Wyatt likes peas... really.

Tonight Aaron, Wyatt, and I went to Sushi Popo for dinner (they have the best crab rangoons in the world. Period. And their house fried rice is also incredible) and Wyatt got to sample a few things that Mommy and Daddy were eating. Daddy gave him a taste of Sweet and Sour sauce, and Mommy gave him a few smashed pieces of rice and a few smashed peas. He really liked it all, though I think he would like anything we give him off of our plates. So, tonight before bed I decided to feed him some peas!

He actually opens for some bites of food now, even on a spoon. It's a start - he will open maybe 5 or 6 times before he gets tired of eating. I think he gets distracted by the dogs - they are always very interested when I'm feeding him. :) Don't you love those baby blue eyes???

Really, he likes peas. I think. He makes this face no matter what he's eating.

Now, I'm probably going to jinx myself, but I just laid Wyatt in bed after feeding him a bottle and he was wide awake when I put him in bed - I haven't heard him fuss yet! We are really trying to work on getting him to fall asleep on his own. Last night he did well - I put him down around 8 pm and he woke up around 3:30 am to eat - 7 and a half hours! Hopefully he will keep it up and maybe even stretch out longer... Keep your fingers crossed! :)

Christmas with the Brummers!

This year we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with Aaron's parents and his sister and brother-in-law. We have had a really great time with them, and Wyatt has been able to spend lots of time playing and getting to know his Aunt Rachael and Uncle Justin! Wyatt really got into tearing and playing with the wrapping paper this year - he pitched a fit when I took the wrapping paper away and gave him the present! It was pretty funny...

Aunt Rachael let us see what Wyatt would look like with a brown toupee... Hmm... more like a combover I guess... :)

Wyatt says "Merry Christmas!" What a big boy sitting up! This is only half the story - there's another picture of him falling over backwards. He wasn't very happy about that. No worries - he got over it. :)

Here's the White Chocolate Raspberry Torte that I made for Christmas Eve dinner. It turned out pretty good, though I could do better if I made it again. The frosting was not as smooth as it could be, and I figured out why. The white chocolate that I melted was warmer than the cream cheese, so it some of the white chocolate solidified when it shouldn't have... It was still tasty!


On Christmas Eve, Aaron, Wyatt and I opened presents at our house. We didn't go too crazy this year as Wyatt really won't care, but we did wrap up a present for him to open. He really liked it!

We got him a toy that suction-cups to his high chair. I had no idea when I bought it that it plays music - Surprise! :)

Anyway, Wyatt ate a jar of peaches between last night and tonight. Hurray! I think he is really starting to get interested in food. Last night he woke up around 5:15 to eat - I had to give him the pacifier around 12 am, but other than that, it was a good night! I'm hoping that the solid foods are going to help him sleep better at night. And... I unsnapped all of the snaps on his cloth diaper for overnight - it's crazy how much he is growing! I weighed him unofficially on the bathroom scale the other day, and I think he weighs around 18 pounds!

More sitting up...

We've been practicing sitting up - here's a picture of my big boy! Yes - he sat up long enough for me to get a couple pictures! Not bad, huh? I've been practicing my sitting up too - right now I can sit up for a couple minutes without falling... I've got some major work to do this Christmas vacation. :)

It's fun to play with toys sitting up...

But it's so much MORE fun to play with toys on my belly!

Christmas at the Trunnell's!

All of the grandkids!

Wyatt and Ainsley - this one is with Wyatt smiling. Aren't they cute???

Now with Ainsley smiling...

Wyatt has just started to sit up on his own. If I get a toy in front of him, it distracts him long enough to stay sitting up for a little while. Otherwise, he falls over so he can roll to his toys. I have to get a better picture of him sitting up on his own - it will be nice when he is really stable and I can just set him down on the floor sitting up!

The "Golden Elephant" gift exchange... Great stuff!

The two Katies... I think Katie H. looks like she is up to something in this picture.

Grandma B. says "What's in this salad?"

Jim - nice glasses. :)

My handsome hubs... Love him! Merry Christmas!

Grandma B's 93rd birthday

This is the Chocolate Truffle Cake that I made for Grandma B's 93rd birthday. I got the recipe out of "Taste of Home" - well, I stole the idea of the garnish from a different cake recipe. The cake turned out to be a very dense, rich chocolate cake - you definitely need a glass of milk with a piece of this cake!

