Fun in the sun....

...or so you might think. Today I finally got the little baby pool/sprinkler pad thingy set up so Wesley could enjoy some summer water fun. It kind of looks like a water filled pillow with holes along the side that allow a little sprinkle of water out. I thought it might be a good transition into a pool later down the road. Nope. Captain Sensitivity made an appearance. He sat there in the cold water for maybe 4 minutes before finally exploding. So maybe next summer when he's two a baby pool will be purchased but for now I think we'll stick to warm water bath time.

The crawling diaries part 1

We have had a crawling Wesley for two full days now. Oh what fun it is to see him getting around the house by himself. It is so fulfilling to watch him master each new step of life. He has found so many things to get into. For one, the floor vents are very captivating. He will crawl over to one and gracefully rip it from the floor and toss it a foot away and then smile like "what an accomplishment!". I don't know what I'm going to do about the vents. Since they are on hardwood floors I suppose I'm just going to caulk them in place and hope that holds. The second thing he has discovered is the kitchen cabinets. Nope, no childproofing completed in the kitchen yet. So he dumped the crockpot and bread machine onto the floor. I'll be heading to the store tomorrow for childproofing stuff.

Here is a picture of his room taken this evening after the tornado terror know as Wesley touched ground. I don't think a single thing went untouched in his room. Oh boy this is going to be fun!

Rural life

Some days I don't care for the rural life I live. The week before the 4th of July is one of those times. Every redneck and hillbilly around us believes in firing off fireworks until the wee hours of the morning. I've actually come to detest this holiday that is quickly approaching. I never really was much into fireworks, none in my family were. Growing up we would occasionally put chairs on the front deck and watch the neighbors extravagant fireworks show, never buying any ourselves. I'm a pretty good tight wad so for me to go out and spend hard earned money on something I'm going to burn up just doesn't make sense. Call me a fuddy duddy.

Another joy of rural life is internet, or lack there of. We lucky people that happen to live outside of the city don't have the internet options that city folk do. We have three options: dial up (been there done that never goin' back), satellite (faster than dial-up but not anything near DSL), and wireless broadband. We had satellite service last year and it was definitely faster than dial up but still incredibly frustrating. We ditched it for Verizon broadband. Wireless broadband is a little stick that plugs into your USB plug on your computer and runs through the cell phone network. It's stinkin $60 a month which we now get to pay for since Sean moved to a different position in the company starting Monday. Uggg. If you have DSL, you stink and I'm jealous.

And since this IS a blog about Wesley, here are some cute pictures of his highness taken yesterday while looking at the fishies. I seriously don't know how I created such a cute kid. How cute is he? Oh and just so you know, we no longer wear pants in this house (well I do most of the time, he doesn't). What's the point, I get so sick of putting shorts on then taking them right off again. Pointless. Plus the kid is a natural born nudist (see movies below) so going pantsless is just natural.




Ok, photo session is over...back to fishy watchin'

We are walking (with assistance)!

I don't normally post video after video but today was a particularly productive day in the movement category (see the crawling post below) so I thought "what the heck" and here is another one. He loves to walk around while holding on to hands. Yea for little dude!

We have a crawler!

Today he figured out he could crawl! Yippie! What a proud Mom I am right now.

The toad festival

I have learned not to mess with the kids nap. He goes down for a nap at precisely 2 pm and sleeps for 2-2.5 hours. If I have to run errands I either have to do them first thing in the morning and be home before noon or he'll pass out in the car and all hopes of a two hour break are dashed, OR after he wakes up from the nap. So today I picked the later. We had an unexciting trip to Wal-Mart. It always fascinates me that there is a store that I can have bananas, a muffin tin, car oil and a betta fish in the same cart. Strange.

I get home, it's already almost dark when I go out and feed the horses. In their pen is a light that comes on at night, kind of a horsey night light. Under the light I find the toad festival:



I sat there and watched them eat bugs for awhile and then Rocky came to visit and munched on my rubber boots for a few minutes. He's such and inquisitive little horse.



That was my boring evening.

Sitting around watching a light show

I would like to say that there is a lot of new and exciting things happening around here, but there's not. Summer is finally here. We've been experiencing mid 90 degree dry heat for a couple of weeks now. It's hot. The days where I don't leave the house are approaching. The days when it is already in the 90's when I wake up are quickly approaching. Gotta love those days.

