Dinner for 3 and pumpkin guts!

Will has started to boycott baby food (hooray!) and is a lot more interested in feeding himself. I wasn't so sure he was getting there until today - he ate burrito and corn at lunch, and yesterday he tried fig newtons and loved all of it. Go figure! So...tonight, we made chicken stir fry dinner for 3. And Will ate some...not a lot, but he ate some. It's a start...

And now, pumpkin guts!! We decided that tonight was the night to carve the pumpkin that Dave and Will picked out last week. Will had a great time feeling the pumpkin guts, Mittens waited patiently for us to leave the pumpkin alone so she could chew on the stem, and I accomplished somewhat decent carving. Pictures posted...and a little tiny bit of video below. Please pardon Will's paparazzi (Dave) as we weren't sure the video would actually turn out!! As usual, my commentary leaves a bit to be desired... ;-)

Jack-O'-Lantern Spectacular!

Imagine 1000 pumpkins, carved to look like everything from dinosaurs to Frank Sinatra (and everything in between!)...we were lucky enough to see the Jack-O'-Lantern Spectacular at the aquarium in Norwalk this evening (thanks Shannon & Scott and family for a great evening!). I think Will enjoyed himself, and Dave took lots of pictures. I just got to look at the pumpkins, and help Will reach out and touch a few of them.

The rest of the weekend was just as fun....our very best wishes to Karen and Andrew - it was a lovely wedding on Saturday night, and I was quite happy to "share my birthday" with everyone for such a momentous occasion! We owe Bob and Jen a big thank you as well - they were babysitters for the evening....and thank goodness, Will was angel baby for them. :-) Of course he was NOT angel baby after they left....we ended up with all 3 of us in our bed last night, not ideal, especially since Will is like a jumping bean in his sleep these days (I had no idea how much he flip-flops in the night until last night...).

I've posted new pictures of Will's trip to the farm up the road to pick out pumpkins with Daddy, one picture from the wedding (scanned in Polaroid...) and some from the festivities this evening. Back to work and school tomorrow morning...

From "scared to climb the first stair" to...

Climb the entire way up the stairs with Daddy following slowly behind. No problems. I'm not exactly sure when this skill arrived but it means that we will actually have to start to use the gate at the bottom of the stairs now! It is "poised for action" but we haven't been using it because we had the "scaredy cat" factor in our favor. The only reason we even figured it out today...I went upstairs to put some milk in a cup for Will, and he decided to follow me! More as the weekend rolls on - we've taken a family day off today. It is so nice to not have anywhere that we "have" to be, and to just spend the day hanging around the house. Of course it means I keep on coming up with things I "should" be doing, but I'm resisting temptation, and watching Will drop blocks down the elevator shaft of his garage for fun...Tomorrow we have a wedding in the late afternoon for a great friend (a DATE! woo-hoo!!!). In between I hope I can get a few more videos/pictures posted (we seem to be constantly running out of batteries in the camera and memory in the video camera!). Happy Friday!!

When a picture is worth just a few words...

I downloaded this picture from the camera tonight, hoping that I really had caught Will, mid-squeal of delight (Mid - "eeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!"), while playing with his garage. Seems that I was successful...

Mama, Dada, ah duh, rug, cat, uck

Translates to...Mama, Dada, all done, rug, cat, truck. And so it begins...the babbling is constant, the real words are few and far between - but they're there. And as we watch (in utter amazement at times) - we seem to be experiencing a communication extravaganza. Much much more to come I'm sure!!

In other notes, we went to the doctor on Wednesday morning for Will's 1 year check-up, and walked out with new stats, and 5 band-aids. New stats: 19lb 1oz, 29 inches long. Clear ears. "Looks great" (per the doctor). Of course he's still a peanut by today's standards - about 4th percentile on weight, and 20th percentile on height. But he's our healthy peanut...and we wouldn't have him any other way! 5 band-aids were required for the 4 vaccines (one in each limb!) and the toe prick to test iron/lead. I hate the shots - he always gets so darn MAD - and most definitely blames me for whatever is hurting him! He still gives me a "how COULD you?!" look when they're poking him that just is enough to make you cringe!

And now...for the current favorite game in our house...chase a naked baby. Will has started to completely boycott all diaper changes and getting dressed in general. I can usually get him in his diaper (most of the way) before he manages to break free and tries to launch himself off the changing table. In the interest of saving us a trip to the emergency room....I scoop him up and put him on the floor in just his diaper. And the game begins.... "heh heh heh, eeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!" and Will takes off crawling for no particular destination. I walk behind (laughing), pajama parts hanging over my shoulder, and usually spend the next 5-10 minutes getting him dressed, in bits. Often, we end up with "mad scientist" hair to complete the "ensemble". Lovely, really...

The birthday celebrations continue!

Will has been celebrating his birthday in fine style - I often joke that all birthdays should be celebrated for at least a week, and on his first try, Will managed to celebrate for about 4 days. An excellent start! ;-) He's got some practicing to do though...he's not exactly sure what to do with cake...There was a whole lot of squeezing the frosting through his fingers and basically no eating.

We had plenty of enthusiasm for toys, eating, birthday cards, birthday presents, bithday hats, and napkins this afternoon. I was a little concerned though, as the party started, family and Will's godparents started to arrive...and this was Will.

I have no idea how he managed to fall asleep like this, except he was pretty mad at me when I put him down for a nap around 11. He settled down though and I heard him playing with the toys (all smooshed behind him in the picture). Eventually, silence, no more rustling, so I figured - "GREAT! he's sleeping!". I just didn't know he'd be sleeping sitting up....

I've posted more pictures from today. And finally...just because it makes me laugh...who needs to walk behind the lawnmower when you can push it while you crawl?!

Maybe bubble wrap IS an appropriate solution...

