so full we wouldn't have wanted to move off the couch anyway. 

Oh, and Paul and Wilder surprised me with a gift certificate for a Swedish massage plus a foot and ankle treatment. Soooo excited!! And, even though Paul totally doesn't get the point of cards, he knows I love them, so he always gets them for me but they never fail to be something crazy. For this occasion, he came up with this gem... Kind of appropriate for a Mother's Day 20 miles from the border I guess. No idea what it says of course, but I'm sure it expresses some very nice sentiments. Thanks Paul ;)

The rest of the week, as far as I can recall, we didn't really do much of note. The only thing we did besides the usual playing at home, going to the dog park, and running errands was have a play date at the home of one of the girls I met at last week's playgroup at Liberty Station. Her son is 8 months old and just as busy as can be. It made me excited for Wilder to start moving on his own but it also made me appreciate being able to still put him somewhere and know that he will stay there. 

I don't think that will last long though. I'm so amazed at how much he has developed just in the last few weeks. He's sitting up perfectly now and can even stand holding onto something for a couple of seconds by himself. He can also spin around on his belly pretty easily and I feel like scooting is just around the corner. He has definitely found his voice too. It's so crazy that what started out a few months ago as the softest little "ooh ooh" is now "AAHHHAAHHHAAHHH" and "GAHH" and "MAHH" and "THAHH" and "FAHH" and "BAHH" etc. He loooves hearing himself talk talk talk and we love it too. 

Earlier this week he scared the crap out of me though. For two or three days every so often while I was feeding him he would start humming out and then doing this squeaky wheezing sound in. It sounded like a person with asthma, but he never acted like it was difficult for him to breathe and he never did it at any other time. In fact whenever I would get his attention and be like "Wilder, what are you doing?!" he would stop and just grin at me. The other night I happened to be reading in my What to Expect the First Year book and a mom had submitted a question about a cough her son had started doing. He wasn't acting sick and he wasn't doing it at night while he was sleeping and she asked if he could possibly just be doing it for attention. The answer was yes! The book said that he probably coughed for some reason once and his mom freaked out so he decided to keep doing it to get a reaction out of her. This sounded exactly like what Wilder was doing so I didn't immediately rush him to the ER like I wanted to and, after a couple of days, the wheeze vanished as quickly as it had appeared. It was like he was just doing it because he discovered he could and because of my reaction to it. Crazy baby, haha! I was telling my mom about it and she reminded me of a story my grandmother always told about when my dad was 2 or 3 and he started limping for no reason. No one could find anything wrong with him and he stopped doing it after he got tired of it. Obviously hamming it up runs in the family. 

Wilder's new favorite thing this week is hitting the globes hanging over his bed. Every time I get him out of the crib or we walk past the crib he reaches out for them until I hold him close enough to knock them around. He hits one and then reaches out for the next one and then back to the first one. It's pretty silly and so cute :)

He's also still grabbing and trying to put in his mouth everything he can get his hands on, including but not limited to, my computer, my cell phone, any lampshade, the dogs, my hair, my cereal bowl...

And what is it with babies and tags? They even make toys with extra tags on them called Taggies because babies love them so much. I just don't get it but the attraction is definitely there...

Wilder, you do know that the book 

is the toy, not the tag, right?

And one last picture of my sweet sleeping angel :) I adore this little guy and I'm so lucky to be his mom...

OH! Aaaand... we found out that our Southern table won first place at the International Fair last week! Mama earned herself a $50 Target gift card, whoohoo! Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!