A Cook's Beginnings

Wesley and I had our first real experience cooking together. We made pumpkin pancakes. They were yummy.

Wesley's favorite parts were scooping and pouring the flour and then stirring everything together. He was so excited about the flour that he actually continued to practice this skill with extra flour while I set up and completed some of the other steps.

He was very good about stirring the mixture gently. He was focused and careful and did a great job.



Month 15

Wesley continues to be a cute spectacle as he jerky-leg runs up and down the sidewalks and all around town. By the end of the month he has started to bend his knees more when running. His new technique has paid off in increased speed.

Wesley is in a really adorable phase of early running, highly affectionate, pretty happy (except when teeth are bothering him), very silly, and increasingly capable toddlerhood.




Of course the highlight of this month was the visit by my parents (so amazing).

The shocker of the month was that Wesley pushed through TWO TEETH AND A MOLAR. I think there is still one tiny corner of the molar that has not yet emerged (after about two weeks during which at least some of it has been poking through). YIKES. He soothes himself by nursing. We have had a really hard time of it. Poor guy.

Language
Wesley continues his love of letters. He is ravenous for words and letters. He is so delighted when he sees letters that he recognizes around town ("A" on the CHASE bank sign, "T" on the side of a van, etc). We'll be walking up the street and all of a sudden I hear a little "ah ah ah" by my side and he's found a letter A.

I can see that what was a continual "BLLAAAHHH" for garbage sightings at the beginning of the month is starting to transform into new games of amusement. Primarily, a game Wesley created and plays with himself, the Find a Letter game. He loves finding letters and hearing the sounds of letters.

Letters for which Wesley says the phonic sound:
A, a, B, D, F, H, M, N, P, T, W, V, Z

Wesley's successful matches

Wesley has really upped the baby babble this month. Most of his "words" are still a single syllable/first sound of a word or sound effects ("woof"). He's added a few. He now says "ff" for finger, fish, and flower (when he doesn't just sniff his nose or make a bzzz sound for bees he associates with flowers). and "tr" for truck. also "puh-puh" for pumpkin, "bo" for boat, "boo" for ghost. He points to his wrist for watch.

He has refined many of his animal noises. His seagull, which he picked up on his own after chasing them on the beach, sounds shockingly like a seagull. He does it only for seagulls, and it's way better than any seagull noise I could have suggested.

Memory
Wesley's memory amazes me. If we walk by a house one day and we see a new dog, then the next time we walk by the house, even if it's four days later, he'll "woof" like a dog at the fence. We three walked to town one beautiful Sunday morning and there was a bush FULL of loud red-winged blackbirds. I had forgotten about it a week later when Wesley and I found ourselves downtown again. He pointed at the bush and laughed and said blackbird. He knows all the houses on our route that typically have dogs, cats, and boats, and he makes the noises for each as we pass.

Humor

Wesley loves to be a clown for laughs. And he knows that certain things he does are funny. He does stuff hoping we will laugh. And it is funny.

He continues to love peek-a-boo. Peek-a-boo behind a pole on a walk, popping up over the edge of a chair, over then under a table, around the door frame, in a corner, under a blanket, peek-a-boo behind your back. Our lives continue to be filled with fun games of peek-a-boo.

Peek-a-boo and other fun

Related to this, though not exclusive to humor is that we now have to be really careful what we say and do, because he picks up on it all and is a mimic. I have had so many "uh oh" moments this month when I did something which he noticed and I quickly realized I couldn't take back.

For example, once he burped and, though I typically indicate that he should say "excuse me", we had been a bit rambunctious when it happened, so instead I said "burp" in a funny voice. Oh, it stuck. Every time he burps now, he gives an impish little grin and says "burp".

Once as Wes was eating, I was telling Casey how my Dad made a hilarious "blah" face about the healthy food that I "force" poor Casey to eat, and Wes immediately looked at his food, said "blah" with dramatic flair, and refused to eat it. Yeah. Fortunately after a day and a half that disappeared.

Fall
Fall has come to Petaluma this month. We enjoy finding many Fall treasures on our walks including buckeyes/chestnuts, leaves, spikeballs, and acorns. Wesley loves crunching through the leaves. He loves seeing the ghosts (boo!) and the pumpkins which are up for Halloween decorations.

