Happy Birthday William!

William turned two today. We had a blast opening presents and eating pumpkin chocolate chip muffins this morning.

Will with his unopened presents:


Presents - opened.


Mater


The Mack Truck




And of course, the big "Thank you Daddy"


William is getting so proficient in coloring. He loves it when Sarah leaves her colors out.



William loves playing with his cars and trucks. Now we just need to add some choo-choos to his collection and he will be set.

About William:

* Favorite Movies: Cars & Letter Factory
* Favorite Netflix Shows: Dora and Diego
* Favorite Toys: Cars, Trucks, Balls & Letter Magnets
* Favorite Book: Moo Baa LaLaLa by Sandra Boynton
* Favorite Food: Annie's Shells and Cheese
* Favorite Past time: Running outside or in our hallway.
* New Tricks: Can walk backwards quite proficiently. Is a chatterbox. Likes to say the sounds of letters he sees in words.

Will's Stats:
Height: 35 inches 70th percentile
Weight: 30 lbs 75th percentile
Head Circumference: 48 cm 60th percentile

We sure love you William! Happy Birthday!

William is 23 months

And a few days ... We love our William. He is such a fun kid to be around. This morning he woke up and started pointed at each person in our family and said something like this.

"Woah. Who's Dat? Dat's Mommy. Yup" (Big cheesy smile)
"Woah. Who's Dat? Dat's Rah-Rah. Yup" (Big cheesy smile)
"Woah. Who's Dat? Dat's Daddy. Yup" (Big cheesy smile )

And when I pointed to him and asked him, "Who's that?" He responded. "Dat's Wii-um" Oh how we love our sweet boy. I think today was the the first day he said his name as Wii-um. In the past couple of weeks he has started to say, "Wull" when he referred to himself.

So what's new this month? I'm not sure. Things have been just running together with everything going on. I can say that Will and Sarah are best friends. They love to hug and wrestle. It's adorable. They play well together most of the time. I sometimes have to remind Sarah to share, but mostly I just enjoy them playing together. It's a great age.

William is also starting to recognize letters. (Thank you Letter Factory!) We've put up different letters in our house and he will look at them and start sounding them out. He is really good at his "A" and "O" and "S" recognition. His favorite is "A" hands down.

His favorite book is "Moo, Baa, La La La!" by Sandra Boynton. If he's ever sad when I put him in his crib, I just open the book and start saying, "A cow says, Moo. A sheep says Baa. Three singing pigs say ..." and Will will chime in "Na Na Na" with a smile. He's getting better about saying all the animal sounds in the book. His "neigh" sounds more like a laugh (heheheheeee) and I love it.

William is so generous with giving us smiles, hugs and kisses. He loves to give high five, knuckles and noggin (Thanks Katie). He would wrestle with Daddy All.Day.Long if he could. He loves to run outside and explore.

We sure love you William. Thanks for being such a bright light in our family.

Dentist Appointments

Our beloved dentist is moving away so I decided William needed to see him before he leaves. Sarah went first to show William how it was done.


William was attentive.


Sarah was a pro - a model patient.


Ahhh. Clean teeth.


Will was up next. Dr. Blake commented on Will's active tongue.


Will wasn't too excited at the beginning ...



Daddy held his hand ...


But after receiving a toothbrush from a fellow dentist everything was much better.



A successful first visit for William. All teeth cleaned and we all left happy :)

William is 21 months!

With all the excitement building up to Cyndi's big day, I completely forgot to write about William's 21-month-milestone. It's so crazy to think that when William was born, Sarah was 21 months old. She seemed so grown up. Wow. I can't imagine having another newborn right now, but it will be fun to see what a good big brother he is at 28 months.

Our little boy has grown up so much lately. He's quite the talker. At Cyndi's wedding he kept saying, "Pretty Dress." He loved all the girls in their pretty dresses - especially Ninny's pretty wedding dress.

His new trick is to jump off of the couch or our bed. He's pretty fearless for sure. Of course, his forehead shows evidence of his many exploits. But he doesn't cry - or if he does at least it's never for very long.

He LOVES his big sister. William loves playing house with her and dress up. They also love running in the hallway kicking balls. William is quite the coordinated kicker. And he's got good aim in throwing too.

William continues to be a champion eater. This morning he ate through Sarah's and my oatmeal leftovers from breakfast. He's getting quite talented with his silverware. In fact, he doesn't like to sit down and eat without it.

Dora and Letter Factory top William's movie hits. He can sit through the whole movie without getting distracted or needing anything. Which, for now, is sooooo nice for me. My house should be spotless, but ...