Wesley's strive to move is getting greater by the day. Yesterday I went in to get him after his nap and he was sitting in his crib playing. Sitting on his butt. He's finally figured out he can go from lying on his back to rolling on his tummy to getting on his knees and then pushing back onto his butt. Yea little man, good for you! He's been doing it ever since. I lay him down to change his diaper and I turn around to get a diaper and look back and he's sitting on his butt there looking at me. Super fast. I'm so happy he's finally moving. I say that now, I'm sure I will miss the non moving baby soon but for now I'm psyched.

In his room is a hanging light that when turned on shines stars and moon shapes on the wall. My parents got it for him at Ikea and it's been up in his room since he was born. Well he just over the past several months discovered it. Now I ask him "Wesley, where is your light show?" (we call it his light show) and he looks and points at it. When it's nap time I lay him down and he immediately points at it until I turn it on, and it stays on through his naps. It's amazing what things he loves and what things mean nothing to him.

Those feet were made for walkin'

I'm happy to announce my child has discovered he has feet and now knows what they are used for. While holding on to our fingers he will walk all over the place. This evening he walked from the living room all the way to his bedroom. He even has started using his push toy. I'm excited. The kid won't be riding the short bus after all. I have to admit I've been a little worried about his lack of development in the motor skills department but over the past two weeks he's just flourished with the desire to get up and move. He's even a champ at getting off the couch, which is a little worrisome. If he's on his belly on the couch he'll swing his legs around and lower his body down until his feet touch the ground. Pretty impressive for him. I'm going to give him two weeks and I expect him to be cruising the furniture. That's a scary thought.

My glorious find

I have mentioned in the past how much I enjoy garage sales. I really didn't care for them much before I had Wesley but now I'm constantly on the watch for cool toys, books and even little boy clothes (since they are always outgrowing something). Well I went out Saturday in the hopes of finding some shelving for Wesley's room. Something we could put all of his books, toys and stuffed animals on. I've been looking for a few months now and finally decided I was going to have to resort to crappy Wal-Mart shelves just because I needed something soon. The first garage sale I went to I found the shelves. Big, almost 6 foot tall, solid wood, handmade shelves. Very little kid room like. I was so excited. They were rough, definitely needed some sanding and paint but I could see the potential. Here they are right after pulling them out of the back of the truck.



Then during little Man's nap I sanded down some of the old paint then dug around the garage for some old paint, which we luckily had a lot of. It took three coats to cover the old white. The shelves are now in Wesley's room full of stuff and he is even trying his hardest to pull up on them. Not bad for $30 garage sale shelves (that I talked her down from $50), eh?

Food, Fun and Farm Boy

For several days now we've been letting Wesley feed himself with a spoon. I say "feed" in the loosest form of the word. He gladly holds the spoon and bangs his tray with it. I then have to hold his little hand (that is holding the spoon) and scoop up food and deliver it to his mouth. He then pulls the spoon out and gives me a giant grin like "see what I just did." It's quite endearing....and messy. I think he's getting the hang of it.

In the terms of what he's eating these days, it's pretty much everything. He has a strange fascination with cottage cheese. Likes to play with it in his mouth, must be the texture. I went all Suzie Homemaker like last weekend and made him some zucchini muffins. I took a normal recipe and added shredded carrot, zucchini (obviously) and cranberries. For the oil I used one part applesauce, one part olive oil and one part regular oil. I substituted the eggs with water, vinegar and baking powder and only used a third of the sugar. And last of all I used whole wheat flour and wheat germ to replace the white flour. Surprisingly enough they were quite tasty and not like bricks which I expected. Wesley likes them too. One other trick I found online is when you feed chunks of banana to your little one just roll it in wheat germ first and it gives a protein and fiber kick to regular naners. It's amazing what you can find online.

This is completely off subject (like most of my posts) but Sean is outside right now in the back yard playing in the dirt on his man toy. He got the Green Machine working and is now trying to fill in the in ground pool. I shall call him Farm Boy. Hmmmm my husband is Farm Boy and my son is Wesley....any guesses what movie I fancy?

