Merry Christmas!

The holiday season is almost behind us. We had a ton of fun and are still enjoying Dustin's time off from work and time spent with family. There's a lot to catch up on, but for now, please enjoy this video clip of Southern and two of his cousins dancing in Grandma's living room on Christmas Eve. So cute!

Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE

Southern recently received one of his Christmas presents early. It was a trip to San Antonio to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live! :) I was so excited to take him and was anticipating this day for weeks.


I didn't know if he would really understand what was going on until we got there and actually saw the characters he knows and loves, but he did. When we were a few minutes away from the event, I told him we were going to see Yo Gabba Gabba. And he screamed in excitement and threw up him arms!! What a smart little guy. In the short video clip below, you can see his reaction:



We drove up and found a parking spot fairly quickly. We went inside, found our seats, and after a short wait, the show started. Southern was wide-eyed at first and couldn't look away from what was going on in front of him. It was so fun to see how much he enjoyed it. And from watching the show with him at home, I was familiar with all the characters, songs, and dances as well so I even enjoyed it all myself. In this video clip, you can watch a bit of the YGG gang starting off the fun. The first few seconds are a little shaky as Southern was bouncing in my lap to the beat:




In total, the show lasted about an hour and a half with one 15-min intermission. We were close enough to see everything well but not so close that the tickets cost a fortune. I was very pleased with it all. In this video clip, you can see the beginning of the balloon song that is from one of Southern's favorite YGG episodes:

During this song, hundreds of balloons were dropped onto us from the ceiling. I think that was Southern's favorite part of the night. And we got four to take home with us. I'm so glad we did this for our little guy. He really had a lot of fun, and he kept waving good-bye to the YGG gang even as we walked out into the parking lot to get into the car! :)

Apple

Southern's new favorite word to say...





(shown in the video above)

Circle of Life

My last post was a very sad one. But life has it's ups and downs. And in the words of Alan Jackson in one of Dustin's favorite songs, "Remember when old ones died and new were born. And life was changed, disassembled, rearranged..."

So today we have a happy announcement. Southern is going to be a big brother! I am 10 weeks pregnant right now. We went to the doctor yesterday and got to hear the heartbeat and see this tiny new baby wiggle around on the screen.

Here is a picture in 3-D. You can see the head near the middle and the umbilical cord near the bottom right.




Here is a still photo of the heartbeat. The ultrasound tech said it was at a normal level for a baby of this age.

And the last photo just shows our little one again. The head is on the left, and you can see tiny hands and feet. The light spot near the head is the heart. I could see it throbbing on the screen as she took these.

I didn't actually get to see my doctor during this visit. She was called away to deliver a baby right after I had my ultrasound done, so I will have more details later. Right now we just know our baby is alive and healthy, and that's what's most important.

We'll Miss You, Poppy!

Southern missed meeting one of his great-grandfathers, Jackie Ehlers, by 6 months. And now we have another sad annoucement. Another great-grandfather, Earl Wyatt, has passed from this earth. He and Southern had a wonderful relationship in the past 18 months. Poppy was so proud of Southern and was always interested in what he was doing and learning. I am so happy for all the memorable visits we shared, but I am saddened that Southern most likely won't remember him when he's older. Thank goodness for pictures...

Poppy and DeDe came to visit us in the hospital on Southern's 2nd day of life. They were so excited :)

When Southern was just a couple weeks old, we celebrated Easter in Yoakum with family. Here is the whole Wyatt gang.

Poppy and Southern in their first picture alone together. Southern was about 3 1/2 months old. Poppy and DeDe were taking turns holding him on the couch and Dustin snapped this picture as they were walking us to the door before we left.
And more recently, here are Poppy and Southern together at the "Country Place" near Petersville at the beginning of this month. Poppy enjoyed showing Southern his cows, and Southern of course just loved it. I think cows may be his favorite animal. He can out-moo a cow any day!



I only wish that Southern could have spent more time with him in the years to come. What a shock to hear about Poppy's passing when he was so healthy and full of life. There was so much to learn from Poppy, and Southern loves learning so I always pictured them doing so much together. Poppy was one of the greatest men I knew. He will be missed dearly.

We love you, Poppy!

Pumpkin Patch

This year was Southern's 2nd year to visit the pumpkin patch in Seguin. Dustin and I discovered in while in college at TLU, and we've been going every year since. Here's us back in 2006.

And here's Southern's first trip to see the pumpkins in 2009...

And here's our little guy this year... not so little anymore!

