My Boy

I thought it was kind of fun to share a few "glimpses" into Lila's personality when she turned four, so I wanted to do that with Wyatt too -- partly because he is such a fun little personality right now :) I could wait another month until he turned 2, but knowing me, I would forget to do it. So here are a few tidbits about Wyatt right now. He is a fun, energetic little boy who can be so sweet, but also finds new ways to get into trouble (like the other day when I found him standing on a stool with his hand in the dog treat jar and Kelsey next to him chomping down on her first? 2nd? tenth? dog treat!)

1. He finally entered a Mommy phase! For the longest time, only Daddy would do - but in the past couple weeks, he wants Mommy to put him to bed and Mommy to hold him. I guess Ben being gone for a week in Germany helped him decide that Mommy was ok :)

2. He says more and more sentences. Hold me now. Go dat way or come on Mommy. Of course, he's also learned to use the words "mine" and "my turn" quite often! The other day Lila wanted something he had and I heard her telling him, "Wyatt, the Bible says share!" There was a pause and then he replied, "No, mine!" So he has learned to stand up for himself too and not just let Lila take everything from him.

3. He likes to sing but doesn't know all of the words yet. He will try to sing the VeggieTales theme song, the WonderPets theme song and the ABC song (usually the end part starting with Q). He does have the melody down because we can tell what he is singing!

4. He is really good at spotting airplanes in the sky, balloons in the store/restaurant (especially if they've floated to the ceiling), and finding Thomas the Train on all sorts of things - like newspaper ads.

5. He drinks a ton! If you give him a water cup, he will drain it. He also leaks out of his diaper most nights even though we try to limit how much water he has before bed.

6. He doesn't say the S sound yet. So he eats with a "boon", has a "nack" when he's hungry, says "yorry" when he does something he's not supposed to... and the hardest to interpret... will ask for some "yaw" (sauce) when he wants some ketchup. He doesn't say yes; he says yeah.

7. He says some funny things. He used to call McDonald's "nuggetburger" - whenever he'd see the golden arches, I'd hear it. "Nuggetburger!" But very recently, he has started saying McDonald. He also calls pancakes - "mancakes". Ha, ha, that is one of my favorites. It is so cute.

8. He doesn't like to eat cold things. So for a long time he refused to eat ice cream. Now, he likes it but he still makes the most horrible grimace with each bite. It is entertaining to watch.

9. He loves to jump, climb, run, throw things, hang on things... he is active! :)

10. We told Wyatt a few weeks ago that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy" - I'm not sure he would have noticed on his own :) When I told him, he put both hands on my tummy and looked at it for a bit, then looked up at me and said "Hold it?" I don't know that I expected him to say anything, but definitely wasn't expecting that! So sweet.

Starting Preschool

Lila started preschool this week! She attends on Tuesday and Thursday, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. - which means she takes a lunch with her. It has been a little bit of an adjustment for all of us, but I have to say as I was putting away my groceries this morning at 10:15 (yes, that's right - through the store, home and put away in an hour!)... I think it will be a good adjustment :)

Last Thursday we went to "Meet-the-Teacher". Ben and I know Lila's teacher and the school director from when we went to church at Grace, but Lila hadn't met Mrs. Hedges. I don't have a picture of them together because when I asked Lila if she wanted to take one, she said no. Maybe at the end of the year, she will feel differently :)

Here Lila is relaxing in the "reading center".

She found her spot at the table.

And she found some fun toys to play with, so by the time we left, she was excited to come back!

First day of school.

(Unfortunately it rained all day, so I had to take a picture of her in the garage with not so great lighting.)

Wyatt and George rode along of course.

Here she is putting away her backpack and lunch box in her cubby. Not surprisingly, with the last name Amey, she has the first spot.

This isn't a great picture. I tried to be quick and step back in the room to take a picture, but I didn't want to linger because she had been a little clingy. No tears though! They were playing with floam while they waited for everyone to arrive. On the first day, I walked her in, but since then we have used their carpool line for dropping off/picking up. It's nice to not have to undo Wyatt -- and will be really nice when I have a baby in the car as well!

I was impressed that I didn't see any repeats with the backpacks. I figured there would be several people with the same one. Although this is just Lila's class, so there might be some overlap with other classes.

I took this picture when we got back home. He looks a little forlorn, doesn't he? He actually hasn't asked about Lila much (yet). When we went to pick her up today, though, and pulled into the parking lot, he yelled "Lila!" really excitedly.

Some really sweet friends got Wyatt and I a "first day of school" present which included some things for us to do together and a box of tissues (which I'm happy to report I didn't need - although had Lila started crying, I probably would have too).

And when we picked her up and asked if she had fun? I think that's a yes. :)

Ben came home from work early so he could be there when we picked her up. She was really excited to see Daddy, too!

Last Swim of the Year??

This past Labor Day weekend, the weather was GREAT! Nice and cool in the morning, not too hot in the afternoon. My sister invited us to come down to her place to swim one afternoon. Well, the rain that had cooled down the weather had also cooled down the water! The kids still wanted to get in, so Ben jumped in too. (Bless him! - just one of the many reasons I married that man :) My sister and I sat on the edge.)

Lila has gotten a lot braver about "swimming" in the deeper part of the pool using her inflatable turtle. (Thanks Aunt Janina!!)

Wyatt enjoyed splashing his legs in the water. I had to be quick a few times to save my camera from a shower!

He also liked climbing on the stairs.

