Who Needs Crawling?

Wyatt's preffered mode of transportation is log rolling. He rolls all over the place, tumbling over most obstacles and picking up dog hair as he goes. He tries to crawl (unflattering picture #3), but just gets frustrated. Even though he can not crawl, stand or balance, he is trying to pull up on everything. As you can imagine, his attempts usually end in a bump and tears. Such a crazy little guy.
Just about an hour ago Noah was playing on the deck in his 'big car' and drove it off the side. Some how he either jammed or smashed a pinky finger. He got over it quickly and I didn't even realize he had done anything serious to it until about 15 minutes later when it was swollen to twice its normal size and turning purple around the nuckle. He can move it and it doesn't seem to bother him unless I squeeze on it so I just iced it. I'll let you know if we need to take further action. I guess from now till he moves away I can pretty much count on one to two major injuries in a week.

Happy Birthday Jon Conal!

This weekend we celebrated Jon's 6th birthday at the lakehouse. As you can see he had an army theme.
All his guests were issued army hats, shades, watches and a satchel of goodies. Noah had a blast playing with the big kids and whacking his first pinata. Wyatt enjoyed being held by different people all day. Greg got to take the sail boat out a few times. On Sunday we went to see baby Avery get dedicated. In Dene's family there are a bunch of little girls (5 to be exact- I am the only one with boys). I think Noah is a little intimated by that situation. Sunday night Mama G came over and watched the boys so Greg and I could go to a concert with our Church youth and leaders. We saw David Crowder Band and Third Day at the Austin Music Hall. It was a really great concert, but my ears were ringing afterwards. We were pretty worn out after standing for three hours bombarded by soul shaking loud music and crazy lights. It had been so long since we had been to a concert- we feel so old! Greg even wore ear plugs. I didn't bring my camera so no pics. Busy weekend! There are supposed to be four days of rain this week. I forsee a breakout of cabin fever.

Catchin' Up

I'm behind in my blogging! Let's see... last week Noah got a haircut at the mall. It was crooked and not very even so this week I bought some bigger guards for my trimmers and did it myself. It is a little shorter but a whole lot more even. Last weekend we went to the lakehouse. Mom, Dad, G&G Stalcup, the Reuscher family and us all went to Longhorn Caverns. It was a lot of fun even though a little crazy and tiring. We worked on some lakehouse projects and just hung out since it was kinda cold and rainy all weekend. This week seems like it has been really busy but now I can't think of all the reasons why. I did have to take Wyatt to the doctor for a bad rash that kept getting worse with my own treatments. Turns out he has a bad outbreak of Excema. So we have to slather him with Lubriderm and a special cream twice a day. He has to use gentle soaps and we have to be careful of materials and chemicals he comes in contact with. He is already looking better. Hopefully this is something he will out grow. Today was a Molly Day. Here she is hammin it up for the camera.
I got some good pics of our little family while at the cave. This may be the family picture that I mail out to all ya'll if another opportunity doesn't arise.

Brothers in the Bath

I just had to put these two pictures up so everyone can properly compare the two boys. The first is Noah and the second is Wyatt. They are the exact same age. This is one of my all time favorite pictures of Noah. But I don't think this is the best of Wyatt. I think they just take to the camera differently. These pictures help confirm my idea that the flash on my camera is going bad. Anyhow, this was fun!

Deck Days

Wyatt LOVES the new deck. It will give me a little relief during the day. I can set him down with a few toys and do work in the yard or just relax. Right now there is no cover, but that is coming soon so we can enjoy it in the summer without roasting. It is great being married to someone so handy! Greg is designing and building the whole thing.
Noah has had an exciting week. He is riding his bike (with the training wheels) so good now we can go on family bike rides around the neighborhood. We load Wyatt into a trailer behind my bike and we take off. Noah can go for 4 or so miles without a pause and climb some pretty big hills. He loves it much to our excitement. He had a pretty bad crash last week. He wasn't paying attention and got too close to Greg, realized it, over corrected and got himself all twisted up. He fell, busted his chin open and chipped off half a tooth. He waited until they made it all the way home and got the bikes put up before he started crying. Such a strong little guys. We got him all fixed up and the next day he was playing on the half done deck, fell and hit his head on the corner. He had a not the size of a large grape on the back of his head. I was a little freaked out having never seen a bump that size on a head, but Greg assured me that he has had several. The numerous injuries Greg suffered growing up has made him quit the expert on emergency medical care and assessment. Looks like we're going to need it!
Here is Wyatt eating his beloved sweet potatoes. He isn't picky, but he doesn't always enjoy eating as an activity. So when he is being a pill and won't sit still to eat I bring out the sweet potatoes. We keep saying how much like my dad he is, but that is the only food I have ever seen my dad absolutely refuse to touch.