Doesn't she look good for 93 years old???

Happy Birthday, Grandma! We love you!

Christmas Break is here!

Let me just say how wonderful it feels to know that I don't have to go to school for two whole weeks! How ridiculous is that??? :) I'm super excited... Tomorrow (Saturday) we are heading up to spend a few days in Cedar Falls. On Sunday we are celebrating Christmas with my side of the family, and on Monday night we are catching up with some of my childhood/high school friends. Tuesday and on we are back in Iowa City to spend time with the Brummer side of the family. We are excited to see Aaron's sister and brother-in-law as they will be back from California! I'm sure Wyatt is going to love all of the attention from both sides of the family. :)

I'm excited to have some low-key days at home to catch up on some things and spend lots of time with Wyatt! My goal is to get one thing accomplished each day (barring out-of-town days and Christmas Eve/Christmas) during one of Wyatt's nap. Maybe clean out a couple closets, pack up the clothes and things Wyatt has outgrown, dust and vacuum... I want to enjoy my time off of school but I want to get a few things done too!

Anyways... Tonight we stayed in and had a movie and pizza night. And Wyatt had a roll-on-the-floor and rice cereal night. :) He ate a few bites - more than he's done in a long time, so we'll see if it helps him sleep well tonight. I think I'm going to get to bed soon so I won't mind so much when Wyatt wakes up early tomorrow! Merry Christmas to you all!

Crazy day

Today was one of the craziest days of my senior year so far. Well, maybe more draining than crazy. I had two new patient exams today, and both were very demanding in their own way. In the morning my patient was supposed to arrive at 9 am - she didn't show up until 9:30. We had some interesting cultural issues to deal with that I probably shouldn't share here, and on top of that, when I was trying to make a stick of dry ice with the CO2 tank (we use it to see if patients can feel the cold) the plastic cylinder exploded. Exploded! With a very loud bang! Right in the middle of the clinic floor! Awesome. I was a little mortified. Okay, a lot mortified.

Anyway, my afternoon was marginally better than the morning, but the appointment went late... On another day it probably wouldn't have been such a big deal, but my patience tank was on E after the morning.


So on to the reason why many of you read this blog: Wyatt. :) Here he is, enjoying his new-found ability to roll to what he wants. Which, tonight was Mommy's purse. What can I say - he has good taste! I get more compliments on that bag than any other that I've carried.


Tonight I gave him a bath - while I was getting it ready he was scooting around on the bathroom floor and got up on his knees for a second or two a couple times. Exciting!

Rolling over...

Who needs crawling when you can get wherever you want by rolling over??? Apparently this is Wyatt's thought - I put him on the mat to play, and this is where he ended up tonight!


Then I put him back on his mat, and the next time he ended up curled up with Reuben! We are very happy that our dogs seem to put up with him just fine and don't feel threatened by him.

Then he karate kicked Reuben's head and yanked on his ear... and Reuben still just put up with it. Good dog. I put Wyatt back on his mat and pet Chewie and Reuben to thank them for being good dogs. :)

And here's a little clip of him rolling over and getting into trouble already. He's been rolling over for awhile, but I think this is the first time I've caught it on video.

Christmas outfit... and still a sniffly baby

This is the outfit Wyatt wore to church today. I love this outfit - we bought it at Kohls last year once we found out we were having a boy. It was good timing, because it was late winter and the outfit was 75% off! :) Anyway, he looked adorable and handsome in it today. Too bad he still has a really runny nose and he's drooling a ton.

Sniffle baby

This morning Wyatt woke up with a crusty, snotty nose and boogers all over his crib sheet. Yum. He didn't sleep the best last night, and I imagine that's why. Tonight, his nose is really runny and he is not liking having to breathe through his mouth. He is also irritated that he can't suck on his pacifier when he has to breathe through his mouth. So... we have a crabby, sleepy baby on our hands who desperately needs to sleep tonight, but odds are it's going to be a long night. This mommy is not looking forward to tonight. I put him to bed tonight, but we've had to go in and pat him and shush him at least five times now. Twice I picked him up and he instantly fell asleep in my arms. So I might be sleeping propped up in bed tonight holding Wyatt. Sounds restful. :) I think I'm going to go to bed soon. Oh, he just coughed and I think he woke himself up. Sigh. Good night all. Pray my little Wyatt gets better!

