Musical Stylin's

Alright, I have to add a little to the beginning of this post because the video is from October last year! As part of my nesting to prepare for little boy number two, I have asked Patrick to go through some of our home videos and spruce them up for this blog. This particular video was so adorable that I wrote up a post within the week of taping it and then never got around to getting the video on the computer! So here it is - enjoy!

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We have known for months that Wyatt is a music boy, which isn't really a surprise since both mommy and daddy have a love for good music. He loves the chance to play the paino every time we visit Nana. In fact I might be bias but I think he is talented already!

So with this in mind we decided to take an afternoon and show Wyatt daddy's musical abilities. Daddy got out his trombone and played a little bit for Wyatt. Although at first Wyatt was a little unsure, almost scared, he got interested and really enjoyed it. I guess I should start saving up for the music lessons he will probably want!

Haircut time again

For those of you who know me, this probably won't surprise you but I have waited a long time on getting Wyatt's hair cut again. I knew he needed it, but haircuts have never been very high on my radar for myself so it follows that I'm not that aware with my little guy's hair.

Hammin' it up for the camera

So today we bit the bullet and got a middle of summer haircut!  We went to Snip Its for a change. I was surprised how into it he was. There was plenty of things to keep him interested as we waited for our turn. Granted I think the haircut itself was just as good the bargain places we have used in the past but the ability to keep a toddler entertained for 20 minutes says a lot.

Showing off his new duck

He sat pretty good in the chair and there were no tears so at least we are improving! He didn't even need his juice or treat to keep him still long enough to get through the cut. As a bonus at the end of the cut he got a special toy from this strange little machine - he lucked out because it was a little toy duck. In case you haven't read all the older posts, Wyatt is very into ducks.

Now that he has his big boy summer cut he is ready for professional photos this weekend. Stay tuned to find out how that goes!

Big Enough

I tend to be a fairly relaxed mom. I let Wyatt discover things on his own, even let him try the difficult parts of the playground without holding tight to his hand, granted we have lucked out in that his balance is pretty good and he hasn't fallen much! There are a few things that I have been protective over, for example hard candy in general. Suckers are one of those candies that I haven't really let Wyatt try much. Granted the few times someone gave us one he wasn't very interested, then if he had to open it after a lick or two he was done. That boy cannot be distracted from playing for long.

This all changed a few days ago. He came across a small sucker in the snack cabinet and seemed interested. I decided at two and a half he was old enough to get it a try, besides part of me figured he wouldn't be interested for long. I could not have been more wrong. He was super into it. He sat in the living room and just about ate the whole thing! I was amazed - first that he wanted it for so long and second that he sat there the whole time! All I can say is that he doesn't know how to bite it yet and I can handle watching him to make sure he doesn't choke on it. I guess this is a small step that proves my little baby is growing up!

Heat Wave

I knew it would happen since I am this pregnant during summer, but we have had a crazy hot and humid week, setting records that are 11 years and more old. I guess I can officially become one of those older ladies some day that tells the young pregnant ladies how hot it was when I was pregnant and that they will do just fine.  (This is something it seems everyone lady over 50 has been telling me.)

Enjoying his treat

Even with all the heat we are all doing fairly well. Thank goodness our air conditioning is holding up, so many people I know are not quite as lucky. Most days Wyatt and I spend our mornings as usual, but around 11:00 we close all the blinds in the house and play in the basement to stay cool. The down side is that Wyatt isn't eating much and really only wants small snacks and liquids- I don't usually worry about his weight, but he's still a little small in that department and not eating well for a week does concern me.

So one evening I decided to have a little extra fun. We were going to attend the local ice cream social but decided the ice cream would melt before we got two bites in. We opted for an ice cream sundae party at home instead.

Wyatt's ice cream sundae

Carefully putting the sprinkles that fell
on the table back into his shaker

I was daring in that I let Wyatt have his own big boy bowl we sat on the floor, as it was cooler, so the possibilities for a huge mess was huge, but I didn't care.  Patrick gave us all nice portions of ice cream and I gave Wyatt his own sprinkles and he went to town. He was so precise, it was amazing. He used all the sprinkles I gave him - it wasn't all that much. Then he took maybe 6 or 7 bites total, which for him is a good amount of the cold, sugary stuff.

I ended up getting to eat the last little bit of his, so I figured he was sharing with his new baby brother (no the baby hasn't come yet, but I try not to eat for two, except for ice cream). Overall it was a nice family evening at home.

Night at Blossom

It isn't very often that Patrick and I do something completely out of the norm, even on our date nights. So this month we decided to take a risk and something extra different. We went to Blossom Music Center to watch Pirates of the Caribbean while the Cleveland Orchestra played the score live. It was the first time ever done in the U.S. and worth every penny!

