Life of Wilder: Week Twenty-Three

Just to warn you, I can't promise it's going to be an outstanding post this week and I blame it 80% on Paul and 20% on Wilder. They have combined forces this week to totally deplete my energy reserves. I'm tempted to just post a bunch of pictures and leave it at that, but even though it's been exhausting, we've had a really fun week too and there are a few things I definitely want to get in writing for the sake of posterity. So, here I go... Hopefully it's semi-coherent. Oh, here's a good example of why I'm putting 20% of the blame on Wilder...

Saturday was a gorgeous day so we picked up lunch from Grant's Marketplace (of "It's a Deee-licious Sandwich!" fame) and took it over to Balboa Park to eat and stroll around. Especially in the spring and summer there's always some kind of event going on there and that day was no different. By the might of Mars, I swear to you gentle readers, 'twas a Shakespeare Festival. Now, as an English major, I of course absolutely love Shakespeare. However, I'm not going to lie to you, people who attend and dress up for a Shakespeare Festival kind of freak me out a little bit. We quickly strolled down the Prada through the gauntlet of Lady MacBeths, Hamlets, King Lears, and the multitude of Juliets and made our way to the quieter areas of the park. We ended up having quite a lovely stroll and made sure to take an alternate route back to the car afterwards.

 Wilder enjoying the musical stylings of the didgeridoo

After the park, Paul had to get some work done so I took Wilder over to Ashley and Lorelai's house where I promptly broke my movie rule from last week. We watched "The King's Speech" which I had been dying to see and which definitely did not disappoint by the way. I justify it by the fact that it was a movie in conjunction with a play date. Wilder and Lorelai got to interact while the movie was playing and, really, I'll take opportunities for him to socialize with other babies any way they come. In fact, Wilder got his first lesson in sharing while we were there so that was productive. They both really wanted those links and finally ended up each with one end of the chain.

Have you ever seen such a thing? Haha :)

The rest of the weekend was uneventful and lazy, which is probably a good thing, because on Monday Paul dropped a bomb on me. Paul's school has students from many different countries so every year they host an International Fair where students set up tables and serve food from their different cultures. Last year we joked that we should do a Southern table. Well, Monday Paul calls me from school and tells me that he signed us up for a table this year for the Fair that is... on Friday. And we have to have enough food for 100 people to sample. Lord have mercy. Now, I probably could have easily just thrown something together but for some of these people this will probably be the first and only time they will ever eat anything Southern and I wanted to properly represent, y'all! Plus I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and I simply cannot do anything halfheartedly. So, I've been working all week on getting stuff together for our table. That is why it's 80% Paul's fault that I'm worn flat out today. More about the fair later in the post. Paul did bring me these when he came home from school that night though so that made up for the late notice a little bit.

Also, it's 20% Wilder's fault because he has been super grumpy in the afternoons this week and now that's he's reaching and grabbing things he's developed quite a little attitude. If I take something away from him he throws a big fit, if he wants something and can't get to it he throws a big fit, etc. Such a little stinker! Plus I think the break we've recently had from teething is over once again and that certainly doesn't help his demeanor. Still no teeth though. Those things need to break on through to the other side already! Wow, OK, I told you I'm tired.

Tuesday we went to Gymboree for the last time for now. I decided to put it on hold for a month until he can move up to the next age group. The next level has classes later in the day and that way I won't have to dread a whole afternoon of hyper baby activities after every class. Anyway, since I knew he wouldn't take a nap, after Gymboree we went drove to Santee to get some BBQ sauce from Smokin' Joe's BBQ and for me to do a taste test to see if that's where we wanted to get our BBQ for the International Fair. The owner moved here from Mississippi and opened this place and oh.my.word. it was amazing. It almost made me cry because it reminded me of the South so much. I wasted no time in placing an order for 12 pounds for Friday. After that we went to the grocery to get supplies to make our other classic Southern dish: mini pecan pies. And what do you know, by the time we got home, Wilder took a nap. On the last day of class for goodness sake! 

