Wilder Says Mama and Other Happy Fuzzies

Remember how Wilder would not call me Mama for like the longest time? Like 15 months? And remember how I said I would shout it from the rooftops when he did? Well, he did like three weeks ago and I didn't. Sorry. I just didn't want to shout it prematurely and then have him go back to not calling me anything and then I would be extra sad. In other words, I wanted to make sure it stuck once he did say it. 

Three weeks ago I went to that baby shower for my friend, Lien, and Paul kept Wilder for a few hours. Apparently he worked with him while I was gone on saying my name so the next day I woke up to him saying Mama on the monitor. Besides his first cry right after birth, it was the sweetest sound I've ever heard. I will never forget Paul rolling over and smiling at me because he knew how long I had been waiting for that. After that it took him a week or two to really start saying it to me consistently but now he's saying it all the time and will even point to a picture of me and say Mama. I love it and I don't think I could ever get enough of hearing his sweet little voice saying my name.

It was so hard to say goodbye to my mom on Friday but we had such a fabulous time with her. Wilder was a total character for her and basically fawned all over her. If I was feeding him in the kitchen and she walked out of the room, he would belt out Ehh! Ehh! until she came back and then he would just grin the hugest grin at her. 

On Tuesday we went to story time at the library with Rachel and Lexi and had a big time as usual.

Wednesday we drove up to La Habra to see my cousin, her new baby, Tempe, and big brother, Henry. Wilder and Henry entertained themselves by playing with trucks and stuffing decorative pine cones into speaker holes, you know, boy stuff, while the ladies passed around the sweet new baby. Tempe was so tiny and good-natured and beautiful! Surprisingly and thankfully though our visit did not give me baby fever. We're still good with just the one for right now. 

At lunch in Carlsbad on the way to La Habra.

Wilder thought tracing his hand was a clever trick ;)

 Sweet, squishy new baby goodness

 Cousins!

I think Wilder's good with being an only child

for now too. Look at how he's eyeing that "other"

baby his mama is holding, haha

 Boys doing boy stuff

On Thursday we took Grana to the zoo and had such a good time showing her all our favorite animals. Sometimes when you go late in the afternoon the animals are all tired and lazy but that afternoon they were really showing off. We saw flamingo fights, sea otter flips, hippos swimming laps, and monkey shenanigans. It was one of the better trips to the zoo we've had and I'm so glad my mom could experience it with us. 

My monkey with the monkeys

This monkey is in with the hippos and

he was thoroughly entertaining that day -- 

jumping on the hippos' backs, bouncing off the 

glass separator, swinging from his tail, and doing

flips. We stayed at the hippo exhibit at least

half an hour along with a huge crowd of people.

Like I said, my mom left Friday, which was hard, but the fact that Friday was also Paul's last day of school for the next two weeks made it a little easier. We have been enjoying having him home SO much already and have plans to do a lot of fun stuff during his last ever school break. Wilder has been absolutely loving having his Dada here to show off for and has been so silly.

The other day he was obsessed with

putting "hats" on Posey's head and

would follow her around putting bowls,

shirts, etc. on her. Very entertaining

(for us, not necessarily for her) :)

 He entertained himself for a while

stepping into and out of Dada's shoes.

 He saw this hat in the top of his closet

and insisted on putting it on. This child

is quite obsessed with hats and it 

totally cracks us up.

On Saturday we decided to play tourist and take Wilder and his bike over to Old Town for lunch and a stroll. We had a delicious lunch but didn't stay long after that because it turned ridiculously windy and pretty chilly. Wilder didn't want to get on his bike after lunch so we let him roam around a little and explore while we followed behind. He is so curious about everything he sees and we love watching him.

Not too worried about Mama and Dada

I'd like to end by saying how thankful I am for great friends. My BFF, Jinny, is a given here. We haven't lived in the same state in ten years but somehow we have remained as close as ever and I feel so lucky to have her in my life. I'm also thankful for newer friends. I've never been good at making pals because I've always been so shy about it, but somehow I've ended up with some really great ones. When my friend, Rachel, found out Paul was about to be on break she asked if she could keep Wilder one evening while Paul and I go to dinner and a movie (The Hunger Games, of course! Cannot wait!). I mean, how incredibly nice!! Paul and I also have a meeting we both have to go to this week and Rachel offered to keep Wilder then too, but I just couldn't bring myself to ask her two days in a row. So I called another friend, Holly, to ask for her babysitter's number and she said, Why don't I just keep Wilder for you? No need for you to pay a babysitter! I just can't get over the kindness of people. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :) Thank you, ladies, for allowing me to count you as friends! I hope I'm as good a friend to you as you are to me.

Alright, that's it for now. Hope you all have a fantastic week!