I am concerned that at least for the moment, Will seems to lead all forward motion with his face. This means that yes, we've already had our second bloody lip moment - all in a week! Friday morning around 6, Will completely missed with his hand when he was crawling and landed on his face, again. I figured no biggie - he didn't fall very far - not so much. At least I knew exactly what to do to get him settled and cleaned up quickly (since I now have some experience in these things). I understand that it is entirely unrealistic to think that Will is going to make it through this learning to stand/walk phase without bumps and bruises. I also wonder if there is a way to safely wrap him in bubble wrap until he's gotten to the point where he can reliably walk on his own! ;-)

On a separate note - ears still aren't 100% from the ear infection, so Will is on a 5 day "zap it" course of antibiotics...let's hope that everything is clear when we go for his 1 year check up on Wednesday.

Will post again tomorrow night with pictures and video from all the birthday celebrations....

Happy Birthday Will!!

It has been one amazing year, watching you grow like crazy and learn and become quite the amazing little personality! We'll never forget the day you joined us and made us a little family of 3. :-)

As Dave said tonight...just think, a year ago, we were eating Wendy's! I often have a hard time believing that it has been a whole year already...it has absolutely flown by!

And now instead of this little tiny "loaf of bread" that did nothing but sleep, eat and require lots and lots of diaper changes, we now have a little boy...

And this little boy is taking after his daddy - he always has a good story to tell...and he's very busy!
So now, back to my usual newsy self.

Last weekend was very busy (seems to be the norm these days). Saturday I had a party for some friends getting married in November. It was a lovely afternoon "out" for Mommy (and a bit of respite from a very needy William). On Sunday we went to Will's second birthday party - this one for his friend Jonathan. It was lots of fun - Will played and also saw his friends Millie and Cole, and had macaroni and cheese for lunch. He also managed to fall and give himself a fat, bloody lip. Mild hysterics ensued...but we did manage to get him cleaned up and headed for home. Oh, but I suppose I didn't mention...this is WILL...so the lip was just the beginning. He played in the kitchen when we got home, which meant that he bumped his lip a couple of times in his enthusiasm to stand up, or sit down, or grab something and chew on it. He was mad at me when I tried to give him Motrin with dinner, and grabbed the dropper as I "pushed the plunger" - which meant Motrin all over his face, and in his eyes. So into the bathroom we went for a little eye flushing - additional hysterics. He sort of forgave me for that episode when he was standing at the tub watching the water run for his bath (one of his current favorite activities...). Of course he was so excited about the bath that he started to bounce, and bounced his chin right on the edge of the bath - and bit his lower lip, so that started to bleed - yes, additional hysterics. The good news...his memory is short, and his lip healed very quickly, so by about Tuesday all was pretty much back to normal.

On Monday evening we made a family trip to Toys R Us for Will's birthday. I'm honestly not sure who was most excited when we walked in the door, Mommy, Daddy, or William. Several purchases later (lawnmower pictured above, a dump truck, a big bag of "mega blocks", and a little people garage)....we headed for home. Turns out the dump truck and the lawnmower are the current favorites. Of course we haven't opened the other 2 items yet....

Will has been "transitioning" this week to the big boy room at daycare. He's really quite adaptable, and seems to have taken to the new schedule, new toys, new room, new teachers quite well.

And now for this morning...when Will woke up we sang him happy birthday (he was very confused!). Nonni called this morning and sang happy birthday. Aunt Lindsay and Ella called and left a happy birthday message as well! Will had birthday balloons and multiple cards when we arrived home from work/daycare, and I brought home several other happy birthday messages from friends and family. I think Will had a nice day - for his very first birthday!!

I have quite a bit of video to download and edit - some very nice samples of the constant conversation in our house. Too tired to do this tonight, so I'll have to try for this weekend. In the meantime...new pictures posted!

Oh and one more thing...Happy Birthday Chase!!!!!!!

Turning a corner

It is amazing to me that in the space of almost a weekend my attitude can change completely! Especially when it comes to sleeping, and Will's current troubles with it. After much thought, and several conversations over the last day, I came to the conclusion that I should stop fighting Will on sleep and just go with it. Help him the best that I can, using the strategy that seems right at the moment (in other words - trust your instincts Mommy!). As I was reminded - there are as many sleep "strategies" as there are kids out there, lot's of "experts", books, etc. Will and I generally make a really good team - we can almost always work through it to get him to sleep, whatever "it" happens to be. So thank you to all of our friends that gave us suggestions over the last couple of days - I've used bits of everyone's strategies to help us turn the corner on this phase and we seem to be better. Phew!

On a completely separate note - I went to a party yesterday by myself - it was a "honeymoon funding party" for friends that are getting married in November, so it wasn't really Will friendly. And...I probably needed a break from being front-and-center for Will for a couple of hours. I spent just a few hours in the company of friends - and I came home refreshed and very happy to see my 2 favorite guys! Funny, when I get a chance to be out, and see people that I don't talk to on a regular basis, everything comes into perspective (I think this helped me get to my "zen" sleeping moment too!). I really do "have it all" - a very happy little family, lots of love and lots of laughter.

OK, now that I'm done with my cheesy moment...

Sleeping? What sleeping?

Will has reverted to some time around 9 weeks old when it comes to sleeping. We've had one rough week when it comes to sleeping at the Bostrom house. So much so that I actually sent a "help!" email to "the mommies" (our newborn group friends) this morning to get some feedback. We've been up every 2 hours, or up for multiple hours in a row in the middle of the night, and today Will actually slept in his rocker with the little motor on (zzzzzzzzzzz)...NOT ideal when you're about to have your first birthday! Fingers crossed that we're going to turn a corner, cause I'm just not sure how many more days/nights of this I can take and still do a good imitation of a functioning adult.