15 Months Old

Today Will is 15 months old, but I didn't think about taking pictures until he was heading to bed (without a bath), so maybe we'll try for some later this week. Will's mom is stressed beyond belief at work right now, so not a lot of time at home for pictures. But, I did come home early on Friday and met the guys at the park by the train station, because it looked cooler than the one by our house. It was! In addition to this train that was fun to climb on, we got to stop and point at the REAL trains that went by every so often. And the slide was much slicker, so Will flew down! And he was ok with that!

Swings were fun, too. He grabbed the sunscreen out of his bag and enjoyed carrying it around the playground. After playing, we rounded out a great Friday night with pizza and watermelon for dinner! Lots of fun for the whole family!

This month has been one of our best (absent the work interruptions)! We have been out for Sunday brunch twice where Will has been a great guest. We even got a lovely compliment from a woman today that "you wouldn't even know he was there" he was so nicely behaved. We've also tried to start a tradition of Sunday afternoon family swims at the health club. We missed today, but I sure hope we go next week. My dad used to take me and my brother to the YMCA on Sundays when we were kids.

Communication is really improving. Will can shake his head "yes" and "no," and he's very good about pointing out what he wants and knowing where to find things to just show us what he wants. He's still not saying many words that we understand, but he says a lot of things, and he understands a ton! He's very familiar with our routines and the words/actions in daily life. He's also very silly and loves to giggle. We love that, too!

Accident Reports

Since Will joined the Toddler Room he has received an average of one accident report per day. I say "average" because some days there are none and somedays there are two. Yesterday was a two-fer.

Report one was a pinch to the cheek by another kid (he remained unnamed) that left a mark on his face. It was gone by the time he got home.

Report two was falling outside on the playground and skinning his knee. It wasn't bad from what I saw of it at home, but he did get a band-aid. His first?! Not sure; it was off by the time he got home.

Other common accidents involve falling down -whether off/against/into/out of something. I guess those are just the perils of toddler-hood. He's always running off somewhere or climbing into something, so it happens at home, too. Luckily so far everything has been very minor. Fingers crossed that continues!

We can't keep him confined to our arms/chair/stroller/swing all of the time!

(UPDATE: Friday's accident report: "While playing in the sandbox, Will took a toy from another child. That child got mad and bit Will on the arm." Yes, teeth marks on the forearm. Geesh.)

Maddie

This picture is from last weekend when Will was devouring his mac 'n cheese lunch after his LONG nap. Not his most attractive, but pretty funny. Notice the fuzzy bed head.

But, really I just needed a picture to post with this story: Will has his first girlfriend! :-)

I took an early train home yesterday so I could see Will in his Toddler Room playing with his new friends. There was only one little girl left when we got there - the teacher's daughter, Maddie. She is 9 days older than Will and could be his twin sister. They're the same size with matching thin hair mullets! :-) Ms. Mandy told us the two of them love to play together and Maddie gives Will hugs. Now his (second) accident report from Tuesday makes so much more sense. . . ."While hugging another child, both kids fell down and Will hit the right side of his forehead on the carpet." Hilarious! It would have been funnier had he not received four accident reports this week. . . .

Maddie says a few words, so hopefully she'll help Will with his language skills. He has, however, shown us his newest nonverbal sign: shaking his head "yes." He looks like Jeannie from "I Dream of Jeannie" with one big head nod. Oh my goodness it's so cute!

Saturday Slide

This afternoon before dinner we loaded up the wagon and headed over to the elementary school to play. I didn't get a picture on the walk over, but Will loves his wagon -- particularly its versatility. He switches between the seats at least a dozen times on each trip!

Lots and lots of mulch to play with!
Down the slide!

And back up!

Will has mastered the slide he has at home and the ones at daycare, so we finally let him go down the big slide at the playground. He was very eager to go down, but every time he used his elbows to slow himself down. We only stayed for a short time because it's still steamy and sticky hot, but Will did get progressively better with keeping his elbows/arms up each trip down. And, although he wanted to climb up, he couldn't make it very far. Good try though!

So Big!

In Will's book, "What Does Baby Do?" one of the questions is "How big is baby?" And then you flip up a flap of a little boy with his arms raised saying "So Big!" Well, Will has mastered that one this past week and we love to get him to do it (even without the book). He's in the process of that here. We like to think he's also practicing for football season. . . Touchdown! Striking a pose! Actually, I cropped myself out of this picture, but we were "dancing" while Jason took the picture. Will's got some Happy Feet - just like the little penguin in the movie. He hasn't seen the movie, but that's exactly what came to mind when I watched him dance it up the other day. Behind him you may notice the crib dust ruffle dragging on the floor. We moved his mattress to the lowest level since he's such a good climber and also now likes to hang out in his crib when he wakes up (reading his books or playing with his Glow Worm seahorse) instead of crying for us right away.Well, a baby in a diaper with a pacifier isn't all that grown up looking, but check out that smile in his eyes! Plus, last I saw that truck before this picture, it was in the living room and the Cabbage Patch Koosa was riding in it. So, he managed to get Reginale out and himself in and the truck moved. . .that's some talent

A Boy and His Dog (Again)

Playing together:

Resting together:

And you've already seen many examples of them eating together!

