12.31.2008

Nine Month Stats!

Yesterday I took Wyatt for his 9 month well baby check.

Weight: 18 lbs, 10 oz. (17th percentile)
Height: 28 1/2 inches (56th percentile)
Head Circumference: I don't remember (80th percentile)

Does anyone see how strange this is? Normally all of your percentiles should be around the same. Since Wyatt is underweight, and has actually lost weight since we were in a couple of weeks ago, they wanted to run a test for anemia. That was about as fun as herding cats. Wyatt was a charmer as always smiling at the blood tech and jabbering right up until the point she stuck him. They pricked his little finger and he didn't cry! He did keep growling at the technician as I literally held him down while she filled the vial drop by drop by drop. I think it took about 20 minutes to collect the sample. My dear son is a mover and a shaker so there was blood everywhere. Perhaps in the future they should consider sedating the baby and the mommy!

Anyway, we are waiting for the results of that. Hopefully everything is normal. I think his weight is down a bit as a result of the stomach flu but I guess I'm glad the doctor is cautious. She said everything else looked good and that he was very advanced and intelligent and beautiful. As though I didn't already know all of these things!

12.30.2008

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

Despite going to bed relatively late for a little guy, around 10ish, Wyatt is apparently already programmed to get up at the crack of dawn on Christmas Day. How do kids just seem to know that this is "Toy Day"? Once a reasonable amount of time had passed we called my parents to come on over for Christmas breakfast. That morning's specialty at Cafe Leeth was grits and sausage casserole. So delicious but so bad for you. But in the spirit of Christmas...yum!

"Ho Ho Ho"

Wyatt really liked all of the shiny and apparently delicious paper as his main delight on Christmas Day was eating the wrapping.

"Wyatt Claus and Elf"

All that unwrapping really tired the boy out so he took a nice long nap and Byron and I enjoyed several cups of coffee and the relative peace between celebrations. And I read my new book almost in its entirety. Byron got me the Jon & Kate Plus 8 book. Let me tell you if you've never watched that show that she is INSANE. Beyond insane actually. I didn't know if that craziness would translate into print but it definitely did. So ridiculously awesome.

When Wyatt awoke, we headed over to my parents to see Wyatt's best buddy, Baby Judah! Grandaddy and Grandmom gave the boys lots of fun toys. Including the amazing "Bounce and Spin Pony."

"Future Blackmail"

You may be thinking, "My Wyatt Claus, how you've changed!" Wyatt was so kind and let Judah borrow his Santa suit. You may not have noticed this but Judah is a big boy and Wyatt...well he just isn't. The reindeer outfit is 6 months and the Santa suit is 12 months. It was pretty much process of elimination which boy would wear what for the cutest Christmas photos ever.

"Judah Claus and his tiny reindeer"

Christmas night we headed out to Fairfax to see Byron's parents and his grandma. They were still a little stomach fluish and Wyatt was Christmased out so we didn't stay long. Long enough to say "Ho, Ho, Ho" and home we went.

On the 26th, which George W. Bush graciously declared a federal holiday (thanks W), we had a vet appointment for the pupster and then planned the make-up Christmas celebration with the Leeths. For some unknown reason I volunteered to make potato soup for dinner that evening. Why? Why? Why? After peeling a million potatos and mashing a million potatos and cutting a million onions and frying a million pounds of bacon my kitchen was a disaster and we were late for dinner. Ay carumba... But the soup. It was delicious. So delicious. Worth the effort and the kitchen disaster which dear Byron cleaned up!

"Aunt Erin and Wyatt"

Byron's sister Erin has basically declared payback in all the gifts she gives Wyatt. When our nephew Payton was born in March of 2006 we made it out duty to find the loudest, most annoying toys known to man. Now Wyatt is receiving equally loud toys. In fact, his favorite gift of the whole lot is a train that drives around the house droppig balls out of the back. Guess who gets to wrestle the dog for the balls? ME! Thanks Aunt Erin and Uncle Kenny! Though Wyatt's squeals of glee as he crawls behind the train are totally worth my new role as dog wrestler.

"Choo-Choooo!"

Satrurday morning was splent cleaning and generally preparing for Byron's family to come out to our house. The whole gang came by and Payton informed Erin that he would like a baby cage full of toys like Wyatt has. The noise volume of all Wyatt's new toys being operated at once was through the roof yet Wyatt slept through it all!

