Wessie

Wow! There is so much to say about Wes. He's doing SO much!

He's talking up a storm! He is starting to put lengthy sentences together. Other people may not understand what he's saying but I can generally pick up what he's saying if there is some context for it. He says words that I didn't know he'd even heard of! He has good grammar and sentence structure and tries to really say a word correctly by looking at your mouth when you say it.

We are in the thick of potty training with him. Finally, I feel up to doing it and it's hot outside and we don't have anything else really going on. It has been a long haul; we are going on three weeks of trying. He does go in the big potty sometimes but he still has lots of accidents. We had a breakthrough tonight because he asked to go to the potty and he actually went! He's never asked to go before! Hurray!

Teaching a bear how to "go potty." This is what Mommy does when Wes is on the potty. Sit on the stool and read stories to him. 

Also, he learned several weeks ago how to climb out of his crib. So now he's sleeping in a twin bed with a rail. Since then his sleep has greatly suffered because he doesn't want to stay in the bed! Mamma and Papa and Baby Brother's sleep has all suffered as well! We've tried EVERYTHING to get him to go to sleep and stay in the bed. He does now go to sleep in the bed instead of on the floor  or under the bed which is a huge improvement but it still takes him a while to do it and he wakes up much earlier than when he was in the crib.

When he first started climbing out of his crib, naps were tough to get him to take. This was after such an attempt.  We was VERY hard to wake up! Thankfully his naps are much better now.

He is also learning lots of other big boy stuff. He can put his uneaten food in the trash and then puts his dishes in the dishwasher, all by himself! He helps to unload the dishwasher and does a great job and just loves to do it. He loves to help with anything! He loves to help Mama cook and bake by adding ingredients and stirring and tasting. This is one of Mamma and Wesley's favorite activities together. He tries to sweep but that gets kind of messy. He's good at cleaning up his own messes too and helping wipe the table after breakfast. He still loves vacuuming too and gets quite upset if I don't let him help in some way. He also helps Mamma water the flowers which sometimes turns into just spraying the hose all over himself. He can put his clothes in the laundry basket and he helps me do the laundry, transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer, from the basket to the washer or the dryer to the basket.

Wes likes to try on our shoes and to put our shoes on us. 

Wes also really enjoys coloring with markers. We are going to go broke keeping enough clean paper around for him! He just colors page after page after page. And he LOVES stickers! For some reason he finds it fascinating and hilarious to put stickers on our lips and pile them on top of each other all around our mouth or between our eyes. He decorated Mogley with stickers today.

Outside he likes to pile rocks up and transfer them from one pile to another or throw them in buckets of water. He also likes to throw the dirt around in Mamma's vegetable garden and eat Mamma's unripe tomatoes when I'm not looking!!!! Ahhh!!! He's picked them clean! I'm a hopeless tomato grower. One year it was Mogley who ate them. Last year a huge tomato worm cleaned out my plant overnight and this year Wesley has done the job. At least he can't pick the zucchini! He does like to help me in the garden though and tries not to step on the flowers.

Yes, he threw a piece of a log in his pool then wanted to drive through his pool with his big wheel. 

Wes is a fish!!! He really loves the water and swimming. He's only been swimming 3 or 4 times this summer in a big pool but he just loves it! This past Sunday he was putting his head under the water and jumping off the side of the pool and purposely wanting to go under water when he did! He was also trying to actually swim by kicking his legs and paddling with his arms. I'm so glad he's not afraid of the water because we love it too!

Going down the slide at the pool. 

He's still just as friendly as ever! He still says hi to everyone he sees, stranger or not.

He's been learning some things at church called a toddler catechism. So the first question is "Who made you?" Answer: "God made you." The next question is "What else did God make?" Answer: "Everything." There are about 6 or 7 questions they've been learning throughout this summer about God and the Bible and Jesus. Wesley's answer to every question is Jesus. The other day I asked him how old he is and he said "Jesus." I was also trying to teach him to say his name when someone asks him, "What is your name?" Every time I asked him his reply was, "Jesus!" I'm not sure where he got this from but I guess it's not a bad thing that his answer for everything is Jesus! :)

He still really enjoys music as well. He asks me to play music and wants me to sing songs to him, especially ones with some kind of movement. He's starting to learn to sing along to some of them and will spontaneously start singing one song in particular called Hot Cross Buns. It's one of the songs on one of his children's cds. He also likes to sing "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus." Mamma's sings this to him at nap time every day. We just recently acquired a piano and Wes enjoys "playing" it. It seems like he's really seen someone playing before because he plays it likes he's imitating a professional. It is quite funny.

One way to describe Wes is "physical." He is a constant machine in motion and everything he does has some kind of physical element to it - jumping, running, spinning, climbing, rolling, riding, pushing, pulling, throwing, wrestling, tickling, hugging, kissing and generally just flitting about. It can be very tiring but it is fun to watch.