No trip to Aunt Janina's pool would be complete without some fun pool toys -- but we have to be careful that they don't float into a filter or Lila gets very concerned :)

Swimming with her turtle - she used to have to have one of us holding her to do this.

Swimming to get to the shallow area.

And she's up! Faster than I thought she would be too which is why her head got chopped off in my picture.

Wyatt and Ben.

Wyatt liked throwing the pool toys (big surprise, huh?).

I tried to catch Lila smiling here. (Remember, Ben was in the pool and there were two "lifeguards" on duty too... don't want anyone thinking she was all alone in there!)

Inspecting the blue lips on Wyatt and deciding it was time to get out! With the cooler weather we've been having lately, that may have been our last swim of the year. Guess we will see!

BUT, cooler weather also means we can go on bike rides... the kids think it's fun as long as they are moving. Otherwise, Wyatt does NOT like his helmet!

Storytime Live!

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to see "Nickelodeon's Storytime Live!" show. It had characters from 4 Nickelodeon shows: Dora the Explorer, WonderPets, Ni Hao Kai Lan, and The Backyardigans... all of which Lila was familiar with. Both kids did pretty well through the whole show, but it was very interesting - and amusing - to see the difference between them. Lila sat very still and just took it all in. She participated some... speaking and making hand motions, but she was pretty solemn. (She was like that when we took her to see Elmo a year ago.) Wyatt, on the other hand, would get down on the floor and raise his hands in the air and jump up and down (clearly trying to imitate what the characters on stage were doing!). It was fun to watch... but too dark to get a picture!

Waiting for the show to start.

Mom and Wyatt

Here I was experimenting with my camera (point and shoot), trying to take a pic without the flash.

During intermission, the kids had a little snack.

Here's a picture of their last musical number where all the characters sang together.

And here they are on stage for the end. It was interesting to see how the cartoon characters translated to live performance. For those familiar with Nickelodeon, the characters are (L-R): Backyardigan, WonderPets, Dora, Moose & Zee (the NickJr. in-between-shows characters), Kai Lan and friend, another WonderPet and last a Backyardigan in pink. As you can tell, I'm not THAT familiar with them all :)

Helicopter Pilot

For Father's Day this year, we got Ben a remote controlled helicopter. He has enjoyed flying it, and the kids have really enjoyed watching - and picking it up when it inevitably crashes. Usually, that is all they are allowed to do. But a couple weeks ago, Wyatt was home by himself with Ben. And Daddy let him take a turn being the pilot! Here is a little video where he shows his (lack of) skills :)

Just FYI, the very first words he says are "helicopter charge". (After flying the helicopter for a few minutes, the battery has to recharge - so he is used to hearing those words.)

Developments

Well, this post is long overdue. Hopefully you aren't reading this and finding out for the first time that we are expecting again... we've tried to let people know, but I realize it probably should have made it to my blog sooner than this.

We found out in May and had it confirmed by the doc in June. Here is the baby at 10 weeks. I had a little morning sickness - not near as bad as I had with Wyatt - but now I am feeling really great.

Then at 19 weeks, we found out we will be having a GIRL. She is due January 3rd. This is a picture of her profile and torso. It really is amazing what all they can see in a sonogram these days. We took the kids with us to this appointment. Lila enjoyed getting to see baby girl move around; Wyatt had no idea we were even looking at something. He will figure it out soon enough :)

Here is a picture of me 21 weeks pregnant. I was going to wait and see if I could get Ben to take my picture... but then I remembered my tripod. So I went out on the back porch to take a pic.

It wasn't long before I had someone else who wanted in on the picture.

And then another little person joined us.

So I took the opportunity and got a picture of them together (yes, Lila is still in her pajamas... she had been playing in her room after breakfast... I thought I could sneak out and take a quick picture, but they heard the back door open.)

So sometime at the end of this year or beginning of next year, we will have a new little person to add to our pictures... and this blog, of course!

Zippity Zoo Day

Every year, TI offers an Employee Day at the Dallas Zoo. This year it was in July, so as you can imagine, it was HOT. We invited some friends to join us and planned to get there early. Even at 9 a.m., it was HOT. We walked around looking at animals first, with plans to stop at the Children's Zoo area when it opened at 10. We were drawn to the turtle exhibit (mostly because it was shady, I'm not ashamed to admit it... it was HOT).

I got a picture of Lila on the turtle statue.

Then the boys - Wyatt and Evan, his friend who is about 6 months older than him. While we were there, a zookeeper changed the turtle's water so there was some activity. The kids were all fascinated with the slow-moving, giant tortoises. I wish we could say we saw lots of other exciting animals, but it was mostly monkeys and birds (where we were at).

We made our way to the Children's Zoo. They have an exhibit where you can be in the cage with the birds. Wyatt wasn't so sure what to think about that!

All three kids enjoyed the large fish tank.

Then we went in to feed the goats. Here Wyatt is saying hello (or something) to one of the goats.

Lila thought it was pretty neat that the goat would eat out of her hand!

Before we left the children's area, we let the kids splash in the stream. Lila understood when we said, "Don't sit in the water."

Unfortunately, the boys didn't quite get it. So Wyatt had to go without his shorts for a little bit. (It didn't take long for them to dry in the heat.) We walked to the other side of the zoo where the big animals were - elephants, giraffes, tigers, etc. But by this time it was REALLY HOT. So we called it a day and left to eat lunch. In a nice air-conditioned building :)