Best Friends - Will & Elias

Will loves spending time with his best friend, Elias. They share tricks (good AND bad, ha) and make their moms laugh. They aren't blood brothers, but as much as they've tried to swap pacis, I think it's their version. Here are some of the more recent pictures of the two buddies together. Aren't they adorable?











Now here are some flashbacks for old time's sake:

Christmas!

First, I want to apologize for the lack of blogs. It's been a very busy month! Will had his second Christmas, but it really felt like the first since he was only about two weeks old last year. We decided to stay at home for Christmas and travel the day after to see family. It was nice being at home and letting Will play all day with his new things. Among his gifts were a Fisher Price Learning Home, a Little People farm set, a little guitar, lots of cool books, his own little chair, a Scout puppy, ball popper, shape sorting blender, a little steering wheel toy, and a few others! The boy LOVES his toys! Here are a few pictures of Christmas morning. I love seeing his sweet face early in the morning, especially when he has sleepy squinty eyes! It was a great day. Holidays are so much more special with children, and we are so thankful for our not-so-baby anymore "baby boy."

Flashback: Will last year:
Now compare the last picture with the next one! Crazy - It doesn't look like the same baby at all!

Wearing his Christmas pjs

Checking out his Santa gear in his new chair. The guitar was an instant favorite, but later he preferred playing with the Fisher Price House.

Here are a few more pictures I forgot to post earlier in the month: Will with Santa.

First Haircut!

Will had his first haircut on Dec. 15th. He didn't cry or even act upset. The beautician said he was the best "first" she'd ever cut. Here are the pictures taken by Brian. I look a little proud, don't I? This is such a fun age, full of changes. I was sentimental about Will turning one, but now that it's here, I look forward to the fun we'll have as he grows and learns.






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Will's One Year Check-Up

Here are the highlights of Will's one year check-up and just Will in general:

* He weighs 21 pounds and is 30 inches long - still consistent with his 50% weight, 75% height growth.

* He's ready for cow's milk! We made the switch to whole milk, and our pediatrician said to start getting him off of the bottle. Right now, he's not keen on drinking the milk on his own in his high chair. He'll take sips now and then this way, but he won't drink enough to meet the daily recommendations. Our compromise is that I still give him his sippy like I would a bottle, only now it's milk instead of formula, and it's in a soft-spouted tall sippy instead of the bottle. Hopefully soon we can decrease the time we do that and have him drink more with each meal. It's a gradual process, but we'll get there.

*He needs a haircut! His hair is adorable and sticks out now behind his ears and neck, but it does look a little unruly. Since we have enough stereotypes to deal with living in Alabama, we're going to take our Will to get a hair cut in the next few days to avoid him having "baby mullet hair."

*Cruising machine: Will is still not walking, but I think it's more of a fear issue than one of physical capability. He cruises fast and stands alone for quite awhile now. He kneels, squats, and changes to and from any of those positions with ease. It's so cute to see him squatting by his toybox, fishing out whatever he wants at the moment.

*Social butterfly: Will is happiest when we get out of the house at least once a day. He's a flirt and loves to bat his pretty eyes at the ladies. The boy is equal opportunity - young, old, any shape or color - he will smile and wave at them all. He also loves to play with his friends. HIs best friend Elias is traveling at the moment, but Will can't wait until he's home again and they can have another play date.

*Sleep changes: Will was waking frequently during the night, which wasn't easy on his mama. He's always been a great sleeper, so it spoiled us. I contributed his waking to teething and his ear infection, but I'm starting to wonder if it was because he was ready to drop his second nap. Lately, we've been busy, causing Will to skip his morning nap and take one longer afternoon nap. Since we've been doing this, he's slept much better at night. A well-rested baby is a happier baby, so we're going with the flow and dropping the morning nap as long as it continues to go well for us.

*More Dada time: Brian's finished with finals, so Will is enjoying lots of extra time with his Dada. He adores his dada, and he lets me know. Last week, I asked Will, "Do you love your Mama?" He immediately smiled and shouted, "Dada" and waved at Brian. It was so cute. I think it made Brian pretty proud!

That's all for now. I must get things done while the prince naps.

Birthday Video

This isn't the "official" birthday video since that's on our camcorder, but here is a quick one of Will eating cake and being his normal sweet self. Enjoy!

