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

Airplane!

You talkin' to me?

This week started out with every day booked with a social engagement, which I was a little stressed about. I love getting Wilder together with his friends but five days in a row is a little much. Luckily only two days of the five ended up panning out. When you have a kid and you're trying to get together with someone else with a kid I'd say there's only about a 50% chance that you will actually end up doing what you planned, when you planned. Something always comes up. And that's fine with me, especially this week. But I'm definitely understanding anyway of other people having to cancel because Wilder is notorious for taking extra long naps only on the days that we're supposed to be somewhere so I've had to do my fair share of canceling. Anyway, we've ended up having a good balance this week of socializing and downtime. I've been able to get some work done on the birthday party and some important errands taken care of so that takes a little stress off.

On Sunday Paul and I took Wilder back to the Pumpkin Station pumpkin patch. We had a fun little family day and got to pet some goats and go back down the Most Awesome Fun Time Ever Slide. Wilder is hilarious going down that thing. He laughs and squeals and thinks he's such a big boy because he can go down by himself. I really don't think I've ever seen him enjoy something so much. We might be having to ask for a giant inflatable slide for Christmas ;)

Monday was Halloween but we knew Paul would have a late class so we didn't make any plans for that night. I dressed Wilder up in the afternoon and took him to "trick or treat" (aka go visit everyone in costume) at my old work. Some of the other employees had their kids there and Wilder had a blast playing with them and taking notes on their walking technique.

Afterwards I took Wilder out to the courtyard at Liberty Station for a Halloween photo session.

He decided to spice up the costume

and be the Davy Crockett Monster instead

My sweet boy

Airplane!

He hit himself in the face with this leaf

and then died laughing. Then kept doing it.

He was totally cracking me up. Weirdo!

When we got home he had a Halloween card in the mail from Grana so we had to check that out. And then text her this picture to prove we were properly appreciating it. ;)

On Wednesday we had a playdate with Rachel and Lexi at Old Trolley Barn Park. Wilder and Lexi are so cute together and it's always fun getting together with them. It was pretty sunny so I put Wilder's Padres hat on him hoping he would wear it but thinking that more realistically he would rip it right off. By some miracle he actually left it on though and I totally flash-forwarded in my mind to him as a 15-year-old. He looked like such a big boy! Also, there were two different little boys at the park with toy trucks that Wilder totally stalked so I'm pretty sure that's what he wants for his birthday, FYI to family who have asked me what to get him.

He was saying voom voom while riding this haha

Watching kids walk up the slide. He

thought they were amazing, haha

Wilder has been practicing walking so much this week. We got him a walker months ago but he was mostly just interested in the toys on the front of it until recently. Now he's discovered that it can take him wherever he wants to go. Actually it's pretty wide/cumbersome and hard to turn around so it pretty much just takes him from one end of the room to the other. But he loves it! I've tried so hard to get a picture of him because he grins the whole times he's pushing it but he's too fast for me so all I've ended up with are a couple of blurry shots of a smiling baby...

The past couple of days Wilder's game of choice (i.e. we do this for hours on end) is to push the walker from one end of the living room to the other, then once he gets to a dead-end he turns and points at me, which means Come turn me around, Mama. So I turn him around, he walks to the other end of the room, points at me, and it starts all over. I would say he's slightly obsessed.

Rider feels a little put out by this new game because she likes to lay in the middle of the living room and now she can't or she'll get run over. So she's taken to sulking in corners...

Wilder doesn't appreciate Rider not being as enthralled with his new walking skills as he is though so yesterday he punished her by using them to push the coffee table over on top of her. I promise I did not set this picture up. He's such a little tyrant.

As you can probably tell, his next obsession after walking is terrorizing the dogs. I've been trying to teach him "gentle" and he's caught on to the concept a little recently because he does sometimes pet them nicely but he still prefers to poke, pull, climb, and generally treat them like they're his own personal playgrounds. Rider is so sweet and tolerant of him. She is totally ball-obsessed and if I tried to take a ball out of her mouth she would hold onto it as if her life depended on it, but if he reaches for it she just lets him have it. I'm so proud of her because I know that takes a lot of wisdom and self-control on her part. No matter how much she drives me crazy, I know she would protect us with her life and she would never harm Wilder and that's why I love her. Posey just tries to avoid Wilder in general; she's the most lazy, passive dog I've ever known (see Exhibit A). She would never hurt him either but she would just rather be left alone. I think he senses this too though so he goes out of his way to hunt her down and mess with her.

We've still been reading a lot this week. When I say "reading" I mean he sits in my lap and we flip through a book while I point out things on the page to him and say what they are. He will sit through about three pages max of an actual story but he will sit with me for an hour if I'm just saying what things are and what sounds they make. He can recognize a lot of images like owl, rooster, tractor, cow, ball, airplane, dog, kitty, etc. and his current favorite is duck. We tell him The duck says Quack so now whenever he sees his rubber duckie or any other duck he says Duh! Duh! Dack!

We've also been working with him this week on putting things where they go instead of always just pulling them out. I didn't think this was something he would get until later on but he's actually caught onto it. If we have a box of small toys he will pull them out one at a time and then I'll hand them to him and say Can you put it in there? and he'll put each one back. Of course his favorite thing is to pull them out but he will (begrudgingly) put them back. Now I try to get him to help me clean up his room at night and he will to a degree but it's more of a help/hinder situation. That's OK, at least he's helping a little ;)

Some other things I want to remember about Wilder right now...

... When we go to put him down for a nap, as soon as he turns the light off (yes, he's still flipping the light switch every time) and we turn on his sound machine he lays his head on our shoulder and starts sucking his thumb. That is such a sweet moment and I try to savor it every time before I lay him down.

... He follows simple commands like Come here and Get it but still not No although I know he knows what it means.

... He's obsessed with any kind of vehicle but especially motorcycles. He knows where all the motorcycles are in his books and flips to those first thing every morning and just sits there staring at them and saying voom voom. He loves Paul's scooter and must point to it in the driveway and say voom voom every time we pass by the window.

... He loves to throw a ball and then chase it and now he's discovered he likes to throw the ball for Rider to chase.