background

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers
Lilypie Fourth Birthday tickers

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Birthday, Etc

Friday was a busy day. When we are home visiting, there are a lot of people to see and a lot of things we like to do. Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving, I put up the Christmas tree at my parent's house. This year it was fun because William thought the tree was AMAZING and fun to help with.

Friday was also Grandpa's birthday, so we had some celebrating to do! We had dinner and then opened presents before John and I took off to see one of my best friends from high school, Jessica. Jessica is due to have her first baby is about two weeks! So, we got in a long adult chat - it might be our last one for a long time!

The first piece of the tree

Look how excited he is! Ohhh!!!! putting up the tree!

Wow! He's never even seen us put up a tree or decorate one (we don't have a tree at our house).

William decorating the Christmas tree with the bungee cords.

Helping Grandpa open his birthday presents

Reading a birthday card with Grandpa

Grandpa reading his card from Ryan

Thanksgiving Pictures

Whew! Yesterday was busy! So, here are some of our Thanksgiving pictures! Unfortunately, I didn't get any of the food or table because I admit I was too busy eating. I know you understand. We very much enjoyed having everyone here and visiting for the day. After eating and a small rest, we pulled out the Wii and played some games. Which, I did get pictures of!


Great Grandpa bowling
William getting in on the fun...

Only he doesn't understand the idea of taking turns. It is hard to play a balance game with a little help.


William trying to ski. Unfortunately, he isn't heavy enough for the board to pick up him standing on it.



Which means he needed some help. Which, he was NOT excited about

Grandma, Ashley and Kyle bowling (actually, only Ashley is bowling)

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so many reasons to be thankful today. We had family together and a lot of laughing. That is all that is that really matters. The food was amazing and it was a lot of fun to watch William interact with all the different family members. He is a little confused on the terms "Grandma" and "Grandpa" right now seeing as there are multiple Grandmas and Grandpas in the house this week. Some are great grandparents, but we're not going to get picky about the exact titles. With 3 grandmas and 3 grandpas in the same house, things are bound to get confused. I'll be back tomorrow with pictures and maybe more - but we have a lot on deck for tomorrow also. More family, a few friends and Grandpa's birthday to celebrate. We can't wait!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Happy 22 Months!

William turned 22 months old today! Here are some photos to tide you over (although they aren't that great themselves) until the real blogger can add to this post.


William is checking out a bit of snow.

Picking up a snow ball.

Stacking the snowball on top of another pile of snow.

Help out the Hometown Historic Site

Mayowood, a historic site in my hometown is a finalist in a competition being put on by the Hampton Inns. If the Mayowood site wins the competition, they will get a lot of money to help with restoration, etc. Click here to vote for Mayowood!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Okay

First: we arrived in Rochester with almost everything we were supposed to bring.

Second, William has started doing something so manipulative it can only be described as highly entertaining. Most of the time anyway. He has turned our daily word guessing games into demands for things he can't have by disguising them as innocent questions about the names of objects or the plots of books. He is sneaky I tell you.

Currently when William desires something, he will run through all the words he has that could possibly relate to that item. He has a LOT of words for a kiddo his age, so this can be time consuming and a little frustrating for both of us. A little like playing Taboo, minus the light hearted laughther and the hourglass timer with the sand grains.

He will start saying words, sometimes repeating himself over and over until I figure out what it is that he wants.

I will stand completely baffled, racking my brain and searching our immediate envirnoment for something that may have caught his eye.

For example, if there is a toy on the kitchen table he can't reach, he'll start out by asking for a car. Sure! I think. We have 456876846518981981 matchbox cars in the basket. So, I walk out of the kitchen and towards the basket when the request becomes more urgent. Car! Car! Table!

Aha! There IS a car on the table just out of his reach. Problem solved.

However, things have gotten more tricky recently. Now I have to figure out what he wants and be careful about my response.

For example, yesterday we were looking at books. In one of the books, William was pointing at an object. I admit, my full concentration was more on the little alien kicking my bladder from the inside than what William was talking about. William pointed at the object and said "Num nums". Yep, the kids are eating a snack in the picture. So, I said "Yes they are eating a snack"

William's reply was "cookies?"
Hmmm...judging from the picture it is possible... so I said "Yes, it looks like they are eating cookies."