Our view as the movie began

Wyatt stays with my parents once a month so that Patrick and I can have a night off. It is the best gift my parents could ever give me. And we made sure to enjoy our free night this month. We started the evening with a trip to the store to buy some goodies for the show. Part of the joy of hearing the orchestra at Blossom is the ability to bring food and drinks (including alcohol for those not pregnant!) before the show and sit on the great lawn and enjoy being outside. So we decided on some nice cheeses and fresh bread. Of course I couldn't say no to oatmeal raisin & pecan cookies as well.  After preparing our concert snacks, we went out to dinner, which was really nice, but being in my third trimester meant I brought more home than I ate there (oh well).  



By the end of the night I was tired, but had enjoyed every second

Finally we made our way to Blossom. The original plan was to meet up with a couple from our church small group, but we got there early and found a great spot that filled up quickly. Since our friends were joining more of their own friends, we ended up staying in our spot and visiting with them a few times during the night. I am sure we would have enjoyed ourselves in the larger group, but since we really only get one date night a month, it worked out nicely to enjoy the event just the two of us.



The Cleveland Orchestra setting up after intermission

As for the actual performance/show, I cannot find the words to describe how much I enjoyed it. Of course I have seen the movie, many times in fact, but there was something about being outside on a gorgeous night with a live orchestra and vocal accompaniment that made it extra entertaining. The performance was perfect, you would have never known the score wasn't the original part of the movie. I would recommend such an event to anyone who finds the opportunity available.

A New Friend

I was told once that there is nothing new under the sun, that everything comes back again. Now on many things I would agree with this, but there are some things that I think should be left in the past. Wyatt's newest friend is one said thing!


As I have said many times by now, we have been spending a ton of time outside since the weather is so nice. Wyatt tends to spend this his time exploring the yard. He likes to find bugs, and he recently discovered that most bugs go towards rocks or some other kind of covering and then hide. He got brave the other day and decided to pick up a rock and see if he could still see the bug. Although there was no bug and fascination with rocks was born. In fact that particular rock became his new friend!

Silly boy

After three days of getting him to leave his rock on the deck by the door, Patrick couldn't pry it from his fingers and it made its way into the house. Thankfully Wyatt did let us wash the rock before it came into the house.

Granted this one rock was so soon left outside again, and we haven't had to worry about it being thrown in the house. But Wyatt is now very into reorganizing all the rock borders we have around our flower gardens and has to point out all the rocks we find when we are running errands.

This might end up being a short phase, but it is very cute to me, even if a pet rock is a fad I think should have never come along.

Bouncing Boy

In an effort to convince my super independent son, I have been trying to find ways to make handholding (particularly in parking lots) more fun. The one that has worked the best was tell him to swing arms while holding hands as we walk across the parking lot. After much practice and few tantrums, the game took on a life of its own. Wyatt evolved it into jumping, which morphed into bouncing, and is now bouncing while he tells me some kind of animal he is pretending to be.

Jumping on his bed - he told me he was being a silly monkey

The bouncing hasn't been limited to the parking lots. It is a new fun game to play on the couch and his toddler bed. I much prefer the bed bouncing to the couch bouncing, but at least it is wearing him out!

Finding Time to Relax

Again this post might a little more boring, as I am wanting to talk a little more about me than just Wyatt, I guess it must be a pregnancy thing right now.

Anyway, after a few days of feeling like I'm running a marathon in an effort to wear out my little man I was able to feel rewarded today on many levels. I woke up like usual, not happy, extremely tired and wishing I didn't have to face the day knowing that I would only end up tired and sore by the end of it (I am sure this is a pregnancy thing, so no worries about my overall state of mind). However I convinced myself that I had to get going and get through the chores of the day.

The first blessing I received was that Wyatt slept in until 7:30ish! Now in case you don't know, Wyatt is a super early riser, so being able to get ready and then eat breakfast with just my husband, was a nice pick-me-up. That should have been a enough for me to realize that my life is extremely good, but it wasn't.

Wyatt with his coffee cup showing off the flowers we cut
to bring some extra joy into the house!

Around lunchtime I braved a trip to the grocery store, an event that has recently not gone well with Wyatt. For my own sanity I went through a drive-thru to get Wyatt lunch on the way to the store, hoping that the distraction of food would at least allow me to complete the shopping trip without a complete meltdown from him (pregnant moms do not tend to worry as much about the extra cost of a few moments peace!). Through another blessing, our trip went perfectly. He sat extremely well in the cart while he was eating. Then did an even better job staying in his seat and helping me shop. There was only a minor moment of two-year-old fussiness as we waited in a crazy long line, but even that was short lived through a great miracle. He even gave the lady at the register a high-five when we were done!

