Newest Discovery

Will has reached the point where he can pull himself up making it quite a chore to get him to sleep at night. I was complaining to a friend about this new found discovery because he likes to wake up 1 to 2 times a night, stand up, then cry because....well, for whatever reason, but we've had several sleepless nights the past week. She of course thought it was "so precious" when she visualized walking in and seeing him standing up against his crib looking into the room. And she was right, but not at 1:00 and 3:00 in the morning. So, in her honor, I took pictures last night to show her just "how precious" this really is.

These were taken at bedtime, not the middle of the night, so I was a little bit more tolerant, of the cuteness!

He's not quite to the point of standing on his feet, but he's a pro at getting up to his knees.

Will turned 9 months old yesterday and officially started crawling yesterday. He's been army crawling, crawling backwards or whatever means he finds necessary to get where he wants to go, but actually moving all four limbs at the same time in the right direction didn't happen until yesterday morning in the closet on his way to attack dad's boot! And of course we officially enterted the "can't step out of the room" phase, when last night Will decided he wanted to get the barstool and fell over onto the tile w/ his face. Didn't hurt him, just ticked him off. But, it's official, he's mobile!

Play Time

Will went on an exploration of his room yesterday. We normally just play in the living room, but I was putting the bathroom back together after our weekend paint project; so Will played in his room while I worked.

He was being very quiet, so I went in to check on him and he had crawled into his closet and began working on how he wanted it organized. Of course by the time I got the camera, he had given up on his attempt to remove his clothes from the hangers and became mesmerized with the camera.

So, I used that to coax him out of the closet. He then spent the better part of this play time making cheesie grins and trying to get the camera from me.

After a few gazillion pictures, I'd hide the camera and he'd start whining, then I'd pull it back out and he'd start laughing again. This top picture was his reaction everytime I'd hide the camera.

Then once the camera was back out, he was back on his mission to get it. After a few failed attempts, he tried the above tactic. (poor pitiful me)

When that didn't work, he put on his cute face and crawled over some more.

Then finally, after all that work, he got it!

But of course once he succeeded, he wasn't interested for long, so he went back to exploring. I tried to catch him before he moved, but this is all I got, he was doing the splits, w/ both legs straight out. Kids are so limber!

Swimming Lessons

Will is taking infant swim lessons. We started last monday and he goes everyday for 4-6 weeks roughly. These are the swim lessons that teach him how to float on his back in the unlikely event that he fell into water and no one was there. I say unlikely, because he will NEVER be by water unattended, but as any mother or father can say, "you blink and something can happen" and for that, we want to be prepared. The first couple of days were tough, he didn't like it at all and I was at any minute going to jump in and get him out. But day 3 he quit crying and seems to be doing okay. I'm still very anxious while I sit and watch these lessons, but we are around water way too much not to do this.



I shot this yesterday, it's about 2 minutes, but shows how he's doing. He hasn't quite gotten the concept to stop kicking and just float, so when you see her lift him up and down, she's trying to show him that she'll pick him up when he doesn't kick. It's amazing what these babies can learn. I'll post more progress in the coming weeks as we go thru this.

Will's Easter Pics

Sorry I didn't post a few more after I got his pictures from Becky, it's been a busy couple of weeks, I've been slacking on updates. Anyway, here's a couple more from his photo shoot, these are my favorites!

Playing with the Exersaucer

Will has been really trying to pull up the past couple of weeks. The day of his Easter pictures he pulled up at daycare and bruised his cheek on the toy box. Guess that's the first clue that we will have some interesting pictures of Will as he grows. Kids seem to always do something to themselves when mom wants them to look perfect. Anyway, he's getting better and better at pulling up. Sunday, Michael helped him up when he was trying to reach the toys on his exersaucer and he stood there for quite awhile before plopping back into dad's arms.

Will has a "pants strickly optional" moto at home! Of course that's beginning to change now that he's figured out how to remove his diaper. Makes for a fun diaper change, diaper on, diaper off, diaper on, diaper off; "sit still Will", diaper on, diaper off; "get back here", (my leg now over his chest), diaper on! Yes, we do this everyday! Glad he thinks it's funny!

Michael likes to argue that Will doesn't look like him. Not sure why he does this, he knows he's completely wrong, but regardless he argues. I'm determined to prove him wrong, it's my mission! This last picture really is a good example of what Michael would look like if he were almost 9 months old. Daddy expression and all!

Sitting Up

Milestones: seems like yesterday Will couldn't hold his head up and now he's maneuvering around, pulling up, crawling short distances, and just this week, learning to sit up on his own. He's also learning to stand up against the chair, holding his weight with little assistance, though his favorite thing right now is, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy! (jumping up and down) Which makes for an interesting situation when he wants to hold on to something standing up on his own, then jump right into bouncy, bouncy, bouncy; not giving us any warning! Let's face it our little man is growing! I keep trying to capture some of this on the video camera, but every time it dings to record, Mr. Will stops what he's doing to stare at the camera. Boy, do I have a lot of the same video....blank stares!

I did capture the first time he sat from a laying position on camera, thought I'd share it.

