Friday, April 29, 2011

Wyatt Rolls Over (video)

Exactly 3 months to the day after Wyatt was born he began rolling over. I walked in to get him out of his crib that morning and he had rolled from his back to his belly. Such a strong boy!

Tonight he had almost an entire hour of "exercise" time rolling over and over on the floor and I was able to get one on video!

WATCH OUT WORLD!!!! Another Palmer boy is on the move!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Sesame Street Live!

It has been a CRAZY night in our family! We just got home from going to see a Sesame Street show!! Mommy was lucky enough to win some FREE tickets. Ok, we didn't win them. In actuality we lost and some of our friends won...but I sent the company running the contest a message on facebook thanking them for the contest and wishing my friends a good time. Tuesday morning I got a private message saying they had 4 extra tickets for the Wednesday show and asking if I'd like them. HECK YES!!!!!


Peter was super excited. It was hard to contain him. All evening was a tiring game of chase and it felt like he was winning! He just wanted to run and play and laugh. I guess the prospect of Elmo is super exciting to a 3 year old!


Wyatt was much more calm. He just rested in his Moby wrap and hugged mom the whole night. He ended up sleeping in it the whole show.


Daddy and Peter both wore their Cookie Monster shirts. They matched!


Part of our winnings was a private photo with some of the characters! Imagine our surprise when we walked in and saw Cookie Monster! Just like their shirts! AWESOME! Abby Cadabby was there too, she's a new fairy character. Most of my pics came out blurry but somehow when I handed the camera over to the workers their shots worked. Atleast I got one good photo and everyone is even looking!


Before going back out to the lobby Peter had to give Cookie a big hug. It looks like he almost got lost in all that fur!


In the lobby Peter found Elmo!


Wyatt had no clue what was going on. He just looked around kinda concerned and chewed on his fist. This is his latest hobby. I think he prefers that to a pacifier.


We had brought Peter's Elmo from home so he got to take him inside as we looked for our seats.


Imagine our surprise when we walked in and saw that our entire row was filled with our friends from the mommy group! Four different families had all won tickets through the same group! Peter was jumping up and down and giving hugs to all his buddies. All the kids decided to group together and sit in a row. It was the cutest thing. Peter was rarely near us the whole night. All the kids just kinda migrated through the different families during the show. I'm glad he got to share the experience with some friends.


I will never forget Peter's face when Cookie Monster and Elmo first came out. His eyes got big, his jaw dropped and he whipped his head around at me and pointed at the stage smiling. He couldn't believe what he was seeing! Big Bird, Super Grover, Bert, Ernie, they all were there.


It was a great show and certainly a new experience for Peter. He learned to clap after songs and had fun interacting with the characters. He had a great time! Mommy and Daddy had fun watching Cookie Monster rap and marveling at Elmo doing sommersaults in full costume. Wyatt slept thru it all but did jump a few times when little cannons went off and sent confetti and streamers into the audience. Thank you Sesame Street and TMC Children's Hospital for a wonderful night!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Friday BBQ's Start Again!

Our favorite "summer" activity has started up again! Friday night BBQ's at the Tucson Racquet Club.


To celebrate we decided to go pick up some new pool toys for Peter. I was hoping for some cheap floating toys but when we saw these Spiderman diving sticks I knew he had to have them!


Atleast he barely let them out of his reach!!


He held on to them tight all night long! They are his favorite thing!


It's pretty regularly in the 80's here already, some days reaching the 100's! Peter loves being able to get in the pool and swim! He is so happy in the water!


He still loves to use his tube. I am hoping that he will learn to swim a little more this summer and get rid of it sometimes.


We let Peter swim for a little bit. He liked to make new friends in the water. He is such a social little guy! It's not enough to hang out with his family, he must always have a gang of little buddies around!


After swimming we headed over to the grass and sat down on a blanket for our picnic.


We brought our own snack. Peter got some Lunchables. He can eat lunchables! He got the ham and cheese but I took the cheese away, still not great on cheese and milk. But he got ham, crackers, a banana, and a juice box. He was so worn out that he fell asleep on the way home. Love those nights!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

We are Moving!!!

Well, its official! We are moving to Iowa this summer!

While we have had a great time enjoying Tucson and the warmth of Arizona, I miss having some family around. Over the past year there were a lot of instances where I just wanted family around. And with two kids it just gets harder and harder to "go it alone". A few times I broke down crying from stress and tried to figure out how to cram everyone into a car and drive to Iowa.

My whole pregnancy I flashed back on my 48 hour stay in the hospital during my first pregnancy. If I were to go into the hospital for any reason our life would just stop dead in the water and we would begin sinking. I am tired of treading water for survival. It is not fun when you have a family.

Then add John's thyroid surgery and worrying about taking 2 kids with me to the surgical waiting room... Emergency situations and medical concerns add an extra scare level when you have 2 little ones to care for.

