19 Month Wessers

 Wes has lots and lots of baby words now, though we are probably the only people who can really understand him. He has words for ice cream or any general treat (I-meem), cars (eee), quesadilla and/or pizza (dia), and is even forming some little sentences, such as "Wan' that" (I want that). His brothers have recently upped their potty talk (Derek especially), so he is also using the word poopoo a lot, such as yelling "AHM! Ha' poopoo!" (mom! I have a poopoo) in the middle of the night to try to get me to come and pick him up (to date, he has never actually had a mid-night poopy diaper). Wes is also joining in the potty talk humor; his favorite joke is saying someone's name and then saying poopoo. His favorite name to use is Dada, as in "Dada poopoo", after which he will giggle and then repeat, over and over.

Wes is unfortunately very aware of everything that drives people crazy--he loves whacking his brothers on the head or pulling their hair or grabbing their skin with his little baby claws, and will smile the entire time he does it, then squawk as you pull him away. He loves to wreck towers and meticulously laid train tracks and knock over action figures and steal balls from the crucial last moments of football games. He also likes to suck on his candy/treats/gummies, passing them to his hand and back into his mouth over and over until everything is sticky (mom made this one worse by reacting so strongly--now he makes sure that I know that he's doing it and then runs away as I try to intervene). 

Wes is still nursing, finally falling asleep easily and sleeping through the night, and slimming down as he refuses to stop moving and is now a bit too busy to sit still for long enough to eat. 

He's quite the spunky little stinker! 

Raiding the Prison Ship

Happy Halloween! 

From:

Mayfield

"I wonder what you look like under there. Maybe he's a Gungan."

Xi'an

"A lady never tells."

Mando

"I told you that was a bad idea." 

Burg

"Little mouse..."

and The Child.

As you can imagine, Baby Yoda got a lot of love, followed closely by Mando. I think out of the entire night, one or two groups of people figured out the whole crew.

We know who the real fans are. 

18 Month Wessers

 Wes is right in the middle of my absolute favorite age. Still a baby (still nursing, though dada asks him daily when he's going to be done), but with so much personality and hilarity. Wesley is so very talkative. Best of all, he is spot-on with all of his verbal intonations and expressions--for example, he has already mastered yelling at Luke for his attention, in exactly the same tones that the rest of us use. And though I didn't think it was possible to increase our general decibel level, I'm now quite certain that Wesley is our loudest child. 

Wes loves to be involved in everything, loves to snuggle, wrestle, be outside, loves to run and dance and wiggle, loves music and singing and pretending to play the piano. He loves food and seems to have inherited a massive sweet tooth from his dad. He loves books and reading (though is our most vigorous book-ripper to date) and gets very excited when everyone is watching football. 

Wes dislikes being restrained (mostly by his brothers), having his toys snatched, being told no, and when his brothers get attention from mama. 

He brings such fun to our lives! 

17 Month Wessers

 

Wes is quite the little firecracker. There is something about him that is just so entertaining, I feel like I could sit and watch him all day. Even just his little head bobbing around. He jabbers and talks and is starting to say lots of little words! He says "eese" for both cheese and peas (and he goes to the freezer and bangs on when he says it), Ma, Da, "Ooh" for Luke, and "E" for Derek. He also will get ahold of my phone and ask for "IOIO" (which sounds more like "AyloAylo") at least a dozen times a day. And then will sing and dance along. 

Wesley still loves his food! All of his food. He also loves to help me cook and will ask to stir things and pour things and taste things. His favorite foods are frozen peas, popcorn, chocolate, tomatoes and tomatoey things, and whatever someone else is eating. 

Wes is still very loving and snuggly and gives lots of hugs and kisses, but he has been learning some valuable lessons from his older brothers. Lately he has learned how to make action figures fight one another, how to fight with lightsabers, how to tackle and wrestle, and how to chase someone around while brandishing a weapon. He has also gotten the hang of pulling hair and pinching! Luckily he now mostly only play-bites. 

But really, the little guy just makes life more fun. He loves everything--books, music, food, playing, riding in the car (finally!), helping, anything with water, sports, his brothers, nursing (yes, still...) other babies, animals, his da, and most especially his mama (whom he calls "AHHHHHM!" over and over). Luke recently called him a live snuggle toy, and both boys love him so much that they keep pestering me about having more babies (Luke is convinced triplets are in our future). 

It's so fun to watch the best little baby ever grow! 

School Begins! Hallelujah!

Two days ago we had the first day of second grade and first day of Pre-K, signs courtesy of Luke himself! 

(hair courtesy of COVID--Luke has decided he digs the 70s shag look, and I have had several people stop me at school and tell me how "beautiful" his hair is)

Derek had a brief moment of unease, but pulled through like a champ! 

...and by the end of the day was wondering why I came to pick him up so early. 

(He also informed me that he made a friend! But only one, because the rest of the kids just wouldn't listen to the teacher) 

Wes also greatly enjoyed the distraction of something new and exciting (lots of kids! places to go in the car!) but did miss his brothers and wandered around calling for them every now and then ("Oook? Eee?). 

Looking forward to whatever this school year will bring! It is sure to be exciting!

16 Month Wessers

 Full disclosure: he turned 17 months a couple of days ago. So just pretend I managed to get this out last month.

At 16 months, Wes is still adorable and mostly cheerful and now happily mobile, but the poor little guy is getting a little frustrated at how hard it is for him to communicate. There is a lot of squawking going on--I have been saying it for a while now, but I'll say it again: Wes is definitely our loudest child (and that's saying quite a lot). He loves to babble and yell and sing and squawk and jabber and mimic and scream! That scream! If we all make it out of his childhood without some form of partial hearing loss it will be a miracle. 

Wesley is a lot more confident walking around now! While walking his hands have gradually gone from monkey-state above his head to kind of around his face to kind of out wide and are now pretty much down at his sides. Sometimes if he gets moving really fast or is careening around a corner he will throw them up for balance again, but for the most part he is pretty solid. He loves going outside and wearing his shoes and will bring them over so you can help to put them on if he ever hears the word. 

Wes is also our biggest, most bottomless-pit eater! He likes to have his first and second breakfasts, lunch, after-nap snack, dinner, and any other tastes you offer him throughout the day. He especially loves food on other people's plates and gets very excited when he successfully begs some of it off of you. He's also a big fan of food that he can get himself! And will make a beeline for the garden to help himself to whatever is ripe off the vine or will bring us bags of popcorn or crackers from the pantry. 

All of this makes for one cute little baby, but Wesser's dance moves take the cake. He can move his hips back and forth and up and down and around in ways that put Elvis to shame. His favorite song is I.O.I.O. by the Beegees, and he can get down when it comes on. Almost like his little baby body can't contain his little soul. The bits we've caught on film will make for some great wedding video material later on in life. 

Beachy Keen

This past week we swam, jet-skied, kayaked, dug in the sand, and used up an entire tube of sunscreen on Anna Maria Island, Florida with some old friends. A vacation that we booked pre-COVID (and which was rescheduled because of it), we were down-to-the-wire in deciding whether or not we were actually going to go (especially since Isaias was making it's way towards the Florida coastline at the same time that our plane was), but we went! And all was well. 

And sandy. 

Look! Ken's outside!

Look! Ken's kayaking!