Birthday day pictures

Will is officially one! I have so much I could blog about, but honestly, I feel a drained after being under the weather this week and would prefer to hash out my reflections later. The short version of Will's birthday - we had a simple but special day. It began with our normal routine of breakfast and STrollerstrides, then we ran an errand to Target, came home for lunch and Will's nap, and took a very brief wagon ride (weather was blustery today!). Next we had a few visitors while Will ate his favorite supper - his momma's homemade meatloaf & mashed potatoes. When the house was quiet again, Brian and I sang to our little man as he dove into one of the cupcakes I made last night. A nice long bath was in order for Mr. Cakeface, then he acted silly (sugar rush?) and played until bottle and story time with his new books.

Ok, so maybe that wasn't a super-short version, but it's much shorter than writing out the "this has been the best year - I'm in love with being a momma to my sweet little boy" feelings that have been making my eyes tear up lately. Maybe I'll do that soon. The blog will continue, and the pages thus far will be made into a special book for Will. It may be years before he can appreciate it, but I hope one day he'll look back at it and see how much I have loved him since the beginning.

Here's pictures of our day ...

Will's crazy monster hat - goofy but SO precious. He got a lot of attention wearing it at Target, which he loved - the little ham.

Will in the morning, not wanting to leave his Dada to go to Strollerstrides

A little light morning reading

Will on his birthday morn. He likes to play with the remote for awhile after breakfast.

Cupcakes!

He loved his cupcake - dove right in but didn't make as huge of a mess as I thought.

Pics. below are of a quick test ride in Will's new wagon - our birthday gift to Will. It was too cold to stay out long, so we threw on a pullover and the monster hat and took a very fast spin around the cul-de-sac. We're still laughing at how goofy/adorable he looks in that hat. Will usually looks just like Brian, but there is a little something in these pictures that reminds me of myself when I was little - not sure what it is. Maybe my mother or siblings can pinpoint what it is. Will liked the wagon and looks forward to park playdates and parades to take his friends for a ride. Get ready Elias! :-)

Days away ...

We have officially entered the birthday week. Friday is the big day. I tear up just thinking about it. My little man is growing up! We're going to celebrate with homemade cupcakes that I'm making (well, semi-homemade thanks to "The Cake Mix Doctor" recipe book), and I'm sure if Will is anything like his momma, he'll LOVE his first bite of cake.

Will is standing more on his own now and can cruise furniture like a pro., but when he's motivated to get somewhere quick, he still drops into a crawl. His newest trick is escaping the "fortress" we created in our living room to keep him in. We've tried filling in gaps with step stools, pillows, etc. but he always finds a way. He's quite the problem-solver.

I hate I didn't get a picture of him on his first Thanksgiving, but he wasn't up to photos since he was sick. Yup, sick on Thanksgiving, just before I pulled out the turkey. He was running a super high fever, and it gave us a little scare. After talking to the pediatrican on-call, we felt better and were able to get it down a bit. I was super disappointed that we had to cancel our holiday dinner plans with our friends (Will's best friend Elias and his parents). They still came over, but our leisurely dinner plans became a quick food swap (food was yuuuummmmmy). Our Black Friday was spent at the ped's office, where my suspicions were confirmed - ear infection. Although his sleep is still a bit unpredictable due to his discomfort, his fever is normal and he's feeling much better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tonight goes well. Otherwise, we may put in a call tomorrow to see if we need to come in for a follow-up. Will is supposed to go next week to his one-year checkup, so maybe we could just get it done early and have his ears checked all at once.

Stay tuned next weekend for birthday pictures of our small party for three. Until then, here are a few I snapped today. He's too busy to pose these days!

Here, he's moving the pack n' play in search of crawling freedom.

November is flying by

This month has gone fast! It's already Brian's birthday (Happy Birthday :-), then we have Thanksgiving around the corner, then Will's birthday, then Christmas. Whew, this year will be over fast. We've been on the go so much that I haven't been as good at taking pictures lately. Here are a few ...

Finally, a sippy cup he likes - plain straw ones.

Momma gets big smiles.

Will and my dear friend/coworker Jamelia, or "Jam-Jam" as Will knows her. She always lets him play with her phone, which he loves.

Will was not enthused about being at Strollerstrides this particular morning.

The quality of this video is poor, but it shows how Will pushes his little walker around. He's getting really good at it and can go much faster when given ample floor space. He's also standing by himself some now, which is very exciting. He can do about ten seconds before he reaches for something, someone, or the floor, but that is ten seconds that he couldn't do a week ago. It's amazing how fast they learn.

