Baby Watch

By the week before Christmas I was having very regular braxton-hicks contractions and was, according to my doctor, going to deliver any day. My mom and dad drove up from Escondido for Baby Watch 2011. Of course, like the saying a watched pot never boils, a watched baby bump never goes into labor. While they were here we had lots of fun, but no baby. A couple of days before Christmas we finally sent them home so that they could pack up and turn around to come spend Christmas at our house!

Wyatt loves to snuggle and sometimes Sherby wants in on it too

Sherby is ready for Christmas

G'ma Margy sure is silly - doesn't she know that tube is for crawling through?

G'pa Bob, can I play a game on your iPad?

What's better than There's a Monster at the End of this Book?
Why the iPad app of the same name of course!

Getting ready to go out and look at Christmas lights

Me and my Dad decorating Christmas cookies - this was a first and was super special to me

The nursing glider/rocker Brian got me for Christmas was quickly taken over by Wyatt and Sherby

We had a visit from Bridget and Erin - Wyatt and Erin had fun playing at the park, coloring, and wrestling. Erin totally won this wrestling match!

Checking out the Christmas tree and the choo-choo train

December Happenings

Jenn came to visit

Warming himself by the fire

Puddle Jumper

Snuggled in bed watching cartoons with Oinky and Bun-Bun (his blanket)

On November 30th Pasadena had a huge windstorm. We had sustained winds of 90+ miles per hour that caused major damage in the city. Major parts of the area were without power for two weeks, hundreds of trees toppled, homes were severely damaged, schools were cancelled, and literally every leaf on every tree fell to the ground. We were very lucky, in that earlier this year we had several large, unstable trees removed, and all of our trees trimmed. We had one tree lose a branch and tons of leaves in our yard, but other than that we had no damage.  Windstorm debris was piled up on every curb in the city and city crews worked around the clock to clean it up in time for the Rose Bowl Parade and Game.  The clean up was Wyatt's nirvana. He is really into all types of construction vehicles right now. We have an array of bulldozers, dump trucks, diggers, front end loaders, etc. that he plays with. So when the work crews came out in with their big front end loaders to clean up the branches, we went outside to watch!

Heaven is watching heavy equipment

After the front end loader picked the debris up, it dumped it in to a dump truck for hauling to the compost centers set up all around the city

The GIANT tree that fell in our neighborhood - we visited this tree nearly everyday to watch as they removed it. This tree was a deodar pine tree with a trunk at least 10 feet around. The entire tree toppled, and amazingly fell right in between two houses. The houses had some minor damage and two BMWs were crushed (moment of silence...) but no one was hurt. The tree tore up the road, the curb, and the sidewalk so that the entire street had to be closed while they removed it.

Thanksgiving in O'side/Visiting G'ma & G'pa

Playing with Auntie Shannon

 For Thanksgiving this year we went to Oceanside. This was a particularly fun Thanksgiving as Wyatt got to spend it with both sets of his grandparents. We got there on Wednesday and Wyatt made a beeline right for Grandma Vickie's toys. His favorites are the shopping cart and baby dolls (the shopping cart seems to double as a stroller) and the "picnic fings" as he calls them. He loves to make Grandma and Grandpa sit on the floor and have a picnic.

Grandma Vickie also knows how much Wy loves puzzles, so every time we go, it seems like there is at least one new puzzle for him to do. He has moved on from the wooden puzzles to 24 piece cardboard puzzles. He LOVES puzzles. This year Grandma got him a lenticular puzzle, which is a puzzle that has two images on it and if you move your head you can see each of the images. It is of the Grinch. Wy can do this puzzle in 2-3 minutes. When I tried to do it recently it took me easily 10 minutes to do!

Dog-pile on Uncle Darrell

Walking with Grandpa Richard and checking out BUGS!

Overseeing the assembly of the new picnic table
(note he has his tools and is ready to "do construction"!)

