Snow, Spit, and (No) Sleep

For all of these Alaska people I live with, this much snow this early is nothing big. But for me, it seems weird not to have holiday decorations up during the first snow (that sticks, anyway.) I heard it was going to rain early this week, but on Tuesday morning, the rain turned to snow. Then yesterday, we got two to three more inches. Pretty crazy! This is a view of the trees behind our house.

Maggie in her little doggie coat. She loves the snow but hates the cold.

Views from our house.

We didn't really celebrate Halloween with costumes, but we did carve our pumpkin. If you can't tell, it's an upside down bat.

The Spitter: Chase is growing so fast! Some of the things he's doing are hilarious, while others make life a little difficult. As you can see from the video, spitting for no reason is one of his new favorites. He also loves to play with his toes, "fake" cough, pet Maggie, and make weird surprise noises. He had his 4-month appointment last week, and he's almost 13 lbs! (Finally back up to the 10th percentile or so; the doctor's happy.) However, he also can roll from back to front very easily - IN HIS SWADDLER! So we hear him crying after a nap or in the middle of the night, and he's totally rolled over. But the problem is that he absolutely won't fall asleep without being tightly swaddled, in a special swaddle blanket with velcro. On top of all of this, I think he's going through a growth spurt. For a kid who's been sleeping through the night since 6 weeks old, this seems like a huge set-back for us. I have been so tired this week, as has Ross. Chase has been waking up to feed or because he's rolled over anywhere between one and SEVEN times per night. (Actually I think the night of seven times was when we tried to get him to sleep un-swaddled.) When will it end?!?!? All in all, it's great to see him laugh and entertain himself for at least a little while.

Cute Overload

Billie (Ross' mom) got Chase this jumper because he loves to stand up on our laps. So far he really likes it, but he's obviously so small in it. It's hilarious! Isn't more than just his head supposed to peek over the top? (Check out the picture below!)

I think chewing her raw hide bone for an hour wiped Maggie out. But she's not giving it up to anyone!

"I love my jumper... I especially like that I'm just tall enough so I can slobber all over the edges!"

The other day I heard Ross playing rock band, but I knew that Chase had just gotten up from his nap, so I wondered where he was. Here's what I found: Chase strapped to Ross while he played the drums, and Chase enjoying every minute!

Three bucks

As many of you know, we live (with Ross' parents) on two acres in the mountains about 1500 feet above the rest of the valley. Although you can occasionally see deer in the valley, the sights are nothing like they are here. Since about two weeks before Chase was born, there have been three big bucks (I like to think they are the same ones all the time) that hang out in our driveway, on the trail behind our house, even on the sidewalk right outside the door. Sometimes we take Maggie out in the evening and there they are, no more than 20 feet away. Well, I finally saw two of them together and had my camera handy, so I snapped this picture. Of course, they started walking away as soon as I walked out on the deck. Lately, there have been so many deer that not a day goes by without seeing at least one, and it's usually closer to 5 or 6 at a time. I just hope we don't see any more "wildlife," like, I don't know, a cougar.

Here are a few pictures of Chase. I haven't weighed him lately, but he's starting to look chubby, at least to me. Here's a pic of him having "tummy time," which he generally hates, and one with him sporting a cool mohawk. I don't have a clue how his hair did that, but when I tried to smooth it down, I couldn't. It took a bath to do it. We took him for three-month pictures the other day. His happy attitude lasted about 10 minutes, but at least we got a few good ones. I'll post a couple of them when we pick them up next week.

Squeals of delight

As you can see from the video, when he's in a good mood, Chase enjoys chatting with us. We've decided that he makes noises that sound like a cat that's in a fight, so it gives us something to laugh about.

We went to California last week because Ross had a training in Torrance at Robinson Helicopter's headquarters, and we had a fun time. Chase went to his first baseball game, Angels vs. Yankees! (We forgot to bring the camera.) He was cooing so loud that he was making some girls in front of us laugh and wonder what sort of animal was behind them. Of course everyone thought it was so cute that we brought the baby to the game.

Chase also has a new cousin, Gina, who was born on Sept. 16. Grandparents got a picture of the two newest members of the Wyatt clan together a couple of days ago. Congrats, Paige and Geoff!

August

Two months old... And yes, Chase's eyes really are open like that all the time. The other day, he was smiling a lot, so I got the camera to try to capture it, but he suddenly decided he had to learn about the camera rather than continue to smile. So we may not be able to prove that he smiles for a while.


