7 months

Wyatt is going to be crawling and sitting up in no time. He can get on all fours when he really wants a toy that is out of his reach and sort of scoot closer to grab it. He also rolls around the floor and puts everything that he can get his hands on into his mouth. He's been eating two meals a day for about a week. He's tried, bananas, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, peas, carrots and avocados. Avocados are his favorite by a long shot with carrots coming in second. The only thing that he does not seem to like are bananas. He can never finish his bowl of those.

He's suddenly fallen into a sleep schedule and literally went from a terrible napper one day to a two nap a day baby the next. It's a relief to be able to get him down without endless screaming. His naps range from 1 to 3 hours long in the morning and afternoon. He goes down at about 9:30 am and then again around 1:30ish depending on the length of his morning nap and after I've put Jack to bed for his nap. I always nurse him to sleep. At night, I start getting him ready for bed around 7 and he's usually sleeping by 8. He's still waking twice a night around 1 am and 4 am, but he nurses for just a few minutes and he goes right back to sleep. I usually fall asleep while I am feeding him, so I don't think I am missing out on too much sleep.

I think that this month is going to be interesting as he becomes more and more mobile! I'll keep you posted!

First Haircut

I have been constantly sweeping Wyatt's hair out of his eyes and, to Rob's dismay, using the old spit on the fingers to hold back his locks. So during his bath tonight, Rob cut off his long, dark newborn hair. He was left with a head of super soft, adorable, blonde fuzz. As Rob was making the first snip, I did have a quick feeling of - wait, he's growing too fast, but I am already looking forward to seeing him in the morning to take in his new look. 

Just for fun, here is a picture from Jack's very first haircut. He was about 8 months old. 

The beach through Jack's eyes

Remember when Jack, Wyatt and I went to the beach the first day of February? Well, Jack brought along his camera too and I finally uploaded his pictures. They made me smile. He's quite the little photographer.

It's really funny that he took a picture of this house...It's currently the most famous house in our town since it's been renovated and featured on the show "This Old House" for the past few weeks. 

*all photos by Jack

Happy Spring (or Summer?)

Today was warm enough to break out the water table from the garage. Jack has been asking to play with it for months now (even on freezing cold days) and today was finally warm enough! I told him yesterday if it was warm enough outside we could play with it today and the first words out of his mouth this morning when he came into our room were, can I play with my water table? He can spend hours just filling up that watering can and emptying it back out. I really think it was the best money on a toy that we've spent.

Also, it was warm enough for Wyatt to be in just his diaper for a little while... 

Pinterest challenge: Yarn Wreath

I have always loved a good DIY project and pinterest (my guilty pleasure) is the culprit for making my To Do list about a mile long! There is so much inspiration to be had there. It's so easy to get lost in the images.

Well a couple of my favorite bloggers are hosting a pinterest challenge. The goal is to find a pin that inspires you and then you put your own spin on it! Very fun and a kick in the pants to stop pinning and actually create something!

The hosts for this challenge are:

Sherry from Young House Love

Katie from Bower Power Blog

Erin from The Great Indoors

Cassie from Hi Sugarplum

I admit I am a little impatient and once I get started on a project, I want instant gratification, so I am always intrigued by the simple and fast ones (of course they have to be pretty too!) This yarn wreath fit the bill. Here is my pin:

Source: ishouldbefoldinglaundry.com via Stephanie on Pinterest

Funnily enough, before I had even heard of pinterest, I made another yarn wreath which was much more time consuming (but just as easy).

I know that this one has been all over blog-land, but I had so much fun making it and was so happy with how it turned out that I thought it would be perfect to share here.

For the most part, I followed this tutorial, by Jo-Anna at A pretty life in the Suburbs.

Instead of a styrofoam wreath, I used a straw wreath. I didn't even bother to remove the plastic from around the wreath to avoid little bits of straw getting all over me and the couch while I wrapped. 

I started with a dab of hot glue to secure the yarn and then I wrapped. Really, that's all there is to it, just wrapping round and round. I didn't bother to line up each row of yarn. I actually prefer the random look. If I noticed a bare spot, I just wound my way back to cover it up. Easy. 

Once I was happy with the coverage around the wreath I used a dab of hot glue to secure the end of the yarn. (I glued my flowers over this spot.)

This is where Jo-Anna's tutorial came in really handy. Hop on over there for more detailed instructions.  

