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

Nope. This weekly picture format is not

much better seeing as how this is the

best picture I could get and he kept

threatening to dive headfirst out of the

chair. I have one more idea up my sleeve

to try next week and if it doesn't work...

well, I just don't know. I'm taking

suggestions people! How do you get a

crazy, active 9-month-old to sit nicely

and smile for a picture?? Or am I the crazy

one for expecting that to happen?

-----

I had a good thing going... so, of course, I had to go and mess it up. Wilder has been on a great schedule for the last probably 4 or 5 months. He takes one nap in the morning and another around noon and then we have the whole afternoon free to run errands, go on play dates, etc. Well, that's all shot to pieces now and it has been fairly miserable around our house this week. (I use "miserable" in relative terms because, no matter what, Wilder makes me so happy and I always have fun with him; but yeah, other than the fun parts, it's been what I would call miserable.) It all started when I decided to over-book this week.

We've had a doctor's appointment and a visit from Amber and Henry planned for this week for a while now, which would have been fine until I decided last week, apparently in a moment of insanity, to also sign Wilder up for swim classes at the Y... during his morning nap time no less. I guess I was thinking he loves the water so much that he wouldn't care about being tired once we were there and he would just nap afterwards when we got home. The first assumption was correct because we all know the boy would rather be in the water than anywhere else. The second assumption couldn't have been more wrong. It also didn't help that he's finally learned to pull himself up in his crib but hasn't learned to sit back down yet. I'm not going to rehash everything we've been through but let's just say he has fought every nap, we've been in and out of his room laying him back down more times than I can count, and I feel like I'm flashing back to his newborn days when I was up every couple of hours with him at night. It's true that if they don't nap well during the day, they don't sleep well at night. Schedules are great and I wouldn't raise a baby without one but, Lord help you, if you get thrown off of it. With all that said, you'll please forgive me if this post is substandard. I'M EXHAUSTED!

I don't need no stinkin' nap!

Looking past all the sleeplessness and frustration, this week has been pretty great. I'm still not sure what took him so long, but Wilder is pulling up all over the place now. He is so proud of himself and he just looks like such a big boy doing it.

He will use anything he can to

pull up, including the dogs

(again, Rider = saint)

Our coffee table will now be devoid of all

decorative items for the foreseeable future

On Monday we went on a playdate with our friends Rachel and Lexi at a really nice park up the street that we actually hadn't been to yet. We had fun watching the babies play in the sand and on the playground. I love San Diego for many reasons and the multitude of parks is a big one. I'm trying to decide on a park to have Wilder's first birthday party at and this was a definite contender.

Wilder enjoyed another mouthful of sand

The playground was sooo cute!

Tuesday was our first swim class. It was right when he was supposed to go down for a nap so he was a little gruff at first but he warmed up to it quickly and seemed to really enjoy it. He was the youngest one there but he did so good kicking his legs and using his arms. He loved to watch the other little kids doing the same thing too. On the other side of the pool there was a senior water aerobics class going on. I think they probably schedule the two classes at the same time because the older people loved watching the babies swimming :) I don't have any pictures from the class but I'll try to get some next week.

On Wednesday we had Wilder's 9-month doctor's appointment. I can't believe it's already been 3 months since his last appointment! He was quite a handful this time because, of course, his appointment was scheduled at the time he should have been having his second nap that day. I just really couldn't win this week. He was so good and happy for the doctor but he was all over the place while we were waiting -- pulling at all the instrument cords that were hanging from the wall, crawling back and forth all over the exam table, and tearing up as much paper as he could. He loves paper and he was in heaven sitting on that exam table with basically a whole roll of it at his disposal.

Watching the cars go by outside the window

The nurse had to re-measure him three times because he kept squirming and throwing off her markers so I'm not sure we ended up with the right height but it really couldn't be helped. Like I said, he was being quite a handful. At least he didn't pee on the doctor this time though. I don't think I wrote about that after his 6-month appointment because I was so mortified, but yeah, that happened. Anyway, his official stats at 9 months are 21 pounds (60th percentile) and 28 1/4 inches long (50th percentile). We both love his doctor -- she is so sweet. He clapped for her and said dada and she was very impressed :) At the end she said "OK, we'll see you back here at one year" and I almost had a heart attack. He can't be this close to one year old!

Wilder randomly started clapping this week. Paul and I have both been trying to teach him for months and months but if there's one thing I've learned about babies it's that they won't do something until they want to. Anyway, I was feeding him dinner one night and he just started doing it so I started doing it too and saying "Yayyy! Clap clap clap!" trying to encourage him. It is SO cute!! The more he's done it this week I've started noticing a pattern: He claps when he's done or ready to be done with something, like "OK people, let's wrap it up!" He's such a character :) Here are a couple videos. The first is a really short clip of the first time he did it at dinner and the second is him doing it in the bathtub that night.

Wilder napped horribly on Wednesday so he was up every three hours that night. I was so tired Thursday morning that I made Paul take him to his swim class. Paul wasn't thrilled at first about the thought of going and singing silly songs with all the mommies but he came back talking about how fun it was and saying he would take him next week too. Wilder loves swimming with Paul so I know he had a good time too.

Thursday afternoon Amber and Henry drove down from La Habra to go to the zoo with us. We spent 5 hours walking around and seeing all the major exhibits. Amber's pregnant with Baby #2 (yay!) and I don't know how she made it that whole time but she was a trooper and we had such a good time spending the afternoon with them. Henry is so cute -- he kept calling everything "puppy." The meerkats were "puppy," the monkeys were "puppy," etc. I was so proud of how good Wilder was all afternoon. He never complained and just went with the flow even though that was a long time for him to be in the stroller. He really loves watching people and there were plenty of them there so I think he was content doing that.

Look at this HUGE lion sleeping, like right there!

Henry playing at the Polar Bear exhibit

Love these guys!

Wilder only got one nap during the day yesterday and was SO tired after the zoo so last night was awful. The worst since he was a newborn. He woke up at 10:30 and for two and a half hours we laid him down from standing, rocked him, fed him, changed him, gave him Tylenol, and tried everything we could think of to get him back to sleep. Finally we had done everything we could and we just had to lay in bed listening/watching him on the monitor as he rolled around in the crib crying, dozing off, crying, dozing off, crying, dozing off over and over. I was supposed to go on my birthday shopping trip this morning but was so tired that I decided to postpone it. After all that, Wilder was in an exceptionally happy mood all day so it kind of made up for the nightmare that was last night. It's so fun to play with him now that he's so busy.

We got him this walker/toy from

Target and he is obsessed with it!

It's the first toy that he's actually

excited about and will play with

over and over.

This smile makes up for all

the sleeplessness :)

Perusing his library

The toy again. Seriously, it's cheap (Circo

brand) and it makes all kinds of different

sounds and plays lots of different

songs -- highly recommended!

Sweet happy boy :)

We want to wish my dad, Wilder's Granddaddy, a very Happy Birthday this weekend! He's such a good, funny, strong man and we all adore him. We wish we could see him more often and be there to celebrate his birthday with him! We love you, Daddy!