Our big helper!

Being at Grandma and Grandpa's house has allowed Wyatt to show how big of a helper he can be around the house and with the animals. Here are a number of pictures depicting this. While my brother Kyle was in town we visited the "Building for Kids" in Appleton and have some pictures from there. Also just some fun ones from around the house. I hope you enjoy.


It's time to feed the Goats.


Grandpa even lets my help collect the eggs.


I harvested an apple for a snack.


Someone has to carry in the green beans.


Carrying in the corn.


Helping Uncle Jim and Aunt Leslie pack up.


Helping "shuck" the Kidney Beans.


More bean shucking.


The laundry basket is a little heavy for me so Grandma helps me carry it.


Helping grandma water the plants.


Might as well rest under the palm tree.


Action shot!


My steering wheel.


Playing in my sandbox with Grandma.


Wearing my Twins cap (for the first time).


Being careful on the ropes with mommy helping me.


Enjoying trucks in the rubber sandbox.


Where's the fire? I'm ready!


I snapped a picture of Aunt Leslie and Grandma at the Bacon Reunion.


I can carry a kid!

It's been a while

I figured that I would finally post again. I've been pretty busy working and taking care of Wyatt and just haven't had the time to post very often. Anyway, my job is going well. I'm starting to get adjusted to working full time. The members (residents) that I work with are generally pretty nice. I'm beginning to learn what I knew I would: It's hard working in a nursing home because you never know when someone you like is going to pass away. Otherwise it is going well. Bert's job is going well. I always wish he were home more often but that comes with driving Semi over the road.

Wyatt has been doing well also. He's growing and learning so much all the time. He also loves being and Grandma and Grandpa's house. He gets to do some much. We recently got him a kid slide and he loves going down that. He's starting to understand that he has to sit down first but he seems to like to go down it on his belly face first (we try very hard to prevent that and are trying to teach him the proper way of going down). He also has a one track mind sometimes. He will go to my parent's cupboard and start saying "cracker" because he knows where the graham crackers and animal crackers are. One thing Wyatt really likes doing is helping Grandpa feed the animals. My dad has 4 hens that are currently laying eggs (he also has 12 "chicks" that aren't old enough to lay eggs yet) and he let's Wyatt carry an egg up to the house. That has pretty much stopped now because the other day Wyatt was holding onto the egg a little too hard and put a finger through it. I guess that's about it. I hope you enjoy the slideshow. I tried the Picasa website, hopefully it works okay.

Move and New Job

I am finally taking a few minutes to update our faithful readers on the goings on of the Stone Family. A lot has happened since I last posted on May 27th. The two biggest of those are we moved and both Bert and I have started new jobs (so maybe that's three things). I am now working as a CNA at a Veterans Home in King, WI (near Waupaca if you know where that is). I did two weeks of inservice classroom training which held during day-shift hours, one week of evening mentoring (1:45-10:15 pm; or 1345-2215 since it's a Veterans home) and I am now 2/5ths of my way through my Night shift mentoring (2200 - 0600). I am pretty tired but luckily I have a nice mother and cousin who help out watching Wyatt while I get a few hours of shut-eye after I get home in the morning (daycare lady has vacation last week and this week). Next week Wednesday I start my third and final mentoring on Day shift and then starting July 16th I am on my own. Scary!

Bert, unfortunately, is back on the road driving Semi. The mechanic industry isn't really hiring right now and driving helps financially quite a bit. That makes grandma and grandpa-care very invaluable to us which we are tremendously thankful for. Anyway, Bert has finally gotten through his new employment training and on the road steadily. He just took a load to Orlando and now is on his way to South Dakota.

Wyatt is doing very well. He has more freedom at grandma and grandpa's house. Oh yeah, I'll take a quick step back. We have moved to Amherst, WI and in with my parents for the time being. This, again, is partly for daycare purposes, but also because Bert and I wanted to get a feel for the area to see where we would best like to live. We have long terms plans on what we want to be doing and where we will be living but we are still undecided for the short-term (except living with my parents). Anyway back to Wyatt. We finally consider him a WALKER!! He took his first unaided steps the day before he turned 15 months but, because of his dynamic crawling skills, it took him a little over two months to realize walking might be a better option. He still does a good bit of crawling but he now knows how fun it is to walk, too. He does use every opportunity to practice that skill as well. I've taken a few fun pictures of Wyatt exploring his new house, so enjoy.


Helping Grandpa mow the lawn (don't worry the mower was not running they were just pushing it).


How did you find me, mom!


Helping grandma vaccuum the floors.


Look at those clothes go round and round fast ( The front loading washing machine is one of his favorite things to watch).


Where did my tractor go?


I found it!

Congratulations Leslie and Jim!

The happy couple!

Besides my sister getting married this weekend I got a call from a Veterans Home that I interviewed at a little while ago and they offered me a job. I, of course, accepted. This means that I will be moving the Central Wisconsin and starting a new job on June 8th. It is a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) job, full-time, working 1:45-10:15 pm (evening shift). I am pretty excited about this since I will be moving to the country but also a little nervous with new job jitters. Bert will be staying in River Falls for a little while working in Hastings at the dealership that he has been working for while he was in school and while looking for a job in the Amherst/Stevens Point/Waupaca areas.

Wyatt did amazing at Leslie's wedding this weekend. He doesn't mind going to other people at all so he got passed around quite a bit to many family members and friends. I think he might have thought the night was for him with all of the attention he was getting. Also, his bedtime is 7:30-8:00 and I opened up his pack n' play in a quiet "children's" room with a couple of friends of mine and Bert's (and Wyatt) watching the room and all Wyatt wanted to do was play. And that is exactly what he did until 10:45 pm without sleeping a wink. Needless to say he was a tired boy the next day. I also wanted to post a picture and a little video of Wyatt having some major bath-time fun. The bride and her favorite nephew. Bath time fun!! Wyatt showing his 2nd cousin Ian how his musical table works.