Snowed in...

Well, like pretty much everyone else in the Midwest, we are snowed in today. Not literally - Aaron has shoveled out the driveway and he did make it to Casey's for some donuts. You have to get your priorities right when there is inclement weather. What's funny is that I was actually scheduled to have today off from school - it was supposed to be a faculty conference day. So I've been planning all week to be off from school. Part of me is sad that the snow day fell on my day off (I would have liked to gone to the mall when there weren't quite so many people there to get our Christmas shopping done), but on the other hand it is good that I didn't have any patients scheduled today. (The kid in me wishes the snow day would have been yesterday or tomorrow... oh well. :) ) It's been a good day though - I've gotten to spend a lot of quality time with my four boys - Aaron, Wyatt, Chewie and Reuben. Wyatt blessed us with a good night of sleep - hallelujah! He slept from 8 - 4:50 am, ate a bottle, then went back to sleep until 6:30. Not bad. Aaron was very nice to me and got up with Wyatt so I could sleep in a couple more hours. Wonderful! The rest of the day has been pretty low-key. We've got laundry going and the kitchen is cleaned up. I think we've already watched a couple movies... :) After Wyatt wakes up from his afternoon nap we may brave the weather and try to go to Wal-mart. We'll see - it's actually snowing pretty hard again! Maybe I'll get my wish and they'll cancel school again tomorrow! Anyway, here are some cute pictures of Aaron and Wyatt...

Love that smile!

"Yes, I know I'm obnoxiously cute!"

"You think I look like my Dad?"

"Hmm... let me see. Yep!"

What's for dinner?

Let me just start out this post by saying that I am not the chef in our house. I enjoy cooking, but I don't have the gift that Aaron has when it comes to making tasty things! So let me share the tasty meal he prepared tonight: Bacon-wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with a mixture of chevre, cream cheese, and spinach; and sauteed red potatoes and green beans. Um... Yum! :) I heart all of these things. Thanks for a yummy dinner, Aaron!


While Wyatt did not get to enjoy Daddy's cooking, he did actually eat quite a bit of sweet potatoes tonight! He even opened up for the spoon a few times! And he tried out some yogurt melts and revisited the cereal puffs. At first he makes the "Yuck" face, but he seems to enjoy it after a little while. I think it would be fun for him to learn how to sign a few things, so tonight I showed him how to sign "More, please" and "Thank you." We're trying to raise a polite child. Ha! :) He laughed every time I signed "more," but when I had Aaron try to get it on camera he quit laughing. Stay tuned... I'm sure I'll find more cute things to post. :)

Oh Cereal Puffs!

Tonight (thanks to Courtney's brilliant advice :) ) I bought some cereal puffs for Wyatt to try. He still makes a face like he's not sure about the textures, but he probably ate 10 or so of the puffs tonight and he seemed to indicate that he wanted more. Exciting!

Anyway, I am re-reading part of the book "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" just because Wyatt is not sleeping for long stretches consistently. The last two nights he has awakened (has woken up? has woke up?) every 1-2 hours fussing so I have to go give him the pacifier or feed him. Doesn't make for a very well rested mommy or Wyatt. Well, I re-read part of it because I've forgotten some of it. One of the tips I re-started tonight was putting him to bed still awake and without a pacifier. It makes sense - if I want him to be able to fall asleep on his own, I can't have him rely on a pacifier, otherwise I have to get up every couple hours when he wakes up! So... I fed him his bottle and put him in bed with him sleepy but not asleep. Then I held him (sort of) in the crib, patted him, and "shh'd" him until he finally went to sleep. Without the pacifier! The book says to get him used to going to sleep at night without a pacifier, and then work on the day. So, he still gets a pacifier during the day. I'll report back in a week or two - we'll see if there's any difference!

Oh Sweet Potatoes!

I've been working (still) on getting Wyatt to eat some solid food - the past few nights it's been sweet potatoes. He is not thrilled with eating from a spoon - tonight he actually ate more sweet potatoes from my finger than from the spoon. I'm just trying to get him used to the different tastes and textures of "people food." And, I decided to give him his own spoon so maybe he will learn to like the spoon too. As you can see, he will put the spoon in his mouth just fine, but he's not very happy when I do it! Maybe he's going to be just like his Mommy - "I do it!"