Finally, Sunday arrived. Our second wedding anniversary! After church, my parents came over for lunch (leftover potato soup, of course) and took Wyatt home with them. Later they took the Water Taxi over to National Harbor to see the Christmas decorations at the Convention Center

"Wyatt's Night Out"

Meanwhile, back home I was having a most glorious afternoon! I actually got to take a bath and no one demanded my attention. It was fabulous. THEN, I took a nap. How wonderful. At 6 o'clock I woke up from my 2 1/2 hour snooze (I told you, glorious afternoon) and got dressed for dinner. We went to Carlyle and got an appetizer AND dessert because it was our anniversary! Byron had received a gift card so we really felt like we could order whatever we wanted. With me choosing to stay home with Wyatt we really have to watch our money so it was really nice to be able to go out that night and not be worried about just ordering whatever was cheapest. I did drink water though...old habits die hard.

"Christmas 2006"

"Christmas 2008"

12.29.2008

'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

The week of Christmas is very busy for most of America and especially so for the Leeths this year! Now some catching up.


"Wyatt Claus"

As mentioned in my previous post we had the stomach flu. We had it bad. We were all feeling back to normalish by the 21st aka the Saturday before Christmas so we decided it would be an AWESOME idea to take Wyatt to see Santa.

"Waiting for Santa"

Here are Byron and Wyatt in the 2+ hour long line. If I had a scanner I would scan the photo of Wyatt and Santa. Just as well. Santa looks annoyed and Wyatt looks terrified. This is cuter.

On Sunday we went to church. Wyatt looooves going to church because he has so many admirers and people are more than willing to hold him provided they can fight off his Grandaddy.

"Cuteness begins with a 'W'"


Sunday was also Wyatt's 9 month birthday. We celebrated with popcorn shrimp from Red Lobster. YUM! Later that evening, we went out to Midland to visit with Byron's sister. Midland is about 2 miles south of the middle of nowhere. The directions to the house ACTUALLY include the phrase, "Turn right at the silo painted like an ear of corn." You also pass a barn with a dancing cow painted on the side of it. I love it. After watching the Redskins game we loaded up the cars and headed to the Bull Run Festival of lights. I had never done anything like that and was suitably impressed.

Monday night was spent frantically with the masses at a most dreaded place. Springfield Mall. I soo hate shopping. I soooo hate Springfield Mall. I soooooooo hate crowds. It was a personal nightmare.

Tuesday it was BACK TO THE MALL. EWWW. This time I went in the middle of the day and it was not so terrible. Wyatt and I and a little 5-year-old friend of ours rode the merry go round. (This sounds creepyish but it really is not! I used to babysit this little girl about 20 hours a week when I was in grad school at George Mason. She was 2 then and now she is actually in kindergarten! I hope time does not go this fast with my own child...ay de mi.) Then we came home and made Christmas cookies for Santa. Wyatt thoroughly enjoyed having someone to get into his "baby cage" and play with him.

"Christmas Cookies"

"Why does the Caged Baby Smile?"


Finally, Christmas Eve! Hooray!! The plan was to go to church at 5 then to Byron's parent's house for dinner and nifty gifties. (And we did indeed get some very nifty gifties! Like a sweet GPS! I'll never be lost again!!!! Provided I remember to bring it with me...still working on that new trick!) Unfortunately, we had shared the stomach flu with Byron's mom, 2 sisters, and his grandma who flew in from Indiana. OOPS! We thought we were in the stomach bug clear but apparently not. Plan B! We opened our new Christmas PJs before church and then went off to see the White House trees. Don't be fooled by Wyatt Claus' disguise. Part of his excellent management plan is to literally walk in the shoes, or in this case hooves, of his support staff. On Christmas Eve we caught him in reindeer mode!

"For Me?"

"Pure Delight"

" 'Zat You Wyatt Claus?"

To be continued...

12.18.2008

Puke and Poop

The stomach flu has hit Casa de Leeth. Enough said.

12.10.2008

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving started bright and early. As in like 5:30 a.m. Don't Byron and I look thrilled to be awake? Also, in the first photo Wyatt is making an INSANE face which for some reason delights me.




Next, we went to the Wingard's for about an hour to see Uncle Bobby and Judah! The boys are 5 weeks, 6 days apart with Wyatt being older but smaller!







We then headed to the Farifax Leeth's for Thanksgiving dinner. Wyatt had turkey and mashed potatos! Yum! Yum! Everything was delicious and we had a lovely day!



(P.S. The Leeths of Lorton DOMINATED the Thanksgiving game of Apples to Apples.)

12.08.2008

Acceptance Speech

Thank you, thank you for crowning me "funniest dead mouse joke teller of all time." I accept this award with great honor. I couldn't have done it without God and my fans. My fans are AWESOME!