Will loves running up and down ramps of any sort. He loves the park and being outside. Oh how we need a backyard! We did have a great, sunny time at the park today. Yippee for 70 degree weather! We hope it stays a while.

His vocabulary gets bigger every day. I love that he says "Ra-Ra" now. He still calls most adults "Mommy" (even Daddy - much to his Daddy's chagrin.) William will parrot most words and gets a big grin on his face when he knows he said it right. He's just adorable.

Happy 21 Months William!

William's New Talent

William says, "I Poopy" and with one hand grabs at his stinky diaper. If a new diaper is in sight he will lay next to it so I can change his diaper. Ahh, lovely.

William is 20 Months!

Sorry for the fuzzy pics, but my subject kept moving!



William has blossomed this last month. He is definitely a toddler these days, but is still my sweet baby boy. While we've been in Utah with cousins, he has expanded his vocabulary and learned how to do a few mini-tantrums.

I think his new favorite word is COOKIE.

He loves to say nite-nite when I put him in the pack-n-play for naps and bedtime.

He LOVES LOVES LOVES stories. It's adorable to see him pick up a book and point it in your direction with an "uh uh" (Read to me please).

He still loves his rocks.

William loves his cousins - especially the babies and the two girls his same height. He was running from one end of Grandma & Boppa's house to the other and back and forth and again with Lucy tonight. (She's 8 months older). I even heard the report that he was holding Lucy's hand - quite a feat since he doesn't like to do that with any other kid ...

He loves running around Grandma & Boppa's vast homestead. I think he'll be fine moving from our one-bedroom apartment ANYTIME.

If Will doesn't want to do something he will let you know by running in place with his head shaking back and forth while looking down and an "eh eh eh" coming from his mouth. Awesome.

But he's still mommy's cuddle bug. I love his plentiful hugs and kisses. I love my boy!

William is 19 Months!

William is such a kid these days. It's so fun being his Mommy. Here are some of my favorites:

* Singing time in Nursery: I LOVE watching William dance around while we sing, "In the Leafy Treetops," "Jesus Said Love Everyone," "I am Like a Star" ... etc. Or when he does the actions for "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home." I promise to video Will and Sarah signing the "Daddy song!" It's adorable.

* Pee-se: Also known as please. He even tries to do the sign for it at the same time. Can I just say it MELTS MY HEART every time.

* Books: Ever since we put these bookshelves in Sarah and William's room, William has been so infatuated with books. His favorite right now is "Moo Baa LaLaLa" by Sandra Boynton. I read it at least 3 or 4 times before he lets me go on to another book. He LOVES saying "lalala" (which really sounds like ("nanana"). I can't help myself from giggling every time. It's so stinkin' cute. Sandra Boynton is one of our favorites. Sarah's favorite book for the longest time was "Oh My! Oh My! Oh Dinosaurs."

* Hallway Ball Time: My kids love their backyard hallway. I often open the front door to our apartment and let the kids take a couple of balls out in the hallway to kick around. They love it. I love it. Ahhh. The joys of apartment living.

* Cuddles: William is a cuddler. I love his lovin'. He's especially cuddly when he's tired or has just woken up. His hugs couldn't be sweeter.

* Prayer Time: I love that he can fold his arms. Thank you Papas! (his AMAZING nursery leaders) When it's time to fold his arms, he gives me a big grin and tries to hold his arms together.

* Words: They are coming! His favorites are ball, blocks (read: bauchs), books, please, dada, mama, hot, wow, truck, car and bus.

* Cooling down his food: If something's too hot, he'll say, "hot" and then proceed to shake his head while blowing on his food.

* Begging for kisses: When he sees Mommy and Sarah get their kisses from Daddy, William goes "uh uh" and makes a kissing noise to let Roger know it's his turn.

* Holds his own with big sister Sarah. I love how well they are playing together. This is such a fun stage for our family. He loves being her shadow and she can't wait for him to wake up from his naps each day so they can play some more.

William we love you!

First Day of Nusery

Today marks another great milestone in William's life. Rog and I dropped off Sarah and then William to their respective nursery classes and enjoyed delightful lessons in Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society. Ahhh. Can we say Bliss?

William walked right in, found a car and started pushing it around the floor. He didn't look back. When I came back for singing time - I'm the song leader - William was sitting at the table finishing his snack. He joined the group and waved the visual aids around as we sang. (Side: We have cool hearts and stars on sticks that some super diligent nursery song leader made a while back.) He mostly looked around and watched, but still very happy.

