Christmas and a catch up...

We had an amazing Christmas - really, Christmas with a 2 year old is probably one of the best possible ways to spend it. Will was appropriately amazed by everything from Christmas lights to angels, Santa to snow to stockings to celebrating a birthday for Baby Jesus. We tried to make sure that Christmas was about more than Santa - easier this year I think because Will is still so little. I've posted pictures from our trip to Atlanta...and below are a few highlights.

Will was a GREAT traveler - he watched way too many DVD's (if I don't hear anything Little Einsteins for a month it will be ok with me!), but did manage to sleep a little. He was better the first full day, and needed some company in the back seat on the second day to keep him occupied (both southbound and northbound). He slept well in the hotels (shocking!) - even though he fell out of bed once. I still don't know how he managed to roll over the pillow barricade we'd put up...but he did. No harm done - he went right back to sleep - I on the other hand...did not.

We took Will and Ella to the Children's Museum to see Curious George and play for the morning. After a loooong warm up, Will really enjoyed building with giant Legos, playing with the trains, meeting George, and fishing in the pond. Or I should say, picking up the plastic fish in the pond and throwing them into the middle to see them splash.

Whenever the house was quiet for a moment...and then we couldn't find Will...we found the best place to look for him was climbing up onto the piano bench. The piano was a great draw once Will figured out it made lots of noise, and I can't count the number of times we found him perched up there, banging away on the keys.

Once home, we spent a nice week relaxing, we headed up to see Dave's family for an afternoon to celebrate Christmas again, and celebrated New Year's Eve. Was a bit busy, but Will thoroughly enjoyed all of it - as did Dave and I.

I'm now neck deep into the launch of a huge project at work - this will take me all the way through until Beanie arrives! Speaking of Beanie - the youngest Bostrom is doing well - I can't believe we're in the 3rd trimester already. This little guy is a kicker - at all hours of the day and night! We're looking forward to meeting him in person - I have a feeling he's going to fit in just right. :)

Naps for Will are getting shorter, and harder to come by in general. We almost always descend into some version of the terrible two's before I give up and put him in the car because I know he's desperate to sleep and just can't stop. Seems strapping him down is about the only way to get him to sleep during the day. We seem to be going through another separation anxiety phase too - crying at drop off for daycare, and will only go to sleep at night if there is someone in the room with him. I'm quite sure we're doing all the "wrong" things to get him to sleep, but I can't be picky...On the flip side of things - Will gets funnier by the day it seems, and he's quite the talker! We have a running commentary on just about everything - and in full sentences. Every once in awhile he'll say something that makes me stop and count the words in the sentence - the other night it was 8. He's so proud of himself when he gets through a long string of sentences and gets a confirmation from one or both of us - it is really fun to watch (and hear!).

Learning about veggies

I finally remembered to upload this little "veggie lesson" from earlier this fall. Every week when we brought home the farm share, Will would sit with me on the floor of the kitchen and look through the "veggie box" and learn about all the different kinds of veggies. This is totally unedited, and the dishwasher is running in the background. I love the fact that Will would say "yummy" about every vegetable - but generally won't eat them.

Recently...

Recently read: "The Little Engine that Could" and "Have you seen my potty?". Will is obsessed with both of these books. I have almost memorized both - can definitely read both upside down.

Recently heard in reference to the Christmas tree (another current obsession): "How cool is THAT?!" "Uh oh ornaments!" "Turn the Christmas lights on" "Will do it" "I like those Christmas lights" "Angel on top"

Recently heard while walking down the stairs: "Stop to take a rest" "Mama hold the railing" "Will hold the railing" "WHOA, big step!"

Recently heard at bedtime: "Night night Dada, I love you!" "Will, loves Beanie"

Recently heard while playing: "Mama play with you" "Mama sit" "Mama come" (I get LOTS of directions!). "Will's turn" "Will sharing"

Having a 2 year old in the house at Christmas is really really fun - he's not old enough to need need need want want want every single toy he sees. He IS old enough to think that Christmas lights, Christmas trees, and snow are very fun.

In other notes - we got a "clear ears" bill of health at the doctors office. Next step is to get a hearing test to see if we need to go any further. If Will can hear ok - I expect no action. Fingers crossed!!

Thankful for...

Our happy, healthy (sort of) little family, and all the wonderful family and friends we have around us.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Going to be a long winter

We spent the morning at the pediatrician...to get Will's almost monthly ear infection confirmed. I scrolled through the older posts...yes, it was November 3rd when I said he was stuffy again (been stuffy off and on since) - and finally yesterday and last night he started showing his usual signs of "brewing something". Call it Mama Instict - I just knew it was time to take him in. We'll decide on course of action/which ENT to see after his 2 week follow up. :( It does mean that we've started our long weekend earlier than planned - which I suppose is a good thing! It should be a nice quiet holiday for us...

A baby brother for Will

I'm sitting on the sofa enjoying the silence from the baby monitor and smiling a bit, as Will's baby brother kicks away. Haven't talked about "Beanie" yet here on the blog, not for any particular reason, just didn't quite get around to it. We've had just a couple of other things going on - though I've been feeling guilty about it - and very much have "second child syndrome" (a very relaxed been there done that approach to pregnancy - I now really know why 2nd kids have fewer pictures taken of them!). So...yes, Will is going to be a big brother on or about April 7. So far so good on this pregnancy, though I'm tired, and lifting Will means that my back is not 100% happy with me. We are thrilled to be adding another boy to the family (though I would say the same thing about a girl!).

And now back to the current star of the show - Will. :) He's had a very busy couple of weeks - moved up to a new room at daycare, was very brave getting his first H1N1 vaccine, and has added to his verbal prowess. The new room at daycare was probably overdue. As soon as he moved he absolutely exploded on the vocabulary and sentences again, and seems much much happier. His clingy moments for drop off seem to be easing (which I always take as a good sign!) and he's settled in very nicely. We now regularly have real conversations about his day, which I really enjoy. His verbal ability has helped us tremendously as we've progressed into true toddler-hood. We often have to remind him to "use his words", but it is amazing to watch him really try to tell us something. A great example was the other night - he came barreling into the living room and started a word that would go in the middle of the sentence 3 times before he stopped, gathered himself and spit out a full 5 word sentence (correctly).
Sometimes we get true glimpses of the two's - he had a singular mind this morning about going to the park - so all we heard until we made it out of the house was "park!" (complete with whining). Emotionally, he's definitely feeling his way through being angry, being scared, being sad, being excited. We generally don't get true tantrums - but when he's angry about being told no, or having to do something he doesn't want to right that moment - he varies wildly in his reaction.

So now...I'm off to get dessert - Beanie pretty much insists that I have 1 last meal later in the evening, or I'm awake....at 4:00am, with a rumbly tummy. Not good. :)

The serenade & Halloween & surgery & ...

well, you get the idea. This is going to be very short, as I'm tiiiiiired tonight. That said, there are a couple of important items to relate.