Wednesday we didn't do much except go to Target for more supplies and take the dogs to the park. Ashley and Lorelai are out of town for two weeks so it was just us which is not as fun. After Wilder went to bed I started on the pecan pies. They are pretty easy to make but kind of require a bit of prep work ahead of time. They are sooo worth it though... Think cream cheese in the crust. I'll post the recipe and pictures for the Mid-Week Minute this week. Here's a little teaser picture though (why I don't have one of them out of the pan I have no idea, I could have sworn I took one, but oh well)...

And one I made Paul take of me to 

document all my hard work...

On Thursday we went to another meetup/playgroup at Liberty Station. The day absolutely could not have been any prettier and it was a small group with all babies around Wilder's age so it was fun to talk to the other moms and let Wilder play with the other little ones. And of course what's a trip to the park without a little swinging? After our playgroup we drove through Chick-fil-A to pick up a few gallons of sweet tea for the Fair. It's the only place in all of San Diego that serves sweet tea and since I don't drink it (gasp!) I didn't dare try to make it. After Wilder went to bed that night I made more pecan pies. Each batch only makes 24 so I had to do 4 batches and there was no way I was doing them all in one night. Unfortunately that meant spending my usual nighttime downtime slaving away in the kitchen so yeah, again, forgive any incoherency/misspellings/etc. in this post.

Before I get to Friday let me tell you a little more about what Wilder's been up to this week. He is sitting up and standing soooo much better. He can and will now sit up to play and when we help him stand it takes a lot less of us supporting him. It's amazing how quickly he's developing. I just want to jam the Pause button down for a while. 

Also, the best development (in my opinion) so far... On Tuesday he reached for me for the first time. It absolutely totally melted my heart and he's been doing it more and more ever since. I love it and it completely makes up for his grumpiness this week.

As usual Wilder is still loving the two four-legged members of our family. They usually follow me everywhere I go around the house or yard and he's just started to notice this and apparently thinks it's hilarious. He watches them tagging along behind us and just laughs his head off. I think it must make him feel like he's their leader or something. Speaking of the dogs, I caught this on video this afternoon while I was getting stuff ready for the Fair and I had Wilder in the Johnny Jump-up so I could run around the house unhindered. I love Posey with all my heart but she is just a few bricks short of a load, I'm afraid. She doesn't get that she can squeeze through the doorway past him when he's in that thing so she always gets stuck either inside or outside of the room. This time she was trapped in his room as a captive audience and apparently he had a lot to say to her. This was just the tail-end that I managed to catch of a 10-minute conversation he had with her: 

OK, so today we played in the morning as usual, then took Wilder's 23-week picture as usual, and then Paul headed off to school and I started getting stuff together for the Fair. This afternoon Wilder and I drove back to Santee to pick up the BBQ and then came back here and loaded everything into the car. We got to the school an hour before the Fair was to start and set everything up. I was very proud of how our table turned out and I feel confident that we did the South justice. Everyone thought it was funny that we did "the South" when all the other tables were literally "International" but hey, we ran completely out of food in 30 minutes and had a lot of people coming back for seconds, thirds, even fourths so I'd say we were a success. In order to incorporate architecture into the event we were supposed to make a sign displaying architecture from our region. Paul chose the Rural Studio in Alabama for ours and I thought he did a great job on it. Also, Wilder was sooo good through the whole event even though it was past his bedtime. Everyone thought he was so cute and they were all so surprised at how laid-back he was. He loved looking at all those people and I could just imagine him thinking in his head "Who are you?... Who are you?... Who are you?..." He is such a people watcher and such a good baby, when he's not being a stinker. Paul and I were both so proud of him. Anyway, it was such a fun night and, even though it was a lot of hard work, it was totally worth it. 

Here are a few more cute pictures from this week:

Alright y'all, have a fantastic weekend and I'll see you back here for a complete tutorial on pecan tassies aka mini pecan pies on which I am now an expert in the next few days.