Wish List Follow-up

So the pull-along dog toy and the chatter phone are both purchased and ready for Southern to enjoy on Christmas. What a lucky boy! :)

Christmas Wish List

We are only 70 sleeps away from Christmas! :) And time is flying by. Since I've already gotten a few questions on what is on Southern's Christmas wish list this year, I decided to take the time to sit down and make one.



First off, his sizes:
tops - 2T or larger
bottoms - 24 month or larger
shoes - 7 or larger
pajamas - 3T or larger for the fitted kind, 2T or larger on the loose styles

At Target, there are some "retro" toys they carry that he would like - specifically the jack in the box. He has played with it there before and didn't want to put it back on the shelf. There's also the old fashioned "chatter phone" there that he likes to play with - my grandparents have the original vintage one at their house.



He would also really like the Fisher Price dog pull toy pictured here. It can be found at Wal-Mart for around $10. He played with it once at the library and fell in love.

And speaking of the library, there are a few books that we have checked out more than once since he likes them so much - 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle; Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin, and Bruno Munari's Zoo. He enjoys books with animals or modes of transportation best.

As I mentioned before, he likes to watch Yo Gabba Gabba. He also likes Sid the Science Kid, Dora the Explorer, and Blue's Clues, but his absolute favorite show is The Upside Down Show. DVDs, toys, CDs, etc on any of these characters would be great, but The Upside Down Show DVDs would be most appreciated since that show only comes on TV once a day late at night.


We've got some Schleich animal figures, and he loves to play with them so adding to that collection would be great. They can be found at Target and TSC.

And in general, he likes dinosaurs, cars, tractors, trains, animals, puzzles, blocks, music, and books. He also likes role-playing toys, like working with tools like Daddy, cooking equipment like Mommy, etc. He's easy to please and fun to shop for. Hopefully I've given everyone interested some good ideas! :)

18 Months Old

Friday was a busy day. Dustin had off from school, and we spent the day together having fun. We decided to treat ourselves to lunch out at a Mexican resturant and then went to get the boys' hair cut. There's a new hair-cutting place by the newly built HEB, and they had a kid's airplane chair. Awesome! Southern enjoyed himself and didn't mind her cutting his hair at all while he drove his plane.

We came home for a nap, and then later that afternoon, we had Southern's 18-month doctor appointment. It went well. He got three shots, including his flu shot. The doctor wasn't worried at all about Southern not talking yet since he shows all the signs of talking soon. He weighed 27 pounds (about 65th percentile) and measured 34 inches long (about 92nd percentile). That puts him at 3 inches taller than the average 18-month-old! He gained a little over 3 lbs in the last 3 months and grew over an inch.

Mailbox Fun

As a new mother, you learn all sorts of things. One thing I have learned is that just about anything can be a "toy" to a child. Who knew mailboxes could be so fun?

Happy 28th Birthday, Daddy!

Almost two weeks ago Dustin turned 28 years old.

It's amazing how quickly one year can fly by...

Getting Crabby

Here's a cute little video of Southern in his newest pool. I couldn't pass it up at Target - on clearance for just 3 bucks! We have a pool for just about every occasion and every stage in Southern's life now ;) We're going to move it outside and fill it up with water tomorrow. But as you can tell, it's very fun even without water!

Scentsy Baby

Here is a look into the results of my first Scentsy party as a Scentsy Independant Consultant :)

I had a little worker "helping" me sort out the orders...

17 Months Old

At 17 months old, our little Southern is an observant, energetic little guy. He picks up new tricks easily and constantly. He can climb up and down the stairs upright while holding my hand, and when he's ready to go down he'll motion at me with his arm that he's ready for my help.

We go to the library a few times a week, and he enjoys interacting with the other kids there. Also, he can check out our books. He knows to scan the bar codes and can do it by himself once I point them out to him and help hold the scanner.

He still enjoys riding in his stroller but wants to be down exploring more often. He loves nature and is already a rock collector like his daddy.

He loves learning. We go through multiple books every day, and he likes for me to name the different animals/objects in the pictures. He'll point to each one and then look at me to say what it is.

He's good at giving hugs and kisses. He is more clingy with his daddy now that school's started up again. He really misses him during the day. He knows when I say "Daddy's home," to get excited and run to the door to greet him when he's returning from work.

Up

We love watching movies together as a family. We have Netflix, so we have access to thousands of movies instantly... not to mention all of the DVD possibilities. So when we have extra time (which is usually at night anyway), we like to watch movies together. We make popcorn, snuggle on the couch under a blanket, and watch while we munch. Usually, Southern will watch for a few minutes (or until he is full of popcorn) and then run around, play with his toys, etc. during the rest of the movie.

Well, not with Up. He sat through the entire thing with his eyes glued to the screen. During the "bad" parts (when the villain was ahead), he would point at the TV and grunt. He knew they weren't being nice.

