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)

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....