Thanksgiving..a few weeks late

We had a great time at my parent's house for Thanksgiving. Wyatt loved being with his cousins!

Nothing beats raking leaves with a plastic golf club.
My sister's youngest, Brody, is 2 years old and the closest in age to Wyatt. It was really fun watching them play together. I can imagine the conversation going on in the next pics.

Brody: "I need a ride to the other side of the yard."
Wyatt: "Come on in!"
Brody: "Wow..this may be a tight fit. What happened to the back seat of this thing? Will this affect your driving capability?"
Brody: "Don't cry, Wyatt. Your first car is always a little small..but maybe when you get a job..you can get one with a little more leg room."
Hugs make everything better.
A few random pics.

A few things that he is doing lately:
- trying to say any word that involves any object with a motor. Case in point..his first clear words were spoken this week and were "Bus" and "Tractor". He loves this magazine that has motorcycles in it..and is always shoving it in front of our faces and then will sit eagerly next to us as if he is awaiting a great story. Our job is to point out every motorcycle..while he seriously nods and interjects his opinion every now and then.
- likes dancing..particularly to the tunes of Marvin Gaye and Otis Redding. I looked up and noticed Wyatt running up to the speakers and then turning around in circles. He then will bounce up and down with his knees and then when the song is over, he'll give a standing ovation.
- LOVES the Christmas tree. He attempts to add to the decor by putting his own toy balls on the lower branches, which has caused the demise of a few ornaments. Mental note - Next year, I will buy ONLY shatter free ornaments.
- Anyone else find eating out impossible with a 1 year old? Seriously, we take turns walking Wyatt around the restaurant and we always end up waving a white flag and taking our food To Go. I guess we think that this time, he'll be calm....but it's never the case.
- I'm FINALLY getting non-coerced hugs from Wyatt. It's the best! Now if only I could get a kiss or two....

1st Birthday and Halloween

I know...I haven't improved any on my frequency of postings. But...I think I can still use the excuse of the fact that we are still settling into things here in Socorro. Not to mention that we are still living out of suitcases and our household goods shipment is going to take 2 months to get here from Chile (!). That's right...we'll be sleeping on an air mattress till..say..January. Nice.

So...for Wyatt's birthday, we just had a casual affair at the park with some of his friends. There was no way that I could manage a fancy soiree with us moving out of the country in a matter of days. He hadn't had a nap that day due to the constant ringing of the doorbell from realtors showing people the house. Result: a ton of 1st b-day photos with red eyes and a short temper. Poor guy.

You can see a little arm hard at work in tearing into his birthday presents.
Swinging with his friend, Amalia.

Wyatt's birthday cake. I wasn't even going to post it at first due to the amazing cakes I see out there that my friends do for their kids...but I thought maybe my horrible cake decorating skills would make someone else realize that they aren't so bad after all. My nana even looked at it and told me.."Oh well, it's your first time." I was OK till I had to draw the monkey's hands. One hand is huge with 3 fingers while the other has apparently atrophied and withered in some sad accident. And...I'm not quite sure why I thought his foot needed to be red. I will admit..it tasted MUCH better than it looked.
Wyatt wasn't really interested in the cake..but having lots of fun making a mess of it.
One of his gifts was a baby tee from Chile..so he will have a memento of where he was born. I made some great friends in Santiago and Wyatt will be missing his play dates with his friends.

Wyatt loved all the boxes from moving day! It would have been impossible to get anything done if our nana, Luccy, hadn't been there to keep the little man entertained. She is one special lady!


In the States!!
Lately, Wyatt can't seem to get enough cuddle time with his puppies. The other night, he would not stop hugging Major. We were watching for signs of him to get bored and try to use Major as a jungle gym..but he was just content with standing..hugging...and watching Nick Jr. of course.
Went to a farm outside of Albuquerque to pick out a pumpkin. Wyatt was excited that they also had a petting zoo with goats that were just his size.



Unrelated..but ....Wyatt has had 7 (!) haircuts in 13 months and it has a tendency to get out of control really fast. After this nap, his hair refused to stay down. Disregard the remnants of lunch on his face and shirt.
This little penguin had a great time for his 1st Halloween.!

We have a walker!

I know..I still need to post pics of Wyatt's 1st birthday. I'll be getting to that next week.