And I just miss having family to share things with. Birthdays, holidays, milestones. There are so many people in Iowa that LOVE my kids and will support them. They deserve to have a village caring for them.

I am excited for Iowa summers and festivals, the much improved educational system (including free preschool at age 4!), and safer communities (Tucson has had a big increase in crime and violent crime lately).

We are still a little scared of going through winter. I am hoping it will ease us into the cold and go easy on us the first year. Peter's hand me downs won't work as well because we have nothing for the frigid snow! We will be doing lots of shopping to get set up for the snow.

As of right now we will be loading the moving truck in mid-June...2 months from now. So we have a lot to do! We will be moving to North Liberty, Iowa. It is a little town between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids so there are 2 metro areas to look for jobs. I have already done tons of research on both communities and been looking for activities to keep the kids busy. It looks like some fun things going on.

There is lots of excitement going on in our home! We are trying to clear out the freezer and sort through clothes in the closets. Boxes are being collected and slowly being packed when we find time. Unfortunately, its hard with 2 little ones. Peter is good at EMPTYING boxes, not so much filling them up. :)

But we will get there one way or another. In just two short months!!!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Wyatt @ 3 months

Our littlest boy turned 3 months old! I can't believe so much time has passed since Wyatt was born. I don't think I noticed because most of that time I was in pure survival mode day to day. It is hard to have a newborn and a toddler at the same time. I will run into people who say new babies are hard, but honestly I think the baby time is easy. I think it was dealing with an almost 3 year old that tests my patience the most, and with a newborn I didn't have any to spare.


Bedtime is one of the hardest things. When Wyatt arrived I had zero energy to do the whole bedtime process with Peter and was almost always feeding around that time. Peter got into the habit of watching movies then staying up until almost 11pm. Then Wyatt would still wake up 2 times before morning and I spent every day on the edge of exhaustion. I think Peter did too and it just led him to cause even more trouble. Thankfully, as we enter 3 months Wyatt is sleeping through the nights more reliably and not eating as often so I am able to start reading Peter books at bedtime again. This past week both boys have been in bed by 9pm! John and I are celebrating!!! And also starting to get our sanity back!


At Wyatt's checkup last week he was 24" long (the 95th percentile) and 10lbs, 15 oz (the 15th percentile). Another long and skinny kid. Though I was surprised he was so low on weight. Since he got his tongue fixed about 10 days earlier it appeared as if he had packed on the pounds. It scares me to think how light he must have been before that! In the 2 weeks since getting his tongue clipped he had jumped from Newborn clothes to 3 month clothes. He stretches them up and down, but is swimming in extra fabric on the sides. Oh well.

They also measured his head circumference and ended up measuring it 3 times! Upon coming home I found out that his 14" reading puts him in the bottom 5%, aka super tiny head. The doctor asked me some development questions which he passed with flying colors so I don't think she was concerned.


Wyatt is SUPER smiley. His belly is ticklish and he loves to giggle. Every evening he has to have a good smiling session where we smile at each other and laugh. He is also very vocal, much more than I remember Peter being. Wyatt will coo, moan, and babble filling up the apartment or the car with baby talk. Peter always makes sure I know when "baby's talking mom!"

The morning that Wyatt turned 3 months old I heard him babbling in his crib as I was getting ready. Soon the noises changed to a little more urgent and I went to investigate. He had rolled over in his crib from back to front! They say that happens at 5-6 months! I was worried I don't give him enough tummy time since there is a toddler and pets running around, but I guess now he will do it himself!


Wyatt's other favorite things to do include sucking on his fists, kicking his legs, and being held close to mom. He likes his back being patted and hates it being rubbed. He loves when you run your finger over his forehead. He is now sleeping in his own crib and sharing a room with big brother, it only causes problems if big brother wakes up in the middle of the night and turns the light on. Wyatt loves sleeping in the dark and always wants a blanket blocking the light to fall asleep.


I am hopeful that soon we will be officially out of the crazy newborn stage. We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but its not always reliable yet. Our patterns are getting settled and I mostly know what to expect during the day. Atleast I am confident that we WILL get out of survival mode sometime soon, I am enjoying finally getting there! It has been a hard few months.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Wyatt's Tongue Tie

Wyatt's tongue tie is now FIXED!!! We went through so much trying to get his poor t0ngue fixed. The membrane below his tongue went all the way to the tip of his tongue and prevented him from sticking his tongue all the way out. It caused problems in sucking/eating and preventing him from gaining weight.


The first doctor we were referred to wanted to wait and see how things went because she wanted to knock him out with anesthesia. From my research and how frustrated I was I was NOT going to let that happen. I asked my mommy friends for referrals and had several people mention a specialist. After 2 months we finally got Wyatt in and after 5 minutes he was fixed.