You missed a spot...

Wyatt's mohawk is finally starting to lay down, but it still seems to be growing about 10 times as fast as the rest of the hair on his head. Here he is showing off his first collared shirt. Such a little man. Noah is just showing off. Wyatt is eating more food now. His sensitive stomach is adjusting. He is working on picking small things up with his fingers instead of fisting everything. He had a few sleepless nights last week, of course it had to be when Greg was out of town. However, the past few days he has developed a pretty good sleeping pattern- sleeping for 5 hour stretches and going down at 8:30 and getting up at 7. It has been wonderful even though the doctor says he should be sleeping 8-10 hours straight. But he is just so hungry...

Here Wyatt is 'helping' mow the lawn. He is generally a fussy baby that insists on being entertained so if we want to get anything done we have to do things such as this. He spends a lot of time in a carrier of some sort. That is our veggie garden in the background. Not a lot in it at this time of year, but soon we will planting the good stuff for spring and summer. Noah loves the garden- mostly becuase it is great terrain for his big trucks and there are fun bugs to catch.

Bathing Beauties

Here are Mckenna and Noah after their bath. We visited Mama G's house last weekend. Geoff and Dene were also there with Mckenna and new baby Avery. Noah and Mckenna love playing together. Hard to believe their dads look so much alike.
Someday Wyatt and Avery will be the best of buds too!

Wagging His Tongue...

This is about as happy as Wyatt gets. The title to this entry is appropriate not because Wyatt is a gossip, but because his tongue is always hanging out and his initials are WAG. He will be 6 months on Sunday. We went to the doctor this week because he has a cough. Turns out he has some respiratory virus. Poor thing just can't seem to go more than a month without coming down with something. Noah didn't have a major sickness until he was two. My doctor says Noah is a little vector passing all the little toddler germs to Wyatt. Hopefully all this early exposure will make Wyatt into a tough, disease resistant little boy. At the doctor Wyatt weighed in at 16.5 lbs and 26.5". that means he is long and skinny.

Cave Dwellin'

This past weekend we visited Cascade Caverns near Boerne. We found cave exploring is a great activity on freezing cold winter days in Texas. The caves stay a balmy 65-75 degrees. Warmer than I set the heater! Greg and Wyatt are standing under a ceiling of 'soda straws' that are millions of years old and still growing.

This is my new favorite photo. This is a rare picture of Greg and Wyatt smiling. Noah is a ham, but the other two usually give me a blank look when I point a camera at them. Like father, like son. I think they are the handsomest trio I've ever seen!

A Quilt, A Friend and A Mohawk

I finally finished the quilt I have been working on for Noah. Between a few moves, babies and just the day to day bustle, it took me over two years to get it done! I made it with the scraps from the quilt I made Jon Conal. So Noah and Jon have matching quilts with different designs. Noah is somewhere in this picture.
Yesterday Christie and Ben came over for a visit. The babies were amused by each other and Noah, providing a great break for Christie and I. I love this picture. Ben looks so cherubic while my rascally Wyatt looks a little silly and wild. The tongue sticking out means he is really happy. It comes out everytime he smiles now.
This picture I have to include because it shows off his super funky hair-do. A guy at church asked how a baby with such a cool do could ever be grumpy. Good question...

The Cutest Little Boys Ever!

Really- have you ever seen cuter little boys? We had some pictures taken at The Picture People on saturday. Here are some of the proofs from the sitting.
They turned out pretty good, but I still think Dori takes better pictures!

Sittin' Tall

Wyatt is officially a sitter!! Yes! Now we can sit him down with a few toys and he plays happily for at least a few minutes. Greg packed Wyatt into the wagon today and took him, Noah and the dogs for a walk. The dogs and Noah took turns in the wagon with Wyatt. It was the first successful walk with Wyat not in the baby carrier. He prefers the wagon over his stroller. I was feeding Wyatt cereal, fruit and teething bisquits, but he was having some undesireable reactions. I think my doctor and I narrowed it down to the bisquits. His digestive system is a little sensitive to wheat. So I have had to go back to square one with rice cereal mixed with breast milk. Some days he will eat and others he refuses anything on a spoon. We will just have to take it slow!

Happy Birthday Noah!