In the meantime...I have to post the pics of Wyatt's first steps..that he took tonight! Umm..please excuse the mess in the video. We are living in a small rental place while we are looking for a house here in Socorro and are still living out of suitcases. Our 2 dogs just arrived tonight, too...so things are about to get extra crowded.

Completely unrelated, but I had to share an episode that we had at our first visit to the bank here while we were trying to exchange Chilean pesos in for US dollars. The amount of pesos was a couple thousand dollars in USD, but the girl across the counter at the bank added on a couple of extra zeros when she did her math and so she wrote a sum on a piece of paper and asked us if this was the correct amount that needed to be deposited into our account. She had written..$456,000. (!!!!) We had to tell her of her mistake..and she realized then that she had done some computation wrong on her end..but Matt and I couldn't believe that she was going to put almost half a million dollars into our account. I like this state already!!

Moving, 1st birthdays...what else?

So..for those of you that don't know..we're moving back to the States next Thursday. It's a really quick move..(4 weeks !!)..and I have a really active 1 yr old on top of that. Speaking of our 1 yr old, birthday pics will follow in about a week or so when we get back to the US and I have some stability in my life again.
We're moving to Socorro,NM. Matt will be working on the Very Large Array observatory there...(for reference much of the footage of the movie Contact with Jodie Foster was shot there).
It'll be great to be closer to family and not have to deal with a 10 hr flight to see them.

In the meantime...I'm still down here in Chile, trying to deal with all of the details, paperwork, movers, etc.
That being said, last week, we had a small birthday party with Wyatt and some his friends at the park. Although there were no air castles or pony rides, Wyatt enjoyed it just the same and I even managed to create my first birthday cake. It was a monkey shaped cake and even though I wanted to buy a cake really bad...I felt I had to earn my mom badge by making the cake. I guess the art of decorating is one that gets better over time..b/c I started at 10:30 the night before..and finished at 4 am in the morning..! Hopefully by party #2, I will have a better grasp of it all.
Fast forward to today..and I'll just take a quick snapshot of what days are like around here..And no, I'm not making any of this up to evoke sympathy.
- I'm in Santiago alone with Wyatt..(Matt is still working up north)..and so I am dealing with a lot of the bureaucratic details on my own...closing accounts, dealing with the house, etc. On top of that, Wyatt has been cranky lately b/c he hasn't been taking the usual naps due to the house being shown constantly to potential tenants.
Today, my nerves were already raw b/c I had to say goodbye to some dear friends who were with me in the crazy time of being a new mom in a new country. Our kids were all born around the same time, we all experienced a massive earthquake together...(you know..it's a unique situation).
I then had to try to go purchase a document for the car..(which I was told would be a simple process)..all while Wyatt was throwing a fit complete with arched back and crying. This is coupled with my mediocre (horrible) Spanish and a woman behind the desk looking annoyed and telling me that my documents that I am presenting to her..are incorrect. I go back to my husband's company and they tell me that the other woman is incorrect and that I have what I need. Keep in mind, that we are flying out of the country next week (!) and we still have not sold our car..and we can't do it without this document that I can't get. I ended up bursting into tears and demanding that someone go with me to the other location and sort it out with me. This is all going on with Wyatt still on my hip. A woman from my husband's company goes, and in the end...I did in fact have incorrect documents and would have never been able to get what I needed without someone's intervention. What a pain!
Our moving company came to the house later to go over customs documents and so I have to put Wyatt down to play while I concentrate on what's going on. I forgot to shut the bathroom door, and caught him just as we were going over Custom Form 3699, trying to eat toilet paper. I needed to retrieve a vet certificate for them for our dogs..(yes, our 90 lb dogs are coming back with us of course...FYI..it's so much more difficult getting the dogs out of the country with their size. They have to go as cargo)...while I was going downstairs with Wyatt on hip, I realized that he had a dirty diaper...SO, while the people were waiting upstairs on me, I changed Wyatt super quick and as soon as the diaper came off, I didn't get a hold of his hands in time..and he reached and got poo all over his fingers...(!)...
Later, as I'm still talking to the movers, I see Wyatt take off every book on the lower shelf of the bookshelf..and then he tries to crawl into the lap of one of the women that is sitting at the table.
(The nana mentioned that out of all of the children of the families that she has worked with in 17 yrs..Wyatt is the most active). Great.

Tomorrow..there are more goodbyes to say and a trip to the notary...with Wyatt. Any place where you have to take a number and sit in a tiny lobby and try to understand and speak Spanish is a recipe for disaster. Wish me luck!

