Last Set of Clues

If you still can't figure it out, you'll have to wait until Sunday evening (or later) after we return from camping...here are the final clues:

Last Clue #1: This is the ultrasound picture we got at our 7 week appointment with our OB. We got to see a very strong little heartbeat and our new little baby. John and I agree this baby was much cuter during the first ultrasound than William. Probably because William's ultrasound was at 5 weeks and he looked like a blob. This one actually looked more like a baby.
Last Clue #2: Another ultrasound shot from our almost 12 week appointment. There are not any concerns about this pregnancy that require these ultrasounds. The 7 week ultrasound is standard for my OB. The 12 week one was a bonus - our OB told us most of the time she can't find the heartbeat before 14 weeks and asked if we'd rather have another quick ultrasound. We weren't about to turn her down! During this ultrasound, the baby was very active and wiggling. Every time she had a great picture of it, she would freeze the frame to print the picture. In that brief second, the baby would move to another area for a less clear picture. It was still fun for us to see though!
Last Clue #3: William is going to be a big brother!

The very last clue I'm having trouble getting uploaded. But, I think you'll get it from here...

One more Clue...

Clue #5: Here is a sampling of the foods I had craving for when I was pregnant with William: Chilli's, brownies, oranges/orange juice, lemons/lemon drops, root beer, and fruit.

Here is one more clue. I think I'll post my last set of clues on Friday afternoon before we leave for camping attempt #2. That is, provided I can find one more prop that seems to have gone missing....

Daddy's Boy

William has always liked hanging out with his daddy. It's different than hanging out with me (which we do every day) and they play different stuff. In the last month or so he has really made his preference known: when Daddy is available, that is where he wants to be. It is so so SO cute to watch, my feelings aren't hurt at all. He'll follow John around the house and sit next to him, copying his pose exactly. If John leans against the wall, William will attempt to stand leaning against the wall. He loves to sit in Daddy's chair at the table and every morning asks me "Dada?" I reply "Dada went to work, he'll be home soon." In the last two days, the question has become "Dada, soon?" I feel like it is stretching the truth a lot to agree with this statement because at 7am, it isn't at all soon when Dada will arrive home again. But, I don't have a better way to put it in a one and a half year old's vocabulary. So, I am forced to agree "Dada soon." and try to come up with a good distraction.

This is where John spends most of his free time. In the box. Both William and John would like to thank Grandma and Grandpa for bringing another box to our house.
Peeking out the top (John is still in the box)Tonight we were working on building some shelves to organize our basement storage area. William always likes to be in on the action. First he helped by handing John screws and then graduated to scribbling on the boards with his pencil.
Helping - there are a lot of these because it was C-U-T-E!Watching Dada drill. I am always astonished by how long William will watch John work on something quite happily. Way longer than he'll watch me make him a sandwich for his lunch, that's for sure.
Checking out the square.
Here is a picture that William drew today. I'm posting it because it is cool. The squiggly set of lines on the left side of the page is what he drew first. He drew the loop-de-loop and pronounced it a "bee". I thought it kind of looked like a bee and made a mental note crossing "art prodigy" off of my list of possibilities for him. Then he made the second set of squiggly lines on the right side of the page. Again, he declared this a "bee". Curious, I asked William what noise a bee said. Confused, he looked at me and said "B". When I looked back at the picture it does appear the letter B is on the page. Twice. Do I think it means anything. Nope. But it is kind of cool...

Night-Night....

Today William and I drove through the remnants of hurricane Gustav (honestly, it sounds cooler than it was, I promise) to pick up a piece of flooring we need to bridge the doorway between the playroom and the family room in the basement. Rain was pouring down and it there were a lot of puddles on the road. I was driving and didn't notice that William had fallen asleep in the backseat of the car. He couldn't have been sleeping for more than ten or fifteen minutes as we weren't in the car for that long. It probably wasn't the greatest way to wake up (cold rain falling on you), but what can you do?

