Easter Weekend 2009

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. Gigi and Papoo came in town to celebrate with us. Saturday night we went up to Frisco for dinner with the Mitchells. Then Sunday we got up and went to the 9:30 service followed by brunch at our house, Easter basket and egg hunts and a lot of fun with cousins and grandparents.

Wright loves kitty cats especially Grayson who would let Wright pet him.

Uncle Mark makes Wright laugh!

Gigi and Wright having breakfast before church.

The Easter egg hunt is about to begin!

Finding his first egg.

Wow, there are lots out here.

Wright loved to open the eggs and find what was inside, then dump the egg on the ground.

Here's another one!

The three of us.

Mimi gave Wright a new golf club that he loved.

Nice hit!

He loved the fridge magnets from his Easter basket too.

A Few Cute Things to Remember

1. Whenever I pick Wright up out of his crib or put him down in it, I always squeeze him and pat his back or arm. Now he has started patting my arm when I hold him as if to say "mom, please pat me." Precious!

2. This morning, he wanted out of his highchair when his breakfast was over and he was saying "ta dow" on repeat. I guess he thinks "down" and "touchdown" are the same word. :)

3. We were reading a book today and I said "what is that?" pointing to a clock and he said "tock tick tock tick". Love it!

Wright's 1st Easter Egg Hunt

We went to Melanie's neighborhood today for an Easter Egg Hunt. Wright wasn't exactly sure what to do with the eggs once he found them. He kept picking them up and then just putting them back down. It was also freezing outside with major winds nearly knocking us all over. The pictures were cute though!

Thanks to Mimi for helping make my basket!

Is there something good in here?

I found one - now what do I do?

This basket is almost as big as me!

Mimi will help me get tons of eggs.

Love the pink egg...

Mommy and me.

Resting after a long day.

Eleanor's 1st Birthday

What a great day to have a 1st birthday party. We could not have had more fun celebrating Eleanor's big day. Wright loved the ball pit and slide most of all. And we let him stay up until 8pm so we could hang out longer. He was such a ham entertaining everyone and saying "bye" with a big wave and "day do" when we left. Thanks Woodards for a wonderful night and Happy Birthday Miss Eleanor!

Friday Night BBQ

We went over to the Elverums house on Friday night and had a cookout with the couples from our parenting group. The girls and babies met over there and waited for the guys to get home after playing golf. Then we cooked burgers and let the kids play together. Wright had the best time playing with all boys - this is a very rare occurrence. The next day we had to take him to get more toys for the yard because all he wants to do is be outside with this nice weather. Jake had a basketball hoop that Wright LOVED, so we got one of those for our house. What a fun night - thanks Jennie and Pat!

On another note, Wright loved Jake! Besides the fact that Jake is super cool, I think him being a year older is a big reason Wright is so drawn to him. He follows Jake around and does pretty much everything he does. Earlier on Friday, Jake came over to play and wanted to hug Wright goodbye. Wright of course had no idea what to do and just sort of stood there and then tried to edge away. Well that night, Jake hugged him again, and at first Wright had a similar reaction. Then Wright thought about it a second and went back up to Jake and just bear hugged him until they both fell on the ground! Somehow amongst all the cameras, we missed this moment. But it sure was super cute!

A Few Random 16 Month Pics

Here are some cute pics from this last month.

Feeding the Ducks

We took Wright to the park a few weeks ago to feed the ducks and the big white swan. He had a great time throwing bread and watching them swim and dive to get it. After we were done we went to the playground and he was climbing all over the place until he fell and busted his lip causing us to rush home and get him cleaned up. Poor guy!

We are Settled

We are finally settled in our new house and unpacked the last box tonight. God is so good. Both Brendan and I could not have expected a house that is a better fit for us. Yes it is a rent house so there are things we would have done differently, but all in all it is great and very nice. Many people have commented that it even seems to fit us better than our other house. So, I can only attribute that to God and how He has completely taken care of us beyond our expectations.

On the Wright front, he has had his follow up ear appointment and all looks well. We are very thankful to have the constant infections behind us. He is getting adjusted to the new house as well although it has been a long process getting him there. When we first moved in, he would follow me around and whine/cry at my feet ALL DAY LONG! He also had a lot of trouble falling asleep for naps and at night. But, this is getting better now that his toys are unpacked and he is more used to his new room.

He is also continuing to say tons of new words. We are working on answering questions with "yes" which he proudly says "yesh". He also says thank you very well "day do". One bad thing he has picked up in the last week or so is whining and screaming when things aren't going his way. We had a big time out today after a trip to Target where he embarrassed me so badly with his shouting throughout the store. I so do not want to be one of those parents that allows that behavior. But I am realizing more and more not to underestimate what he understands because I told him "Mommy is unhappy with you and you are going to be in time out when we get to the car." It actually worked and he was TONS better at the next store. So, hopefully that will continue to work. Time out is by far the best and most effective punishment for him to date.

He Can Hear!

Since Wright got tubes last week, he has learned so many new words! I guess he really is hearing much better. Just today while we were reading one book, he said banana, baby, flower. He has also said touchdown (ta dow), bye bye (instead of ba ba), glasses and boat this week. It is pretty amazing what a difference the tubes are already making.

