Southerners in SoCal: Life of Wilder: Week Twenty-Nine

This week Wilder and I had a couple of social engagements in addition to our normal dog-park-visiting, errand-running, and grocery-shopping. I try not to schedule too many of these during the week because it can get pretty exhausting. As you all can surely testify (hopefully it's not just me), when a baby is involved, having a set time and place to be requires strategizing the night before, starting to get ready two hours in advance, and physically starting to move towards the door at least 15 minutes before you need to be pulling out of the driveway. And I'm still always late. Can I get an amen? Sooo, anyway, this week we had a birthday party to go to on Sunday and a play date in Balboa Park on Tuesday and the rest of the week we just did the usual stuff. Oh, and I finally got my suitcase unpacked from the trip. Yes! Big accomplishment.

The birthday party was late in the afternoon so it wasn't so much exhausting getting there as being there. You see, the 3-year-old birthday boy who shall remain nameless would open one present, then insist that his mom take the toy out of the packaging, and sit there and play with it for at least five minutes (seriously, he read whole books, it was ridiculous) before moving on to the next present. It wouldn't have been quite so bad if the party wasn't in a park less than 100 feet from the bay off of which was blowing freezing cold air... and it was drizzly and overcast... and Wilder and I were dressed for the 70 degrees and sunny that it was at our house. Luckily I had a jacket and socks for him in the diaper bag and I wrapped him in my nursing cover while we stood there for an hour during which time birthday boy only made it through half of his presents. Finally I (probably slightly rudely) walked up, moved our gift to the front of the pile, and then promptly left as soon as he opened it because it was a Sit 'n Spin and I was terrified he was going to insist on assembling it and having "Hours of Fun!" on it while we died of hypothermia. Later, I asked my mom if it was normal for a kid to open presents that way and she assured me that it was not. Of course, that's coming from the woman who cleans before the maid comes, so who really knows. ;) One good thing about the party though was that my old boss was there, who I loved working for, and she hadn't seen Wilder since he was a couple months old so it was fun to get to visit with her.

Wilder visiting with Traci and her dog Copper

Tuesday we met up at Balboa Park with a friend and her 9-month-old son who we met at a play group a few months ago.

Her son is so advanced, it's crazy -- he's been crawling since 5-months and is just over 9-months now and has just taken his first step. Like... what? Anyway, needless to say, I had high hopes that Wilder would take a few notes from this kid and pick up on the crawling thing. Instead, he picked up on something else... (Might want to turn your volume down)

Wilder had started squealing recently, but now, as you can hear, it's turned into something more akin to a scream-bloody-murder. The other kid did it out of excitement but, as far as I can tell, Wilder uses it indiscriminately to convey impatience, boredom, excitement, frustration... really any feeling that he has at any given time. For example, the first video is what he now does when he's waiting on me to fix his food and the second video is him excitedly watching the dogs run around the yard. Imagine hearing that at close range 20 times a day. I've tried ignoring it to no avail. He also doesn't respond to "shhh" or "no" and, in fact, he apparently thinks my agitation is hilarious. I guess all I can do is hope that he moves on to another, less ear-piercing new sound soon.

Sooo remember last week when I said it felt like Wilder had gained 2 pounds in 2 weeks since starting solids? Well, that's exactly what has happened. He now weighs 19 lbs 6 oz. and the kid is breaking my back! I carry him in the Baby Bjorn at the dog park and, all I have to say is, I'm getting an awesome workout. He doesn't even just seem chubbier, he seems longer too. Makes me wonder what kind of human growth hormone-laced vegetables they're making this baby food out of.

And no, I'm not making my own baby food like I planned to and for several reasons. 1) I didn't want to buy a food processor that I would only use for a few months so I tried using my blender's "puree" setting, which I quickly learned is not an acceptable substitute; 2) You can get organic baby food in every variety, but you can't always get organic veggies/fruits with which to ~~make your own baby food~~ unsuccessfully puree in a blender; 3) I thought about it and realized that at no other time in Wilder's life will I be able to buy healthy, complete meals for him in jars ready to serve. I'll be cooking for him for at least the next 18 years so I might as well take advantage of something being made easier while I can; 4) I read somewhere that baby food companies have very strict sanitation standards that are much higher than the average home kitchen. Now, you know, of course, my kitchen is perpetually spotless with ne'er a Rider-hair to be found, but it's a good argument in theory. ;)

This week we've added several new flavors and gotten into a really good feeding routine. I've started giving him his solid meals shortly before his morning and noon naps and bedtime. This has increased his naptimes by half an hour and he has begun sleeping through the night again. Whoohoo! I'll trade having sore arms (you know, from picking up my little heifer) for a good night's sleep any day.

Mmm, Green, Yellow, and Purple

for dinner... yummy!

Daddy feeding Wilder for the first time

For the past couple weeks I've been feeding Wilder in the Bumbo seat, which was working fine until a certain someone's 12% weight gain. Now he gets stuck in it every time I feed him so it's definitely time for a proper high chair. Remember this high chair that my grandmother loaned us in Jackson? I absolutely fell in love with it because it was sturdy, was a great size (not a veritable recliner on legs like some modern high chairs), and didn't have all kinds of padding/fabric in which to lose bits of food. So, this week I found an almost identical one on eBay and bid on it. The auction ends tonight so hopefully I win and it gets here quickly before the fire department has to come use the jaws of life to free poor Wilder from the Bumbo.

In other exciting news, Wilder finally has a tooth coming in! I can see a bottom tooth popping up just under his gum and I think it's only a matter of days before it breaks through. I know you'll all be on the edge of your seats waiting for updates on this. :)

Let's see, what else has been going on?

Think it's time to lower the Pack 'n Play?