Yes...I do exist.

So...I realize that I rarely have any pics of myself with Wyatt b/c I am always on the other side of the camera. Seriously..in the course of a year, I only have a handful of pictures with just the two of us. This already puts me in the horrible mother category, right? Darn..I thought there was some way I could avoid that. Oh well...for year #2, I have a goal of taking tons more pics. Can I redeem myself?
This was taken the other day after bath time...What a cutie!

My feelings exactly...

So..life down here in Chile always has its share of surprises and I'm sure my mouth has dropped open just like Wyatt's on a few of them. Here's just a few.

1. We JUST got Dr. Pepper in grocery stores...last week!!..! Now, I was a Diet Dr. Pepper fiend in the States and craved it so bad during my pregnancy here..but could only taste the high fructose corn syrup in my dreams. We only have the real DP down here, but I will happily settle for the extra sugar to have the all too familiar maroon can around. I might have been so excited when I saw it on the shelves last week, that I may have happened to have caught the eyes of the nearest stockboy and blurted out "Dr. Pepper!" in a giddy school girl voice. He replied with a bored "Si"...I have the feeling that I wasn't the only expat with the same reaction. I might have even pointed out the cans to Wyatt as if they were a caged animal at the zoo.

2. Another incident at the grocery store....(I'm there alot)....but "Every Rose Has a Thorn" was playing on the speakers...and the elegant white haired Chilean woman buying nutmeg next to me..knew EVERY word. I find that happens a lot..80's soft rock lyrics are easily quoted..but most people that I encounter don't speak English.

3. Let me set the stage...Apparently this is the coldest winter in Santiago in 98 (!) yrs...but it is pretty mild with what I've experienced before in Texas. Last week, I was walking Wyatt to a park nearby and it was a beautiful sunny day. It was probably in the upper 60s/low 70s..and so I wasn't wearing a jacket...just a long sleeved T. Anyways...as I was walking, I came across a guy walking up the sidewalk toward me selling balloons. When he got closer, he said something to me that I couldn't understand. (Note: Chileans say that they are the worst Spanish speakers in South America. They use a lot of slang and talk VERY fast.) I assumed that he was asking if I wanted a balloon..so I told him "No tengo dinero." He repeated himself again..and after he repeated himself..and much slower...I realized that he was telling me that I needed a jacket. I must have smiled or something..and so he said...(in Spanish of course).."Seriously, you need a jacket...it's really cold outside." (!) I guess my parents will be happy to know that even in another hemisphere..people are still checking on me.

Long time...no blog

I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since I've updated. We spent a month back in the States to see family and friends and it was great!
Wyatt is so much fun these days and is wanting to walk so bad! He wants to climb on everything and is all over the place. He started really cruising while we were on vacation.
Disclaimer...these are all of Wyatt..but I promise to show pics of the rest of the fam in the next entry.

Nothing feels more like Sunday than going to church...and of course a favorite wooden mallet in hand. Combine the two and there may be a joyful noise(s) coming from a certain 9 month old on the very back row of Santiago Community. Don't judge that I couldn't find any brown socks that day.

Wyatt had swimming lessons with several other babies from 3 months - 1 year of age and one of the requirements was that all of the babies had to wear swim caps..(!). You can tell that Wyatt is ecstatic with the idea.
This pic was taken from our neighborhood the day before we left for vacation in the States. It had just snowed in the mountains here and I was realizing that I was about to face a month of hot Texas summer. I was also trying to take in some deep breaths before I faced the 10 hr flight with Wyatt the next day.

Much happier without a swim cap. He enjoyed some pooltime with cousins at my sister's house.
One of 8 flights that we took in 4 weeks. He was always trying to get people in the seat behind us to give him some attention. Most people said that he was cute...but I don't know if that was code word for "annoying"..but at least we avoided a meltdown on board.
Water does taste better out of the hose. Is it weird that I am deeply considering getting Wyatt a hose of some sort for his 1st birthday? He LOVES them.
Even though he was born in Chile, he still has a lot of Texas in his genes.
"My crystal ball tells me....that Yes....my parents won't get any sleep on this next flight, whereas I will sleep like a baby. Life is good."
I sure do love my two boys!

If Only....thinking of Wyatt

If only time could stand still
And we could stay suspended this way-
He being content in my arms
Eyelids closing on another day.

Tiny arms are around my neck-
His chest slowly rises and falls.
The smell of shampoo from his hair-
I'm completely in awe of it all.

