Home, Fine, Wonderful

We're home.

The trip/trips were fine.

We had a wonderful time.

More later. Tired now.

Merry Thanksgiving!

Merry Thanksgiving! Pictures are coming. John was supposed to update and let you know we are in MN. Tomorrow morning we leave for MA and onto RI.

Project...uncompleted

As always, the timeline I have in my head for completing a project is completely different from John's timeline. Apparently, mine was a little unrealistic. Imagine that. But, there was progress this weekend...

I almost hate sharing this picture. The before of our TV alcove. From the beginning, we always meant to do something to fix this area...almost 5 years later....


The cabinet in pieces. Stained and ready to go. John is attaching the backing to each piece.


William is organizing the screws for Daddy.


Big helper...


"Enough watching! I want to do it!"

"You go ahead, I got this...."

Oops...you'll have to turn your head. The TV alcove all cleaned out.

Here comes more help - with his hammer!

The lower part of the cabinet fits (after removing molding...)


Then we decided we needed to paint the walls on the sides of the cabinet...

Shucks! Turn your head again! Here we think the painting is done and the lower cabinet piece is installed. Can you figure out where needs more paint?


Where we are at right now. Both pieces of the cabinet are installed, some painting is done. Trim has been measured, carpet cut. Shelves are measured...and we are sort of at a standstill as we work out the finer points of the shelves (if anyone asks, I am right). Progress was made this weekend.


Busy busy busy busy....





And William practices standing.....


More standing - this time without a spotter...

New trick: opening closet doors. I'm not sure that we're excited about this one...

This may be the only post this week as we are leaving Tuesdayish for our wild Thanksgiving trip (MO, IA, MN, MA, RI). I have lots of laundry, packing, wrapping of gifts and general worrying to do! Unless William starts walking or reading, expect to hear from us Tues/Weds!

You thought I was kidding about those bubbles...

The rest of this post is not for the faint of heart. John and William spent some boys time together Saturday morning and tried to out snot each other. Unfortunately, William is unable to operate the camera, so we only have pictures of William and his bubbles....

FYI for anyone hoping to spend any time with us next week: when you go to wipe his nose, he gets quite upset which causes his nose to run and make the situation even worse. Wipe at your own risk.

PS What? You thought I was above posting snotty pictures of my kid? Think again.

My kid can blow bigger snot bubbles than your kid

I think that says it all. Snot is flowing full force here. Baking, packing, shopping, washing, and wiping of noses all going on high speed around here. Big project coming near completion. Maybe we'll have some real pictures up tomorrow? We're teaching confirmation tomorrow - I need to go study...

A Round of Applause Please

We were all laying around on the floor in William's room. John and I were discussing various adult topics such as: who was the coolest smurf (Handy or Smurfette - I'll leave it to you to figure who was arguing for who) and which animal noise on one of William's toys makes the most realistic noise when something amazing happened. William turned to John and said "Dada dada." Very clearly speaking to the plastic bat in his left hand. We have been trying to make a big deal out of these types of occurences thinking it might transfer into him being able to identfy us by name one day. Names of course being "Mama" and "Dada". As we cheered, William got a huge grin on his face and let the plastic bat drop to the ground...and clapped his hands together. Just like we were doing. This, of course made us clap and cheer more loudly then before. William paused for a moment and looked at us as if we had both managed to loose our minds at the exact same moment before bouncing himself up and down and giggling like crazy. And then clapped his hands some more. Every time he clapped his hands, we cheered and clapped for him. Every time he looked at us like we were just a little nuts before joining back into the clapping celebration. Kind of cute when your kid thinks you're a little crazy.

At different point throughout the day, we would try to encourage him to clap some more and practice this vital skill. However, every time we would start clapping to encourage him, he would look up with a surprised look from whatever he was doing and look at us like "Hey guys, really it isn't that impressive that I just..... [insert lame activity here]" He was convinced to join our craziness a few other times and clap with us. I got the feeling he was just kind of humoring us though.....oh well. It's about time he started learning to humor the craziness at this house.

Do Over

Okay, yesterday we took pictures outside and they were alright. The light was really bugging me and instead of pulling up the photo editing program, I decided to give it another try. Not sure these are better - but the bad lighting isn't the problem this time.

Beautiful Fall Day!

We had a very pretty day today with just the right amount of leaves on the ground in our backyard for some pictures. William was way more interested in the leaves than looking handsome for me. The strong sun gave us some problems, but I still think we got some cute ones!

Then we moved further back into the trees

Peeka- BOO!

My newest favorite picture of William. Don't you wish you were this happy? About a blanket and someone yelling "Peek-a-boo" at you for the 565735435241324687th time today?

William has been playing this peek-a-boo game for quite some time. It has evolved from a simple kind of game into something, well still simple but more complex. It began with peeking at each other around the couch and William dissolving into giggles. It has changed into hiding his face against all type of objects (toys, carpet, blankets, hands, etc) and calling for one of using his special "Mama/Dada/cat/grandma/grandpa" all purpose word "Ehh!" Although this word doesn't look like much written down, it is very distinct from other sounds he makes. I can now tell when he is starting to get worried about where I am when he can't see me because he crawls around saying "Ehh!" Anyway, he calls for us and when we reply "William?!" he pops his head back up and we say "Peek-a-boo!" Giggles follow. Every single time. The old couch type of peek-a-boo is also still good for a laugh every single time. In this last week, the game has progressed to hiding other objects. He'll take a toy and hide in the fold of his blanket. Before you can finish saying "Where did it go?", William will be reaching into his blanket to pull the toy out. Giggling the whole time. Hours are spent daily playing different variations of this game.


We've been working to get this on video for at least a month without much success. Either he is being cuter than we ever thought possible or we are laughing until we about wet our pants. Enough enjoying the moment: must document.