I ran him hard before lunch and put him down for his nap as our usual routine goes and close to 45 minutes later he was still crying. First playing, then whining, then complaining, then crying which quickly morphed into the hysterical abandoned child alone in his room. When I went to get him he had a messy diaper and I changed him up. However, I could tell that there wasn't any way he was getting back in that crib for another try at a nap. So, we rested together on the couch for about .000342768 seconds until he was up and ready to play again. All was going [somewhat] well considering the conditions until dinner time. He was sooooooooooooo hungry, he couldn't get the food in fast enough. I wasn't paying very close attention because I was trying to shovel bites of my own dinner into my mouth between cutting up more food and reloading William's tray when John started laughing. I looked up to find this:

A tired boy*
It is hard to believe, but we left him there like this and he woke up only to comment on the dog next door barking outside and to shove a few more pears into his mouth. He chewed with his eyes shut. I was able to wipe off his tray, both his hands and his face and he stayed asleep. It was only when I tried to unbuckle him that he woke up.

In other total cuteness, William has been saying "nigh-nigh" to us for several months now before he goes to bed (when prompted - no prompting, no cute goodnight). However in the last week he has stopped "nigh-nigh"ing us when prompted and instead tells one of his favorite toys goodnight instead. Tonight, for example:

Me: Say good night to daddy
W: Bye bye choo-choos
Me: You're right, goodnight choo choo trains. Now, say good night to daddy.
W: Bye bye color crayons
Me: Okay, whatever 'night crayons. Now, say good night to daddy.
W: Nigh-nigh box

And here is where I gave up and took him into his room to finish the bedtime routine. Afterall, he does have a lot of toys to potentially say goodnight to. After I put him down and did a few chores, I walked past his room one night this week to hear a very sleepy "Bye bye cars..."

Still waitin' on that nigh night for daddy though.

*Note: William had been sitting in a booster seat with us at the table, which we all loved. However because of the construction of our kitchen table, there was a small rim on the underside of the table perfect for pushing little feet against. William was constantly leaning back in his chair AND tipping himself over during meal time. The battle was not going to be won at this stage of negotiations (there is very little negotiating as of yet) and so it was back to the high chair for now.

Labor Day Weekend = Hard Labor

After our camping disaster, we had to work to pull our spirits back up as Grandma and Grandpa were coming for the weekend. Really, they were coming to see us (read: William), but we were hoping for a little help in the basement. Usually when we're working on a project on a regular weekend, either John or I work in the basement while the other watches William. When Grandpa and Grandma are here, usually Grandma wrangles William. This means instead of one person working at a time, three people are getting work done. The difference is huge! So, here are some pictures of what was accomplished!

Evidence of progress made:

Bathtub caulked, vanity hardware installed. Shower rod/curtain purchased and vetoed by the installation team.
Floors cleaned, carpet remnant laid out, doors painted, doorknobs installed, bed assembled, windows cleans, ceiling fan installed

Doors/doorways painted. Doorknobs installed! Yes, this means potentially you can actually have some privacy in the bathroom!

Baseboard installed in playroom
More playroom baseboard
Office baseboards installed
More office baseboards The basement is a huge mess - however behind the mess you can see that the great room walls have now been painted! A huge job!
More paint pictures and Grandpa cleaning upThis is a little hard to explain because I don't have a great before picture handy. Basically, the walls to the left of the railing used to be white. There was much discussion and arguing about how to best apply paint to both of the walls to the left of the railing as they are quite challenging to reach. However, with the use of the neighbors ladder and assembly of a painting platform, both walls are now painted.
3 new coach lights installed
Shelves over freezer installed (finally). Now for the hard part of actually going through all the stuff sitting on the basement floor.
Materials for the next project: 1 door frame and several window ledges. The list is getting shorter.....

The Worst Camping Trip. Ever.

Thursday after swim lessons ended, we drove our groaning car to Cuivre River State Park for some good camping fun. I love love camping and John mainly like likes camping. But, we both were excited about experiencing William's first camping trip. John had Friday off of work, the temperatures weren't supposed to be super hot, there was only a 40% chance of rain, and campsites were available at the state park half an hour away from our house. Should be a good time, right?

To start off, I thought I should fill some of you in about the Things I love about camping (this is for those of you who consider camping to be staying at a Motel 6):

-waking up in the cool morning air -realizing I don't have anywhere else to be and snuggling down into my sleeping bag to enjoy the sounds of the morning.
-Waking up together as a family in the same tent. Taking it slow in the morning and talking, snuggling, and really enjoying each other's company.
-The sounds: the wind in the trees, the birds, the crackling fire, the waves hitting the beach
-Hiking the trails with our camera
-Cooking outside
-Eating a lot more junk food than usual (I don't think it is physically possible for us to camp without eating an entire bag of marshmallows per evening)
-Hot chocolate and oatmeal in the mornings
-Being away from everything and spending time together as a family without worrying about: bills, lawn mowing, garbage schedules, laundry, or expiration dates of items in the fridge.
-Hiking socks - I don't know why. They just make my day.