I'm locked in this moment-
Knowing later they may become far and few.
So I hold him close and begin to sway-
To a silent song for two.

Often there are no words-
Just a mother and her son.
Circling around around his room-
A last dance before the day is done.

My partner has on footed pajamas.
His feet barely reach my thigh.
No fancy attire is required here.
Only sweet dreams and little sighs.

Though his eyes have been closed a while
I choose to hold him a minute more.
Pretty soon these days will pass-
And baby toys will gather dust on the floor.

First steps will become more steady
And then he'll have lunchbox in hand.
Play dates will change into real ones
And my baby will become my young man.

Maybe then he'll want fewer hugs
And not want me to hold him too tight.
So for now I'll continue our dance
And thank God for giving me this night.


-I love you so much Wyatt and feel blessed beyond words that God allowed me to be your mother!

8 month update and other randoms

I know, I know..I say it everytime..but I can't believe how fast my little man is growing! 8 months..Wow! I feel like by 8 months I should have this parenting thing down..but I still feel like a newbie so much of the time. Actually, I still am in awe that I am a mommy at all and wonder if that feeling will ever go away.
A couple of stats on Wyatt are:
-We haven't been to the doctor yet for his 8 month checkup... so these stats are coming from our Ikea scale and a measuring tape from the garage. So the odds of the numbers being correct are close to nil. That being said..Wyatt is 22 lbs and 28-3/4 inches which puts him in the 75th-90th percentile for height and weight. Random people are always saying that he is "muy alto", but I don't see it yet.
- Wyatt went from army crawling a month ago, to "normal" crawling...today! Yea. I realize that babies have different milestones and do things on their own time, but I will admit that I was having visions of an army crawling toddler in my head. Maybe Wyatt feels more ambitious to try new things without clothes on. I would have inserted a picture here of his new feat..but when you have a naked baby boy crawling, sometimes it's hard to get a modest action pic.
- Is wanting to pull up on things. He can pull up on the couch if he sits in my lap...isn't at the point yet where he can do it all by himself.
-Instead of banging on his toys, he prefers to cautiously point and turn things very seriously with his index finger.
- Loves being outside, but when it's cold weather and he has a cold...we hibernate inside. It's so sad to see him catch a glimpse of the outside when I let the dogs in or out and as soon as I close the door, he starts bawling...! Poor guy.

-Loves to turn the pages of his board books. We read the same 10 books every morning since books in English are hard to find down here.

- He thinks that his puppies are the most hilarious things he has ever seen. Every morning when we walk up the stairs, he just starts giggling when he sees Major and Molly. They have started dropping their toys in front of him, hoping that he'll pick up the ball and throw it back at them. Too cute!
- 3 teeth are coming in on the top..which makes for one fussy little baby on some days. He also has started grinding his lower teeth to his top two....! The sound has the same effect as nails on a chalkboard. Nice!

Random side notes of being an expat mom in Santiago...(I may devote an entire post to this later..but here are just a few that are on my mind...)
1. I am a devotee to Starbucks down here, but have found that it's easier to give an alias when they ask for my name b/c Kipley is just too difficult. So some days I am Maria..others I am Catalina.. When they ask "Como se llama?" in regards to Wyatt, everyone is totally confused about his name..even when I explain that it's common in the US. Several people thought I named him Quiet...or White.

2. Wyatt seems to eat better when he is watching TV (I know, probably starting some bad habit)..so I usually put it on Disney or Discovery Kids. I can't understand a word that Donald Duck says in Spanish...and I can get every other word that Mickey says. It's definitely humbling to realize that your Spanish is probably much worse than the average 3 year old!

7 month update

I can't believe my little man is already 7 months! He seems to have grown more this past week than ever before. He weighs 19.4 lbs (55th percentile) and is 28.3 inches long (75th percentile). A couple of new things he has been doing lately are:
- army crawling...At the moment, he does it only when he really wants something. After a point though, he gets frustrated and doesn't want to make the effort.
- he started saying ma-ma and ba-ba. I love hearing him say ma-ma so much and can't wait till he starts saying it when he is referring to me.
- he is teething again which means quite a few fussy moments during the day (and night!). He sucks on his thumb, wrist, anything that he can get into his mouth.
- his naps are getting pretty nonexistent...(unfortunately for me!!)...they are averaging 30 minutes and he may get 2 a day. The good part of that though is at 7:30pm, he is wanting to go to bed and sleeps hard till the next morning. I love that he wakes up and is content to play in his crib by himself until 8:30 or so...Nice! I know karma is going to get me with the second one.

