Doug's Magic Photo Shoot

My cousin Doug and aunt Tina ("The Great") joined my mom at our house the first weekend in November for a Waylon photo shoot. Doug always takes amazing pictures, but the magic of this shoot was that Doug made our extremely cranky, teething toddler appear to be a happy little guy. Waylon really cheered up when Doug took pictures of him being pushed in his car. The only problem was that he only wanted Doug to be the one pushing him. A slight challenge for the photographer. Everything turned out great, and I loved catching up with my family PLUS getting more amazing photos of Waylon! For more Waylon photos, including a slideshow, check out Doug's blog.

BIG SMILE! Update on Speech & Hearing

We are knocking on a lot of wood around here, but things have improved tremendously since Waylon had tubes surgically placed in his ears last month. Without all that cucky fluid, he definitely is understanding a lot more and attempting to speak LOADS more. He is not a great orator just yet, but we're thrilled he's trying. He drops the first letter off of most words and is just mimicking sounds of words rather than actually speaking them (i.e. instead of "water," Waylon says "ahh er"). However, compared to the non-verbal child we had before, this is a huge improvement. Waylon is really improving at his animal sounds, which his infant stimulation therapist, Susana, wanted us to focus on. He really enjoys saying "oooooooooooo" (for moo) when we ask what a cow sounds like, and he also likes things that growl (lions, tigers, & bears...oh my), but he still cant make the "quack" or "oink" noises.

The biggest improvement has been in his auditory reception. When we ask questions he REALLY enjoys telling us "noooo" and once in awhile he'll even nod "yes." Waylon can point out lots of body parts, and will even follow commands...when he feels like it. According to Susana, we really need to work on his focus, which is all over the place when there is a lot of stimuli, so we're working on getting him to follow small commands. Aaron and I almost cried with joy yesterday when we asked him to get "Five Pumpkins" (his favorite book) and Waylon ran (or rather did a Davis-Strasburg waddle/run) into the other room, and returned a minute later with the book. We are very thankful for our little guys steady improvement.

Its hard to find a picture to capture his improved speech and hearing, but these pictures show his ability to follow commands. When we ask Waylon to show us his "big smile" this is what we get...

Head Gear

Waylon loves to put everything on his head these days...except hats. You name it, buckets, drums, clothes baskets, and collanders aren't safe when Bubba is on the prowl for new and interesting head gear. His absolute favorite things seem to be items that he cannot see through. He then wanders around with stuff on his head like Frankenstein, bumping into everything and laughing a lot. Here are just a few shots of our future headwear designer...

Chillin' in d'crib

On the weekends when Waylon wakes up from his nap he cries that he is awake, but he's not quite ready to get up. His newest trick is to pull daddy into the crib with him for some "guy time." He's tried to pull me in as well, but at 8 months pregnant, it doesn't quite work.

Soccer with Grandma Josephine

Waylon has moved beyond T-ball to embrace soccer, football, and even bowling. Here he is trying to bend it like Beckham while competing against Mia Hamm.

HALLOWEEN 2007

Its no secret that Halloween is my absolute, favorite holiday. I love having a little person to dress up, and am happiest when I am elbow deep in puffy paint and glue guns during this time of year. Of course my child must have two costumes since I can never make up my mind. I have also learned that Halloween is a very active day once you've got a kid. We were invited to many events, and were able to participate in Waylon's school parade, our neighbor's bounce house, and a little trick or treating. If it wasn't for pesky jobs and naps we would've made it to all of the events. Maybe next year... Dont worry, I already have next years costumes planned when the baby numero dos joins the fun.

COSTUME PARADE

Waylon shows off costume #2--The infamous Angels baseball player, "Bubba." Aaron tried to find toddler dread locks so we could dress him like his favorite player, Vladamir Guerrero, but no luck there.Here we are at event #1 for the day--Waylon's preschool costume parade. He started out sort of unhappy and clingy, but when we walked through the playground and Waylon saw the tricycles he fully melted down.

Aaron and I couldn't fight Waylon's tantrum very long. We soon relented and Waylon started scooting around the playground while his classmates paraded on without him.

Once he had his cool ride, Waylon was more than happy to pose for the cover of ESPN Baby

Here he is hightailing it to the outfield for a high fly ball.

BOUNCE HOUSE

Two of the mommies in our new cul-de-sac celebrated Halloween with a bounce house. After "school" we were excited to get Waylon home and watch his joy while he bounced. What actually occured was full-scale meltdown with Waylon crying and screaming everytime we got him close to the bounce house. After about 30 minutes we forced him inside (parents of the year moment) and he ended up loving it...after a few minutes.

No pictures of the melt down, but here is Waylon after he warmed up to the idea of the bounce house

Having fun jumping

Checking out the world from inside his little bouncey cocoon

Now he is LOVING the bounce house

Waylon chills with one of his neighbor-girlfriends, Rachel

TRICK-OR-TREATING

Off to conquer his first (of two) houses for trick-or-treating fun

Not quite sure why daddy has dragged me up to the neighbors house in this crazy costume...

Waylon seemed to be a little awed by it all, but took it all in stride.

Waylon was more excited about seeing the neighbors' dogs than about getting candy

Waylon meets up with his other neighbor-girlfriend, Chloe

Returning victorious from his long night of T-and-T'ing

Of course we didn't let on that there were treats inside those shiny wrappers, so Waylon had fun pulling out, arranging, and puting back his new "toys"

Nothing better than a whole bowl of wrapped up new toys!