Hiding: Where IS William? Can you find him?

Oh quit being lazy, just turn you head! Sometimes we need to stop and play with whatever we are hiding for a little while.

Hiding with some help from mama. I know this one is blown out, but I know you all can pretend like it isn't.


And the reveal: Peek-a-boo


Hiding again!

Trying to play while hidden. Very sneaky.

PS Regarding the pants situation: We are having a little bit of a squished banana problem over here. We are LOVING being able to put the bananas into our mouth by ourself, but one of the slippery suckers always ends up under him somehow. I guess I'm going to have to do laundry. Or buy more pants....

2 Pieces of Pizza, 6 Zucchini Breads, & Other People's Kids

I'm going to try and wrap this up quickly as I have a lovely glass of wine in my hand and I suspect my spelling, grammar and all other coherent thoughts will be leaving me shortly. Mmmmnn.... Oh yes, back to work. Tonight we made the biggest batch of zucchini bread ever: 6 large loafs. Or is it loaves? A certain someone should be spending some time clearing out some room in their freezer.

I can't believe I forgot to tell you that yesterday we went out to eat with the youth group I am assisting with for pizza. Being the wonderful mother I am, I packed enough food to feed an army of 9 month old children as well as a bib and washcloth (please don't report me, I did forget the sippy cup). Recently, William has been very observant about what is on our plate and going into our mouths...and politely requesting tastes of everything. This is how he has already tasted: sour cream and cheddar potato chips, gardetos garlic breadsticks, garlic mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and now pizza. Please note I am not proud of the health quality of many of these foods. Last night, I gave William the crust off of one of the pieces of pizza. Then, just for fun, I gave him a tiny piece off the end of my cheese pizza. He gobbled it up (all the while offering his soggy crust to every person who passed by his high chair and then pulling it back while giggling). In fact, he continued gobbling until he had consumed 2 (two) entire pieces of pizza by himself (please note: pieces were of smallish size and several chunks did end up on the floor). We were amazed...and all of a sudden a little worried. People keep telling us that with every subsequent child you become more and more laid back about the parenting standards. Our hypothetical next child might as well start with the cookies and chips as soon as they are born. Oh, and ice cream too. Note to self: must work on those vegetables harder. Dip in chocolate if necessary.

And now for the pictures of other people's kids:

Can you believe these babies are already 3 month old? I am loving those chubby cheeks!


Can you believe this kid is already 23? Mike got to celebrate his birthday with my parents and his godparents (Sheila and Bobby). I'm not saying anything about his cheeks.


I don't know whose baby this is. But, her name is Sampson.


My parents attended the commisioning of the Sampson last week. I guess there was a hurricane moving through Boston. Either that or my family is a little odd. Please note my uncle is wearing fishing waders.


One of William's handsome Uncle Mikes. Here he is hard at work selling merchandise. I think he works in the gift shop on board the ship also...or is it the casino?

PS Thanks mom for leaving that little bit of whine behind fro me to emjoy tonight. Tome for me to go to bed!

Still Busy

We are as busy as can be. All presents are wrapped for half of the family. Two more cheesecakes, more banana bread and other goodies have been made and frozen. Airport regulations have been researched. New carseat is installed. Worrying about clothing and packing has begun. It is that time of year.

William has brought his own particular brand of joy to everything. Cooking, wrapping and all the preparations require all kinds of forethought that sometimes make my head hurt with all the planning. I miss my spontaneous self...just a little bit. He is still crawling and cruising like crazy. While we were at the Y today, it is possible he took his first of many steps. He was reaching for me while standing up unassisted. With the reaching, he took two steps forward before falling into me. I feel like it was all kind of by accident and couldn't get him to do it again today. Does it count? I don't know - we'll see if he gets a little braver over the next couple of days. If he keeps it up, I'll count it. If not, I write it off as a fluke and keep on waiting!
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We are all saddened by the loss of one of William's favorite toys. This is one he looks for in the morning and each time we sit down on the floor to play. It is a foamy type car that has some sort of felt material around it. It fits just right into William's hand and doesn't have any sharp edges. For $0.25 at a garage sale, it has been worth every penny - even if it isn't pretty anymore. However, last night William bit a chunk out of one of the wheels. Luckily John was right there to pull it out of his mouth, but we are quite sad without it. I don't know even where to begin to replace it short of knocking on some strangers' door to find out where it was purchased. There isn't a brand name of numbers or letters on it anywhere. So, if you run across one like it - keep us in mind....

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I am a little disappointed in myself for letting this one slide by. I had planned on writing up something special about the date when William was 39 weeks 3 days old. That would be the date when he was Out more Than In. Alas, that date was October 30th and I was in a tizzy trying to figure out how to best make Halloween special. How could all that time be gone? It isn't possible for him to have been outside longer than inside without me realizing it. I figured I still had a couple of weeks yet to go and decided to just count it out tonight to see how much longer it would be. Too late, oh well...

Update

Just a quick update. We've had a busy weekend. We made 2 cheesecakes, 4 pans of carmelitas, 2 zucchini breads, and we're done shopping for one whole side of the family. John worked on our cabinet project, we watched a movie together, went to church and attended the church's "Stone Soup" supper this evening. Are you impressed? We are.


Oh yeah, and William has slept through the night every night for the last week. Only, I've found a new series of books that I just can't get enough of and I'm staying up until all hours of the night to read more and more...I won't even tell you what time I went to bed the last few nights. Even more incredible, William would have slept until 8:15am this morning if it wasn't for daylights savings time! Stupid "falling back"....


Goodnight,

The Heidts


PS Happy birthday Uncle Mike!

Halloween, Part 2

Last night I ran out of time and...well time I guess to finish uploading all the cute pictures. Here are the rest of them!