Noah's birthday was on Monday. Saturday we had a little get together at the lakehouse to celebrate. Mama G made a massive Dora the Explorer cake for him. For a 'gift optional party', Noah hauled some serious loot. Greg and I got him a 1:18 scale Herbie VW bug. This week he has carried it around like a little girl would carry a doll. He talks to him and let me know what Herbie is feeling. It is very cute. Saturday was a milestone for Wyatt. His first tooth broke through. It was his first happy day in weeks. He is almost sitting up.
Wednesday Noah attended his first gymnastics class. There is a full blown competitive gymnastics facility a couple miles from our house. They offer a preschool class so I enrolled Noah. He LOVED it. He hung from the uneven bars, jumped on the tramp, ran around on the springy floor and, Noah's favorite, did flips and dives into a pit full of foam cubes. All the time him and Greg have spent doing tricks and wrestling has made Noah quite the little monkey. I'll try to get pictures at some point.

Thanks to Christie for the pictures! I didn't take any and I haven't seen Dori's yet!

Roly Poly

Growing like a weed, Wyatt is learning new stuff every day. As soon as I lay him down to play he flips onto his tummy. I set him down today so I could do the dishes. I looked over at him after about 5 minutes and he had rolled himself about 5 feet from where he started and was headin' down the hallway. That is when I got this picture of him on his elbows.

He is a sweet boy, but he is my more challenging baby. He doesn't sleep as much as Noah did and he is rarely happy if he is not being held and walked around. He makes sure you know it when he is upset with very loud protesting. Greg has even gone so far as to put in ear plugs when trying to soothe him. Wyatt gets his strong vocals from him, even though Greg claims it is my dad's voice.
Wyatt will be 5 months on Sunday and Noah turns 3 on Monday. The next update will probably be all about Noah's birthday bash this weekend. Not really a bash, but Noah will think so.

Let it Snow!

We are back from our ski trip! We spent 6 days in Steamboat Springs, CO. We had a blast. We went with Greg's parents. Mama G stayed in the condo with the boys and cooked for us. She made the whole trip possible. Papa G, Greg and I spent our days on the slopes. Greg and I were so excited to get back on our snowboards after 3 years. Papa G is a smokin' skier. Steamboat is a huge mountain with numerous lifts and more runs than we could do in 4 days. The snow was perfect- a more than four foot base and great powder from an earlier snow storm.
As you can see, Noah LOVED the snow. He built a snowman (obviously made by Texans that didn't know what they were doing), made snow angels, threw snow at his parents, went sledding (down some pretty big hills), rode the Gondola, rode on the snowboard with dad and drank several gallons of Mama G's homemade hot chocolate.
Greg and are now recovering from our first vacation with kids. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it to see how much fun Noah had and to get to do one of our most favorite sports. We can't wait to get Noah into ski school in the next couple of years. There are not many pictures of Wyatt on this trip because he HATED the cold weather and snow. We walked into the ski town the first night for dinner and he was miserable. So he stayed in the condo the whole trip with just a few little 'outings' onto the balcony. That was enough CO for him. Don't worry- he enjoyed all the attention he got from his grandparents.
We have some great video of us on the slopes and of Noah sledding. Check back to see if I was able to figure out how to post them from here.

Photos From Dori

I love this picture! Of course Dori was the one that made it happen. I took the picture but it was with her camera while she was holding him. The best pictures of my boys are always when she is around! This is the smile that melts me and that I get to see every day. We took all these at Christmas. I know that makes them almost a whole month outdated, but they were just so good I had to share them. There are more on Dori's website.

Feelin' Betta

As you can see, Wyatt is feeling better. His fever broke on Wednesday, so the doctor didn't do anymore tests. We are just making sure the fever doesn't come back and nothing else unusual happens. Besides a little cough, he seems to be doing pretty good. In this picture he is laughing at Riley. He smiles whenever he catches sight of either of the dogs. He especially loves it when Riley sneezes or licks his hand.
Today he is having a smiley day, but I am still unable to get a really good picture of one. Whenever he sees the camera he just becomes mesmorized. I think it is because my camera is encased in shiny metal and has a short little flash before it takes the picture, so by the time it actually takes he has stopped smiling and I just get a big wide eyed stare.
We go back to the doctor next week for his immunizations. Hopefully that will be the last we see of her for a while. I haven't written much about Noah lately. Here he is about to turn in for the night. This picture makes me feel cozy. Noah will be 3 in a couple of weeks. We are attempting potty training, and failing so far. It is harder work for the parents than the toddler. We just need to buckle down and commit.

