Changing a Tire

Here's the thing. You can imagine the worst situations that you would have to change a flat tire in. Mine, and it actually happened, was a Christmas morning on the freeway in the pouring rain while I was in my Christmas clothing. And then something happens to change your mind.

This morning, I got Nicholas into his carseat, and got the car moving to take him to daycare. And then....I heard the thump, thump that meant I had a flat tire. I figured it would be easy to change it. Boy was I wrong.

I have said a million times that doing anything with a baby takes 15 more minutes (at least) and triples the difficulty because you have to keep the baby happy while you are doing whatever it is you are doing. Imagine changing a tire with a baby.

Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been the tire that was under his carseat.

It got to the point I just drove home and called Jon (my husband) to come and change it. We both ended up being late for work - but my tire got changed :) It was much easier with two people. Simply put - I had the baby and Jon had the tire. A split of responsibility.

So I am just saying - if you ever get a flat with a baby in the car...be prepared for a monsterous task.

Nicholas' First Tie

So Nicholas wore his first tie on Sunday. It was very cute on him. He was adorable.




He liked his tie so much, that as soon as I put it on him - he ate it. Not suprising. He loves the ties the men at church wear. If someone is close enough, he is going to grab that tie and eat it. His dad suffers through this because I suffer through having him grab my necklaces all the time (but I wear them so he can grab them).




But sadly, his tie only lasted for 2 hours. Then he was so slobbery (teething) that it had to come off. There is only so much damage one tie can stand.

The cool thing was finding them. I was unable to find any ties for baby boys (well at least smaller than an 8 year old) and I was almost giving up. Then I wandered into The Children's Place, and they had 5 different ties (I only got 3) for kids. I got the 24 month - 4T size, since that's about what he is now - or will be by next week. They are so adorable.

It was so much fun to see him wearing the tie. I loved it.

My Wonderful Eater

I just want to say - Nicholas is a huge eater.

He can down a ton of bottles, and solids during the day. Then he wakes up so early so that he can eat again because he is hungry. Sometimes I call him a punk when he does this, because it is so early in the morning. But he is so hungry. I certainly hope he is growing upwards - otherwise he is going to grow outwards pretty quickly :)

He eats bread, bagels, fruits, some veggies, cerreal, cheerios, crackers, teething cookies, pudding, and all kinds of mashed things. He eats mashed bananas - which I find disgusting. But he likes them.

He is simply a wonderful eater. Unless he's tired and then he doesn't eat so well.

Top 10 Favorite Games of the Wunderlichs

Here is our "Top 10" list of games we like to play.

10. Yahtzee
9. Mexican Train Dominos
8. Sorry
7. Monopoly
6. Five Crowns
5. Quiddler
4. Life
3. Phase 10
2. Hand and Foot
1. Settlers of Catan (and associated expansion games)

Not that we don't like other games, but those are the top 10.

My Sister Is Getting Married!

Finally - a date has been set. I was begining to think it was never going to happen.

My sister is getting married 8/8/09. How much cooler would 8/8/08 have been? But I guess that I don't get to choose.

She and her fiancee (Wayne) have been living in the basement (they have fixed it up so it is like a small apartment) of my mom and grandma's house. Together. And my mom and grandmother are very traditional Catholics. But now, they are getting married.

Everyone is very relieved that it is finally happening.

My sister now says that the biggest challenge will be to get Wayne to the wedding in a suit and not a Hawaiian print shirt and khakis.

California Science Academy

So on Monday my mom and us went to the new Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. It was so great! We got there at 9:30 when it opened, so there was still parking in the garage. Otherwise you have to find parking on the surface streets of Golden Gate Park - and that can be hazardous. We got in line for our tickets and went in.

The first thing we did was to get Planetarium tickets for me and Jon. They give them out on a first-come first-served basis. The shows are every hour. So we got tickets at 9:50 for the 11:30 showing. We got the last tickets to the 11:30 showing. I guess that means people like going to the Planetarium. It isn't suggested for kids under 6 - too much lights, movement and sounds. So my mom stayed with Nicholas.

Then we wandered around and saw some of the eveolution exhibits. We went into the kids play area, but it was for kids who were older than Nicholas, so we didn't stay. Then we went to the rainforest exhibit.

It was so cool. All these animals, trees, plants and cool looking birds and butterflys. Nicholas would talk to the butterflys. He got excited when he saw all the fish in the bottom. It was pretty neat. At the top of the exhibit you take an elevator down to the bottom floor (the Aquarium area) and you walk through this tunnel that goes under the pool at the bottom of the rain forest. There are benches you can sit on in the tunnel. It was pretty neat.

You have to stand in line to go into the rainforest because they only let a certain number of people go in at a time. The line goes fast. we put our time in the line to good use and fed Nicholas solids in his stroller.