Hair
Wesley's hair is coming in at a more rapid rate now, but he is still pretty thin. He has a Dennis the Menace cal lick in the back that curls.

Pumpkin Patch

It was a great day of family. Auntie Lisa, Uncle Jesse, Grandma D, Casey, Wesley, and I all piled into our car, and we went to the pumpkin patch together. It was one of those idyllic experiences that left me with the feeling that the world was glowing all around us.

Before hitting the pumpkin patch, Wesley enjoyed looking at the goat, the horse, and seeing (& petting) his first pig.

When we went to the pumpkin patch last year, we leaned Wesley on top of a pumpkin for a photo.
This year, he was walking around the fields trying to pick up pumpkins until he finally made his selection. Looking back at the photo, though, I see a similar intensity of focus present in him as he stared at the pumpkins. Also, he both then and now has very little interest in looking up from his busy work for the sake of a photo opportunity.

It is hard to tell in this picture just how heavy this pumpkin was for him to carry, but it took a lot of effort to carry it across the field. He tried to pick up many larger pumpkins before making his selection.

It was an absolutely gorgeous Fall day.

Wesley loves his "pah-pah"s (very throaty sounding). We have ours on the balcony railing and his in the house (so he can play with it). I can hardly wait for the fun of carving them.

Noo-Noo

Will this be the last major Noo-Noo harvest of the year?

The air now feels like Fall. The leaves are falling from the trees. We went to the garden after days of rain and found our SunGolds split and snails in our thin-skinned heirloom tomatoes.

We have harvested such a bounty of tomatoes this year. Bowls and bowls every couple of days. We have tomato sauce frozen for winter pasta dinners.

Wesley has learned to identify the red tomatoes and to pick them. He knows to water them at the base, and he finds peace and calm in their midst. He spots tomato plants in other people's gardens when we're on our walks.

We have not yet pulled out our plants, but I have a feeling that this may be our last big harvest. We have had so much fun tending the tomatoes this summer. And homegrown tomatoes are so yummy.

Now onto the winter delights. We have planted part of our Fall garden, and I hope to plant the rest this weekend (a little late).

Lovely Parents

My parents just came to visit for a week. We loved their visit.

Wesley spent the week before their arrival carrying around a picture of them, pointing to them, and nodding his head that he knew they were coming to visit. He was happy to see them when they arrived. He glummed onto my Mom and followed her around the house, he loved shopping with my Dad, and he enjoyed playing with both of them.

It was a week filled with a nice balance of being out and about and also staying around our house with plenty of time for talking and low-key play.

We went on some hikes:

Casey and I were also treated to our first Date Night since Wesley's birth. Despite skipping his afternoon nap, reports are that Wesley did quite well. They walked to the park, played, and when we found them Wesley was snuggling with my mom, sound asleep in the carrier. Casey and I had a wonderful time going out to a delicious Italian dinner at Risibisi.



Watching the ducks at Sonoma Square

My parents took Wesley away on their own quite a bit. He hadn't previously been away from us very often. Whether outside to play ball or to splash in a fountain when we were dining out in Sonoma (within visual distance), we found it nice to have little moments together with Wesley a short distance away, perfectly content, on his adventures with my parents.

I didn't want my parents to leave. Having them here made me miss them even more. I wonder if it just going to get harder and harder to have them far away. I'm not sure, but I loved having them here.

Moon Dance

Wesley delights in the moon.

When the moon was full last week, Wesley developed a new understanding of the moon. Casey showed him the picture of the moon in a book, and then pointed out the window at the moon. Something clicked.

For the past week, the first thing Wesley does when he wakes up is that he goes and points out the window and asks about the moon. He wants to frequently read books which feature the moon. He wants to go on walks in search of the moon.

The second night after his discovery, he woke up at 2:30am, he popped right out of bed, and walked to the window where the moon was just rising and shining through. He was so excited to find it. That was one of those parenting moments when I was so surprised by Wesley's development/love of life/behavior that I just marvel despite the inconvenience of being up in the middle of the night.

He asks (through action and a sound he has for the moon) many times a day if the moon is out.

If we indicate that the moon is not at the moment visible, he does the baby sign language signal "all gone". Until this week he had only used the sign to indicate that he was done eating. He has also begun shrugging his shoulders and putting his palms up to say, "I don't know".

daytime moon spotting

So when the moon is nowhere to be found, he does "all gone" and gives an "i don't know where it is" shrug.