1. Will does not like costumes. Not on him anyway. He's not sure about costumes on anyone else, but he can at least see someone else in a costume and not cry. Try to put a costume on him and his response is either "no costume! no costume! no costume!" or mild hysterics. So Will's "costume" for trick-or-treating this year was "scared toddler". It worked out well for him - he still managed to get up the courage to go to a couple of doors with cousin Ella and get some candy (which he promptly deposited in Ella's pumpkin!).
2. The serenade is now a normal part of dinner, and the ride home, and early morning wake up, and sometimes bedtime. Tonight's song of choice for dinner....jingle bells. Current favorites - ABC's, raindrops, itsy bitsy spider, and the theme song to "My Friends Tigger & Pooh". Honestly, my heart melts every time I hear him sing...
3. Dave's surgery went really really well - was easier than we all expected (thank goodness!). He's making great progress, and while taking it easy is pretty much back to normal. Amazing - it was only a couple of weeks ago. Huge thanks to Oma for staying with us for a couple of days to help out!!
4. We're fighting cold #2 of the season currently, and Will finished up the antibiotics from the last post-cold double ear infection about...oh....10 days ago. He's a happy kid, but this is going to be a long winter if we keep going at this pace.

For the moment, that's it. I have pictures to post, video to post, and plenty more stories, just can't quite get it together for tonight. :) Time to sleep!

Birthday update!

Lots of things to update, including all the birthday celebrations, so we'll just hit the highlights.

When Will and Dave got home on Friday night I had put Will's new tricycle with a bell in the living room with a bow. The tricycle has been a huge hit - and the bell even more so. When in doubt, you can often find Will sitting on his tricycle ringing the bell with gusto. Pictures posted in the Fall 2009 album. We tried to keep Will's birthday a bit low key, as he still has a tendency to be very overwhelmed by a lot of attention. Saturday we opened a few more presents and went up to a local farm to pick out pumpkins and to see the animals at the petting zoo. It was a pretty cloudy and chilly day, but Will thought the animals were great - and the fact he could name all of them even better! We let him pick out his own pumpkin, and pull the empty wagon around.

Sunday we hosted a small birthday party for family and just a few of Will's friends. Poor kid was so overwhelmed he stuck to me like glue for the first 45 minutes. He did manage to blow out his own candles, and followed the trend of not eating any of the cake. He seems to think cake is good for him or something...as he just won't eat it! We ended up waiting to open presents until after everyone left - an excellent call - as we're still discovering presents that were opened last weekend!

We actually had a couple of relatively normal days on Monday and Tuesday...and then Tuesday night Will ended up with a fever - not a huge surprise...double ear infection. He's had a cold for a week, so for him... ear infection is usually next. He's been a great sport about it - but stayed home with a working Mommy through the end of the week. Napping was not his strong suit this week, so that has been a challenge. At this point, the antibiotics are starting to do the trick, so the fever is gone, and we're just dealing with the "aftermath" - a junky cough and runny nose. Yuck, but manageable.

The good news is that Will was well enough that we could head up to see our good friends Joy & Ken and their kids Ava & Sam. We got an extra treat, to see our friends Alex & Denise as well for dinner. Will had a great time playing with Sam and Ava (he and Ava really hit it off!), seems he likes the older ladies....

And last but not least, I took Will for his first haircut yesterday. I've been cutting his hair on a regular basis, but it had finally gotten truly unruly, and I had to bring in the professionals. We got a great suggestion for a place that only does kids haircuts - and after a bit of a freakout...Will sat still and got his haircut. Before and after pictures in the Fall 2009 album (which will be posted shortly!).

In addition, this weekend we're doing the final prep for Dave's surgery, which is Tuesday. A bit of furniture rearranging, and a trip out to purchase a variety of pillows. We have 1 more regular day in the office tomorrow, and then will be home for the rest of the week.

Happy Birthday Will!

Our little guy turns 2 today! Very hard to believe that he's already 2 (sniff sniff). :) We have taught him that when people ask "how old are you?" he should say "TWO!" and hold up 2 fingers - he's starting to get it. Much much more posting early next week as we post pictures from his birthday celebration and the weekend!

Pure delight

If you've never seen pure unadulterated toddler delight, glee, joy - you should - it is enough to bring tears to a parent's eyes. Dave is working this weekend, so Will and I made a trip to the coffee store (Starbuck's) to grab some breakfast and coffees. It was a longer trip than planned - long line, but Will did a great job - held my hand as requested, and didn't squirm too much in line. On the way home - I noticed that one of the firetrucks was out, doing a test of their lights. Imagine Will literally squealing in the back seat as I pulled over on a side street next to the firehouse so he could get an up close look. He was wiggling all over the place - could NOT contain himself. So we sat - for a few minutes and watched the lights, and then headed for home. Will talked about the firetruck the entire way. :)

*sigh* Mostly because I'm not exactly sure where to begin. I am sitting in the living room, Will is asleep, Dave is downstairs, the cats are curled up on the sofa. Things have been absolutely downright bananas around here for weeks and weeks and weeks, and I don't think it is going to get much better this fall. On the contrary, it is likely going to get worse. So...here are a couple of highlights of the last almost 2 months (yikes!), and I'm going to see what I can do about getting myself some technology so that I can write shorter updates much much more often.

Our little Will is a fountain of words...we lost count a long long time ago on the number of words he knows, and now that he's stringing multiple words together to make an actual sentence, we know we're well on our way. Mr. Chatterbox has a running commentary on just about everything. A few favorites...
When he hears any sort of siren outside: "ambulance went bye bye to help somebody"
When he got out of the car after daycare the other day: "oh my goodness lots lots birds"
When he's stalling on going to bed: "animal book one time", "George one time", "hippos berzuck one time" (insert any number of favorite books here...we are raising a kid who LOVES to read).
When he's stalling on going to bed: "Mama sit rocking chair snuggle Will"
When Dave says good night: "Night night Dada, I love you"

There are lots of times when he pops up with a word that I didn't know he knew...we're still very short on "connector words", and verbs are not always his strong suit, but given that he's almost 2, I'm thanking my lucky stars he's doing as well as he is. I think it goes a long way to helping us help him as we approach the potential challenges of being 2 and 3 (I've seen glimpses...going to be interesting!).

Eating is well...like feeding a picky toddler. Anything that looks or smells like it might be good for him is out - I put fruits and veggies in front of this kid at just about every meal...and they mostly go uneaten. *sigh* Depending on his mood/hunger level, he will eat veggies and fruit at daycare, so hopefully it will translate to home at some point. We're approaching this in a very non-confrontational way. I figure it is one of the very few places that Will has complete control - it is pretty much impossible to force a toddler to eat something he doesn't want to - so we let him have the control (and he loves that). Proof he's happy about it - the other night at dinner he started asking himself if he wanted things and saying "nooooo", all with a huge grin on his face. It went something like...."do you want apples? Noooooo! Do you want...cheese? Nooooo! Do you want....crackers? Noooo!" He was very obviously not interested in eating, so we bailed on dinner and he headed for a bubble bath.

