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!

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!

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?

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....

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.

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.