A garden full of flowers: My Wesley

As I sit down to write a few more thoughts regarding my sweet Wesley, I can't help but smile. He is truly a miracle, a joy, and a blessing. Yes, he drives me bonkers, but I think that is the magic of Wesley...he can be the craziest, fussiest, most stubborn little fella you have seen; and the next day he is full of nothing but politeness, sweetness, and pure love. It makes all the other days seem to not exit. It is hard for me to even remember what he was like at Chase's age. His personality is so strong now, he just seems like he has always been that way. I dont like brag-a-blogs where people only brag about all their kid's accomplishments. I dont mean for my blog to be that way, but since it is private and I mostly use this as a way to document our life, I do tend to write things that make me a proud mama. I know in 50 years I wont remember half of this stuff if I dont write it down. I wanted to jot down some more things about Wesley at this stage that I was not able to write in the last post.

All ages are fun, but the stage he is at now is really nice. He is still young enough to be 100% innocent and pure, and yet he is old enough to be able to carry conversations with me, give me advice (whether I want it or not), tell jokes, help out, and be independent. He is like my little friend - my little buddy. He keeps me company, and is really fun to be around. I LOVE that he is independent enough to be able to play in the backyard for hours by himself. I LOVE that I can put him in his room to take a nap. He has always been my amazing sleeper. He sleeps from 8 or 9pm until 7 or 8 in the morning. Even if he wakes early, he will entertain himself for a long time until one of us comes to get him. He has always been that way since he was in a crib. He very, very rarely puts up a fuss to take a nap, let alone go to sleep at night. In fact, during the day when I put him down for a nap, most of the time he falls asleep within an hour. However, sometimes I have gone to check on him after an hour, or even two thinking he was asleep, and he is wide awake reading his books. He will stay in his room and entertain himself until I come and get him. He never gets into trouble or makes much of a mess while in his room, besides sprawling his books and toys all over. He spoils me in that aspect, which is why Chase's sleeping habits were such a shock! When he does sleep, he is AHHH-sleep. You can yell, and poke him, and move him all over and he stays sound asleep. Chase can cry for a while at night if I put them together, and Wesley will stay sound asleep. It is really nice.

He can write his name pretty well, and enjoys writing it all the time. He can also write most of the letters, and our backyard is covered with the alphabet in chalk.

He is always singing and humming some song. Most of the time it is a made up song. It is cute to see him in the backyard humming away as he is drawing with chalk, or playing in the sand.

He is doing very well with going pee in the toilet, but not so good at #2.

Wesley's favorite "chore" is helping me fold clothes. He likes looking through the basket to help find all the socks and match them, and help find all his underwear and put them in a pile.

Even though I do try to limit his tv, if I ever need to get anything done distraction free, I can count on Dora, Sesame street, or Caillou to entertain him for as long as I need. He turns into a pretty good couch potato. He can also entertain himself with his collections, or his ABC's. His other side hobby is making Chase laugh. He proudly boasts whenever he gets Chase to laugh or smile.. "Look Mommy! Chase is laughing at me!!"

He has an amazing memory. He has foam letters in different colors, and I can ask him what color a particular letter is, and without looking he always gets it right. I really hope he uses his memory and smartness to do good in the world, and I hope he actually enjoys school like I did and try to make the most out of it.

He is such a charmer. At church, he has made good friends with two men in our ward. One of them is the late husband of Wesley's old nursery leader who passed away. it is sweet to see them interact. One brings him a lolly-pop each week, and another brings him a hot wheel car almost every week. Wesley hugs them, and is really close with them. It is really sweet to see the bonds he is making with other people.

So, a few weeks ago I was cooking dinner and Wesley was playing in the backyard. I hear a knock at the door, and it is one of our neighbors. She points to Wesley behind her and asks me if I knew my child was playing in the front yard by himself. It kind of took me a few seconds for it to register. I guess the gate was open and I didn't realize he had been in the front yard for a few minutes. Even though I dont know this neighbor, I guess she realized there wasn't a parent out there with him, and she came to knock. I really appreciate it. Luckily Wesley is usually really good, and would stay there and not go in the street, who knows what scary person could have come and snatched him up. Also, it was super embarrassing because he was in his underwear. It probably wasn't hard to miss my pale, skinny red head running around in his undies. Ha!

Some Wesley-isms:

-We were at a restaurant sitting outside, and Wesley points to an overweight man and loudly asks, "What is that BIG tummy???"

-Wesley likes to draw a circle, and another little circle in it and say, "look, its a baby in mommy's tummy!" I have no idea where he got that from (I am not pregnant), but he is going to start some rumors if he draws that in nursery!

-We were driving and Jason and I were talking. Wesley interrupts and says, "SHHHHHHHH!!!! Chase is sleeping!!!!!!" It is cute that he looks out for his little brother.

- Wesley tells me quite often, "Mommy..You are soooo cute!"

-Wesley likes to "style" my hair and "cut" it for me. He is so proud when he is done.

-My Dad has calloused hands, and Wesley likes to look and talk about Papa's cracks. Well, one Day Jason had a shirt that was a little short. He was teasing and said, "I need to change shirts so I dont show any crack!" Wesley exclaimed, "Papa has cracks!!!"

-Some people were kissing on tv. He looks at me and says, "I want to kiss too!" He then grabs my face and give me a big kiss. I love the innocence of kids!

-Wesley found a small snail in out backyard. He was sooo excited and brought him in and told me he found a pet snail. He asked me to take his picture, and told me his name was Gary. Well, he put him on the carpet, and went out side. I forgot he was there and accidentally sat on him. Wesley comes in asking over and over, "GARY!!! Where are you??!!!!!" He looked all over outside too. I didn't have the heart to tell him what happened!

-The other day I asked, "Sooo, tell me about you life.." I was expecting some sort of small funny answer but what he said kind of surprised me. He said, "I was born in a hospital. Then the doctors poked my leg and I got an ouchie. I got a band-aid..." He continued talking about doctors and ouchies. I asked where he went after he came home from the hospital and he said, "home!" I dont think I ever correlated the word "life" with "birth" or how he understood that concept. And what else baffled me was how he was talking about doctors and ouchies. He could have been talking about a doctor's visit, or maybe he still remembers the NICU in some sort of way? I have talked about it before, but it was just interesting how he talked about the doctors poking his legs, because he did have tubes and other monitors and things on his legs. In fact, one of his tags cut into his ankle and left a scar.

I love my little funny Wesley!

(Sweet Chase...your post is next!!!)

Wesley asked if he could type his name -------> wessleyyy