William then popped up out of my lap and said "Okay! Cookies! Okay!"

Wait....did I just say we were going to eat cookies?

Monday, November 24, 2008

On Raising a Polite Child

John and I are apparently raising a polite child. Although we think politeness is a very important trait, I admit we haven't spent a great deal of time discussing the finer points of etiquette with William. It just hasn't come up in conversation.

For those of you we will be seeing in the next few days, I need to explain this word we've been hearing a LOT of over the last few days: 'elcome. The translation: you're welcome.

Somewhere he has picked up that when you do something nice, someone says thank you and the other person says you're welcome. Only he can't be bothered by the thank you part. So, when I hand him his cars he'll reply "'Elcome!". I would estimate we hear 'elcome at least 50 times a day for a wide variety of things. When he does something nice, when I do something nice for him or even John. Not altogether correct, but still very, very cute.

Somewhere, someone must be modeling politeness. I should really figure out where he is getting it from....

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Through Sickness and Health Blog, I do Take Thee...

Are you impressed? I haven't missed a day in November yet. Even though we've been running like crazy and had the plague visit our house.

We got new cell phones a few weeks ago and we were finally able to get the priceless photos off of my cell phone. Why we had so much trouble is a long story that I don't find very interesting. Anyhow, this week I plan to entertain you with these pictures.

Please note: these pictures are great quality, but they are special to me because oftentimes it is the only picture I have of William doing something because the other camera isn't always with me.
I call this set: The Many Faces Of William




These pictures were taken one after another when William was roughly 6 months old. He is looking very serious because he is trying to figure out how to cute me out of my cell phone.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Plague

John was struck down last night. I had a post brewing about the differences between us when we are sick. But, the more I think about it, the less fair many of my generalizations were. Let's just say it is a lot more work being the more healthy one.

Friday, November 21, 2008

We Passed!

Although we have been suffering mightily here from some type of plague, the basement/office/babyroom/big boy room project continues to roll along. Today we were visited by both the city fire protection district and the city building officer to do our final inspection walk through in order to get our building permit finalized. Although the basement itself isn't completed, all of the structural pieces are in place for the inspection. Carpet and baseboard will make the space more finished, however doesn't have any safety bearing the city cares about.

The best news: both inspections passed and our permit is completed! Hurray!

How did we celebrate? We went out to eat and bought John's car 2 new tires. Wild!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Maternity Clothes make me Crabby

This is just a heads up for all of you lucky people who might be in the same room with me over Thanksgiving. Maternity clothes make me Crabby (with a capital C).

My specific issues include (but are not limited too):
-Bows. My belly is not a gift for you or anyone else. While I am thankful to be pregnant and for the child I am growing, I don't care to adorn any part of me with bows. Most certainly, I do not care to adorn the largest part of myself with a gigantic bow, regardless of color.
-Ruffles. I'm not 6 anymore. Enough said?
-Low cut-ness. I don't care to show a great deal of cleavage when I am not pregnant. Being pregnant has not changed this about me.
-The drape. Most of my maternity shirts have no shape. You are left wondering if I have a torso at all between my neck and my knees. While I don't need a form fitting shirt, I'd like to not have people eying me suspiciously: is she getting a beer belly or could she be pregnant?
-Elastic. While this is a necessary evil, it is not the most flattering of materials. Currently it is either way to small or way to big. Neither is a good look or comfortable. One has me too uncomfortable to get down on the floor and the other has me hanging onto my britches when I'm getting back up again.


All of these problems are compounded by several factors; not all of which are horomone driven:
1. When I was at this stage of pregnancy with William, I was roughly 20 pounds heavier. That means that most of the clothes I wore during this pregnancy are still too big for me at this point.

