Early Riser

We're blessed to have a child that sleeps usually through the night for about 10-12 hours so I am REALLY not allowed to complain. BUT, occassionally he wakes up at the crack of dawn. He comes in to my side of the bed and stares at me, sighs, breathes loudly (while I pretend I don't notice) and finally sticks his face on mine. Even if it's early, it is quite adorable. I love that it's been cold lately, too, because he will often want to "snuggle" in bed for a while. He's such a lovey, huggy, kissy guy...He still blows me kisses as I drop him off at preschool and runs up to hug me when I pick him up...I just hope it lasts!

Our very own "ghost" friend

As an educator and someone relatively informed in childhood development, I've always thought imaginary friends to be healthy and somewhat cute. Now that Wyatt has one, it is a little more difficult to grasp. I understand the concept, but seeing him actually talk to his friend...full-on conversations...is a little unnerving to me. He calls her his "ghost friend" and her name is Isabella.

Here's what one of the Doctors from that TV show The Drs. had to say recently:

“In terms of imaginary friends, they’re actually a good thing,” Dr. Jim says. “It’s a sign of a good imagination and it’s a sign of intelligence. But I recommend to parents, get to know your child’s imaginary friend.”

Dr. Jim explains that by getting to know the made-up playmate, parents can gain insight into their child’s feelings. To do so, he recommends asking questions such as what he or she looks and acts like.

Dr. Jim also advises holding the child accountable if he or she does something wrong and blames the invented sidekick by explaining that they are still responsible for the friend’s actions.

Wyatt has yet to try to blame anything on Isabella. If he does...I'll be ready!

This is currently Wyatt's favorite picture of himself. Looks like he's seen a ghost, perhaps?

Our Little Poser

I asked Wyatt to pose for a few fall pictures at St. Edward State Park a couple weeks back (before the rain) and he really did! OK, so I bribed him with lunch at a certain fast food restaurant, but I was still very happy with him. The best pic will be our Christmas card, but here are a few others and a few that are uniquely Wyatt. He makes the silliest faces!

Party Suit

(Warning: I apologize that the following story may fleetingly conjure in your minds an image of me (Paul) in the buff.) A few weeks ago Wyatt and his friend were changing from their wet swimsuits back into dry clothes. Wyatt has recently developed a bit of shyness in the naked department--his days of running up and down the hallway completely naked and screaming may be over. So while changing on this particular day, he tried (unsuccessfully) to hide underneath his towel. After a few minutes, he peeked surreptitiously to see where his friend was in his undressing. Seeing his friend sans clothes, Wy said, "Naked!" and then laughed. I then said that he was wearing his birthday suit, which prompted Wy to go into unending question mode. ("Why?" is Wyatt's current favorite word.) I tried to explain why it was called a birthday suit, saying something about the fact that we are naked on the day we are born and it's just a silly thing to say. Later that day, Wyatt walked in the bedroom after I had just emerged from the shower. Wyatt smiled and sheepishly exclaimed, "Dad, I see your party suit!" He now says it all the time when he is naked or he sees one of us naked. We've never corrected him because it's so dang funny.

I just hope he doesn't grow up to be one of those people on that episode of This American Life who ridiculously believe something that just isn't true. You know, like the girl who went to college not knowing whether unicorns are endangered or extinct.

My Boys

Father's day was fun this year because Wyatt really understood that he was doing everything for Daddy. He woke me up early with a loud whisper in my ear, "Mommy...special breakfast!!" We made cinnamon rolls and fruit salad and brought it to Paul in bed. Wyatt made his a special acrylic painting with DAD letters on the top. I gave him a John Updike short story collection.

At church, Wyatt sang with the primary kids, I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home. He knew every word and blew the cutest double hand kiss. Paul whispered, "I wish we could've videotaped that." It was very precious.

Wy's Wind Chime

One of our preschool moms came in and did this great craft with the students last week. I brought a kit home to do with Wyatt. He was very proud of himself. It has been very breezy the past few days and I can often hear the wind chime outside working away.

Start saving those metal lids!

On the Farm

Wyatt and I went on a school field trip to Farrel-McWhirter Farm in Redmond today. In usual Wyatt fashion, he was terrified of the animals. (I promise this is not a conditioned response. While I would not prefer to have animals in my house, I thoroughly enjoy them and think they are cool to pet and feed.) Anyway, he said, "Mom I like to look at the animals, but I do not like them to touch or lick me." I suppose the farm gene skipped a generation...Sorry, Grandpa Plank!

The piglets were soooo cute, but didn't want to be held.

The sheep got a little too close for comfort. Actually, it did knock one of his classmates over, so Wyatt was extra cautious!

Miss Debbie worked her magic and helped Wyatt feed the cow.

There's no mistaking THAT animal sound!