We spent a spectacular Labor Day weekend in Georgia with my family - Nonni & Poppa, Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Doug, Ella, Amelia, Uncle Trevor, JEM and Lily, all together for a long weekend. The guys got to play golf, we went to the pool at least once every day, and Will tried desperately to keep up with 3-year-old Ella - which meant he was absolutely exhausted when we came home. I'll add just a few pictures when I can.

In other family notes...Dave is having shoulder surgery to fix some damage done when he dislocated it in January. Surgery is toward the end of October, so he's trying to get a bunch of stuff done around the house before then. Work is pretty crazy for both of us, so that's making everything else harder (not fun!).

And tonight...is Will's first night in the toddler bed. We decided to give it a shot...he went to bed without a fuss, I have no idea what will happen if he wakes up in the middle of the night...I don't think he's actually figured out he can climb out yet - so I'll take it!

Va-ca-tion

We are on a much much needed family vacation...2 whole weeks off (I haven't taken 2 weeks off not related to Christmas since maternity leave!). So what to do with 2 whole weeks and a toddler? Go on adventure! Or in Will's case, multiple adventures. We just got home last night from 5 days in Steamboat, visiting my grandmother. It was a great trip - we got to spend some quality time with my very active grandmother, and Will got to experience Steamboat for the first time. We did a little experimentation with the travel...and learned some lessons. Just a few highlights are below...


Will is still the travel king - he will happily watch a DVD in the car or on the plane (Baby Einstein and My Friends Tigger and Pooh are the only things in the "library" at the moment). He'll definitely tell you when he's had enough...

*******8/10/09 update********
After our trip to CO we spent a couple of days recovering, and then headed to Washington to meet Amelia, and see Lindsay, Doug and Ella. I was hopeful that Will and Ella would have a great time together, and I am happy to report they hit it off immediately. Will is still asking for Ella off and on! We went to the pool and a great local park, and had a wonderful time. :)

And now - back to the grind. Bummer. Will did a great job on his first day back to school this week, didn't even cry when Dave left (we were a bit worried...). New pictures are posted to the summer album!

The Joy of Speaking (and being understood!)

Dave left for a business trip on Sunday, so we've featured the "Will and Mommy Show" for the last couple of days. As much as I dread these trips, I do get some priceless extra moments with Will that I really try to enjoy, amidst the chaos. :) So - in the spirit of enjoying priceless extra moments...a few stories from the last several days - all related to the title...Our little Will has continued with his verbal explosion - stringing 3 and 4 and 5 words together, and most every day brings somewhere between 2 and 5 new words.


Sunday morning we took Dave to the airport - the trek down to JFK and back meant probably 3 hours in the car, shortly after Will had gotten out of bed. Not a good plan, without plenty of entertainment for the youngest passenger. On the way home I decided we would finally break out the "rear entertainment system" in the Pilot. Ahhh, yes. Will thought it was too funny to watch his one and only DVD (Baby Einstein) in the car. As the scenes changed, all I heard from the back seat was "more, more, D-V-D".

Will finished up dinner the other night and was very seriously telling me he'd like a glass of water. I grabbed a cup, opened the fridge to fill it with water, and Will started saying "ice cube Mama". Of course the first 15 times he said it, it didn't sound at all like "ice cube". I have learned to ask Will to show me when I don't get it...and so he did - he pointed to the fridge, then down to the freezer. I let him down from his highchair and opened the freezer...and he promptly pointed to the ice maker. DUH Mama!! Once I looked at him and said "OOOOH, you want an ice cube in your water?" I swear Will did a little happy dance and grinned and said "YEAH!!!!". He is soooo proud of himself when he uses a new word and we get it right away...

**Note, I started this post somewhere in the Tuesday range...it is now Friday...and time for vacation! Dave will be home tomorrow, and we will be enjoying our time off...more pictures and stories to come!

I'm headed for bed as Will has been up twice since I put him down just before 7 (tired boy!), but I had to share a couple of moments from the last week.

The other night we decided to let Will try goat cheese. It was toward the end of dinner...Will loves cheese...so Dave gave him a little bit to try. Seemed just fine at first, and then before we could blink we had hysterics - tears and gagging - over the goat cheese. I had to try 5 different things to convince the kid to just eat something or drink something else to get the taste out of his mouth.

One of Will's new words is airplane - pronounced "aaiieeooo-pane". He's now often seen pointing straight up and saying airplane for all unidentified motor noises (sound familiar?). In other language notes...we've progressed to relatively reliable 2 and 3 word sentences - "more please", and "all by self" are 2 of my current favorites.

A little dinner conversation

A small sample of our conversation at dinner this evening....

Will: More, more, more, more
Emily: More what?
Will: More cheeeese!
Dave: More cheese? OK (cheese delivered)
Will: More.
Emily: More what?
Will: More sausage!
Emily: The sausage is all gone.
Will: All gone.
Emily: Will, are you all done?
Will: Book.
Emily: OK, how about we say all done with dinner, then we have a bath, and then we can read a book and have a ba-ba, and then nite nite.
Will: No, no, no, book.

So since bath is optional...we went straight for clean shorts and a book. As Dave says, it is really unfortunate that we can't capture the true sound of "more more more" - it is often quite enthusiastic!!

In other notes...Will has become quite the little reader in the last couple of weeks. Every waking moment it seems we are either being asked to go outside, or read a book. We have the "fishie" book (One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish), the "quack quack quack" book (Fix it Duck), and "this" (a little board book about kisses).

And - we are singing...lots of singing - current favorites are:
ABC's (Will's favorite letter is X - he waits with great anticipation for us to get to X and then proclaims "ECCCKKKSSS!!!" with his arms up in the air)
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Wheels on the Bus (the motions to the last 2 are pretty darn funny)

And the newest game is ring around the rosey - Will dragged us both around in circles in the kitchen tonight while we sang, and he grinned...until we got to "all fall down" and he'd promptly sit down and say "down!!" and giggle. I have a feeling we'll be getting lots of requests for this game for awhile...

Mine, mine, MINE!!

We've heard that said quite a bit over the last couple of days (goes along with the verbal growth spurt). I am 100% sure that Will picked up that lovely little saying at daycare. He seems to use it only when I am trying to get him to do something he doesn't want to do (take a bath....diaper change...eat) - or as he did this morning, in a totally inappropriate way. I was walking from the kitchen toward Will's room this morning, and heard him say "mine, mine...MINE!!!!" - and I found him struggling to pick up a book that had gotten stuck between the edge of the crib and the area rug...I had to tell him that I didn't think the crib really meant to take his book... ;-)

We spent the last couple of days enjoying summer - feels like the first time we've had consistently good weather...and on a weekend!!! We were able to BBQ, go to the beach, play in the pool in the back yard, play in the sandbox...I think Will is going to be happy to head back to school tomorrow...he's tired from playing so hard!

