WD meets Lily

We had an opportunity to meet up with Dave's best friends from college (Dave & Toni Wilkie) for lunch recently. We also got to meet their Daughter Lily who is a couple months younger than WD. We got some cute pics, as you can see.

Dave & Dave.

Setting the stage.

Lily moves in...

Goes for the tickles...

And WD responds...

Updates for WD

As I had previously mentioned had is 19 month check-up last month and forgot to tell you all that our slim guy is 26.6#. So he pails in comparison to some of his peers (Cousin-Caeden, Friend-Chas, BFF-Kaden, etc), but he's just right to us. :-)

We also had our first AEA Early Access evaluation at home for his speech. They will come a 2nd time (all for free) in November. The 2 women said that he was a very bright, cute and charming kid (of course), but that he was falling just a little below average for his speech skills. They gave us a booklet to help coach us in how to coach him to talk. Turns out we are already doing many of those things, but this will help us keep doing them. That same day (Monday 10/12) WD had a hearing check which came out fine. We didn't think his hearing was the issue w/ his speech but it needed ruled out. His tympanogram (ear drum pressure test) said he was congested but no fluid showed in either ears. Well after 3 very rough days we got into the pediatrician on Thursday (10/15) and he had a pretty bad ear infection in his left ear and he got amoxicillin for it. Here WD has on his new bibs and boots, both of which are a little big. He's not very happy as this is Thursday morning - so we're lacking sleep and not feeling well and Mama has the camera and won't give it to him. She's so mean!!!

A happier moment with Mama Thursday morning.

Our Adventures in Potty Training are on hold as well. With WD not feeling well and being very crabby, and us being in the same boat, it just hasn't happened. He hasn't shown much interest in it either since last weekend. Hoping to try and pick it back up in a couple weeks again. Guess it's really all up to him, not me. Not sure I can get used to that idea, but then again I don't have much choice do I? :-)

EVENTFUL DAY!

We had an eventful day today. Don & Caroline spent the night so we had a nice evening out, and this morning we woke up to SNOW!!! It was coming down pretty good and we ended up with about 1 inch accumulation (except none on the roads) but then it all melted away by the afternoon.

While it was yucky outisde, WD and I ventured out anyway. While we were gone, Dave installed our new toilet (we just upgraded to a more efficient one). While at the mall, WD and I made a pit stop at a family restroom which had a regular toilet and sink, and a little toilet, and little sink. I sat down, and WD sat down, but he quickly noticed that he had pants on and tried to take them off. After a little assistance he sat back on the little toilet and proceeded to pee!!! We have not worked on this at all at home, so this was a great surprise! We went home and got the potty chair out (that I'd gotten at a garage sale about 2 mos ago) and he went potty at home 2 more times today. Not that they were substantial amounts, but we're still pretty pumped that he has connected the dots. The biggest issue now is how WD is going to tell us he needs to go since he's not talking yet. Our AEA (speech pathologist assessment) appointment is Monday so they might give us some ideas, but I can also look up sign language as well.

Now the fun really begins. We'll keep you posted.

Our September - in pictures

This was my first attempt at homemade bread. It's suppose to be dark as it was a hearty multigrain. When they said to grease the pan liberally, as you can see - I apparently didn't do it liberally enough. I also followed the directions of temping out the insides to above 205 and it was, yet the insides once out of the pan were like a thick pudding. Needless to say, we've been eating store-bought bread. :-)


Here is one of 2 young bucks that were in our yard. We had never seen bucks, only does.

I kept WD and myself entertained one evening but playing dress-up. WD loves my hat and black patent flats as it is, but then I put him in one of my shirts and he got the oven mits and was in heaven. :-) Daddy didn't like it as much as WD and I did.

WD found "super goggles" at G'ma and G'pa Kluver's house. He LOVED LOVED LOVED these, and would wear them around until (as you can see) he's fog up the insides and not be able to see out. He'd then pull them off, to air out and then want to put them back on. He was so adorable with them too - in a comic relief way that is.

Last weekend we had a baby shower for our niece Jessica and her fiance Damion. Good attendance, and everything went well (once we got started an hour late).

So much going on....

