Life of Wilder: Week Thirty-Three

We're getting very close to having to

find a new way to take these pictures...

Wilder is determined to obliterate my 

letters/numbers and it is nearly impossible

to get him to lay like this anymore

This Friday I'm reminiscing fondly about last Friday when I could still put Wilder somewhere and he would be there when I came back; when I didn't have to worry about electrical cords, coins on the floor, or securing bookcases to the wall; when Wilder still only tried to be into everything and wasn't actually in. to. every. thing. Yes, friends, my child is now a scooting speed-demon who wants to eat the xBox cord and dig through all the stuff in his closet. I put him on the floor and he immediately scans the room to find something to scoot over to. The pack-n-play and its four walls used to be a luxury not very often used; now it is a necessity used daily to contain my roaming baby so I can walk away from him for two seconds. Here is a sample of Wilder's first mode of self-locomotion... He's still working on his form but it gets him where he needs wants to go:

This video was actually a few days ago. Since then he's gotten exponentially, scarily faster and has that wonky left leg under control. He is totally thrilled with his new-found ability and, in spite of all the new potential hazards I have to worry about and disasters I have to foresee, I'm pretty thrilled with it too. It makes me so proud to see him accomplish something that he's been trying for months to do and it's so much fun to watch him scoot from one thing to the next. 

Trying to see what's on the other side

of that door

 Peekaboo

 Hello, electronics, your cords look so scrumptious

 He had a bit of a mohawk that day so he 

thought he could go all rogue on us

We've pretty much just been hanging around the house this week recuperating from our trip and letting Wilder practice his scooting. He is SO BUSY and so fun to play with. He loves his cardboard boxes (seriously, if we didn't think we'd be shunned as awful parents we would never buy him another toy -- he would much rather have a box or a remote or any other household item), messing with the dogs (who are so sweet and patient with him, which is a good thing because the word "gentle" hasn't caught on with him yet), and wrestling with his giraffe...

He has also really been enjoying having Paul home more this summer and has been rewarding him with "dadada"s all over the place. Sometimes I know he's just babbling but sometimes he won't say it for hours and then Paul will come home from school and he'll immediately say "Dada." It's too early to call that his first word (or maybe I'm just in denial) but it's pretty close. Also, I repeat "Posey" and "ball" to him a lot and he'll make really quiet, hesitant "ppp" or "bbb" sounds back to me. I love trying to teach him things and seeing him catching on. Now that he's got "dada" down though I'm trying my very best to teach him "mama" and I think karma is coming back to bite me for this video...

because look what happens now...

He will make any sound but "mama." Of course, Paul thinks it's hilarious but my feelings are going to start getting hurt if he doesn't add my name to his vocabulary in the near future. 

In random news Wilder can flip his tongue over. This is probably not interesting to anyone except the Dabney side of my family because it's a talent that most of them have. I'm so excited to see something that he clearly got from me. I've been trying to get a picture of it but it's proven harder to capture than his teeth were. This is the best I can do and he obviously wasn't happy about it...

In food news, mealtimes are now my favorite times of day. Wilder will eat anything I put in front of him, which I'm very thankful for. I've also started giving him more finger foods so he can work on his pincer grasp. He's been eating soft-cooked peas, watermelon spears, mandarin oranges, banana slices, and puffs. He has about a 50% success rate of getting what is tightly clutched in his fist into his mouth and each time he does I clap for him and he looks so proud of himself. It is so cute to watch. The other day I got him some "Baby Mum-Mums" (possibly the dumbest name ever), which are flat little rice biscuits. He loves these because they are easy and big enough for him to hold and bite chunks off of. I'm also about to start giving him oatmeal and other chunkier foods. I have about 2,700 pictures of him eating but here are just a few of the cutest ones...

First taste of a rice biscuit

Trying to learn to not crush every

mandarin orange to a pulp in his fists

 A successful bite! Hooray!

 He likes to show us his food... At least

he hasn't started showing it to us after

it's chewed up yet. Hopefully that's a few

years down the road still.

OH! And I totally forgot to report that I did, in fact, win the highchair off eBay a few weeks ago. I mean, not that you couldn't tell from the above pictures, but I won it, and it took for.ev.er to get here, but we are loving it. It's super easy to wipe down. Stray food just falls to the floor for my living breathing food vacuums, aka the dogs, to clean up, instead of getting smashed into seat padding. And it takes up almost zero room in our smallish kitchen. Plus, it's super cute, vintage and modern-looking at the same time. So yes! Score one for the home team! :)

Yesterday Paul had to go to the art store to get supplies for a project and he came back with a little pallet of non-toxic, washable watercolors for Wilder. We had such a good time sitting out on our patio watching him make a huge mess and a masterpiece at the same time. I tried to show him how to put his fingers in the colors and then paint them onto the paper but he really was more interested in painting himself and trying to eat the paint. We did end up with a fun and colorful first piece of art to hang on our fridge though. 

And here are a few more cute pictures from this week...

 Post-nap hair

 If anyone is in need of a plumber,

my baby is offering his services

Alright y'all, have a lovely weekend!