Just a few pictures from our weekend are posted to the Summer 2009 album.

Latest words...

ice cream cone, popsicle, splash, feet, puppy, hippo, car, Elmo, elbow, up, down, thank you, please, three, buckle

Friday morning update....Tray, bear, bull, baboon (thank you to JEM and Uncle Trev for those!), slide, hockey stick, beach, bathing suit, hat, banana, fan, four

Not bad for a week!

A nice way to spend Saturday morning

It has been raining here for weeks. More than once Will has stood at the back door watching the pouring rain and said "outside" in a very sad voice...We woke up to bright sunshine this morning - WAHOO! We decided to head for a little deli in town to get breakfast sandwiches, and then head for the beach. It was lovely....I've added a few more pictures from the beach to the new "Summer 2009" album. Picture notes: We had a deer wander into the neighbor's yard the other night...much like the wild turkey that wandered down our street a couple of weeks ago, my first thought was - oh boy - you're definitely confused to have ended up here! And...I included a picture of Will's new play spot in the backyard - new sandbox under the tree - he loves it!

High - Five!

After Will brushed his teeth yesterday I picked him up, helped him rinse his toothbrush, and then he carefully put it back in the toothbrush holder. I said "great job! high five!" and he stuck his hand out with a grin and said "high five!". The range of words in his vocabulary is interesting, varied, and somewhat odd actually. He's taken a tentative foray into actual sentences, but they're very few and far between. I have yet to sort out what triggers his decision to spit a word or phrase back at us...a few of the funnier things he's said/done in the last week or 2 are below.

For no particular reason, he'll decide to roar like a lion. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that we'll ALWAYS roar back.

Up! and Down...2 very simple words that have FINALLY kicked in - we are somewhat less likely to get the whining bouncing baby at our knees pulling on pant legs. He'll sometimes just appear, tug on the pants, and say "up!". Now if I can just get the "please" added in (I know, one step at a time).

"Thank you" - he actually knows to say thank you...it isn't consistent, but it is there. The first time I figured out that was what he was saying I think my jaw dropped a little.

"I get-choo" - when we're playing tag or I'm about to tickle Will I often give him what I consider fair warning - "I'm gonna get you!!". He's now started running for his life and laughing hysterically while we play this game, only stopping to say "I get-choo!!!!" at the top of his lungs before he takes off again.

Everything has it's place - along with the ability to single-handedly make a huge mess in seconds flat, Will seems to have learned that diapers go in the diaper pail, or the garbage in the bathroom before his bath, and napkins, or paper towels go in the kitchen garbage. Diaper changes now rarely actually happen on the changing table (except for the messy ones!) - the rest are done with William standing still for about 5 seconds (I've gotten even faster). Once the old diaper comes off and has been wrapped up, Will grabs it and heads for the closest appropriate garbage can. Any other bit of paper we give him belongs in the kitchen garbage as far as he's concerned...so he'll take off running for the kitchen garbage can, and then stand patiently in front of it while I push the foot lever down, carefully dump the bit of paper, watch the top close, and take off again (sometimes with a "bye!" to go with it). If the garbage is full, he'll look at me very seriously and say "uh oh".

A late discovery of his belly button - I can't help but giggle every time I see him bent over pushing in his belly button with a very serious face - classic baby picture....Obviously this child has spent way too much time with a onesie on...

"1, 2, ... 5!" - he definitely can't count - but he does know to say two if you hold up 2 fingers and 5 when you hold up five. In the car yesterday, he held up one finger when I held up one, 2 when I held up 2 - I went for 3 and 4, with silence from the back seat, and then I heard a very triumphant "FIVE!".

Stairs are now a "stand up ONLY" process - Will has no interest in getting a ride up or down unless he's tired. The last time I wrote about this we were transitioning this direction, now it is definitive - he wants to hold hands and do it himself. Standing up. Thank goodness for baby gates.

Movin' on up

Our boy is growing up - proof is that he's moved to a toddler room, which brings some milestones.
1. We no longer have to take our shoes off to enter the room (everyone runs in these rooms, no crawlers).
2. No more packing milk (though I'm not sure that will be permanent) or a bag in general for school. Our morning routine is now a no-brainer, and drop off and pick up takes no time at all. Really this means 2 important things for us - we get a little bit of play/quality time in the morning before Dave and Will leave for the day, and we can be a bit more relaxed in the drop off/pick up process as we don't have to remember to get things out of the fridge, etc.
3. Will has 2 "recess" periods at the playground outside per day. This means he's getting good outside play time on every non-rainy day (which makes me happy!!).
4. He's now big enough to play in the indoor playground at school.
5. He takes his nap on a cot, not in a crib. And the "transition" to the cot lasted about .... oh.... 2 minutes (he has slept with no problem on the cot every single day - who IS this kid?!). He will NOT be moving out of the crib at home any time soon.

In other "growing up" notes...
Will prefers to use a fork or a spoon for his oatmeal, cream of wheat, yogurt, veggies and fruits. He's still perfectly happy picking up sausages, chicken, cheese, bread, and rice chex with his hands.
He can be a neat little fellow - if we give him a tissue to wipe his nose, a napkin, or he manages to grab some tp (he calls it "pee-tee"), he will put it in the garbage - often with much authority.
He now walks up and down the stairs holding someone's hands - no more crawling.
He loves his new classroom - on Monday morning we told him it was time to go to school and he was so excited he jumped into Dave's arms and said "bye, bye, bye" to me (with a big grin on his face). I'm ok with that rejection...every other morning this week he's been so tired he's cried when getting in the car. We still haven't sorted out the fact that he could use another hour for his nap and another 30 minutes or so in his over night sleep. There just aren't enough hours in the day (and he's not 2 yet - hmmmm, does not bode well).

I knew it was time for Will to move up, as he'd started to get bored, and seemed to be at a bit of a plateau. Move him to the new room...and we're already seeing the growth begin again! He's MUCH happier in his new room...

Bicycle

I can't help it - I am often amazed at the words that Will picks up. Yesterday, it was bicycle. This is not a word that we use often, but Dave has a bicycle, and Will thinks it is pretty fun to stand in the driveway with me and watch as Daddy rides up and down the street. So last night, at 3:30am, when Will just couldn't turn his brain "off" and get some sleep...we said "night night" to the lawnmower and the bicycle. Will asked for Dada...and more milk, and then we would repeat the whole process.

