Newest Addition

This week we adopted a cat. His name is Sherbalicious, or Sherby for short. (Secretly, I think of him as Sherby the Love Bug.) We got him from my boss, who took him in as a stray. He is about 3 years old and is truly the anti-cat. He loves people and so is always with us. As I type he is laying on the desk next to me purring.

Wyatt loves him and Sherby seems to love Wyatt right back. When Wyatt pulls on his tail or grabs his fur or paws, Sherby's response is to flop on his side and purr, as if to say "Here let me make it easy for you to love me." Tonight as Wyatt was sitting on my lap snuggling before bedtime, Sherby hopped up on the couch and laid right next to us and nuzzle Wyatt's hand and legs so Wyatt could give him a goodnight pat. We are still working on teaching Wyatt "gentle" but on the whole, he is doing very well being kind to Sherby.

Brian wasn't keen on the idea of a cat. He has emphasized that Sherby is my cat and my responsibility. Of course, this means that Sherby loves him best! But the truth is, I'm pretty sure Brian likes him too! After all, Sherby is pretty darn cute!

Birthday Aftermath

Wyatt sleeping off his 1st birthday bounce house hangover.

Wyatt and Dean sleeping after the party.

Thank You!

Lots of Wyatt's friends (and Mommy and Daddy's friends) and family came to celebrate Wyatt's big day. At work, many of my co-workers have had babies in the last few years and for the first time we got all the Public Defender babies together. Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of them all together. Also, many of our friends have babies Wyatt's age or younger, so our house was filled with babies on Saturday! Thank you to everyone for helping us celebrate Wyatt's first birthday.

All the kids made a beeline for the bounce house

Wyatt and his fan club....

Wyatt's babysitter Theresa and her daughter Leana stopped by.

Too big to be snuggled, too little to really play with the bigger kids. Wyatt, Erin, and Dean chill on the blanket.

Cousin Dean wishing Wyatt a Happy Birthday

Wyatt's 1st Birthday

Mmmm, cake!

Wow, a whole cake just for me!

Do I go for the monkey or the candle?

Monkey Cake!

Daddy didn't want Mommy's birthday to go unnoticed, so he hired Elvis to come sing to her.

Birthday Bounce House

Wyatt and his cousins in his first bounce house.

Checking it out

OK, so that was fun

But I prefer solid ground....

View of the bounce house from the deck

First Words & Other Firsts

Wyatt has been saying "mama" and "dada" for some time now, but recently he has learned some new words. His favorite word right now is "ba" which means both ball and balloon. He also says "ba-ba" for bottle and "mo" for more. He can't say it yet, but when you say "up" he lifts his arms to be picked up. He has also learned how to open doors. He knows that you pull down on the handle, and if the door can be pushed inwards to open it, he will open it. We have also caught him pulling objects over to stand on to reach things he wants! He can stand unassisted for short periods, but hasn't taken a true first step yet. He gets where he needs to go by crawling or cruising around while holding onto furniture or the wall.

Wyatt's first balloon was a Cars balloon. We bought it, even though it was ridiculously expensive, because he loved it so much. It ended up lasting over four weeks, giving Wyatt many hours of fun chasing it around (and thus making us feel like it wasn't so over-priced after all!).

When the Cars balloon finally died he was so sad that Brian went out and bought him a Spider-Man balloon.

Seaworld

A few weeks ago we took Wyatt to Seaworld for the first time. We went with Grandpa Richard, Grandma Margy, Aunt Shannon, Aunt Lori, Jack, Meghan, and Dean. I only managed to take a few pictures, but for a few more, check out Jack & Dean's blog.

While Wyatt liked the animals, his favorite part was the baby play area. First he had to check it out.

But after a few minutes he was ready to explore. Once he got going he never looked back and kept crawling all the way across the play area.

Daddy liked showing Wyatt all the fish. Wyatt really liked going in the tunnel under the sharks because he could see all the sharks swimming all around him.

Wyatt checking out the dolphin. Meghan and Jack fed the dolphins while Wyatt and Dean watched.

Mommy and Wyatt with Daddy, Grandpa, and Aunt Shannon in the background. Wyatt did a good job of waiting for his cousins to feed the dolphins and the bat rays.