Well, that is all for now. Hope you've enjoyed this tour through Wessie's life. (Wessie is Mamma's nickname for him.) Enjoy the rest of the pics.

Enjoying a snack after a hard swim.

He loves strawberries!

Chilling out while Mommy and Papa rearrange the house to find room for the piano. (Sorry it's fuzzy!)

Both our boys napping on the stroller ride. David woke up and was cooing and cackling but Wes kept right on snoozing, didn't budge a bit.

David - "The Godfather"

Finally, he will stand being on his stomach if he's propped up on the boppy. 

So I am sure you are wondering why we titled a post about our youngest after a mobster movie. Well, I was listening to David coo and babble as he does quite often, especially when he's tired, and it dawned on me that he has the voice of the "Godfather" except with a slightly higher pitch. Really, it's kind of low in the back of the throat and very breathy and not really loud at all. Just imagine the "Godfather" trying to sound like a 5 month old and that is what David sounds like!

David is a very laid back little guy. He goes with the flow and just generally hangs out with us if he's not sleeping, which he does still more than most babies I know his age. He takes 3 solid naps and sometimes a 4th cat nap in the late afternoon, usually on the deck in the bouncy seat if it's not 100 degrees or more outside. He usually dozes off in the stroller too. He sleeps from about 7:00pm to 6:30am with no interruption. It is very easy to tell when he gets tired. He just starts his little Godfather coos, gets a little louder until finally he's screeching. But if you get him to bed before the screeching he just goes right to sleep. He loves his crib too. He just smiles when I put him in it. And he's so happy when I go in to get him up. He smiles with his tongue sticking out and kind of acts bashful but has bright, happy blue eyes and looks at me with such delight.

For activity, I guess he does what most babies do. He kicks his legs a lot when he's in the bouncy seat, but this is usually when he's getting tired too. He loves looking at the trees outside and loves looking out windows. He's starting to enjoy being on his stomach a little more, but only if you prop him up on the boppy. I'd say his favorite toy still is his mobile. He also loves his little baby keys that he gets a little crazy with.

Any ideas who he looks like???

He really is pretty content doing just about anything, just about anywhere with or without toys. If he has no toys he enthralls himself with his fingers and thumbs and fist, looking at them closely or sucking and gnawing on them. He's becoming pretty adept at finding and sucking his thumb. He blows tons of bubbles and makes tons of raspberries and experiments with his voice and other sounds. It is so fun to listen to him. He also really likes to be sung too. He looks at you with delight and sometimes tries to sing along too. He's got such a funny little laugh. He goes, "huh, huh."

Sucking his thumb while watching his mobile.

He's a drool monster but there are no signs of teeth. He has rolled over a few times but he's just not into  it that much. In sits in the Bumbo a lot and can pull himself up to sitting in the Bumbo but outside of it, he's a limp rag. He just falls right over if you try to sit him up with nothing around him. Like I said, he's super laid back! I thought Wes was, but definitely not like this! Wes was much more active and spirited. David does like to sit up and see what is going on, just to be an onlooker. It takes things in but doesn't have that intense look of curiosity like Wes had. It just amazes me how you can tell differences in personalities in babies at such a young age. Of course, I'm not expecting them to have the same personality even if they were biological brothers, but I just find it fascinating how even though David is so young I can already see some personality. I think he gets it much more from Eric than from me!

Sitting in the Bumbo in the late afternoon. This is his tired look. 

I've started feeding him some baby food too, just a week or two ago. So far he's only had pears and squash. He makes the most awful face every time I feed him the first spoonful. After a few spoonfuls, he realizes how much he likes it and starts opening up his mouth like a little bird. He does pretty well with it, not too messy. He only eats a little though. He's not such a big eater. He does let  you know eventually when he's hungry and he's gotten on a good schedule (after mamma got a little lax with it for a while). He doesn't really eat a whole lot, on the low end of what most babies his age eat (Wes was always at the top end, which can be typical for a preemie once they figure out how to eat well - trying desperately to catch up) and he guzzles it up really fast. This is such a huge improvement from 2 or 3 months ago when it was taking us at least an hour to feed him!

A funny face after a taste of pears. He likes squash a lot better!

However, you would not know that he is a light eater! He's HUGE! He's wearing 9 month clothes most of the time. They are a little roomy in the girth but not in the length in the footie pajamas. His toes are at the end! I thought he and Wes would be able to wear the same clothes but David is at the end of what Wes wore during summer and we still have a few more months of warmth. All of Wes's 12 month stuff is for the dead of winter - thick, warm clothes and pajamas. But even though he looks beefy and long, it is quite deceptive. He's really pretty light when you pick him up. At his 4 month appointment he weighed almost 14 lbs (25th percentile) and was almost 26 inches long (84th percentile).

Look how big I am!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Boy! 

A swim with Papa.

He smiles with his eyes!