In other notes, Will seems to have a bit of a fear of the bath at the moment. I'm hopeful that it is just his skinned knee (the first of many many I am sure). For the 4th night in a row when I've asked him if he wants to take a bath he has said no - pretty vehemently. Usually, he signs bath and takes off for the bathroom. Last night he had no choice - so Dave managed to entertain him through the bath.

And since I did not get the very important "3 hour stretch" last night - I'm headed for bed. Here's hoping tonight is quieter!

Ummm...well, I don't really have an excuse.

Except for the usual. Work. Will got sick again. More work. I'd rather be playing with Will than writing the blog (sorry). Work.

I'm watching Dave eat ice cream ("you've outdone yourselves again Ben and Jerry"), and taking a deep breath. The last 2 weeks in particular have been insane. Dave spent a week in the city for training, which meant the great circle route for me. Based on the current goings on at work, I couldn't just work from home with Will all week - he's too active! And as soon as Dave got home, I went to visit Lindsay and Ella for the weekend (Doug was away) and help with unpacking - turned out to be a very short trip! Will picked up a bug - I'm not 100% sure it was coxsackie (I'll let you look it up!), but I'm 85% sure it was. A mild case, thank goodness! It is a very contagious, nasty little bug. Fever hit on Saturday night (the 1 night I was away!!), and we progressed through the symptoms over the next couple of days. Mr. Will managed an entire week of at home with Mommy and/or Daddy this week - and with the long weekend - it will be about 11 days of "at home" time. Tuesday morning is going to be an adjustment.

So what have we been doing with ourselves? Well...learning new words, learning to climb, running everywhere. Every motorized noise that isn't obviously a car or truck is a lawnmower at this point. Trucks say honk honk, cars say beep beep, and after we stop at a stop sign we "go go GO!!". He can now name Nonni, Poppa, Oma, Gumpa, GG, Ella ("Ella, Ella ELLA!!") - we're working on all the immediate relatives...making progress.

And now, as I yawn for the 5th time in the last 15 minutes, I'm going to bed. Running at this pace makes me tiiiiiiirrrrrreeeeeddd...

Will is sitting on top of his favorite stool, we've pushed it up to the coffee table in the living room so that he can sit and do a puzzle. He's got his feet up on the bottom shelf, and he's singing and chattering to himself as he puts the puzzle pieces in the right spots. A pretty good deal for a little guy I think!

New pictures!

I don't often (if ever) do a commentary on the photos, but the latest group added to the 18 month album might require a bit of explanation. so - explanation below, in order of photo appearance...

Dave went to Toys R Us and came home with multiple things (it was like Christmas in April!) - Will "helped" Dave put together the always favorite "Cozy Coupe". Note - he can only go backwards in it on his own at the moment. He absolutely loves to climb in and open, then close then open then close (repeat 5 times) the door, and then he turns the key, and bangs his hand on the horn so that it squeaks. If he's outside the car, he can often be found squatting in front of the gas cap, pulling it open and proclaiming "HI!!!" (yes, I meant to say proclaim.).
Will's current favorite place to hang out and have a "cocktail" is standing on his stool at the front window (not that there is much to see). This is also a favorite place for the cats, so Will and Socks have spent some quality time in front of the window in the last week or so.
The watering can pictures pretty much speak for themselves. He dragged the watering can all over the yard one afternoon - thought it was pretty cool (it helped that Dave had used it to water some plants prior to Will grabbing it).
We had about 10 minutes of practicing our greetings one night after work - Will went into the front closet with Socks, and proceeded to open and close the door, saying "Hi!" and "Bye!" at the top of his lungs. I was sure that he'd get nervous the moment he closed the door - pretty darn dark in there - but no, he thought it was great!
We've made many laps up and down the driveway with the wagon (once Will figured out he could climb IN it, instead of just push it or pull it...).
Picture # 34 is checkin' out the prarie dogs at the Bearsdley Zoo with Daddy on Saturday. We took a trip over to the Zoo first thing in the morning and met our friend Jeffrey for a lovely walk (with coffee!) and a little catch up. We had a great time - Will walked through almost the whole zoo. He saw the wolves and immediately said "woof woof", thought the sleeping tiger was pretty boring, but liked the sheep ("baaaaa!!!") and the pigs (no sound effect). Took Will a little while, but he finally decided he'd tell Jeffrey just how the world REALLY works - of course it was at the end of the trip to the zoo, but we'll take it.

This afternoon's adventure was the first trip into the baby pool in the backyard. Turns out we've trained Will on not standing up and walking in the bath quite well. His little feet were planted in one place, and it took quite a bit of encouragement from both Dave and me to get him to walk and splash and play. But once he did...oh boy - we are going to have a hard time keeping him OUT of the pool this summer!!

Connecting the dots

We've had a very very very busy couple of weeks. And since Will is well, Will, he's going through a growth spurt and a developmental leap at the same time. I am taking a deep breath, and figured now would be a good time to ... post!

We had a great time with family in Chicago. It was a lovely Easter weekend - we went to the Museum of Science and Industry (we had to see the baby chickens!!) and I got a chance to give Dave the grand car tour of the towns where I grew up. The main event (Lily's baptism) was beautiful - always makes me tear up when a baby is baptised...Will did a great job sitting through lots of meals in restaurants, meeting lots of people (again), and experiencing lots and lots of new things. He walked everywhere, pushed his stroller, and talked to absolutely everyone. Will counted cars and trucks through the window with his great grandmother. And he slept terribly. Too much new everything meant that we had multiple meltdowns at night, and he really only napped in the car or in the stroller. It has been ages since we've been faced with this kind of sleep deprivation as a family, so we have spent the last several nights (and days) recovering.

And during recovery...we've had an almost pj busting growth spurt. And...Will has been very busy connecting the dots. A few examples of new "tricks" below!
- Tuesday evening Dave opened the back door of the car and said "hi Will!" - and Will looked back at the 2 of us and said (very triumphantly) "hiiiiiiyyyeeee!!!!" and waved. Probably one of the cutest things he's done in a long time. Hi is his new favorite word - he greets us every time he walks into a room, wakes up.
- Wednesdsay he walked up to his teacher at school and told her that he needed a new diaper.
- This morning he asked for more at breakfast - my usual response to "more more more!!" is "more what?". His response - sausage. Uhhhh ok, sure, you want more sausage, you can absolutely have it kiddo.
- Climbing...climbing...climbing. He now wants to climb on everything!

We have pictures, and more pictures, I just haven't gone through them yet. I will get them sorted and up shortly!

Lemon Pepper

Just a quick note on the state of "safe-keeping" in our house these days. The second key for the Honda is currently missing. Last person to have it - William. I am quite sure it is in the house, somewhere, in a very safe spot. Unfortunately, I didn't find it when I was doing Will's laundry this week. But when I emptied his hamper, I did find the lemon pepper, safely stashed with the socks at some point when Will was busy rearranging the spice cabinet. :)

The spoken word of the day: bubble. Or I should say "BUBBLE!!!"
Heard where/when: bath time, as Will submerged the cup we use to rinse his head upside down and turned it on its side so that the air would pop up (makes a pretty good bubble noise). I taught him how to do this, and he's learning, lots of trial and error - so when he does get the bubbles he gets very excited.

