Wyatt is 1 year old!!!

"Hey! It's my birthday! You better do what I want!!!" Okay, this is Wyatt's thing right now - he lifts up his hand like he's pointing at things, and says "Eh? Eh? Eh?" Like, "Please? Can I have it?"
This is right after Wyatt woke up - he's still got that sleepy look. Aaron and I both got him up this morning and sang Happy Birthday to him. I think he thought we were crazy! :)

This afternoon he got to open his present and card from us.

He looks like he's trying to be sneaky about getting the card off of the present.

It's a smash-the-balls-with-a-hammer toy! Just like at Grandma's house!

Mmm! Red velvet cupcake! I bet Chewie is jealous.

What a cute red goatee you have, Wyatt!

Wyatt had his 1 year well child appointment today. He weighs about 23 lb and 5 oz, which is the 60th percentile. He's just over 30" tall, about the 65th percentile. His head is in the 75th percentile. He had to get two shots today - the nurses did it at one time, so he cried for a few seconds but then he got over it. He didn't cry at all when they did the finger poke to draw some blood. Tough guy! He did a great job today at the doctor. For his birthday dinner, we went to Chapala. His favorite food when we go out to eat is refried beans and Mexican rice, so that's what he had tonight.

And totally unrelated, Aaron put up the microwave/hood tonight, so the appliances are officially all installed! Yay!

kitchen

Here's two quick pictures of the kitchen. I will try to do a room by room tour of our house for those who haven't seen it yet. Tonight, since we just got some new appliances, here is our kitchen!

It's a galley style kitchen - it is small, but I think it's really efficient. Everything is close by and within reach. Here is Aaron's gas range - he is very excited to do some cooking! I tried out the oven tonight, and I'm happy with it. The cupcakes baked very evenly. The microwave/hood is not up yet - Aaron has some work to do with that. Soon. :)

Here is the other side of the kitchen. I really like this fridge, and I ran the dishwasher tonight and hardly heard it at all. Major improvement over our old dishwasher! The plan is to paint the cabinets white, put down dark wood laminate flooring, new darker countertop, and a new tiled backsplash. I will be very happy to be done with the teal cabinets soon - hopefully after I finish my externship I will have some time to get that done.

I ran to get some milk tonight, and it was weird just how close we are to HyVee. One minute, literally. And it's open 24 hours a day! I saw six girls all dressed up ready to go out, but they were headed into HyVee. Is that the hot place to go on a Tuesday night in Cedar Falls?? :)

Busy day... random thoughts

Today has felt like non-stop action! We had the usual work day, but this evening when I called Aaron on the way home he said that our appliances were being installed! Woo! The house did not come with a dryer (which we had delivered last week, thank goodness), so we got a matching Samsung set. They are fun - when they are done they play a little song. My old dryer just made an awful honking/beeping noise. :) The kitchen was also in need of appliances - the dishwasher leaked water all over the floor, and the rest were fairly outdated. So, everything but the microwave got installed tonight. Aaron has to put up a board so he can attach it properly... I'm letting him worry about that one - I know nothing about it!

Tonight we met some of our neighbors - they live next to us on the right if you are looking out our front door. They have an almost two-year-old boy, and they seemed very normal. Exciting! :) They also brought us a plate of brownies which was very thoughtful.

Tomorrow is Wyatt's birthday, so I made some red cake cupcakes. I'm taking half of them to work tomorrow because we are having a potluck. But I thought it would be fun for him to demolish a cupcake on his real birthday. I also wrapped up his present for him - the pop-up tent was a present too, but he got that early in true Aaron and Megan Brummer fashion. We are terrible at waiting to give gifts. Oh, and Wyatt has his one-year doctor's appointment tomorrow. We'll see how big he is getting!

So, I thought about priming the walls tonight, but I might need a night to catch my breath. Maybe tomorrow!

Mackey family reunion

On Sunday morning, Aaron, Wyatt, and I got up and drove to Des Moines to meet Aaron's parents. From there, we carpooled to Council Bluffs and picked up Aaron's Grandma on our way to the Mackey family reunion in Missouri Valley. While we were there, Aaron's Aunt Becky celebrated Wyatt's first birthday, as you can see below by the balloons!