Little fingers

Every day after breakfast Wesley goes in his stroller and gets parked in front of the horse pen while I feed everything. He's such a good kid. He just sits there for about 10 minutes and giggles at the horses. The horses find him very interesting. Let me rephrase that, Rocky finds him interesting. Rocky, the yearling miniature horse from hell, who playfully tries to take a hunk out of my juicy flesh whenever I'm around him. I'm very afraid of what he might do to little tiny fingers that venture into his pen. I think the horse is going to need some serious training of sorts. I don't know what to do with him. He's insanely playful which I really enjoy. He just doesn't realize that I'm higher up on the superiority ladder. I'm not sure I know I'm higher up than him. Crappy little horse. Anyways, here is Wesley parked watching the "horsies".

Outside endeavors

I can not believe it is nearing the end of June. Where in the world has this year gone? I just got in from planting the last of my flowers during Wesley's nap. Something that I usually have done by the end of May. I never got my garden in this year either. Although that is due to several reasons, one of which is our well went on the fritz last fall and haven't gotten around to getting up and running again. Watering a large garden with rural water might get a little expensive. I did manage to get two watermelon plants, a pumpkin plant and two tomato plants planted around the koi pond. I'm looking forward to fresh watermelon this year, I hope they produce. I also did something I've been wanting to do for a couple of years now, I planted herbs. I got an oregano, basil, lemon balm and rosemary plant and planted them around the pond as well. I made rosemary pork chops last night and used fresh rosemary, that was fun (and delicious). Maybe next year I can get a big garden in, I'd love to do some canning and be able to use the produce from the garden all year long.

Since I'm on the subject of the koi pond I thought I'm mention that my six goldfish that were added to the pond the beginning of May have been getting busy with it and now there are about four dozen tiny baby goldfish zipping around. Interesting fact, baby goldfish when born are a brown color and when they get about a month old they start to get their colors. So the ones that are about an inch long are just now turning orange and white or deep red orange. It's fun to watch. I hope Wesley gets as much enjoyment out of that pond as I do.

New favorite

We have a new favorite YouTube video. Andrea Bocelli is famous for many songs but one of them is "Time to Say Goodbye." It's a beautiful song that I'm sure you've heard, well he made a version with Elmo called "Time to Say Goodnight." Wesley and I love it and I sing it to him before he goes to bed. I'm not even an Elmo fan and I like it. Enjoy!

Gotta love this little face

Meaning

I love this kid so much. I seriously didn't know I could love another human being like I love this little boy. He is just the light of my life and has brought so much meaning to my life. I only wish we would have had kids sooner so we could had enjoyed this years ago. When Sean and I got married we knew we wanted children "one day". That phrase got dragged out and delayed for a myriad of reasons, most of which having to do with financial stability. Then there came a point where we were somewhat financially stable but too scared to take the plunge into the unknown. I'm just happy we did take that plunge. I'm excited to take that plunge again sometime in the future and give Wesley a little bro or sis but not right away, we are having way too much fun with the little guy at this age. Here is proof.



Then he looks over and discovers I have an ear.....and tries to RIP it from my skull with his kung fu grip

More from the swing

The kid loves. to. swing. If we are anywhere in the yard he can locate his swing and will point to it until he is put in it. More pictures from the swing.

Just another day in paradise

I love being home with this kid, even though this is all we do all day.

Wild weekend

We've had a fun weekend. The pool demo project has been stalled for a few weeks now due to the weather being crappy and other projects getting higher priority. So we've decided to get working on it again (and when I say "we" I mean Sean). With family coming in for Wesley's birthday we'd like our place to not look like a tornado went through it. Here is what the pool is looking like these days:




The next step is to get dirt delivered and start filling in the giant hole. Now we planned on renting a skid loader, and at $200 a day we were not looking forward to it. Not knowing how many days it would take to move dirt was also an issue. So yesterday Sean was cruising Craigslist and came across an old 1951 Massy Harris Tractor with a front end loader on it at a very reasonable price. We immediately drove out to see it and bought it. They delivered it this morning and Sean is very excited to have a new project. We figure if all we do with it is move dirt into the pool and then sell it we'd still probably walk away with money. A win win situation. Although I think when the pool project is finished there will always be some other use for it around either scooping horse manure or spreading gravel. Here is Sean with the green machine.