That being said, there are a lot of things I don't love about camping. Mainly, it is a lot of work to get all the stuff you need together and bugs. I know I'm supposed to be a science teacher, but I hate bugs.

So, we drove to the state park and arrived later than planned (I almost always arrive later than planned, it is part of what makes me so attractive). It was almost an hour and a half past dinner time and people were getting crabby. On the way into the park, we decided that dinner was the priority and after that we would focus on setting up camp. We checked in, picked a sweet site near (but not too near) the bathrooms and water and began scrambling around with dinner. Here is where the comedy begins:

-We packed hamburgers to grill on our camping grill. John got everything set up while I chased William. After much grumbling, I went over to find that our propane tank was empty. Which meant no hamburgers.

-But! Wait! No problem! We also packed our lightweight backpacking campstove and we had a number of dehydrated meals options to choose from. So I got William out of the cooking area and went to pay for our campsite. John met me on the road to inform me the last time we bought fuel for the cookstove, we bought the wrong type of canister and the cookstove would not connect to the fuel. Which meant no dehydrated meals.

-It is now almost 8pm and it is starting to get dark. An evening walk along the beach or an exhuastive trip to the camp playground plans were starting to fade. John decided to run to a gas station just outside of the park to see if they have any fuel that will work with either our stove/grill. It is about a 45 minute round trip drive, so William and I stay behind to set up the tent.

-Our tent is super easy to set up. With two people working together. With one person working and the other person pulling the tent poles out or pushing them over, it is an extremely difficult tent to set up. What usually is a 8 minute job took me over 40 minutes to complete. Without attaching the rain fly or staking the tent (forshadowing).

-John returned with fuel (YAY!) and I decide to feed William a banana to delay the hunger induced temper tantrum that has to be just around the corner any minute. Surprisingly, John and I are the ones who are suffering from the hungry crabbiness. We are sniping at each other and trying to hold it together long enough to get food on (the very dirty) picnic table. Surely, once we have food in us, the situation will become humorous instead of horrible. William is more than happy to wander around the campsite and poke the same stick into the same dirt patch over and over again for hours on end.

-On the way back to the campsite, John thought he saw lightning in the distance and to be safe, he grabbed the weather radio out of the car and set it up while he was cooking. Within two minutes, the weather radio was blaring a severe thunderstorm warning with winds in excess of 60 miles per hour. At that point, we started moving a little quicker around the campsite. We put away stuff we were using and weighted down other items - all the while trying to will the hamburgers to cook quicker.

-Within 5 minutes (probably less), the wind around us really picked up. Things started blowing away (like the tent and tarp, in two different directions). Thirty seconds later it was raining. Raining hard and dark because of the clouds and the sun going down. We tossed William in the car to "drive" and threw as much of our stuff into the back of the truck as fast as we could. Everything was soaked, including the tent because it didn't have the rain fly up yet. The car was full of bugs that are forever present at dusk, attracted to the lights in the back of the truck.

-Notice we haven't had anything to eat yet? I fed William a every popular breakfast bar in the car while John attempted to keep the grill going long enough to cook our burgers. It was now after 8:30pm.

-Soon, the burgers were done and there was a mad scramble around in the car trying to find plates and other condiments to eat out of. Everything was wet and a MESS from being blown around not to mention it was no longer organized at ALL. John got a plate, William and I shared a pot lid.

-As we ate and the weather raged around us in the truck (William's comment: "Raining?" Yep, sure is), John and I discussed our options. It was now dark. Everything that was outside is now VERY wet. Given it stopped raining, it was going to be difficult to set up camp in the dark with a busy 19 month old toddler in tow. The rain showed no signs of slowing and our weather radio voices promised several hours of lightning/thunder/small hail/winds into the night. Disappointed, we decided it was time to drive home.

Recap for the lazy reader: We tried to camp. Stuff went wrong. We went home.

Throughout the whole ordeal, William was perfect. He needed a lot of reminders to not climb things like the fire pits or picnic tables or not to wander off into the brush that was taller than him. Other than those reminders, he was very well behaved and happy to roll with whatever was dealt to us. We got home close to an hour after bedtime and I noticed William was filthy. Filthy is fine for tent camping. But, not for crib sleeping. So, into the tub he went (very happily, I might add) and then down to sleep.