And when we paused it to take a potty break, he stayed on the couch gesturing to the TV so we knew he wasn't going to rest until the movie concluded. I don't know what it was about this movie that interested him so much, but it was so fun to share this experience with him.

Tagged!

I was tagged by my good friend Jessica at Country Boy and City Girl (http://www.countryboyandcitygirl.com/) so I must answer the next 8 questions.


1. What is your greatest achievement?

Obviously, it's Southern! He constantly amazes me. He's growing and learning things so quickly. I like to attribute some of that to all of the time and energy I spend on him and for him, but I know he should take some credit as well. Just little things he does make me so proud. I can tell him to wiggle his toe, and he knows to stick out his foot and start wiggling. How many 16-months olds know that?!? :)


2. What is your worst habit?

Yikes! Well, I guess it depends on who you ask, but I would say it's my shopping habit. I love it too much!! ;) At least I'm always getting good deals, and we don't use credit cards anymore, so it's not that bad.


3. What did you want to be when you "grew up"?

At different points in my life it varied from a secretary to an interior designer to a worker at Dairy Queen (access to all those steak fingers... what more could you want in life?). But through it all, I've always wanted to be a wife and mommy, so I guess you can say my wish came true. {And here's the *aww* moment. As my Aunt BeBe pointed out, my posts usually do have one of those.}

4. What is your favorite childhood memory?

Definitely the trips to Port A with my extended family. I love those guys :) Wish we could do it again.

5. How did you decide on the name for your blog?

I created it before we knew Southern's gender so we didn't have his name settled on yet. And it's a blog all about him, so Baby Wyatt it was.

6. What is your favorite place to go out to eat?

I love going out to eat most anywhere, but my current favorite is Cracker Barrel. It's kid friendly, and they have really good homemade tasting food.

7. What is the last book that you read?

Right now I'm going through the China Bayles mysteries. {I recommend them, Jessica!} They all take place in a small (fictional) Texas town located between San Antonio and Austin so the hometown references are fun. Plus, they keep you guessing until the end. And mixed in are recipes and info about plants. Too cool. (They're by Susan Wittig Albert.)

8. What is your favorite family tradition?

Old - Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's house. No matter where we are in our lives (or in Texas!) we all gather together on that evening every year no matter what. And by all, I mean all 25+ of us and growing. The presents are pretty awesome, but my favorite part of the holidays is family.

New - Another Christmas-ish tradition, stockings on St. Nick's Day (December 6th). Some families open up stockings on Christmas, but it is a lot more fun (and a perfect opportunity to teach Southern about a saint instead of a jolly ol' non-denominational guy... no offense, Santa) to spread the gift-giving out a little. And this year will be especially fun with Southern old enough to realize what's going on.

A Day at the Library

The Wyatts are now proud card-carrying members of the New Braunfels Public Library. That was one of my goals this summer, and ever since we made that first trip over to get our cards, Southern and I have gone at least twice a week. We would have gotten them sooner, but I wanted Dustin to be a part of the special day.

So here we are, the whole Wyatt family...

Southern sure does love the children's room in the library.

He has fun playing with the toys.

And he especially loves having a chance to interact with other kids.

So we try to go often. It's great having an alternative to the park during these hot summer days!

Southern's Sounds

At 16 months old, Southern is not officially "talking", but he is saying words. As I've said in the past, he has different sounds he makes such as "do" for dog, "da" for ball, "t" for cat, and "du" for duck. His latest word is giraffe, though when he says it, it comes out more like "girf". It's exciting to hear him making strides each day.

He also makes noises for other animals. When he sees a certain animal, he will make the noise they make. He can hiss like a snake, baa like a sheep, neigh like a horse, moo like a cow, bark like a dog, meow like a cat, and growl for dinosaurs, lion, tigers, etc. It's funny the things kids pick up. We have a painting on Southern's wall (that was painted by his Granny Denise) that he likes to point at each morning. There are cows on it, so after he points, he will moo.

He must have gotten that from his dad. Dustin's great aunt Georgia told us a funny story not too long ago. When Dustin was little, he and his mom visited her at her house in Houston. They were sitting in her kitchen talking, and baby Dustin kept making this funny noise. It took them awhile to figure out what he was doing - there were cows on her wallpaper border, so he was mooing! And she said that when they got that room re-wallpapered years later, she saved a strip of that cow print because it always reminded her of him. So sweet :)

First Professional Haircut

As you all know, Southern got his first haircut at home on Good Friday. While I think we did a pretty good job at it, it was shorter than I wanted. And it was hard to do! I have been cutting Dustin's hair with a buzzer and scissors for a few years now, but he holds still. Southern doesn't. So I decided we should go to a professional this time. I found this really cool place for kids - ironically named Cool Cuts 4 Kids - where they have video games and toys, and the younger ones can get their hair cut in a fire truck or a car. Very fun! We drove on over to the Forum and stopped at the store.

