My Daddy can do anything

**Warning: This post is mushy. If you are having an emotional day, you might want to come back later. It really is better suited for a special, mushy occasion like Valentine's Day or Father's Day. However, the chances of me remembering this specific story by Valentine's Day or Father's Day is pretty slim - so here it is.**










Last week we turned off our ceiling fans for the first time since April. Not joking, they have been running almost non stop since April to try and cool off this hot house. It would make sense to me while spinning or turning, there would be little opportunity for the ceiling fan to get dirty. However, last week I found this to be very untrue. I turned the fan off and glanced up. What I saw was horrifying. There was a thick layer of dust and dirt COVERING the blades and hanging down off of each one. How did I not notice that when it when spinning overhead? I did what any good homemaker would do in my position and ignored it for five days, hoping it would go away. But, it didn't. So I was forced to pull out the trusty bar stool and balance myself precariously to get everything cleaned. Up close, the situation was even worse. Not only were the blades very dirty, but the glass on the light fixture was also grimy with drywall dust. As long as I was hanging out on my wobbly barstool with my arms over my head, I went ahead and took down the glass pieces to wash. As dusk fell that evening, I turned the overhead light on. With the clean fixture (and blands) the lights twinkled and the glass sparkled. It was a beautiful sight. Everytime I walked by, I had to stop and admire how pretty our living room was with a clean light fixture.

**Warning: Mush ahead**

John eventually noticed the admiring glances I was giving to the ceiling instead of to him and looked up to investigate. He also admired the twinkly, sparkly new light in our lives. William was in John's arms and after a few minutes, he too looked up at the light. I'm sure he had twinkly, sparkly thoughts to match my own. So, there all three of us stood in the living room under the ceiling fan, looking up when all of a sudden, William lifted his arms up over his head. John lifted William over his head, towards the beautiful light over our heads. William giggled and looked down at the two of us before looking back up and reaching his hands higher. John stood on his tiptoes to push William a little closer - but the fan was still pretty far away. William looked down with a tiny frown on his face and then reached his arms up again.

**Last warning: Major Mush ahead***

That is when it hit me. I have to admit I got a little teary and still do every time I think about it. William couldn't understand why John couldn't reach him all the way up to the light. William thinks his Daddy can do anything. He believes that his Daddy is capable of helping him do anything and fixing everything. I know this is a normal idea for kids to have - I just thought it took years to develop, not months. I also know how strong the feeling is for me about my dad - and I am so excited for John to experience this type of relationship with our son. It makes me happy because I know with out a doubt this is a role he was meant to play. He is an amazing problem solver and fixer upper of all things. John was meant to be a daddy.



PS In my case, the idea dies hard. My dad is still the first one I call when I have trouble with the car, washer, plumbing, electrical systems, etc. I am always surprised when he doesn't have an immediate solution that fixes everything easily. Sometimes he even laughs at me. Yet, I call every time.

What we did this weekend

We all participated in the craftiness this weekend. Grandma and I made William a sleep sack and Grandpa and John put tape on the drywall. On top of that, we learned how to play dominoes. Everyone is exhausted.

The Grandma/Kelly craftiness: A sleep sack, hat and mittens. No, they are not supposed to be worn together. Just the hat and the mittens - they match his winter coat. The sleep sack is to keep him warm at night. He really isn't old enough to be covered by blankets and I worry a lot when I use a blanket at night. Then, he rolls over and the blanket falls off. Sleep sack=blanket that can't fall off.


I love this color blue!


Big Smiles - mommy looks tired!


Grandma, Grandpa and William with the fall color

Hmmm....I guess I don't have any pictures of the basement progress. I kind of looks the same, now with white splotches everywhere. Maybe John will take pictures to post tomorrow (hint, hint).

9 Months old! + a few days

Even though I am a day late on this, I have been thinking a lot about how things have changed in the last month. William is a super crawler with top speeds that send our cats running in all directions when they hear the ka-thunk ka-thunk of William approaching. He is also cruising along our furniture with great speed and "flying" between pieces of furniture without hanging on to anything. In the last several days he has become more and more confident and we are seeing him stand alone for longer periods of time more frequently (longest time is close to a minute).

Within the last week, William must have started paying attention to what we are doing and mimicing it. Earlier this week, he attempted to clap his hands as John sang to him at dinner. He is attempting to copy words when we say them and sometimes copies our actions. Over the weekend, we are fifty percent certain he learned how to wave "bye bye". Today, he also added a "buh-buh" to his wave, which about made me fall over. He repeated it three or four times until he was overcome with the giggles at our reaction to him.

Eating is also coming a long. The last two nights we have eaten out. William has eaten bits and pieces of our meals both nights happily. We are excited about this progress because early last week I thought I may have to ship him off to college in a few years with a case of Puffs and boxes of pureed baby food. What a difference a week makes.

The sleeping update isn't as positive. Let us just say that over the past week there were some excellent nights where I got about 4.5 hours of sleep. And I was excited about getting that much. Makes it hard to get things done during the day around the house or be excited when I'm playing with the baby. Last night he slept for almost 8 hours in a row. I find it amazing how much more I love my baby when he sleeps all night long. I am NOT saying that I don't love him when he doesn't sleep through the night. Just saying I love him so MUCH MORE when he does.

