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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. Posted by Melissa at 11:03 PM No comments: 

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. 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 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.

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. 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.

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 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. 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.
Posted by Melissa at 9:37 PM No comments: 


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. Posted by Melissa at 9:31 PM No comments: 


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).
Posted by Melissa at 12:52 PM 1 comment: 

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.
﻿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.
Posted by Melissa at 3:48 PM 1 comment: