kidz bounce

 
 

word to your mutha

as is to be expected at this time in her little baby life, summer is slowly building her language repertoire. it is particularly fascinating for us as parents to see which words she picks up on and which fall perilously by the wayside.

here, in no particular order, is a list of words she can say and also with which she consistently associates the correct meaning:

1. help

2. toots

3. baby

4. dada

5. shoes

6. jacket

7. eye

8. banana

9. cheese

10. more

11. belly

12. kisses

13. no

14. hi

15. bye

16. uh-oh

17. up

notice anything strange about that list (besides the fact that "toots" is on it)? any word ominously missing from her vocabulary?

that's right, "mama."

can she say "mama?" absolutely. does she know what it means? not a clue. currently, she thinks it means "skin."

when summer would pat my arm or leg or belly, i would say "mama," in an effort to teach her that i (the person she's touching) am the mama. unfortunately, our signals got crossed and instead she correlated the skin (the object she's touching) with the mama.

oh well. better luck next time.

let it all out

it's official: i'm that lady.

you know the one. not just the lady with the screeching toddler, the lady whose precious child is throwing herself on the floor, clawing and kicking around with such dramatic flair as to nearly elicit applause from the clearly enraptured audience.

yup, that's me. i finally saw it today in the eyes of passers-by as i attempted to coax summer out of pottery barn kids. she, naturally, was not ready to vacate the premises (what with all the uber-cool toys and plush bedding), and as is her custom, violently arched her back and flailed on the ground to show her disapproval for yet another one of my parenting decisions.

it happens at the post office. it happens at the grocery store. it happens at the park. it happens at people's houses. and of course, it happens at the mall.

summer's tantrums are so above and beyond what is to be expected of a child her age. i, myself, did not start throwing such well-orchestrated fits until reaching the ripe old age of two. but that summer, she's quite precocious, and her execution knows no bounds. she's even thrown herself backwards on concrete in the pouring rain to prove a point.

for the most part, i remain unflustered and go about my business, and summer is slowly learning that her emotional outbursts do little to change the course of events in her favor. however, that hasn't yet prevented her from giving us all a good show (maybe exhibiting early ambition for an oscar??)

so ya'll can just keep on staring because i have a feeling we're only beginning to see what this little firecracker can do.

california dreamin

first, let me just say something about the pacific northwest: we have the best summers.

but that being said, it's now nearing the end of march, and i haven't seen the sun since september. nor do i expect to until may, at least.

and for the first two years we lived here, we just dealt with the long, dark, gray win-spri-ter-ing in the hopes of making it to the glorious summer, but this year, i've decided to take action. if the sunshine won’t come to us, we’re just going to have to go out and find the sweet, sweet rays ourselves.

on a spontaneous whim (read: three full days of research involving an excel spreadsheet), i purchased our little family tickets to visit here.

booked a suite here.

and am looking forward to taking little miss sunshine herself here, here, and especially here.

can't you just taste that vitamin d?

Biz the Builder

With the estrogen fumes reaching ever higher concentrations in the Wheeler household, I decided it was high time to man things up a bit. Since the pediatrician claims that introducing Summer to the bench press is out of the question for another decade and a half, we settled for light construction equipment instead.

In a stroke of surprising good fortune, that very same day the city of Duvall was hosting a fair where the main attraction was a front end loader. After briefly posing in the cockpit, Summer’s attention quickly shifted to cotton candy. Once her true love had finished melting in the rain, I judged that we’d been man enough for one day and returned home to order some more hot pink accessories for the next “Man it Up” day.

