Birthday weekend

I am sure I am forgetting a lot of stuff in this post, but I am too tired to get everything down. Will add as I feel the urge.

We went down to Long Beach last weekend to visit my family and have a birthday party for Wyatt. We also stopped at Rachel's (my coworker) house for lunch and went to Kami and Eric's block party.

We flew down on Jet Blue out of Oakland in to Long Beach. The flight down wasn't too bad. Wyatt is still not crazy about being stuck on our laps the whole way, but we managed to entertain him for the most part. It did help that the girl in the row behind us seemed to really enjoy talking to him and telling him how cute he is. Wyatt just eats that shit up. Also, the flight attendant moved the person on the aisle in our row. I moved over one seat and we were able to let Wyatt sit independently between us.

We had lunch with Rachel on Saturday. We ended up 20 minutes late because of feeding Wyatt before we left. I meant to fed him there, but he couldn't wait. Rachel is crazy about Wyatt and since she doesn't get up to Oakland much with the budget cuts, we made an effort to see her. She lives in Lakewood close to where my maternal grandmother used to live.

Rachel made beef stroganoff (by special request of Rus), an eggplant dish, rice and salad and an apple cheesecake for dessert. It was all delicious. While Rus and I ate, Rachel gave us a break by entertaining Wyatt. She even took him to the piano so he could bang around.

After a couple of hours Wyatt looked tired and we headed off to Kami and Eric's for their 4th of July block party. We hoped Wyatt would fall asleep in the car, but no such luck.

We hung out there for a while. Ate a little bit since we had already had lunch. Saw a bunch of people who knew David. Talked about him. Missed him. I got a David memorial t-shirt that Zack printed. Best of all I finally got to hold my little nephew, Baby David.

While at the block party, I tried putting Wyatt in a kiddie pool with a swim diaper. He didn't seem to be enjoying it much and ended up crying. Rus and I thought that so strange because he loves his bath. We took him out and changed him immediately. In retrospect, maybe I should have calmed him and tried him in the pool again. So hard to say.

What is even more strange is that Wyatt took all his baths in the regular tub at my parents' house. He did seem to like that quite a bit. As soon as I get a new bath mat, I am going to start bathing him in the regular tub here too. Maybe the outdoor pool was just too big.

We went home around 6:30 to try and get Wyatt to bed by a reasonable hour. Once he was asleep, we left him at home with my parents and went back to Kami and Eric's to watch fireworks from Veteran's stadium. Rus reminded me that last year, when I was hospitalized, we promised we would watch them the following year. And so we did.

The next day was Wyatt's birthday party. Rus and I ran by Target for some goodies for the kids and supplies to make Wyatt a pirate hat. Grandma had already picked up all the food, plates and decorations.

Once we got back Rus set to work on the hat. First there was much deliberating and design work, then I left Rus to it. I went and fed Wyatt. I didn't think I would be able to feed him during the party with so many distractions.

Rus and I picked up a mango cake from Honey Bakery in Artesia. It's basically a whip cream iced sponge cake with sliced mangos. By the time we got back everyone was there. Everyone ate from the taco bar. I ate then held Baby David. I sang him baby beluga a few times. He smiled at me quite a bit. At least someone out there appreciates my singing.

We opened presents next to allow people time to make room for cake. Wyatt wasn't all that interested in opening presents. He basically fixated on the first thing opened and then tried to crawl away. After that grandma gave Wyatt a bottle and he fell asleep. Rus and I decided to cut the cake without him, but we got a picture of him asleep next to the cake. So much for the candles I bought.
I saved Wyatt a piece of cake for later. After he woke up we attempted to get some pictures of the grandkids together. It took many attempts because Kylee wanted nothing to do with it, David would cry and we had to keep Wyatt from manhandling him. Then when they were all together one would move, one would cry, one would escape. While blurry, this might just be the best picture ever. Taken. Ever.
This is a picture that tells a story. A story of a girl, totally above the fray. A girl who would rather eat than deal with boy crap. Rock on Kylee. It tells the story of a boy with an extremely large head who can't keep his mitts off of others despite adult supervision. And also a story of a little lad with a delicate disposition who doesn't like being propped up in a chair. Or being manhandled by his cousin.

Later on, after I had given Wyatt dinner, he got his piece of cake. By that time it was just the family (mom, dad, Rus, Kami, Eric, Chris, Kylee and Baby David) around sans Fred and Betsy. Wyatt regarded the cake closely. He tasted it. Then he went after the plate and nearly flipped the cake on to the ground. Kami had me smear a little whipped cream on his nose to get a better picture.

Monday morning Wyatt slept in until 7:50am. I, unfortunately, awoke at 6:30am for no good reason and couldn't go back to sleep. Oh well, it gave me a little time to myself and allowed me to see Chris off to work. Wyatt must have been exhausted from his party!

The flight home was not the happy bookend we imagined. The flight attendant did not move the woman next to us who was clearly not excited about sitting next to a baby. She bowed her head frequently. Rus did most of the holding for the flight just to keep Wyatt away from her. Wyatt screamed. Frequently. Rus eventually handed him off to me. Wyatt bit me twice - once in the breast and once on the shoulder. For the descent he decided to poop a superstinky poop. It was a grossly unpleasant trip that has us re-thinking any future vacation plans. At one point Wyatt was screaming because Rus wouldn't let him hold a toy by himself. This bodes poorly for the terrible twos.

His poor behavior carried over today. He is really cranky. I still think he is teething his first molars on the bottom and the diaper rash is bothering him. I can't get it to clear up.

Tomorrow is Wyatt's real birthday. We have decided to make birthday beef stroganoff.