He got a new little car to drive around - such a big boy!

He also had a birthday cake - Daddy had to blow out the candle. Wyatt was being a little shy at this point. :)
He got over being shy once he tasted the cake!

Here is a picture of all five generations (according to Wyatt): Great-great Grandma Mackey, Great Grandma Brummer, Grandpa Brummer, Daddy, and Wyatt. Wow!! Grandma Mackey is 104 years old!
Another shot - I think Daddy was tickling Wyatt. :)

Chilling with Grandpa...

Wyatt met his second cousin Blair - he really wanted out of the chair until she sat next to him.

I think he likes her. :)

Anyway, it was neat to meet some of Aaron's extended family. It was a lot of driving - I think we agreed that next time we will try to go the night before! :)

Tonight, Aaron and I got the rest of the wallpaper down in the living room. I went back and scrubbed the rest of the glue off. Now my arms are burning!! Maybe tomorrow we will be ambitious again and prime the walls. We'll see!

Summer fun

This morning before Daddy headed to work, we tried out our baby pool. Wyatt had a great time, and I think Daddy did too!

We hung out in the little bit of shade that was left.

This is Wyatt's "I'm-squinting-because-the-sun-is-so-bright" face. Love those two front teeth.

If you look close, you can see the water Daddy is pouring on Wyatt's head.

"Hey Mom!"

I love this picture. :)

After I changed Wyatt out of his wet swimsuit (and he ran around the house naked for a few minutes), he played in his tent for awhile.

He's so darn cute when he sits like this!

We've had a fun day so far. Some work, some play. We scraped wallpaper off of one wall in the living room while Wyatt was napping this morning. Two walls left! And lots of laundry and picking up today. My goal later tonight is to get all of the laundry put away and get our bedroom organized. The living room, kitchen, and Wyatt's room are in pretty good shape (except that the living room walls are half-painted, half-torn down wallpaper, etc. :) ). If you look at the picture above, you can see the wall color we like - it's on the wall behind the couch. NOT the lavender. :)

Aaron works this afternoon and evening, so Wyatt and I are going to get some groceries after he wakes up from his afternoon nap. Then we'll probably just play until bedtime hopefully. Tomorrow we are headed to Council Bluffs for the day for the Mackey family reunion and Aaron's great grandmother's birthday I think. She is 104 years old! Wyatt and I have never met her, so it's good we are going.

Anyway, here's a little clip of Wyatt in the pool.

Quick Wyatt update

We are entering a new stage of life for Wyatt. He is too busy playing to look up when Mommy is trying to take a picture! :) Here he is with the foam hammer he got at Target tonight. He's already bitten a few chunks out of it... oh well.

Oh, the remote. Still too interested to look at Mommy.

We're getting closer!

Oh there's my boy! :) He is getting so big - he'll be one on Wednesday! It's hard to believe this first year is almost over, but I'm excited to see him continue to grow and learn new things. He's a lot of fun! (and work, but the fun and sweet times outweigh the hard ones)

Anyway, here's a little video of him playing in this pop-up tent we got him for his birthday. It's a little early, but he doesn't care!

Quick update sans photos

So, we closed on our house on Monday. Hurray! On Wednesday, we had the shag carpet in the basement ripped out, and today the carpet was put in the three bedrooms upstairs and in the basement as well. We stopped to see it tonight, and it makes the house look and smell so much better! :) I've got some vacuuming to do tomorrow night - lots of little chunks of carpet all over. In Iowa City, the carpet layer vacuumed when he was done. Not so here - it looks like a war zone! We haven't moved in yet, so it's not that big of a deal. Tonight we purchased our new appliances - the house did not come with a dryer, and the washer is quite old too. Our kitchen currently has lovely teal colored cabinets that we are going to paint white, so we decided on white appliances. Aaron is ecstatic - he finally gets a gas stove! :)

We have lots of projects for this house, but it will be a lot of fun to see the transformation. Our next three big things are to paint, put down the laminate flooring in the main floor, and put up a fence for the dogs. Well, the first thing is to finish getting moved in! :)

Anyway, I'll try to post some pictures of the house over the weekend. It's great to be homeowners again!