On a side note, I went into the bank yesterday to get some cash out for the tractor and the bank teller asked for some ID. I gave her my drivers license. She looked at it and gave it back and said she'll need to see some "current" ID. Looks like my drivers license has been expired since my birthday which was the beginning of May. Oops. So now Sean gets to be my chauffeur until Tuesday when the tag office is open. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to actually take a drivers test since it's been over a month expired. Crap. Oh well.

Wesley's rash is looking slightly better. He's a much happier kid so it must not be bothering him too badly. He really likes the 2 or 3 baths he's getting a day. The kid was a fish in his former life. And on the subject of fish, here is a picture of his new favorite past time. He stands in the corner of the couch and watches the fishies. The 30 gallon tank from downstairs was brought upstairs and now is a community tank in the living room. Boy does he love it.

Adventures in pee pee land

We have been battling this supposed diaper rash for two days now. It has come down to every diaper change being a big fat battle between Wesley and I. He screams and lays there on his back with his little chubby legs pushed apart. Poor kid is in some serious pain. So I called the pediatricians office and talked to the friendly nurse there. I described the rash (deep red, splotchy patches) and she thinks it is a yeast infection. Yeast infections can't be cured with diaper cream and powder. She recommended letting him soak in the tub 2-3 times a day with two tablespoons of baking soda dissolved in the water. Also he should have Lotramin AF smeared all over his privates 4 times a day and I should let him be a little nudist (go without diaper) as much as possible. SO after the nice little bath this morning I dried him off and laid him down on his quilt on the floor in his room naked. I then went downstairs in search of Sean's tube of Lotramin. When I returned upstairs I find Wesley, butt naked, drenched in urine giggling and rolling around like mad. The quilt is drenched. The kid had urine pooled in the corner of his eyes. This will be fun. The nurse said if it hasn't cleared up or at least started to clear up by Monday I'll have to take him in and get something stronger. So here's hoping. This weekend is going to be fun with our little nudist and the pee fest we're going to have. And I thought the dogs were bad.

Eleven Months Old!

Our little man is eleven months old today! Every month that goes by is more enjoyable than the last. He is growing and developing quite a personality. Last night Sean, Wesley and I were sitting on the floor in the living room and I started asking Wesley were things were. First I said "where are the fishies?", he looked at me and then to the big aquarium and pointed. Then I said "where is Daddy?" and he pointed at Sean. Next was bottle, he knew where his bottle was. The I asked him "where is doggie?" and he pointed to Chance eating his dinner. Last of all I asked him "where is crappy dog (Sophie)?" and he looked around and pointed to the laundry room with its closed door where Sophie eats dinner. It cracked us up. It also reminded me to watch what I say because he's really starting to listen and understand. Scary thought. I might add that Sophia is known as crappy dog because she routinely jumps up on the stove and counter tops and steals our dinner. Crappy dog.

There has been a little concern over the fact that Wesley isn't crawling yet. I asked his pediatrician at his 10 month appointment and the doc wasn't worried at all. He said as long as there is movement, which there is. I can plunk Wesley down on the wood floors in the kitchen and he will scoot his butt around backwards until he gets to the cabinets and then will open them up and try to remove everything in the cabinet. He'll also get on his hands and knees and will move backwards a little but not forward. He tries his hardest to pull up on chairs and other things but he's just no there yet. I do hope he catches up in the movement department soon.

Good baby products

Yesterday evening poor Wesley started getting diarrhea and it just wouldn't stop. Luckily it wasn't explosive diarrhea, it just filled up his diaper every 30 minutes or so. After about the fifth diaper change in 2 hours he got a pretty bad diaper rash, his first ever. Poor little guy would just scream when I had to wipe his little tush. I stopped using baby wipes since they are notorious for having alcohol in them (even when they state they don't contain alcohol). So this morning my friend Jessica suggested using baby powder so I dug out a sample of Burt's Bee's Baby Dusting Powder I received from his aunt Becca (thanks Becca!). It has helped out his little bum so much in just the 3 or 4 hours I've been using it. The redness is almost gone and no more tears when changing the diaper. It has prompted me to talk about the other baby product that I use and love.