2. When I was pregnant with William, I was teaching full time. Teaching is a demanding job and I was on my feet all day. And hot. I had no more than 4 long sleeved shirts total because I was so hot while teaching all day (and the multiple layers I had to wear due to the cleavage problem, see above). Now that the weather is cooler and I sit at home eating bon-bons on my couch all day long, I'm finding myself wearing those same 4 oversized shirts over and over again.


So, in all fair warning to those of you spending more than several minutes with me over the holiday: watch out. Especially if I am wearing something other than sweatpants and sweatshirt. If I have gone through the trouble to put on something maternity related, you can bet that I will be working overtime to overcome the Crabbies.*

*I'm really so very excited to be able to spend the holidays with my family and some close friends. I just can't figure out how to deal with this wardrobe situation....

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

So lame I'm posting other people's vacation pictures

We're still under the weather here today. Eating isn't really happening, although plenty of other "stuff" is. Use your imagination. So, here are some pictures my parents sent me from their recent trip to San Diego. Posted without permission, of course.



Sea kayaking
More sea kayaking
Sailboating


PS You'll have to ask Grandma and Grandpa who got wet...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Look!

We had a rough night last day and a yucky day today with a stomach bug going through our house. I was just thinking the other day that William hasn't thrown up since his refluxy days in infancy. That is VERY much untrue now. I think we're on the mend (hope!) and I'll be feeling better soon. Also hoping John doesn't come down with it because it wasn't much fun.

In the meantime, how fun is this? I've been invited to an ugly sweater party!


Monday, November 17, 2008

Hard Working Weekend

The pressure is on! In addition to trying to get all of our holiday baking done by next week, we've also been working on getting that basement D-O-N-E! We have made a rough timeline of when things need to happen in the huge House Reorganization Project in order to avoid the inevitable hormonal meltdowns caused by stress. The rough project looks like this:

1. Move current office items to new office space in the basement
2. Move William into a Big Boy Room (old office space)
3. Turn William's old room into Newbaby's room

Short and sweet, right? I'm not going to tell you the actual dates because then I'll be doubly stressed when we don't meet them. Easy enough? Not so fast - remember that our office looks something like this:





This is what happens when you move everything that doesn't have a home into one space to deal with later. Unfortunately, later is NOW.


So, we worked and worked on it and it is starting to come together. It is still a mess- but I can see it coming together now.
Window sills are now halfway done
When Sunday afternoon was warmish and nonrainy, John went out and painted forever (baseboards, window sills, door frames)
The partially completed office. I think it is looking AWESOME - but my arms are tired from carrying stuff down the stairs from upstairs. We have WAY too much stuff!


And a few nonwork related pictures:
William will now [kind of] brush his own teeth! At least the brush is in his mouth now!
Big boy!

Snuggling with Mama on Saturday morning.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

In Heaven

John and I have been working our behinds off this last weekend. I'll try to have pictures tomorrow of the progress, but I'm too tired (and it is too late) to find the camera and post the pictures. All in all a good thing.

However, I will leave you with this discovery of mine. A lot of the old school (and new stuff) from Sesame Street is now online. Here is a sample:

OLD SESAME STREET




NEW SESAME STREET



*For those of you with slower internet connections, there is not any of new video of William within these. Although William likes to watch these, it is NOT worth your time to wait for this to load.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Because it made me Laugh

I'm sharing this picture with you because it made me laugh. The picture quality is not great because it is a picture of an ad in the newspaper - which is not the finest quality to begin with. But still, enjoy!



PS If you can't tell what this is, it is a microwave on sale somewhere. To entice you to buy it, they've pictured a gigantic turkey with all the trimmings cooking away inside of the microwave...

Friday, November 14, 2008

William the Helper

William loves to be the helper. He is totally in love with the fact that he can do Things All By Himself. Sometimes these things are even helpful around here, which is great given that he isn't even 2. Find that hard to believe? Some things that he can do to that are actually helpful:

1. Opening doors for Mama and Daddy (only the ones that don't have the knob protector on them). William loves to open and close doors.

2. Empty dishes from the top rack of the dishwasher. The majority is plastic stuff that can't be broken. I call him over and he hands me the containers to be put into the drying rack on the counter. I am too lazy to towel dry them and too cheap to use the extra hot dry cycle on the dishwasher.
3. Puts dirty clothes in the washer when I hand them to him (when I tell him what to do, obviously since he doesn't understand the concept of dirty yet).