By this time Nicholas was hungry again, so Jon found a place to sit and feed him and my mom and I went through all the fish exhibits. They were neat. There was a touch and feel tidepool area that would be great for older kids. But some areas are pretty closed in, so it can get VERY loud. I am glad we didn't take Nicholas into those parts, he doesn't like loud noises.

We saw the albino alligator and all the fun exhibits on the first floor. They have all kinds of Aquarium exhibits on the first floor that they have paths through and over. There is a shallow seas exhibit that you walk over and can see fish and sting rays from the shallow seas. It is neat.

Then we went to the Planetarium and left. We did it all in about 3 hours. If you have older kids, it will take longer because there is more stuff for them to do. Younger kids it takes less time. And if you are just adults, plan on having something else to do for the rest of the day.

It was a lot of fun, and I would recommend it to anyone.

What we didn't do: The 3D movie theater. The current showing was on bugs, and I had no desire to see it.

Nicholas Has Teeth

Ok - so Nicholas has teeth! They are so tiny, they are hard to see. But they sure are easy to feel :)

The way I found out his teeth were breaking through his gums is because he grabbed my finger last week and was sucking on it (like he normally does) and then he drew blood. The corner of one of his teeth had broken free and I had a little vampire on my hands. I was really excited. It meant that several of Nicholas' favorite habits had to be discontinued - mainly grabbing my fingers and sucking on them. But the corner was there - you couldn't see it - but you could feel it.

And then a few days ago you could actually see his teeth! The bottom two front ones are up, and I am so excited. It means that he can start chewing things, and we can start experimenting with more foods - well when he gets the top two in as well. But his current hobby is biting Cheerios in half, and then spiting out the half that is not in his mouth and then biting the other half into little pieces. He laughs as he is doing it. I think the sound amuses him. But then the Cheerios fall out of his mouth. It is really cute.

As a side note - he says "mama." Well, "mamamamamamamamama." And then I go to him and kiss him and praise him because mama came before dada :)

Our Afternoons

For those who are interested- this is what we do with our afternoons.

Nicholas and I come home, where he plays with me - generally by walking on me - and then he gets a bottle. I tend to hope that this bottle puts him to sleep and that I can put him to sleep in his crib. No such luck with that today. The bottle put him to sleep, but if you took the bottle out of his mouth, he decided to wake up and protest. So he didn't nap. Which is always a great start to an afternoon.

But he did play well, and happily. He was excited to spend as much time as he could standing up. we went on a little nature walk around our complex courtyard. He loves the bark of trees, watching leaves blowing in the wind, and any animals he can find. There were a few dogs out, so he spent a lot of time laughing at the dogs. We always take a nature walk in the afternoon, because he does need to get outside and hear/see and explore new things. Like grass. He tries to eat grass.

Then we build towers out of blocks. Well, I build towers, and he knocks them over. Then I build towers, and he knocks them over....ad infinitum.... until I go nuts.

We also spend time reading and talking and just walking around the house naming things. In between these activites, I try to get chores done. I spend 5 minute blocks doing chores, and he spends 5 minute blocks playing on his own.

Sometimes he even gets tummy time - well most days he does. He doesn't like it. But hey - I don't like vegetables and I eat them anyways because my doctor (and my mother) told me they were good for me. So his doctor (and his mother) say that tummy time is good for him. So he does it.

So this sounds like a lot of activity, and things take up a lot of time. But here's the thing that takes up the most time - feeding him.

I thought boys didn't turn into never ending bottomless pits until they were teenagers. Nicholas has turned into one now. If he sees food - he wants it. I gave him a piece of lettuce from my salad today and he ate it - not well - but he ate it. I give him babyfood mixed with baby cereal in the hopes that it lasts longer. He eats Cheerios, bananas, and pears. Yet, 20-40 minutes later he's hungry again and wants a bottle. So I spend a lot of the afternoon feeding him. A lot of time.

Eventually he tends to take a nap. Sometimes you can put him down, and sometimes you cannot. Today he was so cute. I tried to put him down, and he objected - strenuously (who knew that such a small human could make such a big noise! Not that he's that small, but relatively). So I picked him up and he cuddled right into me and latched onto my shoulders with his hands as if to say, "I'm not going anywhere." So he got to nap on me, and I spent an informative hour watching the History channel.

Anyways, that is how our afternoons tend to go.

Welcome to the Wunderlich Family Blog

Hi everyone!

Welcome to the Wunderlich family blog. I decided to do this so that I can keep an online journal that everyone has access to about our family.

This is specifically for my friends and family members who don't think I share enough information about the famly ---well about Nicholas.

I hope you read it occasionally!