Life of Wilder: Week Thirty-Five

 Next week you can look forward to the unveiling 

of a new weekly picture format for sure... 

This just is not happening anymore

We've had a rollercoaster kind of week around here. I'll tell you all about it shortly, but let me start off by saying, like I say every month... I can't believe Wilder is 8 months old! Time is flying... he's growing up too fast... yada yada yada. I'm now getting to the point where, though the months still feel like they are flying by, I kind of expect it and have come to accept that time, no matter how much I beg or demand, will obstinately not stand still. I'm just going to have to try to live in the moment every minute of every day and take as many pictures as possible so I can always remember all the important (and even unimportant) details of this special time with my beautiful son. 

A blog that I read called Ostriches Look Funny and Other Observations had a good post this week about appreciating every day, even the bad ones. And man, did we have a bad one this week. Probably, no definitely, the worst one we've had so far. Wilder has not been sick one day in all of his 8 months -- no colds, fevers, ear infections, nothing -- until this Tuesday, the poor little guy's 8-month birthday of all days. He woke up early Tuesday morning with a fever that didn't relent for 24 hours. He wasn't sick so the only thing I can figure is that he was teething really hard. It scared me so bad though and of course I called our doctor at 5:00 in the morning so they could reassure me that he was probably just teething. He felt awful and was SO irritable all of Tuesday and I pretty much held him all day because if anything so much as brushed up against him he would totally lose it. It was exhausting for all of us and I felt so sorry for him. It's so true that when they hurt, you hurt. Poor little dude, I cringe just thinking about his hot little head and general pitifulness...

Not all firsts are fun firsts :(

The three days preceding and the three days following Tuesday were pretty great though. Life always has its ups and downs, I suppose. Without the bad times we wouldn't be able to fully appreciate the good times. I'm just thankful that, so far in Wilder's life, the "ups" have far outnumbered the "downs." So now let's talk about the "ups"...

Our good friends, Holly and Jacob, are back in San Diego after nearly a year of being gone with the Navy and we got together with them and their precious 3-year-old daughter on Saturday for a trip to the zoo. The last few times Wilder and I have been to the zoo we've gone with our dog park friend, Ashley, because she has a membership and can get us in for free. This time though Paul and I broke down and got a membership for ourselves. The zoo is such a nice place to stroll around in the shade and during the week it isn't very crowded so I feel like I'll be taking Wilder at least once a week now that we have our own membership. I'm really excited to be able to go whenever we want now. Anyway, we had a fun time catching up with Holly and Jacob and watching Reagan explore and check out all the animals. Wilder loved watching her every move. She was so busy I think he got worn out vicariously through her and he was totally knocked out by the time we left. 

Looking at the monkeys with Daddy

 A couple of good daddies :)

 Wilder was obsessed with the ducks this time.

He even spit out his paci into their pond for them.

 Reagan was so sweet with Wilder. Here

she is checking on him sleeping in the stroller.

 First family trip to the zoo. Probably should

have taken the picture beforehand since Wilder

was out like a light by this point.

On Sunday Paul had some reading to do for school so Wilder and I drove up to Carlsbad where Amber and Travis were camping with his family on the beach. Wilder loves being around his cousin Henry and, since they were so close to San Diego, I couldn't pass up an opportunity to hang out. By the time we got up there they were already back from the beach for the day but it was so relaxing just sitting in the RV, talking and watching the boys mess around on the floor. Wilder got to show off his new scooting skills for them and he loved sharing his snacks with his big cousin. 

On Monday Holly and Reagan invited us over to swim in their neighborhood pool. Wilder hadn't swum (that totally does not sound right, but I promise it's the correct tense, I looked it up) since we were in Tennessee a couple of months ago but it didn't take him long to remember how much he loved it. We were out there for about an hour and a half and he never stopped kicking his legs and splashing the whole time... until we tried to get it on video of course. He had the best time. We've been thinking about joining the YMCA and they have indoor and outdoor pools. I think we're just going to have to suck it up and do it because I really want to have somewhere close to take him to swim whenever we want. Plus they have baby swim classes that I want to join. I really think he's going to be a natural :)

How cute are they?! :)

The next day was the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. After surviving Wilder's first sick day we just hung around the house recuperating on Wednesday. His fever was gone and he seemed to feel better as you can see from the big grin he gave me that morning. I was so relieved to have my happy boy back! 

Thursday we went to a playgroup at Liberty Station. It was a good group with a lot of nice moms and other babies around Wilder's age and we had fun hanging out and playing in the sand. We live at the beach but Wilder had never actually played in the sand before so he had fun doing that.

I had to get a picture of this because he and 

this other little boy totally matched -- same

hats, green shirts, and gray shorts -- glad I made

it home with the right baby ;)

I can't wait for Wilder to be able to look 

at the camera and say "cheese" haha

In food news, I found a lot of Wilder's baby food on clearance at Target last week and I may have gone definitely went a little overboard stocking up on it. Of course, now that I have an abundance of it, he's starting to get tired of the mush. Since he's been eating a lot more finger foods I can tell he gets really impatient when I try to feed him the jarred purees. They just aren't as fun as feeding yourself and getting to chew up your food like a big boy. As far as finger foods go, Wilder has still been eating puffs and Mum-Mums like they're going out of style and now we've added these little Gerber cheese puff things and yogurt melts. I've also been giving him banana slices and soft-cooked broccoli florets, which he LOVES. Today I'm going to try him on some cooked egg yolks and maybe even start making him some egg yolk omelets with cheese and broccoli. I also found a recipe for some banana pancake bites that I can't wait to try. I know, I know, we're getting all fancy around here! Now that he's eating real food, it's so much fun to experiment and introduce him to new things. 

B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

 "I came, I ate, I conquered."

 "Mess? What mess?"

 "See my broccoli? It's right here. See?"

 One must first gently poke the broccoli

before gobbling it up

I've also been trying to introduce Wilder to the sippy cup. Since he's only taken a bottle a handful of times though, the concept of tipping the cup up and sucking the liquid out is proving difficult to grasp...

This way? No?

This way? No?

This way? Almost.

I have very exciting (to me) news to report this week... Wilder is finally interested in books! My inner book nerd rejoices! "'O, frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' [S]he chortled in [her] joy!" (Just showing off a little of my nerdiness there... Does anyone know what that's from?) He still doesn't really want me to read to him, but he loves for me to point things out to him on the pages and he will even sit there on his own and turn the pages and look at the images. 

This book is his favorite. It has a mirror on the

last page and he loves to look into it like he's 

looking into another world, kind of like Alice in

Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

(hint, hint on the above quote). 

He also loves this one. It's one that my parents

recorded for him and he will sit there and look

into the speaker holes to try to see who it is that's

reading to him. :)

He's still loving his bathtime. Even though, as part of his bedtime routine, it's supposed to calm and soothe him in preparation for sleeping, it's now turned into more of a playtime. He loves to splash around and explore the big tub and I have too much fun watching to stop him.

He has also become a much more adventurous scooter. This morning he ventured into the dogs' room to see what he could get into in there...

Well, I guess that's all for this week. I'll leave you with a couple of more cute pictures...

Poor Rider :)

His favorite place to be

OK, y'all have a wonderful weekend! If the banana pancake bites turn out any good I'll post the recipe for a Mid-Week Minute. I think they would be yummy for adults too.