Shark Attack!

Seriously, this kid's teeth seem as numerous (and definitely as sharp) as a shark's! These pictures are just to demonstrate this Will does have almost a full sell of teeth now. Just tonight I noticed the sharp point of his upper left canine cutting through the gums. Sadly, it was making Will's gums bleed. Thank goodness for cold milk and soothing pacifiers. Happy little guy multitasking with "his" Treo on Sunday morning. The funniest thing he did that morning was climb up onto his slide while I was picking up in the other room. When I peeked around the corner at him, there he was sitting at the top of the slide (gasp!) - waiting for me to come hold his hands to go down (thank goodness)! Oh right, the funny part. . . he was holding my Treo in his hand and held it as he took a few turns down the slide.

Will likes to dress like a dapper young fellow when he goes to daycare. He's got his eye on a few of the older ladies in the toddler room! Actually, he has outgrown most of his 12 month shirts and almost all of his 18 month shirts are polo shirts. I need to get him more t-shirts since I just realized he has 2 pair of jeans but 5 pair of sweatpants for this fall. Actually, I want to remember that his 12 month shorts sag down on his narrow hips and his 12 month shirts don't cover his exposed diaper. So, we've moved up to 18 month shirts but are sticking with 12 month pants for the rest of summer and fall.

Will's Summer Sunday

Here's how Will spent his Sunday:

8:30: Wake-up and give Mommy hugs and kisses.
8:40-8:50: Eat cantelope in high chair while watching Mommy make blueberry pancakes.
8:50-9:05: Eat blueberry pancakes.
9:05-9:30: Play with Mommy and Rachel, whine and rub eyes
9:30-9:45: Read books and snuggle with Mommy
9:45-2:45: Nap, nap, and more nap
2:45-3:00: Devour mac 'n cheese, peas, peaches and mango
3:00-3:15: Afternoon bath
3:15-4:00: Read books, play with toys, start whining and rubbing eyes again
4:00-5:45: Go to Target and Dairy Queen with Mommy and Daddy
5:45-6:00: Help Mommy eat Blizzard on our front porch, wait for Daddy to get wagon ready
6:00-6:30: Wagon ride and dog walk around the neighborhood
6:30-7:00: Appetizers (goldfish) and dinner (Spanish rice, baked sweet potatoes, banana, milk)
7:00-7:30: Play with Daddy and get ready for bed

This past week he was fully transitioned into the toddler room. He's been having some trouble separating from Jason in the mornings, but we're trying to take it all in stride. Some days he napped 12-3 and had to be woken up; other days he only napped 90 minutes. I was expecting a big nap (or two medium ones) today, but I didn't expect 5 hours straight through lunch!

Eating with a Fork and Spoon

Again, not sure why I didn't think of it sooner, but it finally dawned on me that Will should try using a fork. He likes forks! Especially teething on the plastic handle! :-) Usually he holds his spoon in one hand and scoops yogurt with the other. Early indications are we have another lefty in the family. Oh, and see the bruise over his right eye? Good Mommy and Daddy took Will swimming; bad Mommy and Daddy didn't account for slick tile in the locker room.

Spearing carrots with his fork
Yogurt with a spoon and a smile!
Licking the bowl

Licking the baby

(Be sure to notice the yogurt on Rachel's nose)

Hometown Tour

On the Saturday of Darcy's visit, we stayed closer to home and just went to see the various "stuff" that our local community has to offer in its downtown, which has its own famed Riverwalk. You can see one of the many covered bridges (pedestrian only) behind me and Will. You can also the raging river; it's been raining a lot here recently.

Did you say "cheese" or "Cheez It?"
Paddle boats for rent
Carillion bell tower
It was playing while we were there so we didn't walk up for a tour; I thought it would be too loud on Will's ears from the inside (and that he would be too heavy for me to carry up 500 steps)!


Centennial Beach - the city swimming pool
It's an old rock quarry that has been the pool for 75 years. It has the sand beach play area and a shallow area that eases into the bigger pool, so it's nice for kids. We went once earlier this summer, but the water was a little cool still so we didn't stay long.

For dinner that night, we discovered a great restaurant called Hugo's Frog Bar. It's not new; just new to us! It was just a girls dinner out, since Jason volunteered to stay home with the sleeping baby. It was the perfect ending to Darcy's great visit!

