Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

Wyatt has been a huge fan of the mirror since he was just weeks old and his love for his own reflection- and that of everything else- has only grown. We have a four-foot mirror propped against a wall in our bonus room, a caualty of the bathroom renovation, that captivates Wyatt daily. Only recently has he begun to realize the whole concept of the mirror and now spends endless time looking at us first in the mirror, then in real life. He looks back and forth, back and forth, back and forth at us and just laughs. It's too cute for words.

After two days of pea drama, we decided to throw caution to the wind (and the baby books out the window) and give Wyatt a taste of some food that actually tastes good. We introduced him to bananas and he thought they were great. He was back to his old self (arms flailing, gapping mouth) at dinnertime and I feel like a much better mother without a crying, gagging little boy.

With a change in his diet, however, has come a change in his diapers and since I've failed miserably at potty training him I've had to learn to change diapers in record time to escape the stentch as quickly as possible. Here is a photo taken after I had to change his cloths AND wash off his back. Gross.

The Prince & The Pea

After a successful week of rice cereal we decided to give Wyatt his first vegetable. All of the books suggested introducing green vegetables first so babies don't get used to the sweetness of fruits and boycot everything else. Makes sense, right?

In preparation for the big day we bought every kind of Gerber organic food Safeway carried, which only included two green veggies- green beans and peas. We decided on the peas and Wyatt was so excited to get in his highchair and see that spoon approaching...

That was about where the excitement ended.

The poor kid hated the peas. He tried to like them too and put on a brave face for the first few morsels as if he was saying "I trust you mom. If you think I should eat this I'll give it a go." Then he started to use his tongue to block the spoon like we'd think he was eating, and then he cried like mad at the mere sight of the spoon saying "Get that nasty stuff away from me. Bring on the milk!"

I don't think we did any permanent damage though as two minutes after getting cleaned up he was his happy self, entertaining himself with a can of bread crumbs and trying to eat his foot.

By the look of things, the foot tasted a lot better than the peas. Even through the sock.

Attack Dogs & Fire Hoses

It felt like spring yesterday with temperatures hitting the 50s for the first time all year. Wyatt and I took advantage of the sunshine and went for a stroll through the neighborhood- our first in months due to the wet weather. I had him strapped to my chest in a carrier, which allowed him to face outward and see the world.

One concern I've always had about walks in our neighborhood is the numerous loose dogs that roam, sometimes in packs. And when I say dogs these are some of the biggest dogs you've ever seen, including a spotted Great Dane that occasionally traipses through out backyard.

Well yesterday my fears came true when a dog viciously charged Wyatt and I about 10 times. Luckily for us it wasn't one of those behemoth sized dogs but rather a pup that was just a wee bigger than a Chihuahua. He may have been small but I still wasn't about to let that mutt bite me or the baby. His owner came outside to the edge of her driveway to call him but the dog wasn't listening. I finally told her that she better physically come get that dog away from me or I was going to punt him into next week. Quite neighborly of me don't you think?

Last night Wyatt officially slept through the night. I put him down around 9 pm and he slept until 7:30 am. You'd think this would mean that I got the best night's sleep I've had since before he was born but you'd be wrong. I kept waking up all night worrying about why he hadn't woken up yet. I must have checked on him a half dozen times during the night and got less sleep than normal.

A couple of days ago the funniest thing happened while I was feeding Wyatt. Stop reading here if breastfeeding stories make you squeamish. He prefers to eat from the right side so I make him go to the left side first so I keep producing milk on both sides. After a few minutes of feeding on the left side he will begin to fuss and we'll switch sides.

Well the other day I was watching TV while he ate and like normal he began to fuss a bit. I ignored this as part of our normal routine until his fussing noises began to sound more urgent. So I glance down and I am spraying milk like a whipping fire hose back and forth across his face and all over the couch. I don't know which of us was more shocked by this and my yells of "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" made poor Ross (who was just stepping into the shower) run down the hallway to see what was wrong. There is never a dull moment in the Tucci household...

Food, Glorious Food

Wyatt celebrated his sixth month birthday on the 10th. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. It seems like yesterday we were anxiously awaiting his arrival and now, BOOM, he's growing into a little man. With the sixth month milestone met, we were finally given the okay from Dr. M to introduce solid foods into his diet. Yea!!! I'm feeling a little less like a dairy cow already.

We started with rice cereal tonight and it was a success. We made sure it was really watered down with breast milk so it wouldn't seem so foreign and he thought it was great. Honestly, I think he was more excited about the spoon than the food on the spoon but he ate it nonetheless.

Ross captured the moment on video and when we paused the eating frenzy so Ross could do some of the feeding Wyatt threw a little fit. MORE FOOD! MORE FOOD! Or MORE SPOON is probably more accurate.

