Chicago Car Shows, Dr's Office, Concerts in the Park and the Madison Farmer's Market

I tried to update the Wamlet Tales on Thursday, but just as I had downloaded the photos Mr. Man woke up from his nap and demanded my attention.  I was only too happy to oblige.

Since the last post and this one we have been everywhere and back.  I really thought that when I had a baby my life would slow down but apparently that isn't true for the Wam Family.

On Wednesday night we went out to dinner at one of our favorite local spots Juniper61 and sat out on the patio where we enjoyed the weather and a great meal.  The next night we celebrated Gluttony in Wisconsin by going to the Wisconsin State Fair.  Our only goal at the fair is to try all the random food they have there.  We have a system where we only take $40 and then order one of each item and share it so that we can try as many weird things as possible.  This year our list included:  Deep fried snickers (yum), deep fried S'mores (amazing) a Usingers Jumbo Frank with Sauerkraut (yum), root beer, deep fried peanut butter and jelly (an annual favorite), deep fried butter (Kyle loved, I almost puked) elephant ears (yum, but I think I still prefer funnel cakes) another hot dog and a corn dog.  Needless to say, neither of our GI tracts were right for a couple days.  We were walking around looking for deep fried Oreo's when we heard someone call our name.  It was our friends Jason and Rikki!  Rikki had seen Nixon in his stroller and thought to herself, man, that kid is cute and it's so funny his parents dressed him in an AC/DC onesie for the fair!  Then she thought, man, that stroller is really cool...hey, wait, that's CJ and Kyle!  LOL...it was fun to catch up with them a bit and we definitely need to get a date on the books to do dinner with them.  Jason by the way, is the one who designed our phenomenal wedding invitations.

I forgot to snap a pic of Rikki holding Nixon, but we do have a shot of him with the cows, and in hindsight, me standing in front of the Milking schedule is pretty funny.  We keep a slightly different milking schedule around this house!

He does not look amused.

Last Saturday Nixon and I attended my friend Maggie's bridal shower.  I was lame and forgot to get pics, but it was a great time for all.  I was very pleased that almost half the women there brought kids under the age of two so that I wasn't the only one ruining a bridal shower by bringing a baby!  Hahahaha...It had rained in the morning but by the time the shower started the weather cleared up and we enjoyed the Mexican Fiesta themed bridal shower.  Maggie got a ton of great gifts and Nixon got to go home with his maraca that is one of his current favorite toys.  It is nice and small and light for him to grab so he holds on to it all the time.  Daddy was home with him all day Thursday and sent me this photo.  Apparently penis jokes are indeed hereditary!

Kyle claims it "fell" there...

Nixon and I headed straight to Kellie's house after the shower for a clothing swap.  We all brought our old clothes we didn't want any more and then just laid them out to be able to take some new stuff home!  I got 2 pairs of shoes, a jacket, scarf, some jewelry, a dress and some skirts!  It was really fun and I enjoyed the food and conversation.  I can't wait to do it again!  While we were setting up for the swap, Mr. Nixon decided that he would be a ROLLER!!!!  That's right!  He rolled for the first time, and hasn't looked back ever since.  He's constantly rolling around from stomach to back, back to stomach.  It is pretty funny when he rolls on to his stomach, sometimes he'll get so mad and just start frantically screaming because he does NOT want to be on his stomach.  Look out world!  Here comes Nixon!

Sunday Kyle had to work so Nixon and I drove the Harlequin down to Chicago with Scooter, Snacks and about 30 other Milwaukee V-Dubbers to an annual car show called Treffen.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day out and I got a pretty substantial tan from standing out there all day.  Nixon was having a blast with all the guys and took a nice long snooze in his stroller.  I even put my new mom skills to work and cleaned up the rims with one of Nixon's diapers since I forgot to bring rags!  The Harlequin is pretty famous around this area so a couple guys asked me to start it up so they could listen to the cams rumble.  As soon as I started it all these guys flocked over and hovered around the car, it was so cute.

We also had a little photo shoot on one of the benches at the show.  It was actually chilly in the morning when we got there so he was a little bundled up.  He looks so stinking cute in his hoodie and his little shoes Rachael bought him!

Finally after a long day it was time for trophies and Kyle won, yet again, first place for the MKIII category!  Woo Hoo!  We got a ton of offers to buy the car that day, I should have asked them how much!  Hahaha...

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were useless days.  Kyle worked, I worked, and each evening I was just exhausted so I sat around and didn't do much.  We do have some great updates from Wednesday morning though!  Nixon had his 4 month check-up (about 2 weeks early) and the Dr. announced that he is long and lean, and strong like an ox!  He is 13lbs (20th percentile) and 24" long (50th percentile).  She could not believe he was already rolling both ways and said that he's got the strength of a late 4 month old.  Way to go little dude!  Since he holds his head so well she said we could start using activity centers or jumpers, so that night we put him in his jumper that was a hand-me-down from friends of ours and he really liked it! He didn't really jump,  but he liked spinning and being able to look around where ever he wanted.

