Southerners in SoCal: Life of Wilder: Week Fifty (Fifty?? OMG)

This child is constantly moving, so this is

the best I could do for his weekly picture

this week. Finally, after 27 pictures, he

started giving me a little attitude and I knew

I was just going to have to live with

whatever I got.

Mom? Mom. MOM! Stop!

We're officially in the home stretch to a year now, people. Woe is me! My little itty bitty tiny wee one is almost a whole year old! I've been going through photos from the last year for a project for his birthday party and it's just so amazing to me how much he's changed. It really doesn't seem humanly possible to go from this...

To this in less than a year...

So what have we been up to in this, the third to the last week of Wilder's first year?

Well, last weekend it was rainy and unseasonably (for San Diego) cold for most of the time. Wilder and Posey enjoyed watching the rain together...

But we're not used to the lulling effect of the rain so it made us super lazy and sleepy...

Finally on Sunday it cleared up and we were able to go to the park. Wilder and I took Paul to the park where we're having the birthday party since he hadn't been there yet. I'm telling you, this boy loooves to slide! Shh, don't tell him, I got him a baby slide for his birthday ;)

Can we say "static electricity"?

Fantasizing about the thrill of the open road

On Monday before Paul left for school he took Wilder out to sit on his scooter. Wilder thought that was totally awesome...

He kept saying Voo Voo!

Of course every hour since then Wilder has pointed at the window and insisted I take him over to look at the "voo-voo" even when it isn't there. That hasn't gotten old at all ;)

In the afternoon we took the dogs to the park for the first time in, I'd say, too long, based on how jacked up Rider was when we got there. Gah, that dog is driving. me. crazy... but that's another whole story... that just may end with me giving into the temptation to leave her at the park the next time we go and hope some good Samaritan picks her up and gives her a good home. Aaanyway, since Wilder got too big for the baby carrier I had taken the wagon a few times to pull him in but it's so big and cumbersome and if there are other little kids at the park it makes it awkward because they stalk us and their parents keep having to chase them down and drag them away from it. I kept getting the impression that they did not appreciate me being the Pied Piper of the dog park with that fun wagon so I decided to try taking Wilder's walker instead. He thought he was big stuff and other dogs didn't bother him as much as I thought they would although he loved it when they did come over to sniff/lick him.

Airplane!

Tuesday we drove up to La Habra to visit Amber, Henry, and Baby #2 on the way. We had planned to go to the Children's Museum there but by the time we got to their house and got ready to go we discovered that they closed in 30 minutes so we just ended up having a playdate at their house. That was fine with Wilder -- he loved playing with all of Henry's toys. It seems like Wilder is finally just about old enough to play with and keep up with Henry. They were so cute together. Although neither of them ever stops moving so every picture I took of them is a little blurry :)

Thursday we went to the zoo with Holly, Jacob, and Reagan and Rachel and Lexi. We hadn't been to the zoo since before we went to Tennessee back in September so that was a fun little group playdate. It was especially fun because Wilder seemed more interested in all the animals we saw. He saw a peacock wandering around and started pointing at it and saying Duh-k! Duh-k! I'm pretty sure, out of all the bird species, a peacock looks the least like a duck but apparently anything with wings and feathers is a duck these days.

Today we had a playdate at the Balboa Park playground with a friend and her son who we hadn't seen since early in the summer. It was fun seeing how much the boys had changed since we last saw each other. Wilder had a big time exploring the playground now that he can actually play on it a little. Gah, he's such a big boy! Wilder and his buddy were both going in opposite directions the whole time we were there so this is the only picture where I managed to get them both together. It's a framer, don't you think? Ha!

Speaking of being a big boy, Wilder has started doing a few new things this week. It's so fun to teach him stuff because he catches on so quickly now. He's learned to give hugs and kisses and it is the sweetest thing. He hugs me all the time and his little kisses are so funny. I'll say, Wilder can you give Mama a kiss? and he'll lean over and just press his mouth to my cheek. He has also discovered that Posey likes his kisses too. I've caught him way too many times getting right in her face, opening his mouth, and letting her lick him... in the mouth. Ugh!

Hugging Clifford :)

He's not always so nice to the dogs though. The other day we were looking at books in his room when he started whacking Rider in the head with one really hard. I told him No (and we all know how well he listens to that) and he kept doing it so I took it away from him...

And he totally acted like I had just ruined his life. Drama king, much?

He's also learned to blow bubbles in the bathtub and I managed to get it on video the other night. Disclaimer to this video: He blew bubbles for like 5 minutes straight and I was so mesmerized by the cuteness of it that I just watched him for 4 minutes 55 seconds before remembering to record it. So this video is just under two minutes long and there's only 5 seconds of bubble blowing but all the rest of it is pretty cute too. Also, it shows a) how crazy he is during bathtime when he's supposed to be winding down for the night and b) another new thing he does -- when I ask Where's Mama? or Where's Dada? or Where are the doggies? he'll point to whatever it is. I've even gotten him to point to things in books a few times, like motorcycles or ducks.

Another new thing he's doing is playing with his food. He's over his short-lived picky eating phase (for now) so he's not playing with it to avoid eating it, I think he's just trying to make his meals a little more interesting.

One night he moved his lima beans to the

kitchen table next to him and then proceeded

to eat them off the table