Wyatt was flapping his arms between bites, he was so excited, and half of the time he couldn't wait for the next bite and he'd grab the spoon and shove it into his mouth. And with that killer grip he has I had to wrestle the spoon away from him nearly every time.

Wyatt had his sixth month check-up on Monday and passed with flying colors. He is 15.17 pounds (20th percentile) and 25 inches long (10th percentile), with a 17.5 inch head circumference (50th percentile). The poor guy had to get three shots but he took it pretty well. It is so hard to see him in pain and the look he gives me like "What in the heck did you do that for?" just breaks my heart.

He is becoming more mobile by the second and this includes during his sleep. Whereas he used to scoot himself up to the very top of the crib and pin his face in the corner every night, he has started to scoot himself backwards toward the middle of the crib and completely submerge himself under the blankets. This morning I heard him stirring and when I walked into the nursery it looked as though the crib was empty... and then up popped his head and he flashed that million dollar smile. It was so adorable I had to get a snapshot of it. We are so blessed!!!

Superbaby

Wyatt has started to recognize that everything has a different texture and loves to explore with his hands. He also loves to scratch his fingernails across everything to hear the different sounds each thing makes. I know, I gave birth to a genius.

While I nurse him he likes to run his fingers through my hair over and over which is so sweet! He has also started to run his fingers down my sides while nursing which tickles SO BADLY I can barley sit still enough to feed him.

In a recent post I talked about Wyatt rolling over onto his back during the night and getting "stuck" so I used his stuffed animal Labrador to cut down on his wiggle room. Twice in the last few days I have caught him via night vision baby cam petting his new found friend during the night and it is so cute. We will have to get this boy a real dog someday.

He's made some big improvements in rolling over in the last few days and has probably done it a dozen times since my last post. Would you believe that I've missed it every time though? If it hadn't been for Ross being at work one of those days I'd swear the boys were playing a trick on me and Ross was actually the one turning Wyatt over.

Wyatt has also started to wear his bibs backwards more as a cape so we have given him the nickname of "Superbaby". Of course when we say this we use the same gusto that one would use when introducing Superman and Wyatt loves it. I’m thinking about putting two bibs on him so he can play superhero and I can catch all of the drool.

Turning 30

That's right. I turned 30 today, which I didn't think sounded old until about 4 o'clock yesterday when I realized I had just a few more precious hours left as a twenty-something. Yikes.

Wyatt gave me the gift of a good nights sleep, while Ross came home by 9 am with a huge bouquet of flowers and made me breakfast. Then the three of us grabbed our favorite blankets and snuggled up on the couch for a long family nap. Ahh, that was probably the best part of the day.

Afterward, we all got cleaned up and headed out shopping so I could buy a pair of sunglasses. While I usually don't splurge on things like accessories, I decided to treat myself and broke the bank on a pair of Maui Jim's. Now I just need the sun to come out again to enjoy them.

After shopping, Ross picked up take-out from my favorite local restaurant, Jay Berry's, and we spent the rest of the night in- just the three of us. What a great birthday...

Wyatt was a good boy today, taking two long naps and hitting the sack by 8 o'clock. We are still trying to figure out a new naptime schedule now that he is sleeping basically through the night but all in all I can't complain.

He is still practicing his crawling and has rolled over from his back to his tummy a few more times in last few days.

I couldn't ask for a better birthday gift than my two boys...

Big Milestones

Wyatt has met some big milestones over the last few days, rolling over for the first time from his back to his front, crawling (if only for a lung or two) and finding out that he has these two great things called feet.

He rolled over on February first with a little motivation from the tv remote. Over the last few weeks, he has shown a big interest in both the tv remote and our cells phones so we have been using these to help him practice crawling. While he was scooting towards the remote on Thursday, he accidentally rolled over onto his back but kept trying to reach for it behind him.

The result- a full roll back onto his tummy. Ross and I celebrated loudly and Wyatt beamed as he finally got to get the remote into his mouth.

And then yesterday during a Super Bowl party at a friend's house Wyatt crawled for the first time. His right leg has been holding him up the last few days and instead of the leg bending at the knee and moving forward it would kick out backward. Finally the leg cooperated and he was able to crawl just for a second before the leg got confused again. This boy is going to be mobile any day now!

Wyatt has also discovered his feet and his lack of flexibility is the only thing standing between him and a mouth full of toes. Instead he has settled for a mouth full of sock, which he pulls halfway off his foot to make up the difference. This morning during his diaper change he had the foot about a half an inch away from his mouth and was reaching, reaching, reaching. Man, it was cute! I know my parents have tons of pictures of me sucking on my feet so this might be a family trait.