Chicago Architecture Foundation Tour

I think after this blog post that I'm caught up to real time. We had so many fun events in July that I didn't have time to post about them! I'm sure you don't mind. . .

Last weekend my friend Darcy came to visit; it was her first trip to Chicago ever so we had to see as much as possible in the short time she was here!

First up, the Chicago Architecture Foundation's boat tour. There are a lot of river and lake tours available, but the CAF tour is supposedly the best! I've been on this one and another, and I do agree this one was awesome!

Trump Tower and Wrigley Building in the background

Marina Towers: from the bottom there is boat parking, restaurants, car parking, and condos.

Wrigley Building

Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) Skydeck "Ledge" boxes demonstrating the awesome zoom on my camera. Can you see the people in there? It's 100+ stories up from the river.

Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower at night

Millenium Park's Bean at night

After our boat tour, we met up with my brother at a sushi restaurant where we all loved the food! However, I forgot that part of our purpose of meeting up with Ryan was the photo op at Wrigley Field and that was missed as we rushed to get a bus back downtown. I did make us stand in line at Garrett's for bags of "caramel crisp," which gave us plenty of energy to do our own walking tour down Michigan Ave. and through Millenium Park at night. I can't remember doing this before, so it was a big treat for me as well. I think I'm usually just heading from place to place and forget to look at the buildings!

Toddler Room Transition

It has been so balmy here that the camera lens fogged up when I turned on the camera. Makes for a neat shot though!

This week we've all been busy at work - especially Will as he tries to juggle his two classrooms of friends: the infants and the toddlers. The past few weeks he has visited the toddlers with his infant teacher, but starting yesterday he joined the toddlers as part of their class for morning activities. Today he stayed through lunch but left to nap in his old room. Tomorrow he stays through nap time. By Friday he is supposed to spend the entire day and on Monday we take him directly there in the morning.

It was fun to get two report cards today and see the difference. The toddler one had different sections than we were used which was fun. Ones like "my attitude today was," "I used my ears for listening" and "I participated in circle time."

I'm hoping his language skills will take off with other kids talking more. He's been making a lot more noise recently, so I feel like more "real" words should be coming. He repeats our sounds(vroooom, vrooom) but won't parrot words back at us. He has mastered Da-DA though. He and Jason practice that one a lot in the car, and it has the huge emphasis on the second part. It's pretty funny!

14 Months Old

Will has let me know the past few months that he doesn't like sitting for the Froggy pictures. This was the best one we got! It's a good picture of all of those teeth he has though. There are 20 baby teeth that are supposed to come in. He has 10 completely in and between 4 and 6 sprouting since today I noticed that the canine teeth have started to sneak up. He's still pushing out the top and bottom left side molars. I think the last four teeth are the 2-year molars, so we get to wait a little on those hopefully.Hanging out with Momma is much better than sitting in the chair by himself. At least we know how little Froggy is getting and get a great view of those cutie plaid shorts!Will has lots of photo ops throughout the day. He was so clever to push his truck over to his farm and take a seat! At various times he had his feet completely stuffed into the open seat.

The other hilarious thing he did that day was assemble his boppy and a pillow and several blankets on the family room floor so he had a base to read books and lounge. It was hilarious to watch him do this - and then move and rearrange it. He has recently taken a great interest in his books and brings them over to us for reading. He sits himself in our lap and flips the pages. I love this! Although, I have learned the short hand version of reading certain book since he flips those pages so fast. "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" is just a recital of the various animals. We don't get to read the refrain yet.

Destination Kohler

Our summer vacation was a couples getaway up the road to Kohler, Wisconsin (between Milwaukee and Green Bay) where Kohler has a beautiful hotel, spa and golf course along Lake Michigan. The Whistling Straits course is hosting the PGA Championship next weekend. Jason played there on Friday morning and then we went back on Saturday afternoon for a photo op.

The relaxed, happy couple and the view of the 18th green:While Jason was golfing, I enjoyed pampering at the spa with a massage and pedicure. The picture below is of the water spa where guests can relax before and after treatments. Each locker room also had a whirlpool, steam shower, and a cold plunge pool. For couples who wanted to hot tub together, there was a top floor lounge with hot tub and fireplace.

Our room was awesome! The shower had five sprayers! We stayed in the Carriage House which is their more modern building which also houses the spa. The American Club is the main building and where the restaurants are located. In comparison to my Moto dinner, I only took one food picture: cheese curds at the Horse & Plow restaurant on site! They were delicious! :-)

Kohler factory tours are available each morning but we didn't have time for one. I did enjoy taking lots of pictures of this clock tower from difference parts of the resort and at various times of day.