Watching Aunt Pam, Grandma Margy, Hannah, and Meghan play spoons

Wyatt eating quiche with Grandma

 After Thanksgiving, Wyatt stayed in San Diego to visit his grandparents. I don't have any pictures of the time he spent with Grandpa Richard and Grandma Vickie, but I know he had a great time playing, doing puzzles, and best of all, shooting the Nerf guns that Grandpa got for him. Grandpa learned that if you give a 2 1/2 year old a Nerf gun he WILL shoot the disc up to the highest ledge in the house, necessitating the use of the extension ladder to retrieve it!

Wyatt also visited with Grandma Margy & Grandpa Bob. Grandma Margy continued her streak of getting her grandkids to eat foods they won't touch for their parents.  Aunt Lori, Jack, and Dean came over and they made Christmas cookies. Wyatt liked rolling the cookies and using the cookie cutters.

Dunk!

They had to take a break while the first batch of cookies was baking to play! Wyatt and Dean wanted to be able to dunk like Jack, so Grandma set the basketball hoop up between the lawn chairs and they were able to dunk away!

Playing with Mommy's old stuffed animals and dolls

Practicing his baby care for his baby sister

Thoughts on the Love of My Life

14 years ago I started dating the man I would eventually marry. The man who gave me the two most precious things in my life - Wyatt and Harper. And the man who has picked me up off the floor more times than I can count. Our life together has been blessed. Through good times and bad we've stood together against it all - bickering like an old married couple - but together nonetheless. I always think of them as the gut check - the talks we have late at night after the kids are asleep and when we should be too (these talks always seem to happen mid-week and they ruin our mutual love of an early bedtime). We finally get out the little and big annoyances that have been bothering us and we re-connect. Those talks have done more for our marriage than anything. They've shown us that no matter what, as long as we are honest with each other, things will be okay.

He's been especially wonderful during this last year. We started the year with another devastating miscarriage. I wasn't sure I could try again after so many losses, but Brian was there for me (picking me up off that ground like I said) reassuring me it would happen, that our family wasn't yet complete. On the heels of that we lost two great women, Brian's Grandma Billie and my Great Aunt Gerladine. 2011 wasn't shaping up to be a good year. But again, Brian was there, supporting me though he was in as much pain from the losses as I was.
Even when we got pregnant again in the spring and we knew it had "stuck" things were rocky. Mainly because for whatever reason this pregnancy kicked my ass. Not only was it hard on me physically, but emotionally too. I was horrible to live with - a wreck - and where many men may have given up and walked away, Brian stood by me. I lived with a constant, paralyzing fear that we would lose this baby (now our precious Harper). Knowing that it would pass (this not being my first bout with depression and anxiety) and continually cheerleading me so I wouldn't give up, Brian came through again, lifting me up, rubbing my back when I cried, telling me it would be okay. And he did it even though he had his own anxiety about the success of the pregnancy - his crazy beard that he didn't shave or trim from the time we found out we were pregnant with Harper to the morning she was born was his own crazy superstitious talisman.

And I won't lie - this first six, postpartum weeks have been hard. I've called him at work crying hysterically and even over the phone he has the ability to make me feel better.  I'm still fighting against it everyday, but knowing I have a man like him by my side I know I will win.

14 years is a long time, but they are years I cherish knowing I have spent them with a man like Brian. Going forward I can only hope that we raise our kids to be as strong and kind and loving as their father is.

I love you Brian.

Ring Bearer

In November Wyatt was invited to be the ring bearer in our babysitter Theresa's son's wedding. And let me tell you, there is nothing more evil than getting a two-and-a-half-year-old into a tuxedo. But the end result was cuteness to the extreme. We didn't get any great pictures since Wyatt had the stomach flu and it was touch and go if he was even going to make it to the wedding. But we have one that shows him in all his tuxedo'd glory. And he made it all the way down the aisle!

Frustration!

