9 month checkup

Wyatt had his 9 month well child visit this afternoon. He weighed in at 20 pounds again and measured 29 inches. Normally the 9 month visit is a shot free zone...but I asked about the flu shot and they went ahead and gave it to him. Then when the doctor reviewed his chart, she noticed that he had missed one of the vaccines because they were out during his last appointment so poor sweetie ended up with two shots, one in each thigh. He cried for a little bit but soon recovered and was back to flirting with the nurses.

9 months old

Today we celebrated Wyatt's 9 month birthday at the circus! Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey was at Rupp Arena so we met up with our friends Steve, Jess and Jayca (who was celebrating her 18 month birthday). The circus was so much fun and even though Wyatt slept through half of it, he really enjoyed the half he did see. An hour before the show starts, the performers are down on the floor so the kids can interact with the clowns and see some of the stunts up close. They even gave away clown noses for everyone. Miss Jayca looked adorable in her circus hat while Wyatt would rather eat his...
And of course we had to take our traditional monthly photos:

...the rest of the story

We didn't have time or the internet access to post anymore after we left the island so now that I'm back in Kentucky I can add more pictures.

We woke up early on Friday morning and headed back out to the beach. Wyatt played in the sand some more and splashed in the water as Daddy kept a close eye out for renegade waves.

After we left the island, we stopped in Harlingen at Tila's (Lita's sister) restaurant for lunch. She fed us well and then we went to visit Great Grandma Carolina (Lita's mom) at her house. After that, we stopped in Mercedes at the new outlet mall where I went nuts! I bought a few things (ok I had to buy an extra carry-on for the trip back), but you should see the great deals I got! Finally we returned to McAllen very late on Friday night and crashed hard in our beds. On Saturday we went to Opa's house to pick him up for lunch. We came back to his house and watched football and napped a bit until it was time to go to Great Grandma Fay's house.

She had some friends over for a card game so she was able to show off Wyatt. We really enjoyed meeting the people that are taking good care of her and helping her out whenever they can. We spent the night there and most of Sunday too. She loved playing with Wyatt and watching him crawl around and entertain us all.

On Sunday evening, Lita's mom and sister Marty came over for dinner and to visit with Wyatt. Marty has two girls Sandra and Amanda that absolutely loved Wyatt. They took good care of him and gave mommy a break from chasing him around! Uncle Jason and Cris came to see us too and later that night Michael's friend James and his wife came by too.

We slept in a little bit on Monday and met Uncle Jason for breakfast and then ended up running a little late for getting to the airport. Luckily the McAllen airport is not that big so we got in and through security very quickly. We made it there just minutes before pre-boarding began and by the time we made it down the jetway, Wyatt was fast asleep. He slept the entire ride to Houston and then woke up to eat and fuss a little about not being able to crawl around. He fell asleep again on the plane from Houston to Nashville so he was very good during both flights home. Once we got in the car on our way back to Louisville, things quickly slid downhill. He was not happy about being strapped in a carseat after being contained in the airplanes or in his stroller all day long and he let us know about it. By the time we arrived at my parents house in Louisville, we were very happy to hand him over to Mimi and Pop for a break. The second we put him on the floor and let him crawl, he was happy again. We tried to wear him out a bit and he went to bed pretty easily after midnight and let us sleep until about 9am. Now we are gearing up for the car ride back home and look forward to unwinding a bit this evening before we go back to work and daycare tomorrow morning.

We had a great trip and a busy one. We were able to see just about everyone we planned to visit and they all loved Wyatt...but how could you not???

Made it to Texas

We finally made it safe and sound and Wyatt experienced his first airplane flight. Here is a pre-flight picture with my dad before we left Wednesday morning. Notice what his t-shirt says...

We left in plenty of time to get to Nashville about 3 hours before our flight. Wyatt slept a good part of the way and was in a great mood when we got there. We didn't have to wait in line at all to check in or at security so we were through and waiting at the gate wayyyy early. We grabbed some lunch, browsed the bookstore and waited to board the plane. Wyatt was asleep when we first pulled away to taxi the runway. But someone on the plane was having a medical issue so we returned to the gate so the paramedics could check him out. Of course Wyatt woke up before we actually took off but he still did really well. We were on a small plane with one seat on one side and two seats on the other so the airline rearranged us so that Michael was in front of me and Wyatt was able to play in the seat beside me after takeoff. He played with toys, smiled at the man behind us and hit daddy in the head from behind. It was a quick flight and we were soon in Houston for a short layover. The second leg of the trip ended up being delayed as well because of a broken seat on our supposed plane. They switched us over to another gate and we got on the new plane behind schedule but we made the time up in the air because we were only five minutes later than we were supposed to be. Wyatt slept the entire flight from Houston to McAllen.