Overjoyed with my luck I decided to splurge and stop at the local coffee place across the street for a small drink. They have an amazing corner for kids with coloring books, crayons and puzzles which usually means I can sit back for 15 minutes or so and relax. The final blessings that broke through my thick skull, happened at the coffee shop. The young guy at the counter offered Wyatt his own coffee cup (like mine with the cool coffee lid) with a small amount of milk in it (for free!), which to Wyatt was the best drink ever. Then as we were getting ready to leave about 15 minutes later, an older lady eating a sandwich with her husband said to Wyatt, "You are one very lucky boy to have such a great mommy." Her comment was so sincere and unexpected that my heart jumped.

I might have been having a hard time dealing with being pregnant and a stay-at-home mommy as the jobs are extremely intense and challenging, but today God  answered my prayers with such fervor that I am feeling hopeful that this is where I am supposed to be right now, doing exactly this!

Irish Festival

One aspect of our town that I love is the summer festivals that it hosts. It has always been a summer favorite of mine and Patrick's.  We usually save the events for date times, but decided that this year's Irish festival would be a great chance to take Wyatt.

We quickly learned that the festival is not all that interesting to a two-year old.

Sporting Chief's cowboy hat while watching some Irish musicians

He was alright listening to the Irish musical groups. But that only lasted for about two songs. Since the rest is mostly food and jewelry vendors Wyatt was done before we had even decided what to eat!

The night was a little bit of a struggle. So we learned the lesson that festivals are still best for mom and dad to enjoy as a date night. Maybe in a couple of years Wyatt will be up for the ethnic and festival food but until then I plan on enjoying our summer festivals!

Fourth of July

 Our Fourth of July weekend was a nice long weekend, even if by Monday the adults were a little worn out! 

We spent as much of the time as possible at Water Works wearing Wyatt out in the water. I have to admit it works like a charm. The downside is that after getting everything ready to go down there, walking down, helping Patrick with Wyatt and then walking back I am usually just as tired as Wyatt!

Playing in the grass

Our biggest event of the weekend was the fireworks! I was a little nervous about it because we haven't taken Wyatt to fireworks before, mostly because they start so late. This year however we decided it was time to give it a shot. We ended up going to Fairlawn's showing which is a nice venue because it is almost all grassy areas which meant Wyatt had plenty of room to run around before the actual show started.

We met up with my parents and some family friends, so between all of us there were plenty of grown-ups to chase Wyatt around as he burned off the last of the day's energy.

Showing off his sword in a family photo opp

As it started to get dark of course the salesman came around with his light up toys. I was extremely impressed because although Wyatt at first started towards him to see what he could have, Patrick said no thank you and Wyatt went back to playing without a single second thought. As a result my dad secretly went and got Wyatt a light-up sword, which occupied Wyatt for the last twenty minutes before the show started.

Watching the booms in the sky

As the fireworks started Wyatt was okay sitting in his stroller next to Nana, but after only a few short minutes he started to be unsure about the whole event and wanted to sit on mommy's lap. Once he was in my lap he was all about the "boom" in the sky, as he pointed them all out to me. He really enjoyed the ones shaped liked stars.

The whole weekend was wrapped up with a nice day at home on Monday to recoup from the events of the weekend and a very nice grilled meal. I have to say this is a tradition I am glad to keep going, especially since being safe in this country and having the ability to enjoy it all with my family is a great aspect of Independence Day.

Just like Mommy?

I'm sure Patrick won't appreciate this so much and there will probably come a day when Wyatt is embarrassed with this one, but I think it is too cute to keep quiet.

Every morning Wyatt has to check on me while I get ready. Usually it is only a 10 minute process as we are going to be outside getting sweaty and who cares. However Sundays are a different story. These are the days that he gets very interested in the routine of getting ready.

In order to keep him away from my hot irons I always point him to the ones I am not using in a bottom drawer he can reach. This past Sunday he watched me doing my hair for a few minutes, then went and found a curling iron and proceed to mimic what I was doing. Luckily Patrick caught the moment on film and I am so very grateful. I mean here is a moment that a mother only expects with a daughter, but it is still cute with her toddler son. I am sure he will become a man who understands that women can't be rushed when they want to look good for an event, which is a quality every woman wishes her man would get, well those men who haven't gotten it yet anyway.

Washing the Car

Since we know how much Wyatt loves the water Patrick decided a nice way to wear Wyatt out would be to have him help wash my car. I of course loved the idea, mostly because my car was in serious need a washing!

I was amazed that after thirty minutes Wyatt was still wanting to wash the car! He enjoyed every second of it. He had a little squeegee/sponge that he would dip into a bucket of water and then take to the car to wash. He went back and forth a ton always with a proud smile on his face.