So I thought I would rename the blog to reflect our growing family and then I thought, wait, the address is Wyatt's name and doesn't reflect Harper.... But all the names I want if I were to start a new blog (and import this one over to it) are taken. Boo hoo. I may still do it, I just need to think of something new to call it. Suggestions anyone?

Fire Fighter to the Rescue!

Wyatt has gone through many phases this year, from being obsessed with trains to being obsessed with firefighters and ambulance guys (as he calls them), and of course trucks of all types and sizes (though the bigger the truck the better of course).

This year when we asked Wy what he wanted to be for Halloween he said without hesitation, "Fire fighter to the rescue!" This was his favorite thing to yell this fall as he ran through the house pretending to rescue people. The funniest part of this is that he didn't have a real grasp of what fire fighters do beyond driving in fire trucks and rescuing people from things.  This meant that usually he was rescuing someone (me, the cat, his stuffed pig Oinky) from Pinkfoot. Pinkfoot is his imaginary monster a la Bigfoot. Pinkfoot is usually a bad guy, but occasionally needs rescuing himself. Watching Wyatt use his imagination in this way this year has been one of the best parts of parenting him.

Around this same time Wyatt became seriously obsessed with "The Three Mouseketeers", a retelling of the classic story with Mickey, Donald and Goofy in the main roles. This is a movie that we watch at least 3 times a week. We know the words to all the songs (Bad Guy Song!) and this is one of his favorite pretend games to play. For the most part he likes to play Mouseketeer by himself, with only a cardboard paper towel or wrapping paper tube for a sword and the lid to a small plastic container as his shield. Occasionally he wants me to play along and the best part? I always get to be the Princess. This means I can sit on the couch, stand in the kitchen doing dishes, or fold laundry in the bedroom and he can rescue me to his heart's delight - and I don't actually have to do anything! Terrible sounding I know, but by the time the Mouseketeer phase got into full swing I was 7 or 8 months pregnant and the thought of actively trying to chase Wy around made me cry with exhaustion and the creakiness of my poor pregnant joints.

 At the Cal Poly Pomona Pumpkin Patch with Daddy

 Making Grandma do the carving - Wy thought the pumpkin guts were yucky and refused to touch them

 Our finished pumpkins - Millicent, a witch, and a pirate

 Playing with Grandpa Richard after carving pumpkins

 Fire Fighter to the Rescue!

 Me & Wy

 A very (8 months) pregnant fairy

 This year he didn't need me to do anything but show him where the doorbell was

The safest Halloween costume ever!

Playing Catch Up

So after much gentle ribbing from friends (Di and Bridget!) and family I am finally sitting down to update the blog. I should have a little more time now that I am on maternity leave. After much thought I think I am going to be changing it up a bit. In addition to the usual pictures and updates, from time to time I think I will post some different types of things (kinda like an online diary, though I probably won't overshare - that much).

I ask for patience as I work through the backlog. On my count I have about 15 posts to catch everyone up. And keep in mind I will be doing this when Harper is napping and between one of the million loads of laundry and dishes I do every week.

Cheers,
Rebecca

10 Years Later

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

UCSB Reunion, Part 3

In the mornings we got up early (the virtue of a house full of little kids) and played before we went out for the day.


Laila & Davin


Alex, Rebecca, & Wyatt playing an iPad game while we waited for breakfast to be ready.



On Sunday morning we went to Stern's Wharf and to the Art Walk that they have every Sunday morning along the waterfront. Wyatt thought that the wharf was really cool. He loved the big boats and watching the fishermen reel in their fish.


Cheese sandwiches!


The stroller brigade....


Shoulder rides on daddy's shoulders are WAY better than riding in the stroller



Cooking dinner - we took turns cooking breakfast and dinner every day. Anne, Julie, and I rocked spaghetti night!


Mohamed & Alex relax on the couch



Glow sticks!!






All lined up on the couch outside with their glow sticks