By Thursday Kyle was off work so we headed to Enderis Park to watch local folk singer Pat McCurdy.  We packed some sandwiches, bottles of water and puddin' packs and enjoyed the music, weather and people watching.  Kyle learned that Nixon LOVES to be flailed around like a little rag doll and he kept doing it and Nixon was laughing his little booty off.  It literally looks like he's shaking our baby though so it made me slightly nervous.  Hahahaha...

Watching Pat McCurdy

Hands are always yummy

Such a cutie pie

Nixon and his daddy

Friday night was Packer Football and we headed to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants to eat and watch the game.  Nixon and I headed to bed when we got home because we had to be up bright and early to head to Madison with Liz for the State's Best Farmer's Market.

Saturday morning we got up and attem' nice and early, stopped at Alterra to get caffeinated treats for Liz and I and then picked her up.  The entire drive out to Madison it poured rain, but as soon as we got off the freeway it literally stopped and the sun came out.  It ended up being a gorgeous day!  I bought fresh flowers for the house, tomatillos, cilantro, onions and jalapenos to make Salsa Verde, a small hand-made pot to use as a salt pig on the stove and 2 loaves of Spicy Cheese Bread (Heaven on Earth).  Liz could not get over how big and beautiful the market was, we can't wait to go back!

Happy Guy with Liz

Nixon and I at the Capitol

Something on the Sidewalk Amuses Him...

Our friend Katie L. lives on the square so we were waiting meet up with her to wander the market and to see her adorable baby bump (she's due in December) and as we were waiting, I ran into another friend, Katie M.!  She was so excited to see Mr. Man and I was able to remember to snap a shot of the two of them together.

We finally found Katie L, and as assumed her bump is ADORABLE!!! She's one of those women you want to stab because she is super fit and she will literally just have a perfect round basketball on her stomach.  Sickening, I know.  LOL.  So off we went, continued to wander the market and take in all the sights and smells that it had to offer.  Once we were through we went up to Katie's place so I could feed Nixon even though I joked that in Madison I could have done it on the square without even covering up.  I was an airhead and forgot to take shots, but Nixon had a great time meeting her pups Nala, a standard poodle, and Ruby, a toy poodle.  Nala was very curious about him and really loved giving him kisses.

After Nixon had his lunch, Liz and I went to Old Fashioned's and had our lunch.  It was so delicious and I really enjoyed the entire day being able to catch up with a great friend and enjoy the gorgeous summer day.

When we got home I was pretty exhausted so I took a nap on the couch and then my hunny made me dinner...and by "made me dinner" I mean he ran to Dairy Queen to get a blizzard so I asked him to grab me a burger and a small blizzard of the month.  This month's flavor is Nutter Butter which is AMAZING.  Try it, you won't regret it!  Then we watched the movie Unknown which was pretty good!

The last three times I've taken Nixon any where in his stroller (Treffen, Enderis Park and Madison) he's been unhappy so I end up carrying him.  We have somewhat deduced that it is because his stroller is currently in the newborn configuration where it is a bassinet style and he gets cranky that he can't see what's going on.  I was sad to have to put it into the big boy style because it was admitting he was growing up, but I can definitely tell he will prefer it this way.  The straps are still a little big, but I think he'll be much happier.  Here's the before and after:

Before, Bassinet Style

The Happy Guy can Look Around Now!

Today started out with a bang.  After a long morning of feeding Nixon and snuggles I finally made my way downstairs to let the pups out.  On my way I encountered a huge furball puke pile, a huge crap pile, and blood all over my foyer.  WTF you're asking???  Well, Fred, our 190lb English Mastiff gets skin allergies in the summer.  Because of that he will scratch himself raw and it results in an infection.  Last year we were at the vet weekly and ended up paying over $1,000 in vet bills.  This year I decided to handle it my own way...you see, Fred has an addiction...to sucking stuffed animals.  Last year when I gave up on the vet and decided to heal him ourselves our solution was to give him stuffed animals so that he could suck them and forget about scratching.  It was a success!!!!  He healed well and no more vet bills.

This summer he started with his face, which I caught immediately and it healed.  Next was his neck.  This one hasn't been as successful.  He's been sucking on his stuffed animals for a week straight (hence the furball puke).  His neck was healing well and then something must have happened last night while we were sleeping and he scratched (hence the blood)...and also part of his sucking is that his GI gets a little messed up (hence the poop).  Sooo, I'll probably just start giving him antibiotics and the ointment that keeps it from itching so that it can finally heal.  It had a nice scab on it and was looking great until this morning...sheesh.  That dog is a wreck!!!  He's lucky he's snuggly and cute or he would not have survived this long!

So what is Nixon up to otherwise?  Blowing bubbles in his spit, rolling over and SCREAMING!  He discovered his voice so now he really uses it.  It's pretty stinking cute.  He is still successfully nursing and cloth diapered!  He can sit up if you just hold his bottom so he doesn't tip over, he chews on this thumb...yes, chews on it...he doesn't suck on it.  He loves sucking on his hands and his fingers, and he still uses a pacifier although he doesn't seem to prefer hands or the pacifier, he'll use either.  He is the happiest most smiley baby on the planet which has made our life with the new addition very easy going.

And, on that note, time for me to sign off - it's mid-morning snack time for the Squish!

Cj