We had our 9 months pictures taken today and then attended a Halloween party with a pumpkin carving contest. I did manage to squeeze in a very short photo session of my own with William for his 9 Months+1 day pictures because I didn't remember to take them yesterday early in the day. We ordered a new car seat for William this weekend as I don't think we are going to be able to squeeze him into the old one for much longer. Especially with a thick sweater or a jacket (or both on). We will definitely be needing it before traveling for Thanksgiving.

Enjoy our pictures from today!

9 Months + 1 day Picture

Dressed for his 9 month pictures today

Big boy!

Pumpkins from our Pumpkin carving contest. The theme this year was celebrities. Our pumpkins were in the front row L-R: Johnny Depp, Dr Huff (a school administrator), and Joan Rivers. One of our 3 pumpkins won the grand prize...I'll let you guess which one.

Safe Halloween!

I'm so behind! We're busy with Grandma and Grandpa here visiting - and enjoying every minute! On Thursday, our school district hosted a Safe Halloween Party. Several of my coworkers attended and we went to say hi to everyone (and to do a trial run on our Halloween costume!).

William practices his crawling skills Thursday afternoon.


William the Frog got to play a life sized version of Candyland with some help from Mommy!

Our froggy boy!


Almost to the finish line!

When we got home, William got a call from Grandma on the road. This is the first time he has held the phone correctly to listen - I think he has been watching us! It was so cute to watch him hold the phone up and listen!

Then he gave Grandma kisses through the phone!

On Friday, William turned 9 months old. I kind of forgot to take his picture until late at night. This is 1 of 2 "official" 9 month pictures.

9 months old!

Playing this morning with Grandpa!

Pumpkin Patch

One day last week, we went to the pumpkin patch with our friends Jenn (mom) and Charlotte (daughter). We got lots of fun pictures and William loved playing with the pumpkins, eating the straw, pulling Charlotte's hair, and touching the flowers. Here are just a few! of the pictures we took at the pumpkin patch!

William is not sure he likes this (and the spot where he was sitting was wet! Opps!)

William with some mums...Nice smile!

William isn't afraid of the scarecrow!

My little pumpkin with a pumpkin!


Which one is William? He loved trying to push over that pumpkin next to him!

All the little pumpkins in a row!

Just so cute!

William and Charlotte! What is William's favorite thing about Charlotte? Pulling her hair. So, every picture has Jenn in it to make sure he doesn't pull her hair. He is SO quick, she needed to be right on top of him!

This pumpkin patch has really big tire swings!

Jenn and Charlotte


William and mommy

Charlotte and the girl scarecrow

PS Check back later - I'm going to try and get some more pictures up here later today!

William eating peas! Whole peas! How exciting!

Busy

We're busy. Some of us are running around and others are crawling and creating messes where ever we go. Note: you haven't lived unless you have washed your face and brushed your teeth with one foot on the toilet lid to keep the baby out. Including the rinsing and drying - requires a lot more balance that you would think. Try it sometime. You'd be surprised.

We went to the pumpkin patch, had a Parents as Teachers meeting, church youth group meeting, stained in our basement, renewed our license plates and shopped for Christmas presents. Oh, and cleaned because Grandma and Grandpa will be arriving tomorrow evening! And we will be going to Safe Halloween at North High to get some wear out of our Halloween costume. Pictures are coming. I promise.

A Real Stand up Kind of Guy

The big news of the weekend is William is starting to let go of what he is hanging on to in order to stand on his own two feet. At this point, it appears to only be happening by accident. He lets go with both hands to reach for something or examine an object more closely and TADA! he is standing up on his own. He did it for the first time on Friday night. I figured it was an accident and it wouldn't happen again. Then it happened 2-3 times Saturday and a few times again today. He is totally ready to do it physically. Mentally is another story. As soon as he realizes he is standing up he plunks himself down immediately. So far, the longest he has stood unassisted is about 30 seconds, but I think we'll be seeing more of over the next few weeks. Although I am excited to watch him learn, I'm a little sad. I was hoping to introduce my "baby" to some of our family over Thanksgiving. Now, it appears I may be introducing my big almost walking baby to everyone. Not exactly the mental picture I had in mind. Oh well - onward!

So many other things happening! The babbling is adorable and cute. I actually had to leave the pharmacy area of T@rget last week as I was afraid some unsuspecting customer picking up their blood pressure medicine would suffer a heart attack from the overwhelming cuteness of my baby. My baby HUMMING. Humming loudly and happily mixing in the Mamamamas and bababababas inbetween. I myself has to do some deep breathing to prevent myself from choking on my gum. It was that cute.

Eating! After our doctor appointment last week, I was feeling discouraged. The doctor advised us to quit using baby food and just feed finger food on his tray. Sounds great, only William was not interested. Everything we put in (or he put in) stayed in for about two seconds before being pushed right back out. However, this weekend we have made progress! Hurrah! Progress! Today alone we managed the following: soup crackers, 1 semi mashed banana, carrots from our soup, chicken from our soup, peas (PEAS! can you believe it?), bread, 2 elbow noodles and 1 tiny piece of cheese. Still isn't great, but at least SOME of it went where it was supposed to!

We had a quiet but productive weekend. I got out with the girls for some quilting and breakfast. John got some quality time in with his cabinet project in the basement. We taught confirmation on Sunday and did a little shopping. A very nice balance. We do keep meaning to hit up the pumpkin patch one of these days for some pictures. We keep putting it off - it will happen this week for sure! The other news is that we are preparing for the arrival of the Grandparents McGarry next weekend! Hurray!

We'll leave you with some pictures from this weekend!