Santa's cool

So we've managed to find Santa, along with a Christmas tree with Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt. If by "Ga!" he means he wants a tricycle, I guess he'll have to wait as he just started walking...one thing at a time! We thought this festive picture was very cute! If that wasnt enough, Wilder has indeed decided to walk his first steps this last week. They all said "it would go by fast" but its hit at hyperspeed! Wilder was only walking but at most 10 steps, and quite tentatively at that, last Monday and only a week later he was running circles around our kitchen island (video coming soon to a theatre near you)! Its 90% "Yes I can!" and 10% ability. He's always had it in him.

Happy Holidays!

Eye of the Tiger

-Playing with the pumpkin

-1st jack-o-lantern: bottle + thumb

-Time to trick and/or treat

-Roarrrr

-Just in case you confused Wilder with someone else

Test Flight

Sea Change

Our little guy is now on the go! A few weeks ago he figured out how to fully crawl. Where did he go first? An outlet. Viewing crawling as only the stepping stone that it is, he then quickly gained the strength to pull himself up on objects.

No more turning your back for bathroom breaks, a coffee warmup, or even glance out the window. He can now legitmatly get into trouble. Let the bruise collection begin!

His rapidly expanding set of teeth (4 plus 3 more ready to come out) adds an additional element. Recall that first there was the Supa Sleepa (1-3 months), then the return of the Supa Sleepa (5-7 months). Now we've got the Supa Crib Climba. The crib just happens to be the best gym for Wilder's new skills. Padded floor w/a bumper. Sides to shimy up. Railings to grasp-->pull-->hold and then chew. No kidding. You can put him down with his eyes closed and by the time you hit the door he's on his way up. When you turn to close it he's staring back wide eyed with a mouth full of crib rail. Hopefully, the veneer doesn't have extra lead. Eventually, he becomes too exhausted to stand up and then falls (literally) asleep. We are reminded daily that we should "wait until he starts walking" for the real adventure to begin. I can't imagine that it's a lot worse, though I do lack imagination from time to time...

In other news. We're on the cusp of other changes. I speak (of course) of the end of summer and the impending fall. We spent Labor Day with the Schimdts at Lake Calhoun. The pics are on the picasa site. After today, we're definitely looking forward to cooler temperatures and next stages. Things just seem easier to handle when it's 60 instead of 90. We constantly worried about Wilder's heat and sun exposure the last few months. Time to put his clothes back on, walk around in the weakening sun, and soak up the last few rays. Maybe even play in a leaf pile or two.

Here's a little more action.

Sock Monkey Box

BEST TOY EVER...at least for that day

To see the rest of the summer story check out the picasa site. Lots of pics from the baby cabin jam, Schmidt Aquatennial, etc.

Talking & Rolling

I hope this tides you over until I can get a more substantive post going. There are, however, new photo albums on the picasa site at: http://picasaweb.google.com/larix37

Natural Born Eater

1st solid food!

Goodbye Kaiser

Kaiser went to the big dog park in the sky yesterday. Old age had caught up to him at last and he was laid to rest before the worst could come. He was two months short of 12 years. 12 years! Can you remember what you were doing 12 years ago? I happened to be 20 and beginning my junior year at UMD. Perfect time to get a dog right? Time has flown by. There of course have been a few (ok maybe more than a few) knocked over garbage cans, missing loaves of bread, run-ins with various small mammals (e.g., skunks, porcupines), roll-o-ramas in poop/dead things, etc to add weight on one side of the scale. On the other hand, his entertainment potential was huge (e.g. rumbling gait, propensity to lick clean spots on the floor, his summer haircut, etc) and of course there was his deep (often melodic) howl every time you came home. He was also the great protector who scared away that creep trying to get into Tiffy's old house while Brenda was taking a nap. Most of all he was my wilderness companion. We walked many a mile; ate next to many campfires; and slept side by side under cloudy, rainy, hot-mosquito infested, cold-snowy, and clear skies. It's safe to say that we've been through thick and thin.