4. Puts wet clothes into the dryer when I hand them to him.



5. Puts the clean/dry clothes into a laundry basket from the dryer.

So proud!
6. Most recently, he has started helping me pick up his toys at night before bedtime. It took a few tries, for him to understand what I wanted from him. But, now that he gets it, he is usually pretty happy to help me pick up the toys - it helps when I have a Fun! Exciting! bath as a carrot.


We are so proud of how well he is listening [some] of the time now. It is so exciting for us now that when we ask/tell him to do something there is actually a 12-50% chance he will actually follow through with the request. Amazing!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Announcement

The phone situation is now fixed. New phones arrived yesterday and they are beautiful and fun. As an added bonus, they actually work. I will now be at my regular number and John will [*not] be at his.

*John doesn't ever answer his phone during the day while he is at work. Unless you are calling his work number.

Words

William is talking more and more all the time. Currently I am very much enjoying getting to hear a portion of what goes on inside his head all day long.

Tonight after dinner we were relaxing in the living room making a halfhearted attempt to play blocks. My back has been hurting me for the last few days (I'll admit this is completely my own fault. I do not know the definition of time to stop) so I was stretching in such a way that made my petite belly bump look HUGE. William stopped his stacking and looked with amazement at my belly. John saw the look on his face and asked William "What do you think Mama has in her belly? Do you think it is a baby?"

William looked back at John like he was absolutely 100% crazy "NO!" he replied.

Obviously he really isn't understanding about what is really going on here.

Which really isn't a surprise because we really aren't pushing it either. William doesn't have any sense of time. If you ask him if he'd like to go to the park, you better be within sight of the swings or a meltdown will occur. If you ask him if he would like to eat, he will run to his chair in the kitchen expecting food immediately.

What I'm getting at is that we have some time and even if he understood there was a baby in there, he would be expecting it to arrive sometime before he eats his next meal. We're good with waiting.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

My Boy

Last night, I walked by William's room on my way to do Something Important. It was also Very Late at night, so when I realized his light was still on, I opened the door to turn it off (he can reach the light switch from his crib). As it was an hour after bedtime, I was surprised William wasn't sleeping at all. No, he was laying on his belly cuddled up with his favorite blanket reading a book. He looked up at me when I opened the door and then went back to looking at the pictures in a book.

Anyone knew me growing up knows that if there was a way to sneak in extra reading time after lights out I was totally doing it. Reading by nightlight: check. Reading by flashlight: check. Reading with the door to the hallway open: check. Taking a book to the bathroom tucked inside my pajamas: check. Trying to read by light of the streetlight: check. Pretending to still have homework so I could read: check. All been done. I was a rebel of the worst kind. All out cheating and lying in order to read a book.

So, it was very sweet to see the possibility in William for similar rebelious acts at a very unexpected time. Don't worry people, I will keep my eyes on him and the dangerous reading in check.



PS I was ahuggin' (yes, I just made that word up) William tonight at bedtime and he was hanging on to the crib rail and bouncing. At one point he bounced enough that he was able to pull himself up on the crib rail to mid thigh level. This would mean roughly 3/4 of his body was hanging out over the top of the crib. It would then appear he is physcially capable of getting himself out of his crib. I am going to go ahead and say that it is just a matter of time before he actually goes ahead and climbs on out. The crib is probably on its way out. Baby coming or not...the crib will be done soon.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Veterans Day

We want to wish some of our favorite Veterans and active military family members a happy day and send them a big thank you!


Great Grandpa Budd
Great Grandpa Tom
Uncle Mike

Monday, November 10, 2008

Fall Time Take 2

Sunday, John wanted to mow up all of our leaves and I just wanted to get a few pictures with William IN the leaves. Here are our best shots - most of them are in motion, as you would expect.



William notes: I HATE the leaves touching my skin! Make it stop!
Peek!
William: Tree- bumpy. Wow.