The word of the day that I now understand: toes.
I don't know why, but we haven't been particularly focused on naming body parts...until very recently. In this case, Will is a very quick study, and many repetitions of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" have helped. As we went through the most obvious body parts today (head, ears, nose, mouth, eyes, tummy, feet, and toes...), Will went right for his toes for the first time.

This is going to be fun :)

A little health check and "mmmmmm, bagel"

After the drama that has been the last 6 days, I figured I had better post the news from the visit to the pediatrician yesterday. :)
Will has gained back 1 pound (1/2 of the weight that he lost). He is still on a horribly bland and boring diet (woo hoo, we can add chicken! no milk until the weekend). He was a bit of a bear to keep entertained while we waited for the doctor (we did lots of head, shoulders, knees & toes, and I'm a little teapot). He was a little freaked out at the scale, and pushed back when the doctor looked in his ears. This is really only notable because he sat on multiple scales and had about 3-4 different people look in his ears on Monday without an ounce of protest.
The only other note is that we had a longer conversation about ears and ear infections (yes, remember...before we had the stomach/dehydration drama we had an ear infection?!). The plan is to hold steady - no action now that cold/flu season is winding down. If we end up in the same boat next fall/winter, we will send him for a hearing test, see how he does, and if we agree, send Will to a specialist to "talk tubes". Our pediatrician is actually very conservative, so I feel good about her take on things. As she said - look, if I felt you needed to see a specialist, I'd be the first person to recommend a specialist. And she's right, based on our experience with her, she absolutely would.
So...Mr. Will is back to himself, mostly. He's tearing up the joint, he's antsy, he wants to explore, and be outside and chase the cats, and learn. He's still tired, but his appetite is coming back...which brings me to my last little story for this post.
This morning I decided we'd take a little trip "out" before I started work for the day. Off we went to Starbucks for a mocha for Mommy and a plain bagel for Will. Will took his job of carrying his bagel from the car to the house very seriously (he's such the helper these days!). Into the high chair he went, and we chatted, as Will motored through bits of bagel. The conversation was punctuated with "more! more! more!" (translate - Mommy, please. You are NOT putting bites of bagel on my tray fast enough and I'm HUNGRY!) and then..."mmmmmm, bagel". I just stared. I love being Will's mommy. :-)

What day is it?

Saturday 4:45pm to right now have pretty much been a blur of throwing up, cleaning up, not sleeping, worrying, checking in, worrying some more, trying to get some sleep, feeling a bit better, checking out, and getting home.

Will caught a stomach bug at some point last week - it didn't actually "appear" until Saturday at 4:45 when Will woke up from his 2nd nap of the day and threw up all over the crib. Sorry for the mental picture there...Anyway, to make an extraordinarily long story short...the stomach bug was not so bad on Saturday night (there was sleeping!) and seemed pretty mild on Sunday (trip to the pediatrician included). Sunday evening was worse, but Will slept from 7:30 - 11:30. Then the downhill trip began. Trip included multiple hours awake in the middle of the night, a call to the night nurse at the pediatrician's office, and some sleep (not enough). It ended with me carrying a very sad, pretty lethargic, definitely dehydrated William into the hospital around lunch on Monday to be admitted. They had already tried to do an IV in the pediatrician's office without any luck, so thought it best to get us to the hospital. Will was patient, he was quiet, he cried (sobbed really) when it hurt (5 tries to get the IV), but one of the hardest things for me about all of this was when the nurses at the hospital said "he's lost his fight" as they put him in a gown, took his temp, put him on a scale, looked in his ears, listened to his chest, felt his belly, and he didn't even protest a little. I still get tears just thinking about it. All 3 Bostroms spent the night in the pediatric ward last night, thank goodness for wonderful doctors and nurses, and for IV fluids!! We are home, we have the usual Will personality back (90% anyway), and we will see the pediatrician tomorrow to get our marching orders for the next several days and so she can give him the "once over" 24 hours after he's gone off the IV fluids. It is pretty scary to see a vibrant little personality so quickly become "defeated" because he's sick.

Keep your fingers crossed...we decided, or maybe I decided, I don't remember, that it might be time to try another sleeping arrangement for Will when we travel. The pack n' play is great when 1. they're really little, 2. you're traveling by car. Not so great when 1. you travel by plane and/or 2. they get bigger. I sincerely wish someone had told me this when we were pregnant!

So I purchased a lovely little contraption called a "pea pod". I'd heard about it from my sister-in-law, and hoped that it just might do the trick for us. Turns out you need to buy the pea pod "plus" if you'd like to be able to use it past age 2, but it seems like a great idea. It comes in a great flat little package, has an air pump for the mattress, and is a little tent (really, it is like a pint sized pop up tent!). Took it out of the box yesterday and Will crawled right in. Put the mattress down with a crib sheet on it, and Will put his head down on the mattress and said "night night". YES! That's EXACTLY IT Will!!

This weekend's experiment is to let Will take his naps in the pea pod, hoping that we can use it for our trip to see family in a couple of weeks. Well...turns out, that since he CAN climb out of it, he will. Shocking, I'm sure. BUT - after being rocked to sleep, Will is currently passed out, in the pea pod in his room....not so bad for a first try. :)

Busy, and frustrated

Those are probably the 2 best words to describe Will these days. He is constantly on the move - now that he's walking, we can rarely get him to sit still. He picks up an item (ball, block, toy, remote, blackberry, bucket, etc) and will carry it until he finds just the right spot to deposit it for safekeeping. The good news is that he's really predictable on his "safekeeping spots"!

One of his new favorite places to hang out is the spice rack in the kitchen. When we re-did the kitchen, we put in a slide out spice cabinet next to the stove (I know - exactly the wrong place to put it, but it was the only place it would fit!). Anyway...it is a great spot for Will to hang out and re-organize the bottles. He takes them out one by one, shakes them to see what kind of sound they'll make, and of course puts them right back - in a completely different location in the rack. Not a problem...except for the fact that I'm a complete nerd and I have alphabetized the spices so that we can find them (we have a Penzey's addiction!). For the moment, I've given up on the organization.

And now for the second word - frustrated. Will is on the brink (I think) of a verbal explosion. He's doing well with the signs and the words that he knows, but more and more often he's trying to tell us something and is getting mad when we don't figure it out. He's pointing at more things and trying to get us to name them, and is very obviously understanding a LOT more than he used to. "Out" is his latest word - used for out and for open - most often to get us to open the door so he can go outside and walk laps in the driveway.

We have video and a few pictures, so will try to get them posted.