This is how we play with our toys now, dump the basket and dive right in.

A little more and he's got it!

Almost...

Success!!!!

It's so exciting to watch him go thru all of this, thinking; "I never thought this day would come, he's actually doing it", but it does sadden me to know he's changing so much right before our eyes. Our little man is turning into a little boy and I'm not sure I'm strong enough to handle it; I know he can't stay baby forever, but as a new parent or 2nd or 3rd or 4th, etc. time parent, we should get a little more time with them thru this stage, but I guess no time is enough when it comes to kids. You just have to cherish the holy heck out of every second you get with them.

Spring Time

Being able to get outside and play is so nice! No matter what Will's mood is, if he's outside he's happy. Yesterday Michael and I took Will for an early evening cruise around the neighborhood in his wagon. He's big enough now to enjoy the wagon over the stroller, so off we went.

This was his first ride in the wagon and he made himself right at home. He had his foot up on the ledge the entire ride! He's such a man! Daycare says all he's needs is a Remote Control to complete the package!

We had a little difficulty w/ keeping the hat on his head. Will is amazed by hats, he loves taking them off and eating the brim. We'll work on teaching him the purpose of a hat later; but for now, it's funny!

But to keep his head from getting too much sun, we did turn it backwards which made it a little more difficult to get it off.

So we hope everyone is enjoying their time outside; Happy Spring!

Dad's Work Out

Who says once you have kids you never have time to work out? I think babies are so much more of a work out than just going to the gym. We have found some very interesting ways to work out while playing with Will. For instance;

Baby tossing! Great arm work out.

Baby Catching! Again great for arms and maybe the stomach.

Face stomping....okay, that's just funny, no real work out!

And as always laughing burns so many calories! But seriously, we do stomach crunches while holding Will on our legs, which is excellent for our abs and makes Will laugh. My arms have never looked better and I chalk it up to the awkward ways I hold Will while he's exploring what's around us. And I'm sure that in just a few short months we'll be running all over the place trying to keep up w/ our little guy. So, no maybe there is no time to get the gym, but what better way to work out than to make your little one laugh!

Messy, Messy Eater

I think the older Will gets the messier he gets. DUH, ANGELA!!!! He likes to clap while he eats. He's quite the clapper, as stated before we clap for everything. For instance here lately, when mom gets into some pants she hasn't previously gotten in; my little clapper is right there to cheer me on. AND when I try the pair on that still won't quite close; still my biggest fan claps for me.

Anyway, back to this messy eating. When Will first started eating, it wasn't bad, I thought, he's not going to be one of those kids that needs drop cloth under him. YEAH, I was wrong! He likes to spit and slap the food on the platter that's fallen off the spoon during a clap session. I find food on the shutters and there is no way a shirt will survive even with a bib on.

But he gets the biggest kick out of it; and he loves to eat. So maybe we won't get passed the messy eating stage and that 9 x 12 painters tarp is going to be used for a food catcher rather than a painting drop cloth; but we have a fun time and laugh a lot so that's good with me.

And after the food is everywhere, he likes to suck his thumb while we finish TRYING to get food in his mouth. We are REALLY looking forward to Will feeding himself. May not be a bad idea to just remove the dining table, leave that ugly wallpaper up and put his highchair in the middle of the painter tarp until he gets the hang of it. OR we can always put him on the porch, it is starting to warm up.....

Happy Easter

Our first Easter! What a fun, crummy weather kind of day. Going into Easter I asked Michael "what do we get an 8 month old for Easter?" To that question we decided, a basket w/ plastic eggs would work this year, Will has no idea what's going on. As always with babies, it's more for the parents entertainment than the kids. So, that's what we did, basic, simple! Grammy got him the Car Easter basket from PBK and I got him some $.99 eggs. Cheapest Easter ever!

THEN we got over to Nana and Grandpa Mike's. And there awaited Will a adorable choo choo train basket full of eggs, nerf balls, money, a few other cute things and a HUGE bottle of bubbles. Will loved the soccer ball, great teether!

Baby Grace tried so hard to wait for Nana to get home from church to open her basket, but she didn't quite make it.

Grace did wake up after a few minutes to see her stuff. Here in about 6 months those bubbles will be so much fun for her!

Just before this picture, Will was cuddling up to Nana and Grace asleep in the other arm. I wanted to get a picture, they looked so cute, but silly mom walked right next to Will to get the camera and Will started whining. Still had to take a picture, but it was so much more precious before the whining started!

Michael took this picture of Will, he still won't go forward, but he has the backward crawl down.

Then off to Grammy and Grandpa's and ANOTHER precious Easter basket awaited Will there. A basket filled w/ Camo eggs, spoons and tons of toys. 3 Easter baskets in 1 day. What the heck, I NEVER got 3 or even 2 Easter baskets in the same year! Spoiled little toot!

I'm assuming this will be a re-occuring event now with Grammy, Grandpa, Nana and Grandpa Mike getting Will an Easter basket each year, so I put the baskets up for next year and will get them out for the grandparents to fill and Michael and I won't be so weak next year on our grand plan to keep it simple! Though next year will be a blast, we can actually hunt the eggs!