When I came back to pick him up he was all smiles as his nursery leader Cedric blew bubbles. William had such a fun time and the nursery leaders said he was sooooooo good. Such a happy, chill child. They'd even go as far to say he was their favorite except they had their own kid in the class ... I'm thrilled he had a great time. And the best part? William was soooooo good for Sacrament Meeting.

Nursery - The best Mom's Day present in the world!

And just to compare ... Here's Sarah's first day experience.

William - 16 Months

William loves rocks. Picking them up, eating them, throwing them ... he just can't get enough of them!


Also on his list of favorites continues to be peek-a-boo. The other day he was using a coloring book to cover his face. On a comparison note, William will cover his eyes with his hands to play peek-a-boo. Sarah would cover her ears instead. Aw. Love it.


William is learning a few more words. He has added "Yes" and "Mama" to his repertoire.

He also has started to be a funny eater. It doesn't matter if we are eating his "favorite" foods, he will turn his head when I try to feed it to him. Or he will ignore that there is food on his tray until I force it into his mouth. The funny part is that as soon as he gets a taste of whatever it is we're eating, he is full-steam ahead and gobbles it up. Silly boy.

It was fun to see Will's personality come out on our Mommy-Son trip. He definitely is all boy and I love getting to be with him!

10 Months

Really? Already? Wait a second. How did this happen? He's 10 months old!

The two most notable milestones this month are first - more teeth. Will was so excited about his first tooth that he tripled the order for last month. He now has 4 teeth (as seen in his picture). Gone are the gummy smiles - hello toothy grins!


The second milestone I am happy to report is that I am getting sleep all.night.long. (Now that I've written that he'll probably wake up tonight.) He usually has a rough night as soon as I mention to someone that he's sleeping through the night. He wants to keep me humble I suppose ... or maybe just on my toes. I have to say that the sleeping all night didn't come easy. Rog and I camped out on our sofa bed for a week while we let him cry it out. We had a system where we'd take the pillow top off of our bed and put in on the sofa bed. A little inconvenient, but definitely worth having more sleep. It is nice being back in our own room again. And I'm not groaning every morning when he wakes up for the day. Hip Hip Hooray!

For another thing to note, William is getting quite proficient with the take out and take off game. Lucky me.

William is 8 Months Old

I realize I'm a week behind. Oh well. I do what I can ...

Will is 8 months old and crawling ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE. Gone are the days of putting him in the middle of the room with some toys and have him stay there. According to my mom, I was content to lay/sit in the middle of the room until I was 10 months old. William, however, loves to go find his people. A few weeks ago when Will was still figuring out the whole crawling thing, he would back himself under the couch. It was hilarious so of course we took pictures.



William loves open doors and finding treats on the floor. In fact, he will knock some of his snacks from off his tray table onto the floor for that very purpose. Sneaky. Sneaky. I just have to rein in Sarah a little more with her treats and toys to make sure there aren't any small pieces lying around for Will to put in his mouth. I'm thinking I may need to get the baby gate back up for the kitchen.


Will can easily maneuver from sitting to crawling to sitting again. I'm pretty impressed. He likes to stand up when supported by others. He's not quite cruising yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. I admit I'd rather he was walking. Crawling is just a dirty mode of transportation.


William is starting his teenager years a little early. He is already eating us out of house and home. And he prefers to eat himself. Graham crackers, animal crackers, rice puffs and cheerios are his favorites. But I did go through 2 containers of green beans for dinner tonight. (The video is from a couple weeks ago.)





I don't know how it happened, but William screams like a little girl. Well, a very LOUD little girl. He usually screams when I'm not getting him his food fast enough. I.e. I take two seconds between spoonfuls. I imagine he will try to have a spoon in each hand when the time comes ... I'm trying to teach him sign language for "more" but he prefers to scream and grunt to get what he wants. Oh and for the record, Will also likes to squeal when he's happy. Oh the joys of loud children. No mamamamammama or dadadadaaadda yet. I guess he thinks he's communicating just fine.


Will also loves cars. They are his new favorite toy. Goodbye soft-squishy animals and shapes. Hello cars cars cars. It's a good thing Sarah likes princess stuff now. I don't think I would have gotten her to share her cars a couple of months ago.

I guess that's all for this month. Stay tuned for next month's adventures. Sarah will turn 2 1/2 and William will be 9 months. I probably will post between now and then, but the "updates" will happen on or around August 11th and 13th.

7 Months

It's been a big month for William. It's amazing how fast these months go! Here's the update.

Now that Will's eating solids, he is eating solids in full force. For some reason, he thinks he needs to eat 3 square meals a day in addition to all the milk he's getting. His repertoire includes peas, carrots, banana, green beans, sweet potato, butternut squash applesauce, peaches, oatmeal, mixed grains, rice cereal. I can't believe we're onto our 4th box of cereal. This guy eats a TON!