Wyatt had a playdate with two of his other friends: Cleo and Daniel. Daniel is 4 days younger than Wyatt. It cracks me up because Wyatt usually doesn't care when toys are taken away from him, but he is slightly distressed to see the other kids having so much fun with HIS toys...and he is trying to take them back.

What a handsome little guy! This pic does not make him look like a 7 month old..he seems like a toddler already!
There are some hills behind our house where there are some horse stables. I'm always finding the horses in the oddest places...on the playground, crossing the street, etc. I took some pics of the gorgeous fall colors in the neighborhood. It's great to have four definite seasons..but the flip side of fall/winter is the smog. You can see the haziness in this pic. I mean, you can barely see the mountain in the background..(!)Thankfully we'll be in the States for part of the winter.
We got Wyatt a little riding truck for us to push him around in. I love how he puts his feet up when he's in it and just takes it easy. By the way, that is correct...you do see a baby doll in the "trunk" of the car. Surprisingly, the doll came with the car...already inside the trunk. I don't know what to make of that.

Prayer Request

I am apart of a close knit group of girls here who all have babies around the same age. One of them, Carolyn, has a baby girl who is 5 weeks younger than Wyatt. Her name is Kalei. On Friday, after having problems breathing, she was admitted into ICU. She went into heart failure, but is now in stable condition. She is having respirators to help her breathe and other machines to help her eat..etc at the moment. The doctors have yet to determine what is the cause of her heart problems. Please keep this sweet little one in her prayers as well as the medical staff that is taking care of her. I can't imagine what Carolyn is going through.

Kalei is the sweetheart next to Wyatt. It was taken the day after the earthquake..so please excuse the fact that the babies aren't wearing any pants.

Stop calling my baby a girl!

I have heard "She's so cute!" and "How old is she?" multiple times in the past month or so in regards to Wyatt...so I finally decided that his long locks really needed a trim. I gave his first trim at 4 months or so..but I don't think I did the best job and wanted to have someone more professional do it this time.
I had no idea how much I was attached to his long hair until I saw the hairdresser cutting his hair pretty short. I thought I was going to cry and realized that it was too late to go back now and that in time his hair will grow. In hindsight, I think that the hairdresser asked me if I wanted it short..but at the time, I couldn't understand what he was asking me..and so I gave the answer that I often give people here when I don't understand them..I say "Yes."
Wyatt definitely looks like a little boy now and should NOT be mistaken for a baby girl anymore. I definitely am thankful that the hairdressser did not give my baby a trendy Chilean mullet..which is very popular down here. Short in the front and long in the back.
I realize that it looks better..but I feel that it makes my baby look older..which I don't like. I feel like he doesn't look so much like a baby anymore. Anyways..here are the Before and After shots. What do you think?
BEFORE
AFTER

Warning...excessive pics of our baby!

My apologies in advance for the many pics of Wyatt that are to follow..but I feel that he's changing all the time and since we're down here in Chile, I don't want family and friends to miss out.

We took Wyatt to the duck pond and he was absolutely transfixed...completely content to just sit on the blanket and watch the commotion of the ducks. He seems to find them wildly entertaining...unlike the geese which have a tendency to draw tears. I don't know if it's the honking or the hissing from the geese at the passing dogs ..but he would be happier if the pond was a 'duck exclusive' piece of property. Maybe he took the hissing to a personal level.
Love a profile shot!
This outfit is too small..but I was determined to catch a pic of him in it since it was one of my favorites. Seriously..you can see how the sleeve is almost to his elbow.
I realized that I NEVER have pics of Matt or me in the blog..so I had our babysitter snap this pic of us before we went out to dinner. We have just started using a babysitter..and Wyatt is 6 months old! I don't know why I waited so long..but I honestly just found it hard to be away from the little guy. Maybe I'm just slightly neurotic..who knows!
I can't wait till Wyatt is older and can have fun with all the Easter egg hunts..but for now, I had to be content with getting a few shots of Wyatt reaching out for a plastic egg or two. And maybe trying to eat some grass or leaves in the interim.
Love it when he gets tickled and shows those 2 pearly whites of his. Nothing better!
A baby and his dog...looking off into the distance and contemplating the finer things in life. For one..a bottle, for the other..a bone.