Shoo Flu

What a crazy day we have had! Today was supposed to be Wyatt's 4 month check-up. He woke up this morning with a little fever, no other symptoms, so I gave him some Tylenol and just figured he had a little cold and it was a good thing we were already planning on going to the doctor. When we got to the doctor's office his fever was 103! This is super high for such a tiny baby so the doctor started running tests on him. The first thing she found was some fluid in his ears- not a full blown infection and too minor to warrant the high fever. When the RSV and Flu cultures came out negative we decided the next step should be to do a blood and urine test to test for bacterial infections, which is most often what babies Wyatt's age have when the fever is so high. They had to catheterize him, which was miserable for all of us. His bladder was empty to they couldn't get a sample. They gave him a shot similiar to penicillin (in both legs!) to cure any possible ear infections and it will also help fight most viruses. We were at the doctor's office for three hours. Wyatt was tired and feeling bad before the visit and by the end of it he was just rung- so was I. Nursing him was the only thing that calmed him. Two hours into it all, a lady Greg works with had to come rescue Noah and take him to Greg's office because Greg couldn't get away. Noah had a tramatic, no nap day too.
We got back the blood test results around 8 this evening and everything looks good. There is no bacterial infection in the blood and his white blood cells seem to be strong and fighting whatever it is he has. For now we are monitoring his fever, giving him Tylenol and I am nursing him as much as possible. So far, all he really wants to do is sleep. I don't blame him after the rough day he has had. Tomorrow we go back. If the fever has broke and he is eating fine then it was probably some crazy virus that his body and the shot are fighting. If he still has a fever then we have to try to get a urine sample again and run more tests. I'm sure he will be fine- it is most likely he has a Flu strain that the test they did wasn't able to catch- that happens about 5% of the time. But I know I won't get much sleep tonight worrying about him and checking on him.
Otherwise he is a healthy boy. He weighed in at 14lbs 14oz and 25 inches long. My friend Christie had her little boy 5 days before Wyatt and they also had his 4 month check today. He is the exact same weight and length as Wyatt. Isn't that crazy? I will keep everyone posted on how all this pans out.

I just had to post more to brag about Wyatt and show these pictures. Wyatt loves taking baths with dad. In the bath he kicks his legs nostop. Maybe he will be a swimmer. Now that he is past the 3 month mark (actually, he is 4 months today), his development has really taken off. He is much more interested in us now. He squeals and laughs and 'talks' all the time. He is grabbing everything he can get his hands on. As of New's Year Eve day he is rolling over. He has been able to roll from his tummy to his back since he was three weeks old, but now he can roll from his back to his tummy. He only wants to stand and sit up these days. Neither of which he can do on his own yet. I remember these days with Noah and how it seemed to take forever before he could sit and play on his own. In reality it is only a couple of months, so I am trying to enjoy this stage and accept that the laundry will just have to wait.
Here is Wyatt's first time to eat! I mixed a little breast milk with rice cereal and he LOVED it. After about two bites he had it figured out. He was opening his mouth in anticipation and sucking off every drop. Since then I have fed him something every evening. In addition to the cereal he has had pears, apples and carrots. So far I have been unable to satiate him. It seems like he could eat forever. He gets soooo mad when I stop feeding him. He has a doc appt on Tuesday and I am going to ask her how much solid food I should be giving him. He hasn't had any problems with digestion, but it hasn't really helped him sleep like so many books say it will. I guess he is just a hungry, growing guy.

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe these are the ONLY pictures I have from Christmas?! Hopefully Dori got some good ones and I took video. Despite all of us being dreadfully ill, Christmas was awesome. Here Meme is reading 'The Night Before Christmas' to Noah on Christmas Eve. I think this picture caught him in mid-sniff. Noah loves every gift. He plays with them all- even The Family Guy 'action figure' Meme got him! (It's a dad with a little boy in a carrier on his back- Noah says it is dad with baby Noah) He got tons of cars from Santa and the family. He got so many presents that he requested a nap before he could even finish unwrapping them all. Noah, Dacy and Wyatt all had to take a break before a second round of gift unwrapping.
Wyatt really likes his toys, but he LOVED the tissue paper they all came in. He laid there for quit a while wallowing in the paper. This shot shows his little punk mohawk really well.
The day after Christmas we went to Geoff and Dene's for Christmas #2. We met new baby Avery for the first time. Noah and Mckenna play really well together. Mama G and Papa G spoiled us all. The rest of the week was devoted to recovering from Christmas and getting healthy again. Noah had a serious ear infection in both ears and pink eye!
We hope every one had a Merry Christmas and we wish you a Happy New Year!