William has mastered sitting. He now LOVES to sit and play with toys on the floor. He LOVES it. He fought sitting on his own for so long. Whenever I tried to get William to sit down, he would keep his legs stretched out and super stiff. I was completely prepared for him to start cruising before sitting or crawling.

Speaking of crawling, Will can get pretty much everywhere he wants to. Lucky me. He can rock back and forth, do a 360 turn and move backward. He's also good at the reach and pull. But I wouldn't say he's crawling quite yet. However, I'm confident that by the time Grandma and Grandpa get here next week he will be showing off those crawling skills.

Will's also a great talker if you are fluent in gremlin. He can grunt, squeal and growl with the best of them. But no mamamammamam or dadadadada yet.

And William continues to be the smiley baby. He LOVES LOVES LOVES to laugh. He's so ticklish and loves it when you laugh with him. He can't help himself from going into a laughing fit. We love this guy!

6 MONTHS OLD!

Wait. How did this happen? My baby is half-a-year-old! 6 months. 6 MONTHS!!

William, you were supposed to slow down not speed up. You are already 17 lbs. 4 oz. and 27 1/2 inches tall. (90th percentile) Your head size is the only "average" part of you. (43 cm - 50th percentile). I guess I should be at least somewhat pacified that you can still wear 6-12 month clothes.
You love to roll onto your tummy and I'm getting nervous that you just might figure out that you can move your arms and legs in sync to really get around! However, you seem to have no desire to roll back onto your back. In fact, you prefer to sleep on your tummy - no matter how many times Mommy rolls you onto your back - and I've given up trying to change your ways. You'd rather stand than sit. You absolutely LOVE the exersaucer and can't get enough of it. You've tried the Johnny Jump Up, but alas have not fallen in love with it. Give it some time.


You'll sit in the Bumbo but I'm certain it is only because you have discovered that sitting there means you get to eat. Oh how you can eat! It amazes me that you've only been on solids for 3 weeks because you eat like you've been doing it all your life. (Oh wait ...) You love oatmeal. You love peas, carrots, green beans, bananas and squash. You'll tolerate rice if I mask it with some of your other favorites. You sip water from a cup and love it. Daddy can't wait for you to be old enough to drink his juice in the morning. But for right now, Mommy's milk is still your favorite beverage. In fact, you almost always crave Mommy's milk between 2 and 3 in the morning... We need to work on that one.

You love to listen to Mommy sing. You love to laugh with your sister. You love to rough house with Daddy. You love to listen to bedtime (and naptime) stories. Your extra-big smiles and delightful squeals make Mommy's and Daddy's hearts happy. You are such a special boy.

Now, could you slow down a little bit. You are growing up way too fast! I promise to take your six months photos soon. These re-runs will have to do for now ...

5 Months!

I know, I know, I'm a little late. But here are Will's 5 month pictures!


A little about Will ... He is our smiley, patient, happy boy. He LOVES his big sister, Mommy, Daddy, Cyndi, Mary, Jenna, ... well pretty much everyone! He likes to eat, sleep and play. He especially loves sitting/standing in the exersaucer. He is content to lay on the play mat, but would rather be in the bumbo or exersaucer so he can see more! His legs and neck muscles are getting so strong. I'm excited to get out the Johnny Jump Up soon.

Will has had a croup cough twice in the last 6 weeks. Poor guy. We broke down and bought a humidifier. Sarah never needed one. Even though he was fairly sick, he didn't really complain. There were a couple of mornings where he wanted me to hold him all morning, but other than his sad barky cough you wouldn't have known he wasn't feeling well.

Will is growing steadily. I'm excited to see what he weighs at his 6 month appointment in May. I have a feeling he's going to be wanting Sarah's car seat by the end of the summer. Let me know if you have a recommendation for Sarah's next car seat.

Also during this past month we tried introducing rice cereal. Here he is unsuspecting the first bite.


Here he is - unsure of what is going in his mouth.


Here he is swallowing. Yes, he did swallow ONE bite.


But alas, this is his opinion of Rice Cereal. We'll try again in another week or two... I mean, really, he's not going to starve without it at this point.


I think that's all this month for our cute William. He is so fun to be around. Here he is with Daddy. This is really the face William likes to wear most of the time. He LOVES smiling at us when we talk to him, play with him, etc. Oh I could eat him up!


Oh and in case you were wondering. Here's Sarah at 5 months (William does this "reverent" pose as well. So cute.)