Life of Wilder: Week Forty-Two

I love my little cheeseball :)

I just looked at those numbers above his head and are there really just 10 weeks until my tiny, newborn, infant son is one year old?? Excuse me while I go sob for a minute...

We had to get my tiny, newborn, infant son big boy a new big boy carseat this week. Our old one only went up to 22 pounds and when I bought it as a naive first time pregnant lady I thought it would surely last us until his first birthday. Go ahead and laugh. I obviously didn't anticipate having such a little chunkster good eater ;) So over the last couple of weeks, I read a lot of reviews and did a lot of research and, although the Britax brand got a lot of thumbs up, many people also complained about how huge they are and on our student budget I just couldn't stand to spend that much right now anyway. So we went with the Graco My Ride, which also got a lot of good reviews, didn't break the bank, and has cupholders. When you first think about it, cupholders may not seem like a big deal but think a little more, fellow mommies, and tell me you don't come up with at least three benefits to having cupholders on a carseat. Imagine the possibilities, people! So handy! Also, I love the look of the Graco and Wilder seems to be quite comfy in it so I'm pleased with my decision so far.

The only thing better than a new carseat...

is the box it came in, of course! :)

Mostly this week has been spent preparing for our trip to Tennessee, but we did go on a family outing to the dog park...

 How cute is Wilder's Padres hat? :)

We also went on a wagon ride...

And tried on our new blue jeans...

And packed...

And got some good rest before our long trip to TN...

I was soooo nervous all week about this trip. I had been planning on flying with Paul to help me wrangle our crazy, busy 9 1/2 month old but then decided at the last minute to come early to help with my dad. Cue panic attack. All the worst case scenarios ran through my mind constantly for days leading up to the trip. I knew it would be worth it to spend the extra time with my parents though so I just decided I had to suck it up and do it, no matter how many fellow travelers got off our plane wanting to murder me afterwards. 

We always fly Southwest and love it, except for the fact that it only flies into Nashville (which is two hours from Jackson) and not Memphis (which is one hour from Jackson). So after a long day of flying we then have to drive two hours home once we land in Tennessee, not to mention whoever picks us up has to drive four hours total to do so. For this trip we decided to try American Airlines since they conveniently fly into Memphis. That was about the only convenient thing about it though. I won't go into all the inconveniences but let's just say I think we'll be sticking with Southwest from now on. 

Our flight took off right when Wilder should have been going down for his second nap so he was pretty restless right at first. We were also crammed between the window and a rather large woman next to us so the claustrophobia didn't do much for my determination to not panic. Thankfully though I was prepared -- I had brought an entire bag of toys and had downloaded some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes to my phone in case of emergency so I was able to entertain/distract him until he fell asleep about 45 minutes into the flight. He slept the whole rest of the way to Dallas so that gave me a nice break. 

Then the best thing ever... our second flight wasn't full so we had a whole row to ourselves! Are you kidding me? We both thought we had hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, I have now seen the light and we may have to buy Wilder his own seat from now on. It was awesome to have all that space and to not have to contain him in my lap whilst trying to keep him from climbing over the back of the seat, pulling/poking at the person next to us, or kicking the seat in front of us. Wilder loved it too and had a blast exploring every inch of that corner of the airplane.

Then came my favorite part of any trip to Tennessee. After a long day of traveling, seeing this made it all worthwhile...

We've spent the last couple of days just being with family and playing around my parents' house. The last time we were here Wilder wasn't crawling yet so now he's loving having a whole new house to explore with his newfound skill. My grandmother brought over a basket of old toys for him to play with and he's been having the best time with those. I wish they still made toys like that.

I also dug out Paul's old mini organ that we were storing here and let him bang on it yesterday morning until I just couldn't stand it anymore. It's slightly waaaay more annoying than the mini piano he played with a couple of weeks ago at his friend's house because the notes will play for as long as you hold down the keys. So instead of a nice little "bing, bing, bong" it's more like "whhaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwww." It didn't seem to bother him but I kept having to pull his hands off the keys and finally had to just put it away. It was fun while it lasted but it was too early in the morning for all that :)

Today he swung on the front porch with Grana, something they love doing together, while waiting for Uncle William to get into town...

Then my brother got here. Wilder loves his Uncle William and it's so special for me to see them together...

As far as new developments go, Wilder has started doing this little shrug/hand raise thing when he's looking for something or seeing something new and curious. It is so freaking cute!

He's also started pushing up on all fours a lot more and if I back away from him slowly he'll crawl towards me on his knees for four or five steps. Still if he wants to get somewhere fast, the army crawl is his preferred method of transportation but practice makes perfect and I think he's really close to crawling the traditional way. That would be a relief because most of his shirts these days have permanently dirty bellies.

He's also starting to figure out the sippy cup. It's so funny because I've noticed before with other things that he'll always end up figuring out what he's trying to do but he usually goes about it in a different way than what I would have expected or than what I've seen other babies do. The sippy cup is no different. He can hold it and put his mouth in the right spot but he couldn't get the tipping-it-up part down, so he just decided to lay back with it and it works just as well, haha...

Well, I guess that's all for this week. We're so happy to be in Tennessee for a couple of weeks and get to spend time with our families. I'm hoping that our presence will brighten my dad's spirits too. Paul gets here on Tuesday and we can't wait to see our "Dada"! Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Aren't all you Tennessee folks loving this Fall-like weather? I know I am! I miss Fall in California!