Saturday fun day as told by Wyatt

Hi guys! I had a good day today. I woke up Mommy at 7:20 and we were the only ones up for awhile this morning. Then, we sang Happy Birthday to Ashley, since today is her birthday!
It's really hard to wake up after a two hour nap. Especially when you nap in a room with block-out shades.

Isn't this a hilarious door??? You can see through it!

Mommy let me pull everything out of this cupboard again today. It's so much fun!

Here's a video of my new train toy that I got. Thanks Sarah! It's a lot of fun!

I think it's really hilarious when Mommy gets hurt!

Just for Rachael :)

Here is what Wyatt has been up to lately: tearing through Grandma Muffy's house, leaving a path as wide as a tornado. :)

Wyatt enjoyed his cousins today as well. Check out that face from Conner! :)

I think he likes Baby Callie. What do you think? :)

I have been a bad blogger as of late. I blame it on a few things. 1.) I got a Blackberry, and I'm slightly addicted to it. Well, I don't check my e-mail on my computer as often since I get it on my phone now. As a result, I am on my computer less and think of blogging less. 2.) Life is as crazy as it has ever been with moving and graduating and waiting to close on our new house. Life in limbo is not my favorite. Just last night I spent almost a half hour looking for a folder because there are a half dozen places it could have been in all of our stuff we have packed. 3.) I haven't taken as many pictures lately, and I need to take more.

So there you have it. I'm back.

I missed updating about Wyatt being 11 months. Isn't he such a big boy?? He is getting better and better at walking everyday, and he will stand when you set him down instead of going straight to his knees. Sometimes he tries to run and instead he faceplants on the floor, but he's pretty tough about it and usually doesn't fuss. He's getting a little more opinionated about what he eats, but he still loves all of his favorites. I think he's in some withdrawal though, because he does not get as much variety from Mommy as he used to at daycare. Mommy needs to work on her cooking skills. :) Wyatt has his top two and bottom two teeth. It's really starting to change the look of his smile! He is really starting to mimic us - he shakes his head "no" when he knows he's doing something naughty, or he will stick out his tongue when I do. He also is saying "uh oh" when he drops things. Sometimes it sounds like he is trying to say "down" or "all done" too. He is a ton of fun right now. :)

Well, I graduated from dental school last week. It was a very special day for me, and it was neat to get to share it with family and friends. We had two good nights celebrating - Friday night at Aaron's parent's house immediately following graduation, and Saturday night in Cedar Falls at my parent's house. I'm blessed to have such great family and friends who have supported me through dental school!

Technically, I don't get my diploma until July, as I have to make up a five week externship that I missed when I had Wyatt. I am doing my externship at Peoples Clinic in Waterloo - I've been working there since Monday. It's been really great - I've enjoyed the staff and the dentist I've been working with. I have to do a community project for one and a half days a week, so today I traveled to Jesup with a dental hygienist who is employed by the health department to go talk to Amish families about a free dental event that we have coming up. We also got health histories, did screening exams, and put on fluoride varnish. It kind of felt like we had traveled to a different country, as the culture is so much different. The first family that we worked with had 13 children! It took us awhile just to get all of their names, birthdays, and then go through their health histories! But they were so nice, and their children are very sweet. I'm looking forward to going back and doing more screenings soon - every week of my externship I will spend one day going to the Amish community, and then in September I'm planning on helping with the free dental event.

Anyway, we are excited to close on our new house on next Monday. We have ordered some new carpet to replace the lovely red and black shag in the basement, and hopefully it will be in by next Friday. Eventually we are going to put some laminate flooring down in the living room, dining room, and kitchen - hopefully sooner than later! There are a lot of things we want to do to the house, but we have to triage it and do what really needs to be done first. Our next priority after the floors is to put up a fence for the dogs and for Wyatt. Exciting! I'm sure it will be a busy summer.

So that's what has been going on lately. It's weird to be back in Cedar Falls, but it's great to get to see Aaron every night when I'm done working. Wyatt loves seeing his daddy every night too! We miss Aaron's family though, and we can't wait to see them again soon!