TGIF

We've had quite a hectic week! The usual schedule, with a twist - we all went to the office together on Monday and Tuesday. We managed to get out the door on time even...Will was pretty darn confused when we made a pit stop to drop Dave off, and then screamed when I left him at school both mornings. Of course - Mommy always comes back...so I did the reverse commute and picked up both my boys at the end of the day. The good news, I really like our new car, the bad news, I spent almost 4 hours in it on both days. On Tuesday night we listened to Will's barking cough from the back seat almost all the way home. And by midnight, I could have fried an egg on Will's forehead, and he was still coughing, and was having a little trouble breathing.
So...on Wednesday morning, plan B! Dave left for his early morning conference call (his first day back driving!), and I took Will to the pediatrician. Croup. And an ear infection. Mommy just can't catch a break this week! We got all the appropriate medicine, and came home. Dave switched places with me for the afternoon and I went to the office for a "can't miss" meeting.
And now, we're on the mend. Will sounds better, and seems to be doing well on the new antibiotic. We were home today, home tomorrow too. Fingers crossed...
In other notes - Dave has started physical therapy on his shoulder - so far so good, but this is going to be a long road.
And...Will has started talking in his sleep - much like his mother - I almost fell over when I heard him the other night! 2 molars made their appearance this week, and the other 2 are not far behind.

It is a bit more complicated

To collect your spouse from the emergency room when you have a sleeping baby in the house. Especially when said emergency room is a good 45 minutes away. Dave went to play in his first hockey game last night, with some guys from work, near his office. He made it through warm-ups. Fell on the ice and dislocated his shoulder. Ouch. So at 11:30 last night, I left the house to go get Dave. Uncle Bobby and Auntie Jenny were nice enough to come down and hang out with a soundly sleeping Will for a couple of hours (thank you!!!!). I had several choice comments for the patient when I arrived...The good news is that he will be just fine, the bad news is....he's out of commission for hockey for awhile.

Pop those champagne corks folks!!

I do believe that the video below will explain absolutely everything. Please note, this is not a one time event. This happened multiple times today at school, and then multiple times at home... :)

What a week!

We are featuring sleeping at the moment, so just a quick post as we're off to dinner with friends at 5, if Will is awake...

The fever/ear infection that morphed into a tiny stomach bug was over. And we actually had I think 3-4 days with absolutely nothing going on. And then...at 6:45 on Wednesday morning Will "gave back" his early morning bottle, and proceeded to throw up every 20-25 minutes for the rest of the morning. Off to the pediatrician we went! Mommy in her 5th shirt of the day, Will in his 6th outfit of the day. Somehow I just couldn't begin to explain to a 16 month old that he needed to give me a little more than 1/2 second warning....I packed an extra shirt for me and 3 for Will in the diaper bag. Miracles of modern medicine, they gave him a little medicine right there in the office, and we started the "re-hydrating" process. Lots of pedialyte later...Will is now back to his usual self. Phew! It did mean several days at home for me with Will, I think about 6 loads of related laundry, and at least 1 day where Will never got out of pj's. Hey, they have the anti-skid stuff on the bottom of the feet, so why not?! :)

In other news, Will is continuing to add signs to his growing vocabulary - and there are things that he says that I'm quite sure are words in his head, I just haven't figured them out yet.

We went to the local Children's Museum last weekend with some new friends - their daughter is about 4 months older than Will, and they got along great. They even shared toys and snacks very nicely while the grownups had a coffee after the museum! The latest pictures are from that trip - Will thought peek-a-boo with Daddy was absolutely side-splitting, and the tunnel and the water area to play in were fun. Will be much better when our little man can run to where he wants to go. I'm sure we'll be making many return visits...

You can't rush confidence

Our little Will, so timid it seems when it comes to walking on his own...has gotten just a little bit of confidence in the last 3 days. We've been trying to encourage him but we've been met with "spaghetti legs" more often than not. But today - 3 times - I reached out with 1 hand and he grabbed on and walked with only that one hand holding on...a little bit in the basement, from the living room to the bathroom and then from the kitchen to the nursery tonight. He got lots of encouragement as we were going along and big hugs at the end (I think he thinks I'm crazy...I got a little bit of the "awwww come on MOM!" look). Up to now, he's been determined to hold on with both hands. So we'll see....I'm holding my breath....and reminding myself to watch those little chubby feet toddle along barefoot on the floor, as this will be a big accomplishment, and he's getting so big!! (sniff sniff)

Egg, Mama, Nite Nite, Cheese

Despite a cold/ear infection that morphed into a fever/stomach bug (maybe?) Will has had a busy week verbally. More about that in a moment.
Wednesday night he woke up with a 102 fever (sound familiar?). So off to walk in hours we went on Thursday morning. Thank goodness for walk in hours. We see the doctor leveraging walk in hours a lot more than we have an appointment - so convenient! Anyway, not exactly what I had in mind, as we were supposed to be leaving for a ski weekend on Friday morning. But if you can fry an egg on his forehead in the middle of the night....you take him to the doctor! Scary virus test was negative, lungs sound great, ears look great. No other symptoms. Hmmmm. So the cure is Mama TLC and time. BUT - if he has a fever he's contagious - so we were in wait and see mode on the ski weekend. And as it turned out, Dave had a lovely time skiing, and Will and I had a lovely couple of days at home. I had taken the day off on Friday, so kept it, and we relaxed, I did a little bit of cleaning while Will took a long nap. Finally I think his fever has broken. Fingers crossed. Of course through all this you'd never know he's sick - he's still the same giggly happy baby!
In the meantime...Will has started to ask for specific foods, and more than just "cookie" - which is really a Ritz cracker. Yesterday he asked for eggs for breakfast, and for cheese. And it seems that he's continuing to leverage signs - the latest sign is cheese - a word he's been saying for weeks.
He'll also call Mama from the crib (or at least has done it for the last couple of days), usually he just complains until one of us opens the door.
And last night, after I put him in the crib, he looked up at me with a little grin, said "night night" and rolled over and closed his eyes. I melted! But seriously?! This is the same child that used to require nursing/rocking/singing until he was sound asleep before we could put him in the crib, or I'd have to start all over again. And to be honest, I have no clue what I did to help him turn the corner - so probably nothing - he just decided to do it on his own. As Dave said on Thursday night - it is a pleasure to put Will to bed these days, no fuss, no crying, just put him in the crib, and walk away.
My hope is that we're back to regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. We've had a very long month, and I've had a hard time getting back into a groove. I'm working on it...