In other news, yes the Leeths DID celebrate Thanksgiving. Pictures will be up once I get a new battery for the camera so it can withstand the uploading process.

Meanwhile, enjoy this photo taken by my friend Stacey after the Kiddie Choir concert last night.

Wyatt is totally the cutest baby ever. I am a completely unbiased judge and I have declared it so.

12.02.2008

Things I've Learned the Not-So-Fun Way

Wyatt does NOT like the big tub. At all.

12.01.2008

Things I've Learned the Fun Way

The only thing tackier than chili pepper Christmas lights?

Blinking chili pepper Christmas lights.

Maravilloso!

11.30.2008

Public Service Announcement

It's true, I just scooped that sucker right up and tossed him in a ziploc bag..........wonder if it'll keep him fresh.......But anyways, I made sure I took a picture of it in all it's bagged glory to show Wyatt that first Halloween when he asks to eat all his candy. I'll just take that picture out and say "Son, this is what happens when you eat too much Halloween candy." (Joke edited by Beth for optimum funniness.)

I had a different endingso let's try my version out, you know, for market research. "Son, this is what happens when you eat too much Halloween candy........you turn into a mouse."

Vote for me!

I'm Byron Leeth and I approve this message.

There's a MOUSE IN MY HOUSE

I have known for quite some time that we had a rodent guest. I bought a bag of candy for Halloween at BJ's and when I pulled it out to distribute it to Trick or Treaters I made an unsettling discovery. A hole in the bag and tiny shreds of Snickers wrapper. (The mouse at least has excellent taste in candy.) Off went our porch light. Into the trash went the bag of candy. And then I just kind of forgot about it.

Until last week.

I went into our laundry room and the smell of death LITERALLY made me gag. Now our laundry room is not an actual laundry room. A good portion of our basement is unfinished and that is where the washer, dryer, deep freezer, storage, etc. are located in our house. Anyway, I told Byron that I would like him to investigate and see if he could find anything dead. When he came home he said he just thought it was the dog's crate and that there probably wasn't anything dead at all.

So I tried to do laundry. Which consisted of me opening the door. Gagging. Tossing the dirty clothes in. Shutting the door with great force.

This does not clean clothes make.

Byron decided he needed clean clothes so tonight he was doing laundry. About ten minutes ago he came out of the laundry room, "Whatever you do, do not go in the laundry room."

There is a dead mouse in my laundry room behind my dryer. Decomposing.

So far Byron has gathered an empty Kleenex box and a Ziploc bag. There have been strict instructions that my salad tongs are to stay IN the drawer.

He has just emerged, victorious.

"It was easy. Rigor mortis had set in so it was nice and stiff."

11.23.2008

How Could I Forget?!

As previously mentioned, Byron is not as excited for Christmas as I am. But being the nice husband that he is on Friday night once Wyatt was settled he headed out to Wal-Mart to get some lights for the Christmas tree. Let me tell you, I was soooooo excited that he was willing to do that. Until he got home. With one strand of lights. 100 light bulbs. No more. No less. 100 bulbs.

"What?! It will be PLENTY!"



SABOTEUR!

Wait, What??

There have been some questions as to how I gradually "snuck" Christmas into the casa without Byron noticing. Following is a photo essay (photojournalistic no?) depicting the arrival of Christmas. Before Byron knew it, Christmas was here and past the point of stopping!









First, don't you love how nice and PINK Christmas seems to be at my house? I know I sure do!! Actually the "real" Christmas things are normal colors but in the kitchen I have free reign for as bright and tacky as my Chrismas heart desires. Here is what our tree actually looks like.


See, not even tacky. Not a chili pepper light in sight.

11.20.2008

Top Ten Reasons Baby Gap is Actually Crazy.

I entered Wyatt in Gap's Casting Call and they had the nerve to NOT select him. Following are ten reasons why they made a huge mistake. (Does anyone else enjoy Arrested Development? If so, read that as though Gob said it.)

And now the top ten reasons why Wyatt would have been an awesome Gap model.

10. Wyatt knows how to kick back and relax.

9. He's not anorexic.



8. Good personal hygiene is a must for those in the fashion industry.


7. He has his own wheels.


6. He is brave. Still smiling despite the imminent threat of bear attack.



5. He emotes. This one is "surprise."



4. He looks good in black and white.


3. Ladies love bad boys. And Wyatt's done hard time.



2. That's where he learned to be all gangsta.


1. Because he is adorable and this is the photo I submitted to the contest:



I rest my case Baby Gap.