I'm going to sign off and eat a piece of Brian's birthday cake. He requested a Dairy Queen ice-cream cake, and I had them add a little bit of 'Bama to it. Yum!

One more old pic.

I need to snap some new pictures, but Mr. William and I have been super busy. I'm loving my mom's group, and that plus our regular 3 days a week of Strollerstrides keeps us on the go. Add in a few errands here and there and we are hardly ever at home all day. It makes us appreciate days we are able to veg out here at the house. Until a take some more pics., here is one that I LOVE LOVE LOVE! My friend Christy took this with her awesome camera. It's from the same day as the blog below, but I didn't have it when I did that posting. Doesn't this little face beg to be kissed? :-)

One month away from being a YEAR old!

It seems like these monthly updates go by waaay too fast! Will is officially 11 months old as of yesterday. Nothing huge has happened since our last update, but here are a few things I want to note:

• He stands very solidly now and cruises furniture with ease. He's not trying to walk yet though, but he will take a few steps while holding on to his push walker. I think we have a climber too!

• Will is finally getting better with the sippy cup now that we stick to ones with straws. The stinker STILL demands that I hold his bottle, but he will hold his own sippy cup (stinker!). He's still into the same foods, but he eats less and less baby food. Who can blame him when everything else is so much tastier?

• He's slowly growing out of some of his 12 month-sized clothes and is in mostly 18 month. I haven't weighed him lately, but I'm guessing he's about 22 pounds. One thing is for sure, he's long and lean! People comment frequently that he's a tall boy - something I'm kind of proud of since I've always been a shortie!

• The boy is a little HAM! He loves to bat his eyes, smile, and wave at people when in public. He's already stolen the hearts of many! I am so proud when someone stops to admire his adorableness. See the picture at the very bottom of the post, the one with him waving? He was waving at a cute little girl on the playground - no joke. What a flirt!

• His babbles are becoming more and more word-like. He still says Mama and Dada a lot (this week, Dada has been the favorite word, which makes Brian just a little bit proud). We've been working on the word dog, and I think he said it tonight although I'm going to wait until he's clearly repeated it several times before I'll let it "officially" count. Even though he's not saying more, he'll try to repeat what I'm saying. Often his babblings will have the same number of syllables of whatever I'm asking him to repeat. I'm fascinated by language development and enjoy seeing it in action.

• He loves his Dada - he lights up when he hears him coming up the stairs. He smiles and starts bouncing with excitement, then makes this funny squeal. He waves at him to say hello, then immediately crawls over to him so Brian can scoop him up. I've never seen Brian look more happy than when he sees his special little greeting. He loves his little man, and I love seeing the bond they have.

• Of course, he's still crazy about his Mama! He makes me feel like the funniest person alive. I can do the least little goofy thing and he falls over laughing. It's such an ego-boost, I must admit. I smile just thinking about making my little guy laugh. I also adore how when he wakes up from teething or just being plain upset, somehow my presence is like a magical power. All of the sudden, he's settled and snuggle-y.

• He's turned into a little bookworm! We're thrilled! He loves his books, and will hand me a board book to read to him. Lately, his most frequent choice is, Guess How Much I Love You. He can point to the pictures and even turns the pages on time (most of the time, anyhow!). I love this time together because he'll actually sit still for it - a rare treat these days! I really think I've read, Guess How Much I Love You five times a day or more for the past week! Yes, it gets a tad old, but I love that he's interested. Besides, I almost have it memorized which makes it much easier! I still prefer to read him any of his Sandra Boynton books (if you're unfamiliar, check out her books, they'll grow on you and they're really funny). Since I have my signature spin on several of the books, Brian decided that he needed some "Daddy Only" books. I guess when he tried to read some of my regulars, Will looked at him funny because he didn't do the voices like I do (oh yes, I do voices!). Now Brian has his own little collection of books he reads to Will, and Will enjoys his book time with Dada.

I'm sure I'll think of more stuff later, but that's the bulk of what's new. I'm sad at how fast time is passing, but each phase is more fun than the last. It just keeps getting better. Of course, I couldn't end a post without a few new pictures. These were taken today at one of the few toddler-friendly parks I've been to in the area. We met up with friends Christy and Elias, who I'm SO glad to have met. We have so much in common, and with the boys being the same age, it's such an easy playdate! Christy edited the picture below - isn't it precious? Enjoy!