We have now taken Wyatt to see the Tennessee in D outdoor model trains exhibit at Cheekwood a couple of times. Once on his second birthday, when the exhibit opened, and again more recently with Angela’s parents. His "Pap" shares his love of trains and his "Mee-ma" loves gardening, so we figured this would be a hit with all and it was.
Here are a few photos from the second trip:
The whole gang gathered together outside of the exhibit. Wyatt’s ready to race back off to see the trains again.
Being the huge fan of Thomas & Friends that he is, Wyatt got a chance to go see a real, live Thomas the Tank Engine this Fall. He could hardly sit still the entire (short) train ride and it was like meeting a rock star when he got to pose—along with his sister‐for pictures in front of Thomas. Despite the heavy rain, we all had a great time.
The kids with Thomas, a working tank engine.
On board the train with Angela’s parents
Waiting for the train to depart the station.
Braving the rain while standing in line to board the train.
The "Dickens of a Christmas" in downtown Franklin (there’s a festival in downtown Franklin every other weekend, this one is a Christmas one) had a small petting zoo. Wyatt got to go in and pet the animals. His favorite was one of the ducks, which he chased for ten minutes; until the owner said he was likely to get kicked by some other animal as he ran around screaming for the duck. It pretty much came to an end at that point, but Wyatt sure had a blast.
Wyatt was extra warm in his thick giraffe costume this year. Paid off, too, as he was able to walk to more houses without getting tired and brought home loads of candy!
(Okay, so it has been literally months since I’ve posted anything here. Please accept my humble apologies and understand it has been because too much has been going on around our house, instead of just nothing worth posting.)
For the past month or so, Wyatt has been threatening to crawl. He’s been sort-of Army crawling (dragging his legs behind him, actually) for a few weeks. Occasionally he would get up on all fours and rock a bit, usually only to plop back down on his backside.
He’s been home the past couple of days with an ear infection (no biggie, other than a lack of sleep for all). During this time, he’s managed to figure out the crawling bit; first on carpet and then across the hardwood floor. I shot a little video to demonstrate some of his new skills.
When it came time to work on a nursery for Wyatt, we had a few guiding thoughts in mind. First, we really wanted a room he could grow up in, not just outgrow. This meant picking designs and colors that weren’t all pastel, cute, and cuddly; but would be the sort of thing a young person would still find interesting.
Secondly, we wanted to make a study in contrast to his sister, Ainsley’s room. Where her room has a pink color punch, light colored wood tones, and curved shapes; Wyatt’s room would have blue accents (okay, so the colors are hardly inspired), dark wood colors, and linear shapes.
Lastly, we do things on the cheap here at the Coleman-Dyer household. We would re-use many items that would fit in this design schema from around the house. So, this is the final result:
You’ll note another contrasting idea to Ainsley’s room is that of vertical stripes instead of the horizontal band of color. This is a very simple idea that seemed to work quite well when put along side the other elements in the room. The stripes become more architectural in this context. We also continued to use the idea of overlapping elements to tie the stripes into the furniture.
The crib was real find. We very happy with with Ainsley’s crib, so we turned to the same manufacturer (AP Industries) to see what they wold have. Needless to say, their Element crib ended up being the inspiration for a lot of the room. We were able to find the crib online at a great price (Albee Baby) and we purchased some conversion kits for toddler beds & full bed side rails at La Difference back in Richmond on a trip this past winter.
So, we’re very pleased with Wyatt’s room. I hope to add more robots & rocket ships as time goes on, but he may have a few things to say about that. Right now, we have some photos up on the walls and his sister likes to bring in some toys from her room to play while we read stories at night. That will do for decorations for now.
We went in for Wyatt’s first pediatrician visit today since leaving the hospital over a week ago. The kids’ pediatrician is a remarkably nice lady our age so it feels as much like getting to visit a really knowledgable friend as going to the doctor. At least until the needles or bills get involved; neither of those are very fun.
Well, Wyatt is a very healthy young man. He has already grown a bit since his birth. He is up to 8 lbs. 4 oz; up 12 oz. over his birth weight (and considering he no doubt lost some weight in the hospital, that may be up as much as a pound!). His height was at 21 1/2 in., which is a whole inch over his birth length. However, if you ever watch a newborn being measured, you might agree with me that there is some more error in this measurement system. So, he likely is growing some but he is definitely feeding very well.