I was even more amazed when he came inside to find that he was mostly dry! I am sure this trend will not last, but if he wants to wash mommy's car every weekend, I am fine with that!

Planting flowers

As I have posted before Wyatt enjoys flowers a great deal. We passed a whole afternoon going to the local nursery to find flowers for our flower boxes on the front porch. He went up to just about every new flower and smelled them, of course his way of smelling is more like blowing, but still adorable.

 Then he got to help us take them home, which was a great thrill because most flowers we have to leave where we find them so others can see the pretty flowers. This time being able to take them to the register and then car was too much fun.

Once home the fun really started because with Daddy's help Wyatt got to put rocks and dirt into the boxes with his bare hands! We all know how much fun that is for a little boy! By the time we got to putting the flowers in the dirt Wyatt was running out of steam, but we tried anyway. For the first two boxes he did great. Wyatt handed the flowers to Patrick and helped put dirt around the new planted flowers. However that third box didn't go as planned.



Digging in the dirt



However, the next day Wyatt helped Daddy's finish up the planting and now we have to make a daily trip to water our new flowers. Wyatt checks on them every time we come back home. There is nothing like a little child to remind you how important it is to stop and smell the roses (or flowers) everyday!

Friend's birthday party

Since I haven't working, Wyatt hasn't had the chance to see his friend Kaleigh as much - Nikki, Kaleigh's mommy, was Wyatt's childcare provider while I worked, it just so happened that we have been friends forever, which was a great bonus. Granted for the first couple of weeks I think he liked being with mommy, but still.

Kaleigh with her homemade birthday cake

Just recently Kaleigh had her second birthday and Wyatt was invited to her party. I was a little concerned because he hasn't been to many birthday parties where he wasn't allowed to help open gifts or blow out the candles. But who doesn't expect there to be some difficulties with little kid parties?

It was a blast. I was glad to see Nikki and Kaleigh again. After seeing them three times a week, it is strange to only see them once in a while now. And Kaleigh is getting to be such a big girl. Plus her baby brother, Micah, has joined the scene.

Wyatt with Andrew

Wyatt was actually surprisingly well behaved. He mostly just played with Kaleigh's toys. But he was very interested in singing "Happy Birthday" and then tried to show Kaleigh how to blow out her candles, without getting in the way. Then came the gift time. For the first half Wyatt wanted nothing to do with the event, but halfway through he decided to check it out. For a few minutes he just sat close to Kaleigh and then watched. Then to my amazement he climbed in to Kaleigh's Daddy's lap and proceed to watch from there as if he always sat in Andrew's lap.

The crowning moment of the party came with Kaleigh got an amazing gift from her parents - a mini trampoline. Wyatt wanted to play so badly we barely got his shoes off his feet before he was in there jumping, or bouncy I should say, with Kaleigh.

Wyatt jumping with Kaleigh (middle) and Maddie (left)

Overall the day was quite a success I would say, and now I will have to find a reason to visit Nikki more often in order to wear out my little bouncy boy and maybe Kaleigh at the same time.

Helping with the deck

As promised, Patrick fixed up our old deck recently. Of course it really probably should be replaced, but we just don't have the time/money for that. So we redid the railings and are trying to find enough dry days in a row, where we have the time, to stain it completely.

Wyatt has taken the role of daddy's little helper serious! He had to help Nana stain the new wood right away.

In fact he got upset when he realized it had only been given a clean paint roller and a bucket with nothing in it. He wanted to do the real work!

All I have to say to that is, trust me kid, your day will come when you are doing the real work!

Rain Storm

Our day started off very normal for a weekday. Early morning wake up from, as Patrick calls him, our "little marine" followed by a slow process of actually getting out of bed for the pregnant one.  Finally we all left for our morning, Patrick to work and Wyatt and I to the gym. I have been very glad to have our gym membership, as it gives me some time to actually gain some energy from the endorphins and Wyatt wears himself out in the kids play area at the same time. It's really a win-win.

Today however our routine was different because as we were getting ready to leave I realized just how much it was raining. I mean after sweating for 90 minutes I usually don't think twice about walking in a little rain to the car, but this wasn't just a little rain. It was like the skies gave way! I wanted to wait, but Wyatt was ready to go. So off we went into the downpour. I have to admit, the rain itself felt good, but sitting in the car as I drove home wet was not quite as fun.

A little boy who loves to be in water of any kind

Wyatt enjoyed every second of it though. Talking about showers and water. He was interested in the thunder and lightning. Mentioning the booms and the lights in the sky. I guess considering how some mornings go with a two-year-old this one could have been quite a bit worse!