Sorry for the delay in any updates with us. We've been keeping busy. Dave is playing primary parent a lot more lately and WD has definitly become a Daddy's Boy. I'm taking a graduate class and working on my application to graduate school (I can take a few classes w/o being admitted); that on top of work, family, doctors' appointments, etc. has kept me pretty preoccupied. I've also been having several health issues as my body still tries to recover from childbirth, including numerous physical therapy appointments for my back and hips, as well as other things I'll not go into here.

WD is growing like a weed, and so smart. He had his 18mo check-up yesterday (even though he's 19.5 mos - it was the soonest we could get in). He's 26 pounds which is the 50th percentile for weight, he's between 25-50th percentile for height, and he's at the 75th percentile for head size. We did get a referral for a speech assessment, as he's not saying any words yet. He talks up a storm in jibberish, but not in English yet. So there is a free program that will assess and help him if he needs it that we will be doing. We're not worried yet, but the doctor suggests we just have the free evaluation to be proactive, rather than wait until he's 2 years old and behind others his age and trying to play catch-up.

Hope you are doing well, and we'll try to do a better job with pictures and posts in October!

Copperhead was Sunning by the Pool

Drew C. Wilson
Havelock News
http://www.havenews.com/news/0in-5994-style-span.html

When Kim Waters found a copper colored snake curled up on some decorative rocks next to her backyard swimming pool the first thing she did was call Havelock Police.
“I have a small dog. That’s why I had to call,” Waters said.
Officer William Pressler responded to the home at 215 Manchester Road Thursday morning.
The city’s animal control officer, Kim Van Houten, was in New Bern at the time so Pressler and Waters had to wait as the snake lay still, not moving from its apparent nap in the sun.
Pressler described the snake over the radio to Van Houten as being copper colored with a V-shaped head and splotches.
“Stay away from it,” said Van Houten in return.
Upon arrival Van Houten identified the snake as a copperhead, one of North Carolina’s venomous snakes.
“It was right by her pool by some decorative rocks,” Van Houten said. “It was curled up like it was sunning.”
“I poked him with the snake stick and he didn’t move,” Van Houten said, “so we took it out into the grass and made sure he was dead.” Van Houten decapitated the two-foot long viper on the spot and put in a bag.
“It’s the kind of snake you don’t want to be messing with,” Van Houten said.
“I’ve caught plenty of them,” she said. “They’re all over the place.”
North Carolina has the highest annual frequency of snakebites in the nation with 19 bites per 100,000 residents, according to WebMD, which also said the nation has 7,000 bites per year yet an average of only four deaths per year.
Van Houten doubted that Havelock’s recent rains had anything to do with this snake’s appearance.
“It’s a little late for him to be coming up because of the rains,” she said.
“He picked those rocks to sun on. I don’t know why he was dead. He didn’t have any bite marks on him,” Van Houten said.
Van Houten gets lots of snake calls. She encourages people not to kill snakes but to call her instead.
“There are endangered species out there,” she said.
“If you get something in your yard that needs looking at, call me,” she said.
“Hopefully I won’t have any more,” said Waters.
Down the street, her neighbor Irene Zaccardelli heard about the two-foot-long snake. “Two feet? That’s a python to me,” she said.

Both pictures here are of the actual event. Bottom from Mike & top from the Havelock Paper.

Been a busy past few weeks...

Sorry for the delay as we've been pretty busy. We had family in, the family reunion, Restoration Days, I started class (for my master's degree), we planned a block party....and on and on.

Uncle Michael was back form NC, and you can see that WD enjoyed seeing him. Poor U. Mike couldn't play too much w/ his bum shoulder, but hopefully he can do more next time we see him.

I went to check on WD one night to find this scene! I was startled for a moment wondering where WD was! Had he finally learned to climb out or what??? (note the teeth marks on the railing in the bottom left of the picture...pretty expensive teether for him)

WD had somehow crawled under his crib sheet, and was sleeping between it and the mattress.

Here WD models some shades of Great Grandma's that he fell in love with while at Grandpa Ray & Grandma Karyn's house.

WD enjoys his first sucker at the Restoration Days Parade. He enjoyed seeing all the restored tractors, especially the big one that kept moving it's bucket up and down as it drove by.

WD stopped at the hardware store to check out carts and wheelbarrows. He took it upon himself to rearrange them for the store workers.

YOGURT!!!!