Here was my process in pictures...

Once I had enough, I hot glued the rosettes onto my wreath. I only ended up using one yellow and one gray 8 x 11 piece of felt for all of them. 

This was such and simple and satisfying project. I can't wait to make some more of them!

Wyatt's 6 month stats

Wyatt had his six month check up on Friday. So along with his stats, I thought that it would be a good time to share what else he's been up to, since that baby book that I bought for him is still sitting on the shelf, completely empty and I need to write it down somewhere.

Two tiny teeth have finally worked their way up through his gums and all of that drool that had been pouring from his mouth has finally slowed down, for now. I noticed his bottom right tooth broke through on February 27th and couple days later the left one appeared. He was pretty cranky throughout this process and was sleeping horribly (up every 3ish hours or more). Since the teeth have come in, he's been sleeping a little better. We put him down around 8 and he's usually up at 11 and then at 3 or 4. I nurse him at these times and he usually goes right back to sleep and has been sleeping until about 7 or 7:30! I'll take that. We finally stopped swaddling him (I think we stopped when he was sick a couple of weeks ago) so he's in a sleep sack now and as soon as I put him down, he always rolls right over onto his tummy. He's still in our room, but rapidly growing out of the co-sleeper. We are hoping he'll be sleeping better before we move him into their shared room and into the crib that he has yet to sleep in.

Wyatt is a terrible napper. (although, as I type, he's just waking up from a two hour nap in his bed.) He's so unpredictable. I try to put him down at around the same times, but he usually screams his head off. The best chance I have for a nap is when we are out and about and he falls asleep in the car.

So far he's tried, sweet potatoes, bananas, and oatmeal. He LOVES the oatmeal and he's coming around to bananas. We'll have to try the sweet potatoes again. He still has to work on not pushing the food out with his tongue. He grabs at the spoon and pulls it to his mouth. It's very cute. I gave him a sippy cup with water tonight and let him hold the cup to try to figure it out. He managed to take a few sips, but mostly he wanted to bite and lick it.

He's been rolling around the living room and sometimes he sort of scoots his way over to a toy he wants.  It won't be long before he's crawling and the doctor said he'll be pulling himself up soon too! He's not quite sitting up on his own yet. He can sit for a few seconds before he tips over, which he thinks is pretty funny.

He wears mostly 9 month size clothes. He still fits in some 6 months sizes, but not for much longer.

So at his check up he weighed 17 lbs (40%) and he's 27 inches (80%) long. The doctor mentioned that his motor skills were very advanced for his age and his language skills were not as advanced as Jack's were at 6 months. She said this is common for second babies. I was just amazed that she could pick up on that detail in the 10 minutes we were with her. It's so true though, Wyatt doesn't babble as much as Jack did. (by the way, She said not to worry about this at all.) She told us to keep doing what we're doing, because he's perfect. :)

My DIY potty chart

We've been on this potty training adventure for awhile now. Jack definitely gets it. He knows what it feels like to have to go and he knows how to go without our help. However, he rarely announces that he has to use the potty on his own. I am constantly reminding and asking him and he usually says no, he doesn't have to go. It's not until I bribe him that he willingly goes. If I miss the opportunity and don't bribe him at the right time, he has accidents.

Chocolate had been our (his) bribe of choice and I realized the other day, that by the end of the day, he's practically eaten an entire candy bar by giving him a small piece with every success on the potty. So the other day, I announced that we were out of chocolate (not true, you will always find chocolate in this house) and told him, with all of the enthusiasm I could muster, that we were going to try something new - a Sticker chart! I didn't exactly have a plan when I mentioned this to him so I didn't have anything ready to go the next time he went on the potty. Good thing he's got a great memory, because he reminded me that he wanted his sticker chart (didn't even ask for chocolate), so off the Staples we went.

We came home with poster board, markers and star stickers that he picked out. We had the foam letters and vehicle stickers on hand. Obviously, it's nothing fancy. He gets 1 sticker for pee and 2 for poop. When he gets to a big colored spot on the chart, he gets a special sticker and a small prize.

His first prize was silly putty. I haven't figured out what the others will be...Maybe a matchbox car or a small book. I feel much better about this than giving him chocolate every time. Hopefully, by the time he get's to the end, he'll be potty trained! (and if not, I bought some extra poster board.)