 
(For the uninitiated, Biz is one of Summer's many nonsensical nicknames).

it's raining men

an interesting fact occurred to me the other day:

currently, in my circle of friends and associates, there are eight other pregnant (or recently "delivered") women. of these, how many are having boys? every. single. one.

well, well, well....

looks like our baby girl's gonna have herself the pick of the litter.

remember my fellow mamas, bribery courtship begins in the womb. bring by some vanilla cupcakes, and i'll put in a good word. 

photo credit:  vermin inc.

gone with the wind

 

recently, summer has started using her ball popper as a hair dryer.

hello in there

i’m going to go ahead and say, for the few people who don’t already know, that i had been hoping for a boy.

let me explain.

when i first found out that i was pregnant, i was 100% determined to have another girl. i called the baby a “she,” named her, and of course started eyeing coordinating outfits and pink bedding.

then i got terribly sick—more sick than i was able to handle (wuss that i am). and it was during this time, because i could no longer think in terms of 7 children or 5 children or even 3 children, that i started to want a boy. unsure if i would ever trod the path of pregnancy again, i thought it would be best to go ahead and even out the numbers. so a boy it was to be.

but during the ultrasound, as we spent half an hour watching our little baby, and i found myself completely enamored with each graceful movement, i knew it was my girl.

mothers just know.

lady wheeler's feet

 

our new baby is already showing herself to be quite different from miss summer. when i wrote about summer after our 20 week ultrasound, i noted that she was “energetic, outgoing, curious, and stubborn.” all of which she turned out to be (plus, plus).

her sister, on the other hand, is quiet, deliberate and patient. she is focused, content and relaxed. i have no doubt that she and summer will be the yin to one another’s yang and that they will both very much thrive in each other’s company.  my own peanut butter and jelly.

happiness is…

expanding our collection of perfect little girls.

the results show

(from an earlier recording taped thursday, march 5th at 7pm. yup, we made it three whole hours.)

congratulations to those of you who guessed correctly! for your much anticipated prize and to help us celebrate, check your email from itunes for a copy of this classic song.

guess the sex

is the new baby xy or xx?

may i have the envelope please:

we had our ultrasound this week, but instead of finding out the gender there in the stirrups, we asked the technician to write the information down on an index card and seal it in this envelope*. we will open it “live” on monday evening. (*photo shown is not of actual envelope but is a decoy. bryan apparently does not trust me and has hidden the authentic merchandise. all because i cheat at cards. sheesh!)

in the meantime, we thought it would be fun for our faithful readers to guess the sex, and of course, as it is a wheeler family mantra that winners should be rewarded, win a prize!

here are the rules:

1. between now and monday evening (6:00 PM PST), leave a comment on this post indicating if you think the new wheeler addition will be a boy or if you’re leaning more toward the female variety. we will not accept emails or previous comments as entries.
   
2. married couples, you must be of one mind because you only get one guess.
   
3. as always, we will not post comments from people we don’t know, so no secret identities please.

after we dramatically reveal the winning gender, all those who guessed correctly will receive an exciting reward via email. to increase suspense, we are keeping the nature of this prize on the down low. all i can say for now is that it’s better than a kick in the pants.

and for those of you who are unpracticed in the “art” of gender-prediction, here are a few helpful tips from our dear friends, the old wives (based on my answers to an online quiz):

You are carrying the extra weight out front, so it's a boy.

The hair on your legs is not growing any faster during your pregnancy, so it's a girl.

Boys are carried low. You are going to have a boy.

You have no desire for orange juice, so it's a boy.

Your belly looks like a basketball, so it's a boy.

Dad-to-be hasn't been gaining weight along with Mom-to-be, so it will be a girl.

You had morning sickness early in pregnancy, so you are expecting a girl.

Since the sum of your age at conception and the month of conception is an odd number, it will be a girl.

Your urine is a bright neon yellow color, so you will have a boy.

You are craving sweets, which means it is a girl.

best of luck to you all!

fine print: per bryan’s worry that we somehow know hundreds of people that will be participating in this game of ours (i say we’ll be lucky if the dozen folks we’re related to play), we will let it herebeknown that our prize quota maxes out at 25. so get your guess in early if you want to beat the mob.