Abuelita met us at the gate and Uncle Jason and Cris met us just as we were getting our bags. We had to wait a bit for our rental car but we were soon on our way to the house. We had dinner with Opa at the house and then ran over to visit Great Grandma Stoll at her house.

We had a busy day today as well. We went to visit Javi's sister Yolanda and Wyatt had soooo much fun playing with her. He crawled around the house and even got soaking wet in the pool (fully clothed). We changed his diaper and put him in the carseat like that, and he was asleep before we turned the corner.

After visiting Yolanda, we picked up Abuelita and headed for the beach. There aren't many people here this time of year because of hurricane season. Most of the resorts are closed to fix hurricane damage. We did find a pretty nice 2 bedroom condo for the night. The pool was too cold so we went straight out to the beach. Wyatt took off crawling in the sand and grabbed handfuls trying to figure out what it was.

Daddy took him to dip his toes in the Gulf and he enjoyed it for a little bit, then a surprise wave splashed up and Wyatt got his first face full of Gulf water. After that, he was not so excited to be in the water so we went back up to the hot tub to warm up.

Uncle Jason and Cris met us at the hotel and we went to Pirate's Landing for a delicious seafood dinner to celebrate Jason's birthday. We are going to try the beach thing again tomorrow morning and see if Wyatt likes it any better.
Whew, that was a long post...more pictures tomorrow, or rather later today since it is already after midnight here. I must rest for chasing Wyatt on the beach tomorrow.

nothing exciting

I haven't updated the blog for a week and I guess that is because nothing exciting has been going on. Wyatt is crawling very quickly now which demands our constant attention and supervision. I did get the video camera out a couple of nights ago so as soon as I can talk Michael into uploading the video, it will appear in the video column on the right.

We had a routine social worker visit today. We have to do these every other month until finalization. They just ask us how he is doing and go over a checklist of developmental milestones so it is all pretty simple. It's nice to see them every once in awhile too since they were there from the beginning with us, we've literally known them for years now!

And tonight Aunt Hope drove down from Cincy to take us out to dinner. We went to Outback Steakhouse which is one of my favs... and a little bit of Wyatt trivia~ it was Wyatt's first restaurant experience at 2 weeks old, before we even left Ashland. Today is my 30th birthday, I might as well announce it to all of bloggerdom! I still can't wrap my head around being 30. It just seems weird, like it was just yesterday that I was chomping at the bit to get my license. I have to say that 29 was a pretty awesome year for me. (hmmm wonder Wy???) <---did you get that? and I can't say my early 20's were exactly a walk in the park. So I'm definitely looking forward to the comfort and confidence of my 30's.

We are supposed to be preparing to leave for Texas on Saturday. But, with Hurricane Ike headed straight for the Rio Grande Valley, we have the opportunity to push back the vacation by a few days with no penalty compliments of Continental Airlines. Right now we are looking at leaving next Wednesday and returning on Monday and back to work on the following Wednesday. I was already nervous about how Wyatt would do on the airplane, I don't need delays, cancellations and hurricanes to complicate the process. Hopefully the storm will pass through before we even get there and we can still fit in a trip to the beach.

ears are clear

Wyatt's daycare teacher told me yesterday that he was pulling on his ears alot that day. We noticed him doing it this past weekend, but it was mostly when he was sleepy. We also know that his two front top teeth are getting very close to cutting through. Still, we decided to be safe rather than sorry and made an appointment to see the doc today. Michael left work early to pick him up but I had to stay at work. Michael reports that his ears are clear and the doc agrees that it could be teething related. Still we want to keep a close eye on it since we are flying to Texas a week from Saturday. I do not want to spend any time on an airplane with a baby with an ear infection...and neither do the other people on the plane.

He weighed 19 pounds today and was 28" tall.

Adoption Petition

When I checked my email this morning I found a message from our lawyer. She has received the termination papers and drafted the petition for Wyatt's adoption. So we have that petition now and we signed it and got it notorized today and it goes back in the mail to our lawyer tomorrow. She will forward it to the State and they will review our case. Once they are finished they will tell the judge to assign a court date. This part could take a month or two or more...we are just hoping that it is before the end of the year.