Month 14

Wesley is 14 months old. That sounds older to me. "A Year" didn't seem so shocking, 13 months just seemed a bit over a year, but 14 months seems bigger. He's no longer just one month over a year, he's moving into his second year full-force.

Kissing and Hugging
There has been so much kissing and hugging going on in our house this month. Every cat that Wes sees in a book gets a kiss. The stuffed animals love to kiss one another. Stuffed animals kiss the animals in the books (especially, interestingly, if they are of the same type--that is, dinosaurs kiss dinosaurs, monkeys kiss monkeys, etc).

Wesley spontaneously gives us hugs, too, which is so sweet. He continues to snuggle more and more.

New Words (that I can remember):
"NuhNuh" Tomato
"Blaaaaaah" Garbage, garbage cans, gross little things that are garbage.
"Bl-oooooooo" Blue (only repeats colors after we say them)
"Duh-doh" Yellow
Hat
Turtle

Letters:
Wesley knows the sound of some letters. I feel a little confused as to how he learned them, but he definetely knows them. We play with the magnetic letters on the side of the stove, so I guess he just remembered them. He knows the sounds for A (ahhh), B (buh), T (Tuh), H (huh), M (mmmm), H (hhhhuh), V (some weird noise that doesn't quite sound like vvv but is consistent).

When he learned A he thought it was sooo fun. He walked around the house with his letter A saying "AHH AHHH AHHH" really loudly and hamming it up. Then when he saw the letter the next morning, he remembered it and started doing the same thing. He was so excited to jump on sleeping Daddy and shove the "A" in his face.

Wes points out a horse

Matching:
He loves playing matching games where he matches his Memory Game cards. The game only gets challenging if we use cards that have different colored shapes on them, otherwise it is pretty easy and fun.

If we try to play Memory with the cards (that is, leave them face down after he turns them up), he gets stuck in a pattern of alternating between turning two cards over, instead of searching the others. If we leave them face up, he will turn them all up one at a time until he finds the correct card.

Wesley can also do his smaller wooden puzzles with the pegs without much trouble.

Physical:
Wes can run now. It's still a straight-legged, arms to the side run, but it is running. His endurance is amazing.

He walks up steps without using his hands or a railing. Most of the time he still needs to hold a hand when going down stairs. He likes to kick balls and walk backwards with a sweet little smile that says, "hey check me out".

Patience & Anticipation
In some ways Wesley has more patience than he used to have. He understands time and routine and the cues that something is on the way. He will stand by his chair, waiting for his bib sometimes, rather than screaming the second he senses food is beginning to be prepared. On a walk I can inspire him to keep moving if I ask him if he wants to continue to town to see the boats/fountain/hear music. He waits for the moon to come up and understands that it's not there yet when he asks us about it.

At other times the flair of temper innihilates his patience. And patience does not mean compromise when he wants something, but there is definetely an expanded ability to accept more complex explanations or contexts, including the need to wait a little while.

Garden
Wesley is quite good at picking the ripe tomatoes from the garden. He has taken to just relaxing in the garden. He'll take the hose, put it at the base of the tomatoes, and stand there "watering", looking meditative and calm, for ten minutes at a time.

Other Delights:
One thing I hope to remember is just how keen Wesley is on seeing garbage. Somehow, once, when we saw a garbage can, I must have gone "blaah", as in, "yuck". It stuck. In a serious way. With an eye like a hawk, Wes spots every garbage can whether it is down the street, in someone's back yard hardly visible, on the road--anywhere. He also notices each tiny piece of litter and says to it all, with dramatic flair "BLEEEEHHH". Smiling. He says it until we acknowledge his discovery. It is really quite a funny thing to do.

BLLEEEEEH (garbage cans)

Wesley loves to share. He shares everything he has to eat, even if he only has a little bit about which he's very excited. This kind of sharing can sometimes result in a soggy rice cracker being put unexpectedly into your mouth. Bleeeeh.

He doesn't share, sometimes, if he thinks we're going to take the thing away (that is, if he is not supposed to have it in the first place). He will place said item in our hand, but not let go. Also, he also does not share with kids his own age. If he does, he expects his shovel right back and will maneuver to recover the toy if it is not immediately returned.