I took yesterday off to focus on Kaiser before his journey. We took one last walk along the railroad tracks by Brown's Creek north of Stillwater. Even though the pace was less than a mile per hour, the old Kaiser was still there. He had his spark and still wanted run down the ravine to the cool and shade of the stream; oblivious to the fact that it would be impossible to get back. With some guidance we made our way to an accessible spot and I helped him get into his old hole for a dip and drink. He was happy and for a moment age had been erased. On our way to vet he asked me to thank all the people that helped take care of him over the years and apologize to any enemies that he might have made along the way.

I'd like to think that this DP in the sky has a few amenities to your liking buddy: miles of trees, grass, and water; rabbits to chase and beaver to swim after; bushes that bear strange fruit such as loaves of bread, sticks of butter, steaks, and the odd 1-1/2lb chunk of summer sausage conveniently located at head level; no ticks or deer flies; and a constant temperature of 40 degrees with a sunny spot for a little warmup and nap. Goodbye Kaiser.

Baby-Q Blogsplosion

Yeah, it's been awhile. It just makes this time that much sweeter...right?


When last we spoke, though unknown at the time, we were at the beginning of the great unraveling. Let's backup. Remember the supa-sleepa? There was a fall from that status. Sometime in early April the Wild-man started becoming just that. He went from being totally rockable & sootheable (thus totally happy & predictable) to unhinged in the span of about two weeks. The reason? SLEEP (or lack thereof). After an education campaign, much debate, a fair amount of stress, a whole lot of fruitless soothing tactics, and resulting lack of sleep for mom and dad we were ready for 'sleep training'. This consisted of letting Wilder 'cry it out' in controlled intervals until he became so exhausted he had no choice but to sleep. The theory is over time he will learn that "I continue to wake up in a safe environment so this sleep thing must be ok". Let's just say when we first tried this it was total agony. Particularly for mom. The early results, however, were clearly better than where we had been. The nights leading up to sleep training it took hours of soothing before he would go down only to wake up an hour or two latter and cry for another hour+, then repeat. The first few nights he would cry a total of 20-40 minutes and then wake only once thereafter. Things then steadily improved. The supa-sleepa has now returned! Now he goes down with no crying, both at night and for naps. He's getting the sleep he needs and he's super happy when he's awake. We are now proud to announce that Wilder has now been sleeping through the night for the past week!






Many other milestones have also been achieved:

• The saliva glands have been activated. Bibs are now enforced.


• Toe sucking...and then thumb sucking. No more pacifiying on mom and dad's fingers!


• Wilder has moved from the co-sleeper (which attaches to our bed) to his own crib. With sleep training going so well and his continued increase in size it was time to move. He's doing really well in there.


• He's met his cousin Luka who was born April 2nd.Yes, he lives on the second floor.


• The big news is that Wilder is now a roller. The sequence was pretty funny. He used to hate tummy time. His solution then was to get strong enough to roll out of tummy time and onto his back. In a few days, however, Wilder was strong enough to roll from back to tummy. Upon doing so he relized that he hated it and then got so upset he couldn't get to his back again. Now he's full on rolling. He's even starting to proto-crawl, though it's hard for us to guage actually how close he is to crawling.


• He loves to stand (supported of course). The Johnny jumpup is now a favorite activity:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hand coordination is improving all the time. He can pick up toys on his own and pull on your face really well. Just in the last few days he started figuring out how to use the rattle for it's intended purpose.
  

Finally, our last update was the visit from auntie's LT & V (http://subterraneanterrier.blogspot.com/) and the corresponding Baby-Q. Now, this doesn't mean that we partook in what Kelly Bartz would call "the other, other white meat". We just got together with some friends, many of which happen to have had children in the past few months-years. So thanks to everyone but especially Maeva (http://www.sproket.biz/blog/), Bella, Brinnon (http://teambartz.blogspot.com/), Rilo & Tenzen (http://tenzyupdate.blogspot.com/), Evelyn, and Henry (http://anotherblogaboutababy.blogspot.com/); we had an awesome time:

A super size pack of kudos to Kelly for the Surly Furious and making this a kegger (sweeet), and most importantly LT & V for bringing everyone together.

We should probably sign off. As always there are more pictures on the Picasa site. Cheers, B3