Update

Things have been pretty chaotic around our house. I have been doing some babysitting for a family in town on Wed, Thur, and Fri while their normal sitter is supposed to be on Maternity leave. Her original due date was April 9th but about a week after her due date the doctor moved her due date to May 9th. I don't have to work this week because the children's grandma is in town but as of last week Thursday Ashley still had not had the baby. Anyway, Bert and I are also planning on moving at the end of the month to Central Wisconsin, Amherst which is close to Stevens Point and we have both been focusing quite a bit of our time trying to get jobs in that area. I had an interview at a Veterans Home yesterday. I will keep my blog updated as to how that turns out. Enough excuses for not blogging recently.

Now on to how Wyatt has been doing. There's not a whole lot of new stuff to report. He has taken some unaided steps. However I would not call it "walking" officially. He still has a hard time staying on his two feet if he's not holding onto things and he won't let go of something to walk to something else. What he does do is if I steady him on his feet and let him go he may walk to something. When I have the best luck with him walking is when we are watching TV he will walk to the TV. I have a little video depicting that. He actually takes 6-7 steps in the video.

The other day Wyatt and I went on a walk. I brought a water bottle along and when we got home Wyatt thought it would be fun to try drinking out of it and he did very well. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to be doing what he was doing so he kept looking at me thinking I was going to scold him. See all of my teeth! (he has 12 and working an at least two more) How do I get out of here?

We have had a pretty full couple of weeks. It includes a visit from Renae, Wyatt's cousin, tagging along with their Aunt Peggy for a little visit. Renae was born the day before Thanksgiving so that would make her 4.5 months old. Then Palm Sunday weekend Bert, Wyatt and I headed to my parent's house for a little visit which included seeing my brother up from St. Louis. Then Easter weekend Wyatt and I went to Bert's family for supper on Saturday (Bert had to work). We had quite a bit of fun seeing most of everybody. One thing is for sure: no matter where we go, Wyatt gets quite a bit of attention. Then on Easter Sunday we went to church and Wyatt was visited by the Easter Bunny who gave him a basket with some cute animal eggs in it, a book and a soccerball, basketball, and football (he already had the baseball). The Easter Bunny also "hid" (in plain sight) a few eggs for Wyatt to find. All in all a good few weeks.

Sadness and goofy pictures

Today was a sad day for one family in particular and many that know them. The pastor of the church I used to work at had twin grandchildren born on Dec. 17th (a boy, Max, and a girl, Charlotte). Today the family said a very sad good-bye to Charlotte who passed away from SIDS last Monday morning. Here is an excerpt of a eulogy posted on the Grace website "In lieu of flowers the family is asking those with children to give them an extra long hug and to tell them you love them; those with parents please do the same. For those fortunate enough to be blessed with siblings give them an extra swat of an I-Love-You from Charlie (Charlotte) to Max." So I pass this on to all of you so that none of us ever take for granted the lives of loved ones in our life no matter how old or young they may be.

Now, on to happier things. I have a few pictures from the last few weeks that are pretty fun. I would like to take quite a few more pictures but Wyatt doesn't like to cooperate so well anymore. If he even hears me turn my camera on he immediately stops doing whatever he's doing and makes a bee-line for me because he wants to play with the camera. If I'm quick I can get a picture of a smile but it quickly turns to not happy when I won't let him grab the camera. Also, I've been trying to get Wyatt drinking out of a sippy cup more instead of the bottle and until the last couple weeks he wanted very little to do with a cup of any kind. He has made pretty big strides over the last couple of weeks and I know only give him a bottle if he hasn't been drinking from his sippy cup or "big boy" cup very well for a couple of days. I have a little video of him drinking some milk from his big boy cup (I know at least a little bit goes down his throat as opposed to down his front). You will notice that Wyatt is wearing a bib. He is working on his 4th molar and has started to become a drool machine again. Unfortunately, Wyatt knows that velcro bibs can be pulled off so most of the time they don't stay on long anymore.

The quick smile picture before he got angry

I think something is wrong with my 4-wheeler so I'm checking it out. Actually he just likes spinning its tires.

Look mom, I found the remotes under the couch (where he put them).

Just a goofy picture.

Mom, stop taking my picture and help me out of here! (He tried climbing over the clothes basket as opposed to going around it.)

We're still here!!

It's been awhile and I still don't have a lot of new stuff, mainly a few pictures. I did, however, finish my CNA class and have passed my certification test so I can start looking for a CNA job. Otherwise, Wyatt has the crawling thing down now and doesn't use any other mode of travel anymore. Once he got the hang of it he was off. Well here are a few pictures.

I want to help you fold (more like unfold) clothes, mom.

My whiny face because mom won't let me have her camera.

Goofily (is that a word?) drinking a bottle with Aunt Leslie.

Playing with my first tractor! Thanks grandma and grandpa.

I like driving my truck on my table.

Haircut

On Friday Wyatt got his first "real" haircut. My mom had trimmed his hair when he was 6 months old but not like this. My mom was in town so she came with and held Wyatt while I got the camera out and took a few pictures. He actually did very well because we let him hold the spray bottle and look at the camera. I was able to get a pretty decent after picture, too.

During...

After...

Crawling!

Wyatt has finally begun crawling, sort of. He still prefers his army crawl as his main mode of travel. If he is really determined, such as going for the dog's toys (see video), he will forget that he prefers army crawling and will get up on his hands and knees and actually crawl. (Raffi is singing in the background of the video.)

Wyatt is eating and the dog is where? Can you tell that Wyatt likes to feed Hawk?