A small bit of rug burn on my lip :(

Yes, rug burn on his upper lip! So I decided yesterday that it was time. Time to take all of Will's push toys away, except for the lawnmower. The general idea is that he'll no longer be able to run pushing something, and if he wants to run, he's going to have to figure it out. I know, probably not my nicest Mommy moment, but we seem to be at a bit of a plateau on the walking skill, and I'm not sure we're helping him. So anyway - onto the rug burn story. Shocker of all shockers - Will decided to stand up and push the lawnmower today. Only shocking because it has absolutely NO stability, so he can't lean on it or the lawnmower will fall backwards on the handle, and Will will go face first. Amid deafening cheers from Dave and from me, and lots of encouragement, he walked quite well all the way across the basement. He got so excited he decided to come back...and then he got a little ambitious and started to run toward me...got a little ahead of himself and face planted. He didn't catch himself with his hands, he caught himself with his upper lip. Ouch. And now, at the first hint of trouble standing up, he immediately sits down. So...we're going to have to keep working on that whole confidence thing.
On a completely separate topic - I have uploaded new pictures - a few from Christmas, and Will playing with his friend Jack. And for your viewing pleasure...Will, dancing! I captured this post-nap groove a week ago I think - he sings a little bit at the end. :)

I was thinking earlier this week that things (life) had gotten a bit bananas around here and was wondering how I might possibly take back my life, or I should say our life from the grind of work/school. And I have been reminded that I haven't been my usual newsy self! We have been a bit buried - I had a couple of remarkably tough weeks at work, busy & challenging (mentally and emotionally) - and I've been fighting a minor cold, and Will has been fighting a more serious cold. Thank goodness, Dave has been fine. :)


While all of this has been going on, we've had a bit of a sleep evolution. I can't say exactly when it began, but Will has shifted his attitude about sleeping, and how he wants help to go back to sleep (if he decides he needs it). We're now really only up once per night, he very reliably goes to bed with no fuss at 7:30, and given the choice, he'll sleep until 7:30 or 8:30 every morning. Unfortunately for him...he gets to sleep in only 3 days a week. We've found he'll take a 3.5 hour nap with no problem and wake up cheery and ready to go. Lucky for me - he's decided to go this route while I've had an enormous amount of work to do, so it has worked out well. :)


In other news, we've lost the battle against the ear infection again. The good news is that we made it probably 10 days through this cold without a trip to the pediatrician, but that ended this morning. We were up with a bleary-eyed baby last night from 12:30 to 2ish, so I made the call and took him to walk in hours this morning. "Only" one ear is infected, but he's got a cough that is a little worrisome, so he's on antibiotics and we're keeping an eye on/ear on the breathing and coughing. I'm more concerned about the cough than the ear. It seems I've got a pretty good feel for the magic line that he crosses when he starts to get worse, as we've managed to catch the last 2 ear infections relatively early.

And now - he's protesting his nap - again....will try to write a bit more later.

Singing and Dancing

It seems that Will has finally really taken to music - he hears music all the time, but he hasn't really been showing us whether he likes it or not. This weekend we've had singing, and dancing....often. Seems that Will likes to groove to just about anything - though he seems to prefer either nursery rhymes, or rock n' roll. We've had dancing in Daddy's arms, dancing in Mommy's arms, dancing standing up and holding onto something with one hand, and dancing in the high chair. And when he really gets going - he'll sing too!!

Woo hoo! I get to ride facing forward!

Will finally weighs 20 pounds. On the dot. His little legs are squished, and so I am taking the Jeep to get a good interior scrubbing tomorrow morning (something I've promised Dave for a month at least), and then we'll be turning the car seat around. I am quite sure that we'll have a whole new world of happiness in the back seat (and throwing stuff at Daddy on the way to school).

Will's 15 month (!?!?) check up was this morning. It was a family affair so that we could all go to work/school after the appointment. Will did a great job - only cried for a second after his shot, and even did a good job on the scale. Something about sitting up, completely naked, on a scale totally freaks him out, so we do a small prayer that the scale has new batteries and registers his weight quickly. The doctor gave him the 2 thumbs up on everything - she'd like us to adjust eating (what else is new), so we'll be working on Will's diet (again) over the next couple of weeks. He's grown an inch, and as mentioned above, he finally, finally, weighs 20 pounds. Our little peanut!!

Daddy's little helper

We bought a new desk for our office (or I should say our corner of the basement that serves as office) over the weekend. Bless Dave for spending hours putting everything together, especially since he had quite the helper at points - Will was absolutely fascinated with the tools and the desk parts and surprisingly - not the small screws that would be enough to make any parent worry. We kept a close eye on him, but pretty much let him roam and "help" as much as he wanted to. Once he really got in the way I would redirect him to one of his toys - but that wouldn't last for long before he was ready to help Daddy again.

A little bit of bravery

It seems that Will is just starting to get a little brave about standing on his own. 100% of the time I've been holding him around the waist as he stands up and then I let go. This morning, he pushed off of me and stood up on his own so that he could sign more (he wanted more graham cracker). So maybe, just maybe, in the midst of this verbal/signing extravaganza, we're going to see progress on standing up on his own too?!

Silly Mommy...try changing the format!

We started this morning with breakfast. Cinnamon toast, milk and banana for William. I was convinced that the banana would stay on the plate, and he'd drink the milk and eat the toast. So I grabbed a fork and mashed up the banana. DUH! He ate it no problem. Seems the problem with banana is not the taste, it is the texture (which has always been a problem for Will). So....I will be making friends with the fork again to "change the format" of the fruits & veggies to see if that does the trick. Fingers crossed!!

Happy New Year!

All 3 of the Bostroms missed midnight last night - we got close, but fell asleep!

We've had a very nice week - pretty quiet, though Will is madly working on new skills. And he's in serious fruit/vegetable avoidance at the moment. A couple of highlights of our week...

We have a couple of new signs and words - though we're definitely struggling with our communication. Will is very earnest when he's trying to tell you something - he looks us straight in the eye and signs or tries to use the words that he knows. The good news is that he's willing to try repeatedly until I get it! New signs include "more", "eat", and the sign for Cheerios/Rice Chex/Puffs. New words include Rice Chex (his current favorite food) and cookie. Will seems to be an eating machine these days. He's most intent when he's trying to tell us he'd like more to eat. The challenge is that he's using the "more" sign for lots of different things, so I often end up saying "more what??". I am sure there are more words in the conversation, but I haven't figured them out yet (I need a PhD in baby-speak and I'm just not there yet!).

Will has also made progress on walking - or I should say running - with the wagon. He has absolutely no regard for shins, toes, toys or the coffee table - and often runs over things, and then into things - at full speed. He can now reliably go up and down the stairs on his own, which is a bit of a relief on the safety front.

And last but not least, a bit of an evolution on sleeping. We're still not sleeping through the night, but Will has gotten to the point where we can put him down and he'll settle himself with minimal fuss. Not such a huge deal, except for the fact that it is happening for naps - when he's tired, he'll just lay down and go to sleep. I'm not holding my breath, but I do think it is a good sign. :)

Today, the plan is to watch football and relax - we had a very nice New Year's Day breakfast with friends, and I'm quite happy to snuggle up and do nothing for the rest of the day. Happy New Year!!!