Once inside, we were greeted and told to sign in. They didn't have prices listed on their website, but I assumed it would be about $10-15. Well, we now saw that they were $18. That's more than we pay for my haircuts! Oh well, we'll deal with it. There were 3 kids in line in front of us with 2 people working so it would be a bit of a wait. Okay, we'll deal with the wait too. There were video game stations (that Daddy played with), some stuffed animals, a train track, and blocks (all that Southern played with). So we played... and played... and played...

One hour later, we still don't have a haircut. One lady had just finished up with a customer, checked them out, sold them some hair gel, and was cleaning up her station. We're up next, right? WRONG! She then clocks out and walks to the break room. That's it. Dustin's had it. No one had talked to us for over an hour, and then she just walks off. He proclaimed the haircut cancelled. Luckily, I had noticed a Super Cuts in the same strip of shops as the one we were in. So we walked over there and were told our wait would only be a few minutes.It wasn't as kid friendly, but oh well. We were getting that haircut no matter what now!

She calls our name and asks if we would like to hold Southern or if he will sit on his own. We said just to try whatever was best for her. So she plops a cushion down on the chair, and we sit Southern on top of it. She whips out a kid-sized cape, and off we go.

She put it around Southern, and he starts snuggling with it! I guess he thought it was a blanket.

Then she brings out the comb and squirt bottle. Southern didn't know what to think!

But she squirts and combs, and he is doing fine.

Daddy had to help hold his head while she cut around the ears so he wouldn't move.

Still holding while she trims around the ears...

And then he gives Dustin a look as if to say, alright Dad, that's enough. I'm a big boy.

So Dustin lets go and Southern is just sitting like a pro, getting his hair cut so calmly.

But then he starts to get squirmy. Daddy distracts him by pointing out the different animals on his cape.

That worked for a little while. Then that was it! Southern started crying and wiggling. I had to sit down and hold him on my lap with his head up against my shoulder and Dustin holding his arms as she finished the last few snips. It was nap time, and he was letting us know it!

We got him out of there and into the car where he soon fell asleep. At least his hair looks good now!! And lesson learned... just go to the cheap place first next time!

New Car

Southern experienced something new this past Friday - buying a new car. I have driven the same car since I started driving at age 16. My trusty ol' 1998 black Honda CR-V. It has been such a great car that I couldn't imagine driving anything other than a Honda. While my car is perfect for a single girl or a couple, it started getting a little cramped with a baby on board. It was getting hard to try to carry everything we now need on trips - car seat, high chair, play pen, etc. But my CR-V is just perfect for zipping around. It gets great gas mileage, is easy to drive, and can carry a large amount of cargo for its size.

Dustin's car, on the other hand, has been having problems since he bought it. It was his 2nd car. He got it his senior year of high school. His Paw-Paw is the one who actually spotted it and drove it home for Dustin to try out. He loved it, but it has been costing us money over the years. It was mainly just little things - chipping exterior paint, control knobs popping off, vinyl peeling up inside, windows not rolling down, cargo light falling off, doors not staying open, etc. But then there was also the failed transmission that no matter how many times we got it "fixed" we would still occasionally find new red stains in our driveway. So it was decided that if we ever got a new car, his would be the one to go. And sadly, last week was the last time he will ever drive it. I got a video of that final drive...

It was with us through his senior year of high school. We went to prom in it that year. It saw us through college, two moves since Dustin's TLU graduation, and it was the car that Southern and I would wait on the front porch to see driving home to us in the afternoons of Southern's first 15 months of life. We'll miss it.

But in order to expand our family, we will have to have a vehicle that can hold everyone and all the stuff that comes along with us. So we've been casually looking a larger SUVs for the past few months. I came across one on the internet just last week that really caught our attention. We stopped by to look at it one evening, which led to us test driving it the next day, which led to us buying it the next afternoon. Our "new" car is a 2004 Honda Pilot. It is "loaded" with leather, nice speakers, a CD player, and even a tape player! It has the third row that we needed and is in almost perfect condition. It had belonged to a doctor who would use it for his commute from East San Antonio to South Austin during the week. Only the front seat shows wear. It was just too good of a deal to pass up.

So now my car is Dustin's commuter, his truck is for his hunting and fishing adventures, and our new Honda Pilot is our family vehicle. The only thing we need next is a bigger driveway!