All in all it totally stunk, but I think we have a better idea about what will work next time. It can only get better right?



**I would include a picture here, but I didn't even take any pictures - we were too busy running around!

Loose Ends

We are heading into a busy weekend and I'm afraid if I don't get to this now, it will be quite some time. For those of you holding your breath on the edge of your seats, I don't have any new clues about our next project. You'll have to wait until at least next week for that one. In order to efficiently address everything, bullet points is going to be the name of the game tonight:

-Saturday on the Chair- on Sunday evening, William and I were hanging out outside "riding" his bike. I use the term riding loosely because he calls it riding. I call it more like "sitting on the bike and hoping it will roll a few inches down the driveway". A small difference in vocabulary or possibly I'm already unhip enough to not understand the current trend in toddler slang. Anyhow, we were enjoying the cooler weather and the riding of the bike when something unmistakable happened. Please note, I'm about to embarrass my child and scar him for life by sharing this with you. William's face turned red and he made several noises that are reserved only for when he soils his diaper. At this point, it was clear that we needed to go inside and take care of the dirty diaper. Because it was getting late in the evening, I also made the exectuative decision once we were inside that it was now bathtime (because I'm in charge and I can do that kind of stuff), even if it was a little early. I started running the water and pulling out the things we use for a bath (towels, soaps, TOYS, etc) and put William on the small potty chair that currently lives in the bathroom. Up until this point, William has enjoyed sitting on the chair for an average of .00263546874 seconds per bathroom visits. The rest of the time he spends standing on it, putting toys in it and pulling them out again, and tipping it over. This time, he sat and thoughtfully looked at the ceiling. "Go potty" he commented conversationally. "Yes I replied, go potty please." He sat for a few seconds longer and then stood up and ran over to the bathtub. I sighed and glanced behind me and noticed.....he actually went. He went potty in the potty chair. Wild cheering followed by excited phone calls filled the rest of the evening. A quick note though: it is wise to learn how to empty the potty chair before there is actually anything in it. Also noted: although he has sat on the potty many more times since Sunday, we have not had a repeat performance - which was not expected anyway. But a mama can hope.

-Mom/Daddy: Over the last few weeks there has been a pretty big change in how William addresses us. At first I just assumed it was a fluke, but it appears to be more than that. William has started calling me Mom. Not the sugary sweet "Mommy" of the preschool/kindergarten set, but straight to the adultlike "Mom". John is luckier in that he has moved from the sweet baby-ish Dada to the "Daddy". What brought this on? I don't know - but I sure would like to be Mama again.
* Just for kicks the other day when we were driving to our swimming lessons, I asked William "Where is John?" William looked at me for a brief second and pointed at John saying "Daddy". Like duh, mom.

-Pretend Play- Oh how exciting! One of my very favorite things is starting to show up! Imagination and creative play! Observed in the last week:

1. A piece of corn chugga-chugga-choo-chooing its way around William's plate at dinner.
2. A long piece of play-doh turning into a hissing, slithering snake during our play time.
3. Pretend sleeping complete with actual fake snoring.
4. Pretending to eat plastic food - pretending to put it in his mouth instead of actually putting it in his mouth. I was so excited, I almost cried.
5. More enthusiasm for the little pe0ple and their animals - complete with cute barnyard noises.

-The big Helper- In the last week, William has really worked to become a big helper. He brings thing to me when I ask about 25% of the time - which is a 100% increase from before. He also has really liked helping me unload the top rack of the dishwasher* and holding things for me when we go up the stairs. He is so cute with a very proud look on his face when he knows he is helping! We're working on more ways for him to help around the house - John has vetoed letting him run the weed wacker so far.

*Note to self: William can open the dishwasher door by himself and has "helpfully" unloaded the dirty dishes onto the kitchen floor more than once. Need to rethink how "helpful" teaching him this task actually is.


Tomorrow brings us to our last session of swimming classes. William is hoping they'll let him dive off the high dive or teach him how to scuba dive. Tomorrow evening we are going to take a big adventure to a nearby state park to attempt overnight camping. In a tent. With a baby who doesn't sleep unless he is confined by bars of some kind. Yes, in fact, we are crazy. Friday evening the Grandparents McGarry arrive. So, we will be busy. Pictures/stories/updates will follow at the earliest on Monday evening or Tuesday afternoon.