On another note, he is understanding so much more. The other day I mentioned in passing that we were going to go on the wagon. Then my phone rang and I got distracted and next thing I knew he was crying at the door, pointing outside where the wagon is. I have learned that is one of the those words we need to spell from here on out.

His signing has also gotten really good. He has learned to sign "please" for anything he wants. He also does phrases with signing like "more please" or "eat please". We are working on "thank you" in sign but he says that one more "Day doo".

Tubes Went Well

Everything went well today with getting the tubes put in Wright's ears. We were up at 5:30am and out the door by 6am, headed to the surgery center. Everyone there was great and treated Wright like a prince. All the nurses loved him and kept saying he belonged in Hollywood - I am sure they don't say that to any other babies that come through the doors ;) Anyways, once we got into the room, the dr. checked in and explained the procedure to us again. Then the anesthesiologist came in and gave Wright what he called "silly juice" which basically made him drunk to calm him down. This was hysterical for Brendan and me to watch and probably eased my nerves as well. Wright was sitting on my lap when it hit him and all of a sudden he looked completely stoned. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were huge and out of nowhere he would just start dying laughing. Pretty funny! Then they came and wrapped him in a blanket and took him from me at which point he started crying immediately. That was the only time that I felt truly anxious. It is really hard to hear your baby cry and not be able to comfort him. But, within 10 minutes, we received a message on the pager they gave us that he was done and all went well. Then about 7 minutes later, he was back in the room with us. He was a little fussy at first but by the time we got home, he was pretty much back to normal. There was some stumbling when he walked, but he was in a great mood overall. By 9am, he seemed to be 100%, so we went on with our normal day. Pretty amazing! The dr. said that as he suspected one ear was completely filled with fluid as thick as jello and the other ear filled with more liquidy fluid. Bsaically, Wright's hearing has been pretty bad and these tubes should help a ton. We go back in 2 weeks for a hearing test and follow up appointment to find out for sure.

In the waiting room before the procedure.

Georgia sweatshirt and PJs.

Whoa!

Wright has been so talkative recently as I mentioned in the previous blog. One of the cutest words he says ALL the time is "Whoa!" I am not sure where he got this word. Sometimes when he starts saying something out of nowhere I begin to wonder if that is a word I say a lot. Maybe I do, who knows? Anyways, we were in the grocery store the other day and all of a sudden he started loudly saying "Whoa, whoa, whoa" over and over. I was looking around and realized there were a bunch of balloons that he had his eye on. Today in church, the pastor asked the congregation when the last time was that we were truly in awe of something. It immediately made me think of Wright and how the whole world is so new and amazing to him. He is seeing so many things for the first time and is truly joyful about it. I could learn a lot from this little guy...

Music Lover

I don't know if it is all kids this age, but Wright absolutely LOVES music. His favorites are his cds in the car, certain toys that play music and he can dance to, and of course some tv shows and videos with lots of songs. He dances all the times, clapping his hands and shaking his head. Another one of his classic moves is this quick stomp thing where he puts his head down and stomps as fast as he can with his arms back behind him. It is so cute! A while back my mom taught him how to sing La La La and he has gotten really good at it. Yesterday we were in the car and this song came on with a chorus that goes "Ha la la la la la la la le lu ia" over and over again. I looked in my review mirror and Wright was clapping, shaking his head and going "La La La". Then when it would get really fast, he would just thrust his tongue forward repeatedly like he was trying to sing La but it was faster than he could go. It was so hysterical! I love that he loves music so much, it is always a way to entertain him easily. Just hope it lasts and we might have ourselves a pianist, guitarist or Broadway performer...who knows ;)

Ear Update

We took Wright to the ENT yesterday and found out that he does need to get tubes in his ears. Apparently they are both very infected still and according to the dr. the infection looks like it has been there at least 3 months! Poor guy...no wonder he has been moaning throughout the night and his naps. Last time I took him to the pediatrician, our doctor was out and we saw another doctor. I asked her if his ears looked like they were still infected from the last time because that is what I thought had happened and she said it did not look that way to her. Sometimes, I think I need to just trust my mother's intuition...I would have taken him to an ENT a lot sooner. Anyways, the biggest concern with the chronic ear infections, besides general discomfort, is that he is hearing as if he is underwater. So, it can ultimately affect his speech. Poor Wright, he would be doomed if he had a speech impetement and glasses in kindergarten! The plan is to take him in on Monday morning at 6:30am to get the tubes put in. It is a fairly minor procedure and should take only about 10 minutes. The only part that concerns me at all is that he does go under anesthesia, but the dr. assured me that it is relatively no risk. I asked if I would be with him while it was being done, and he looked at me like I was crazy. Guess he doesn't want any parents in there passing out or even worst directing him what to do ;) I am excited about this being over with and not having to take Wright to the dr. once a month or more. The hope is that the tubes will fall out after about a year and he will be fine from that point on.

Mommy and Me Saturday

Brendan was gone from 6:45am to about 9pm on Saturday doing his fantasy baseball draft and golf day. So, Wright and I had a long Saturday together. We met Elizabeth, Eleanor, Kat and Turner at the Galleria for shopping, lunch and play time in the kids' area. Wright was not sure what to think of the kids' area at first and kept taking one step in and then running back to me to grab my legs. But once he realized how much there was to do, he had a blast. After a long afternoon nap for both of us, we went to the playground by our house and then to the Woodards for dinner.





Here are some other cute pics of the little dude from recently.