When Wesley was just a tiny little guy he started having some skin problems. I was using the standard shampoo and body wash by Johnson's and he wasn't reacting to it well. After his baths his eczema and infant acne would be more red irritated than before his bath. I did research online and found out that Johnson's Baby wash was notorious for being not gentle and containing as many harsh chemicals as adult shampoo. Some "no tears" formulas actually can contain numbing agents. So after a lot of research I ran across the California Baby line of Super Sensitive baby products. Oh how we love their products, Wesley's skin cleared up and has been that way ever since. They contain no fragrance, scent masking agents, clear formula chemicals, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, or DEA. Their products can be a bit pricey but they last forever. I buy their Super Sensitive shampoo and body wash for $9.95 for a 8 oz. bottle and I just used up the first bottle yesterday and he'll be eleven months old tomorrow. So yea it lasts quite some time. I am trying out their no chemical sunblock on Wesley as well as Sean and I and so far it works great. I buy this stuff off of Amazon but I know Target has started carrying it as well as some specialty stores such as our organic supermarket.

Fun with a wash cloth

Do you ever think you could have this much fun with a wet wash cloth? Oh to be eleven months old again and think everything is a toy....

Dillweed and Mr. Ed

We have two new additions to our household this evening. Dillweed and Mr. Ed. They are Wesley's first pets, and certainly not his last. He helped me pick out two tetra's this afternoon at the pet store to go in his five gallon aquarium in his room. Dillweed and Mr. Ed are adjusting to their new home quite well, I hope they are still alive in the morning. I don't have a good track record with fish living long lives in that little aquarium. The big 30 gallon in the basement I can keep anything alive in, but the little one is another story. It's funny because they market the little tanks to first time fish owners, when in fact the larger tanks are much easier to keep balanced and therefore keep fish alive in. In our last house I had the 30 gallon tank up and running and purchased a tiny little baby oscar to go in. He was adorable (well as adorable as a fish can be). He wasn't much bigger that 2 inches when we got him. After two years he had grown to around 10 inches and was a huge fish that lept out of the water when you opened the top to feed him. He got to the point he was eating live food, meal worms and ghost shrimp. He was scary. I started having nightmares about him biting my fingers off and that's when he went back to the pet shop. Last I saw him he was happily swimming around with other huge fish in a 200 gallon tank.

While I'm on the subject of pets, I have to admit that the house is entirely too quiet with Cisco gone. I've decided we are a three dog family that is missing a member. I keep telling Sean we need to go get a puppy that Wesley can grow up with and he is being all responsible like and telling me we don't need another dog. I know we don't need any more pets but it's so weird around here without all the chaos. We kind of made a deal that I can have another puppy when he has a nice shiny corvette out in the driveway. Yea and that's not going to happen anytime soon. I just can't justify selling his nice reliable high mpg family man car for an overpriced two seater sports car. Can we say mid life crisis? Oh wait, he's wanted one his entire life. I figure he'll get one soon so that I can get my boston terrier puppy I've wanted for awhile now. It's a pretty good trade off in my book.

Jammie time

This evening Wesley was being Mr. Personality in his new jammies so I took some pictures.



Shake that bootie


Checking out his fine self in the mirror


Such a smiley little man


It's bed time

Just stuff....

Mister Wesley is creeping up on the one year mark (only one month and 6 days left) and a few people have asked me what they can get him for the big occasion. So I asked Wesley and he gave me a list of toys and books he would just LOVE! I thought I'd put the list on his blog here in case anyone was interested (look to the right). If you plan on buying something from the list and want to let me know I can mark it purchased so he doesn't get multiples, if not...no big deal. I've just started thinking about planning his birthday par-te so things are still pretty unknown except it will be on his birthday (July 12th) since it falls on a Saturday. We are excited that Granny and Grandpa will be coming up from New Mexico to help celebrate, that will be so much fun.