I know, it's been a while since I posted. Well, here's what's been going on (and a few other random items):

• I am officially jobless. Well, I don't have a paid job anymore, that is, and I am so relieved. Not that I didn't enjoy my job at Habitat, but it just got so hard toward the end. Working full-time with a little baby and no nanny is completely insane, I realized. I don't know why I thought I could do it. So I am now two days into being a full-time mom. Now that I don't have a job, I have so much that I want to do that I almost can't think straight! We'll see how long this stay-at-home mom thing lasts.
• I got a new laptop! And it's mine, ALL MINE! I don't have to share it with any boys.
• I have no idea what I used to watch on TV before the Olympics were on. I am sorta going through withdrawals. It was so convenient that it was in China, because I could watch it live while I fed Chase VERY early in the morning.
• My brother got his mission call to Johannesburg, South Africa. Congrats, David! (You know you're old when your brother who is ten years younger than you gets his mission call.)
• I have decided I am going to apply to Teach for America. I want to teach high school social studies.
• Ummm, where did the summer go? Why did school start again already? I am absolutely dreading cold weather.
• I am making a goal to read for at least one hour every day.
• I started going to the gym again. It's nice to exercise. I still can't jog though, because of my leg. It hurts a lot less but it's still numb and my ankle is slightly stiff.
• Ross accidentally left his old (by that I mean "previous," because we only had it for four months) computer on top of the car on the way to school one day and it became lost forever. We try not to think about it. But now we both have our own laptops. As long as Ross doesn't leave the car seat on top of the car, we should be alright.
• We were house-sitting for some people in our neighborhood last week and their chicken died. Luckily they had only had it for a couple of weeks because their 7-year-old won it at the state fair. We fretted about it for hours and hours before we called them and when they called us back they told us their prayers were answered. At least their dogs, cat, and horses are fine.
• Chase is finally starting to fit in his 0-3 month sized clothes. I'm excited because we have so many. A 7-year-old in our primary class said, "He's so skinny...he looks like a fake baby."
• I know newborn shoes are useless but they're too cute to pass up. That's why Chase wears them.
• The name Chase was in Parents Magazine's 226 Brilliant Baby Names article under "Country Clubbers." What the...? Well, maybe he'll be a pro golfer and Ross and I will be able to retire young.

Well, that's August. We'll add more than one post next month, I promise!

More pictures

I'm pretty tired to write much. Just wanted to post a few pictures from the last few weeks.

Things are going a little better. We think that Chase is doing a little better - sleeping a little more, crying a little less. However, sometimes we just think that we're a little better at coping with it. Not quite sure. One nice thing is that no matter how difficult he is during the day and in the evening, he sleeps really well at night. If I didn't wake him up for a nighttime feeding, he'd probably sleep all night!

He's still a skinny little guy. Not exactly sure how much he weighs, but we think it's less than 9 pounds still. He seems to be growing longer though! I'm trying to feed him more and monitor how much he's getting to fatten him up a bit. But if he's anything like me as a baby, that won't happen for a while.

Chase sitting up on the couch.

Wide-eyed.

For some reason the Chicago Bears pacifier is one of the few he likes. Daddy is happy.

Making faces at Mommy.

Chase started smiling (not just because of gas) a couple of weeks ago. But it's hard to capture with the camera! Here's a sort-of smile.

Chase...sleeping?? Mommy's happy!

Ross said, "Take a picture of me...This is my life." (Rocking Chase so that he stops crying while Maggie plays with his feet.)

All clean!

I don't know about this being-in-the-real-world thing!

I thought this drawing captured quite well the looks that have been plastered on Ross' and my faces at various points throughout the last two and a half weeks. It's been a hard couple of weeks since Chase's birth. He's pretty colicky, which basically just means that he cries for a few hours every evening (and sometimes during the day, too) for no apparent reason. Every day is a new experiment in comforting him or getting him to sleep. So far we've found that he likes car rides, the sound of the clothes dryer, a "sleep sheep" that makes nature sounds, and nursing. Other than that, we are experimenting with nighttime baths, the baby swing, the front pack carrier, and a pacifier. All of these things work some of the time and not others. At least we know colic usually only lasts for a couple of months...

Chase and I both had doctor's appointments this week. Chase went in for his first pediatrician appointment. He has grown about a quarter of an inch, and is back up to his birth weight, plus a couple of ounces. Everything looks to be good with him. He's eating constantly so he should be a tubby in just a little while (ok, probably not. He's really skinny.)

My doctor's appointment was about my leg. Now it's not only numb, but it's starting to hurt A LOT. My doctor thinks the pain is probably a good sign that the nerves are healing, but he's not sure. So, he gave me a referral to a neurologist, who I am going to see next week. Who would've thought that the worst thing about the few weeks after the baby came would be a painful leg? The good news about my doctor's appointment was that they made me weigh myself, which I told myself I wouldn't do for a few more weeks, and I've already lost 28 lbs.! I was actually surprised. Looks like I have about 10 more to go. But I'm in no rush.

Once again I have to say how great Ross is with Chase. He's a great dad, and it helps so much that he offers to take Chase when I need a break. He is so tired, and I feel bad because he is back in school five days a week and at work four days a week. I even had to buy him some Visine earlier this week because his eyes are so red from lack of sleep.

And with that, I hear Chase crying again. More pics to come soon!