Mom's Day 2009

I love my boys. They made my day very special. I slept in and stayed out of the kitchen. Wyatt kept coming in and asking me if I wanted to see the surprise...whipsper, "You know, the flowers..." Then he would disappear and come back and ask me if I wanted syrup, etc. Very cute. I got the works...French toast, eggs, bacon, and fresh fruit salad. I didn't have to lift a finger except to carry the food to my mouth...

Then there were presents and cards and flowers...Nice job, Paul! I felt very special today and I don't think a washed a single dish.

Now, to plan Paul's birthday tomorrow...

Here's a pic of the Plank cousins from our Saturday at Tumwater Historical Park. Great weather, great fun!

Learning to Pump

Wyatt has been dying to learn how to swing. He loves to swing and doesn't like to wait for Mommy to stop talking and give him a push. Here is a video of his first time really pumping on his own a few days ago at Anderson Park in Redmond. Go, Wyatt!

My Little Brainiac

Blogs are for bragging, right? Wyatt is reading! He just moved on to the second set of Bob books and tries to read every sign and message in sight. Too bad English has such wacky rules, or he could read just about anything phonetically. He's also obsessed with adding. All day long he wants to add and count to 200. That's one way to pass the time in the car. We're working on handwriting, which he is less interested in, but doing well. He writes his name and most of the capital letters in his own way. Just look at that pencil grip. He makes two teachers proud! Oxford here we come...

Super Wy's Party

Wyatt wanted a super hero party this year so we decided to invite cousins and friends and let them dress as their favorite hero or heroine. Wyatt enjoyed being the center of attention and playing the games. Most of all, he loved having his friends in the same place. It was only hard when they had to leave. Of course, Super Wy didn't want to be Super Why (his costume from Halloween) but Spiderman instead.

My New Band

I have a new band, Palikirus Cosmetus, and here is our album cover for Shadow of the Reality our debut CD. Who knew it would be so easy? To create your band's first album cover, follow the steps below. No cheating!!

1. Go to Wikipedia. Click “random”or go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2. Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3. Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4. Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together and post it.

Wyatt Turns Four!

Wow. What happened to February? On that note, what happened to the last four years? We can't believe our baby is growing up so fast. He had a wonderful birthday and party with lots of superhero friends--more on that later.

Wyatt is a delightful four-year-old boy. He loves to play board games. Favorites right now are Yahtzee Jr., Memory, Dominoes, Sequence Jr., and others. Wyatt is learning how to read. He likes a book called Fox in a Box a lot because he can read the CVC words (consonant-short vowel-consonant). He loves the book Sammy the Seal and has it pretty much memorized.

Wyatt loves to go to Jump Planet (an indoor inflatable arena), any and all parks (especially St. Edward's castle park), and his preschool, Debbie's Place. He also loves running with his friends. He plays a game he made up called criss-cross-applesauce where each kid starts on the opposite side of a room and runs toward each other then criss-crosses and touches the other side. He could honestly do this for hours!

Wyatt is expanding his menu just a bit lately. He enjoys chicken (orange chicken from Trader Joe's is a favorite) and nuggets, meatloaf and pork, but he also recently tried and liked trout. I was so floored I almost cried at the dinner table. Alas, he does not like pasta. I try and try, but this kid just doesn't like it. Vegetables are still his issue and he will take one bite of almost everything, but continues to only like carrots and an occasional bit of peas or corn. He loves fruit so we have a variety of fruits every day. Mango is his favorite.

We are having so much fun these days. I will try to update a bit more regularly and give some info about his superhero party soon.

Preschool Fun

Wyatt came to Happy Day! Pre-K with Mommy today and had lots of fun exploding "volcanoes" and drawing with oil pastels.

Before school this morning we were having fun with the camera. Wyatt took a picture of me and I took one of both of us being silly. It's fun when we are not so rushed in the morning and can spend time laughing together.

Dreams come true...

This morning Wyatt came in rubbing his eyes and asked if I knew that Wall-E was older than Eve? He went on to tell me about an elaborate dream involving Wall-E and some other characters from recent books and shows. He wanted to know if Wall-E 2 would be coming out soon and I told him he might have to make it himself.

Enter Wall-E 2...

This is Wyatt's own version of the "older" Wall-E. He may not have a future in design, but it's a pretty darn cute idea.

Jelly Wy

Today Wyatt and Paul went on a preschool field trip to the Seattle Aqaurium. They learned some cool things and saw plenty of close-up ocean life. Wyatt came home talking about the octopus eating her lunch and the shark (which was actually a not so impressive dwarf variety).

Everett Children's Museum

I wanted to give a shout out to the best children's museum in the area. Everett (about 30 min north of Seattle) has the greatest children's museum we've been to. It's large and has at least 10 different areas to play, as well as art downstairs and an amazing outdoor play area on the roof during decent weather. We just love it and try to get there every few months. We'd love to have tag-alongs if anyone nearby is interested!




Wyatt in the airplane. He wanted to go to London that day. This is probably as close as he will get for a few more years!