Today while he was napping I went and dug out an old 5 gallon aquarium from the piles of junk in the basement. I cleaned it up and set it up in his room this evening. It really looks nice and the kid can't stop staring and smiling at it. He's quite excited at the prospect of having fishies in his room. I researched what kind of fish would live ok in that tiny of an aquarium and I have a list that I'm going to take to the pet shop. The rule of thumb is one inch of fish per gallon of water. So technically I could get him 5 one inch fish, but you have to remember they are usually baby fish at the pet store and most grow to around 3 inches. So we are getting two fish for his room next week sometime. Those poor unsuspecting fish don't know how terrorized they are going to be.

Today Jessica came over with her two little ones. Alex and Wesley have learned to play together and it's quite endearing. I'm guessing they will be pretty good friends since they are only 9 months apart. It's funny watching them, Alex runs around while Wesley just sits on the floor watching him. Wesley is showing signs of movement. He is somewhat trying to pull himself up. Just can't figure out how to move his legs into position so he gets halfway up and plops back down. He will also push himself around the hardwood floors on his butt backwards. He's getting there. If he follows in his parents foot steps he won't be walking until 15 months. Sean and I were both late walkers.

Happy happy fun time with Dad

The kid has a wonderful sense of humor. It helps when Dad is a complete nut.

My two heros

Wesley and I are officially back home after four days without air conditioning. Sean and Josh got it working at 8 pm last night and the house cooled from 89 degrees to 83 degrees in an hour. At precisely 9:45 pm a huge storm went through and knocked out our power for 8 hours. Yes the glorious new air conditioner stopped with the power outage and we once again got to sit in our hot miserable house. I swear I just can't win this week. Oh well, all is well that ends well. I am sitting here typing in a cool house with a cool sleeping baby in the other room. Life is good. Sean and Josh are my heros.

Wesley and I had a nice time visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house over the past several days. He took a ride in his buggy around their neighborhood. He got to say Hi to the box turtle that lives in their front garden and eats all the bugs in sight. We watched Jeopardy every day, Wesley likes Jeopardy. He got to take long glorious naps on Grandma and Grandpa's bed. We got to pick cherries off their cherry trees and make a cherry crisp....Mmmmmm cherry crisp. Wesley got to play and laugh at Grandpa's mustache, oh how he enjoys that mustache. Grandpa even tried to show Wesley how to crawl, but to avail. Yep we had a nice time. Although I am happy to be home and get back into our normal schedule, it was a nice break from reality. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for letting us camp out.

The saga continues...

We are on day four with no air conditioning. Tonight is the night. It will be hooked up and running tonight (see if I keep saying it it will come true). With a high of 92 degrees yesterday Wesley and I escaped to my parents nice cool house. They were nice enough to let us sleep there last night too. No more soggy sweaty sleeping baby. I am back home right now to feed animals and pack food and then I'm heading back to my folks house. It's 94 degrees today. Uggg. Keep your fingers crossed that tonight we will be sleeping in a nice air conditioned house. I have my fingers and toes crossed.

Camo man

Here he is looking all bubba like in his camo overalls, thanks Granny!

Hot house

It has been one hot weekend. It's not that bad outside, maybe 85 degrees but inside it's about 87 degrees. This weekend is the weekend we get our new heat pump installed. In an attempt to save several thousand dollars we decided to order the unit off the internet and install it ourselves. And when I say "ourselves" I mean Sean of course. I feel a little bad because we had four different heating and air companies come out to the middle of now where (where we live) and give us an estimate on what unit we would need and the cost. We then saw that all four of them said to get the same thing...a variable speed fan and 5 ton heat pump. The cheapest estimate came in at 9 grand. Ouch. So Sean got online and found a company that shipped us the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost. So yesterday and today Sean and buddy Josh (thank you so much Josh, you are great!) have been working their tails off getting it up and working. This all came about because our summer electric bills are horrid. To the point that if I have to pay them again we will be moving. Last summer we were paying $450 per month in both August and September. It was crazy. So we researched our options and heat pumps are the way to go. We are so excited to see the difference in our bills this summer. I really hope they are lower. Combined with the soaring costs of propane in the winter ($2.99 a gallon last winter, Yikes!) this new unit hopefully will pay for itself in not much time. So here's hoping Wesley is sleeping in a nice air conditioned house tomorrow night. Poor kid is naked except for a diaper with two fans directed at his crib right now.