The doctor was fun and played with Peter. Then brought out scissors, did a few snips, Wyatt cried for maybe 15 seconds then calmed down and it was done! I fed him for a little bit and it already felt a little different.

Wyatt had a few days learning curve of learning how to work his tongue differently. He had spent 2 months learning to work the wrong muscles to try to compensate.

Now he LOVES to stick his tongue out, lick his fists, and has starting cooing all day long.

Sidenote: It has been a few weeks now and Peter still remembers our visit. Sadly, what he remembers is that "scissors cut baby's tongue". I am scared to ever give him a pair of scissors!

We Spent the Day with Thomas!

While John's mom was visiting during his thyroid surgery we found out that Thomas the Train was going to be coming to Globe, AZ. It is a town about 2 hours away but Peter loves Thomas and Nana offered to bring some of the Phoenix family to visit as well so we all packed up and met to go on the train!


John's cousin Nathan, his wife and 2 year old came too. We had never met and with chasing the kids never really got to talk until the end of the day. Wish we had more time getting to know them because they were really nice. I told them that we'd have to see them before flying out of Phoenix.


Peter was super excited when he realized why we were there. Thomas the Train pulled into the station the minute we arrived and we climbed aboard. Peter helped yell "All Aboard!"


John let Peter have the window seat and we watched the desert landscape go by. It was a short ride, only about 15 minutes, but Peter was super excited.


Mommy let Wyatt have the window seat too, but he wasn't nearly as excited. He slept the whole train ride.


After the train ride Wyatt woke up and needed to eat. There were some nice shaded tables in front of a stage so I stopped to watch a magic show while Nana took Peter to play on some train tables and do a round of mini-golf.


Wyatt got to spend some cuddle time with John's Aunt Marilyn.


After that Wyatt just wanted to be held so I plopped him in the Moby wrap and we went around chasing after Peter. Wyatt was intrigued by all the action and enjoyed looking around at everything.


Peter was in heaven running around to jump castles and a little train doing circles in the parking lot. He LOVED this bean bag toss game. He probably stayed here for 20 minutes or more just grabbing bean bags and throwing them thru the holes.


It was getting to be nearly 90 degrees and super dusty so we headed back to the tables for a while. This time a fun band was playing. Peter had a great time being able to go up on stage and play instruments with the band. He was dancing all over the place. Meanwhile, mom dad and Wyatt stayed in the shade.


It was a great day with Thomas and our Phoenix family.


The 2 hour ride home really sucked though. Peter had gotten a brand new Thomas movie from the library to watch in the car so he was happily kicking back with his headphones on. But Wyatt was a different story. He does NOT like his car seat, especially at dark. He screamed and screamed. It scares me because he will work himself into such a frenzy that he spits up and it sounds like he is choking himself. I have a hard time driving. We pulled over to feed him, change him, comfort him, burp him... Our 2 hour car ride home turned into nearly 4 hours. So hard! I vowed that it would be awhile before another car trip.

Renaissance Festival

Trying to catch up on some blogging! Today we are rewinding to February and our trip to the Renaissance Festival in Phoenix. I was a little apprehensive about how we would survive with a 1 month old but we decided to risk it.

Peter some some tattoo's on his arm of stars and spiders! He thought they were the coolest thing ever!


Lots of people at the Ren Fest are dressed up. Peter had just gotten a brand new SuperWhy costume with a mask and cape. He decided that he would wear his costume and he kept it on nearly all day.

It was funny that as we walked around you could tell who was parents because they pointed out "Hey, its SuperWhy!" And always it seemed to be dad's commenting, not moms.


Peter LOVED his SuperWhy outfit.


Dad went on lots of rides with Peter while mom stayed with Wyatt.


We went into a pirate shop to look for some cool pirate things. Out of all the things to be drawn to he went straight to the parasaul and had a great time hiding under it. The vendor liked Peter and gave him a free piece of "gold". Peter had a great time playing with his new treasure.


Peter tried some chocolate...


rested in the trees...


and he had fun riding the rides.


then more food. Yummy pretzels.


Wyatt slept most of the time we were there. I purposely woke him up a few times just to feed him. We stopped for a snack under the trees and laid down in the grass for a while.


We watched lots of show.


More rides...



John spent a good amount of time chasing Peter down. He scared us really bad at one point. I took Wyatt with me into the bathroom and John took Peter in the men's. Apparently just as John unzipped and started going potty Peter decided to bolt and ran out the front door. By the time John was zipped and ran out after him Peter was gone. I came out to frantic John looking for Peter. We divided and spread out yelling for Peter. After about 2 minutes that seemed VERY long another dad brought a crying Peter up to us. So happy for good people.


After a few more games we headed home. The 2 hr ride home took closer to 3 because Wyatt was going crazy in the car. He screamed, cried, had to eat, screamed some more, had a dirty diaper, screamed some more.... We pulled over a lot to try to take care of him. Hope he grows out of that!