Handy Will

What a sweet face! This one is my new screen saver! You'll notice Will continues to sport a band-aid over his scratched up mosquito bite. He is really attached to the band-aids, but he also broke it open through scratching several days last week. Last night he wanted a replacement band-aid after I took this one off in his bath, so we put it on his other cheek (yes, seriously) so the other cheek could air out. We spent Sunday doing outside chores. It was beautiful outside in the yard - especially in the shade. We put Rachel on a leash around the tree and Will helped pick up the tree and bush trimmings. He did a really great job with that, but did eventually get bored. Then he played golf in the front yard while I picked a few more weeds and Jason trimmed the hedges.

You may notice that Will is starting to dress himself. He was very impressed with putting on his own shorts - that he picked - so we came outside to show Daddy. So cute!

The Weekend in Pictures

We brushed our teeth - this new Thomas the Train electric toothbrush has been a hit! We did laundry and picked up the house:

We made blueberry muffins from scratch - and then had to eat them, of course! We colored on construction paper and ourselves: We also took a trip to the zoo with Uncle Ryan! Will didn't seem to have that much fun at the Stingray Bay or Dolphin Show while we were doing them, but he keeps talking about them when we turn on his Baby Einstein aquarium at bedtime since there is both a dolphin and a stingray.

Stingrays: while running his hand over his Pillow Pet dog as an example: "Uncle Ryan touch stingray!"

Dolphins: while doing the wave with his arms "Dolphins jump high! Big splash!"

The Haircut

It was quick; it was painless; it was free! I cut Will's hair on Saturday evening after his bath. It was a last minute decision but I didn't foresee an opportunity to take him to a salon anytime soon thanks to my work schedule (and I didn't want to miss it if Jason took him), so I just put his bath towel over the office chair and Jason distracted him a little while I snipped off the crazy hairs in the back and around his ears. Not too bad.

ABCs

Seriously, every single day Will has started doing something new that I didn't know about! This time it's singing along to his ABCs. He hit the button on his music table on Friday night to start the ABC song and all of the sudden I realize he was chiming in on some of the letters. Wow!

Along that line, we decided to create of our own "back to school" pictures, since I have been enjoying all of my friends' photos as their kids head off to school this year. Will's backpack is full of golf balls, race cars, and other assorted toys. He loves to haul stuff around!

He's sporting a Big Bird band-aid because he's got a mosquito bite that he keeps itching and opening up a scab. The top picture is a good "before" photo of his out of control hair. I didn't see when we'd have time to get him to a hair salon, so I cut it myself on Saturday night. Luckily it turned out fine! I'll post those pictures soon.

Another Cute Picture

I didn't see this one on my phone earlier; I love the excitement on his face as the ducks and geese race across the pond to us!

New milestones:

• First time wiping himself: after sitting on his potty (nothing), Will asked for a wipe, used it, and threw it away. I haven't ever encouraged his involvement in wiping, but since he was wiping away nothing, it was pretty harmless.


• First time putting pants on himself: he put on his loose legged pajama pants completely by himself last night. He tried a tight pair today and got one leg half on before abandoning his efforts. For his other self-dressing attempts, he really wants to do his socks but can't get them stretched out wide enough. He can put his feet into his sandals completely and then just needs them buckled.

He's really stuck on the Rachel biting him story. I heard it about 10 more times tonight complete with his lecture and dismissive hand gestures to the absent Rachel: "Rachel, no bite my hand! No take my sandwich!" Consensus appears to be that since it's the only story in his repertoire that he's got to keep going back to it -- not that he's developed a fear of his dog.

2-2-2-2

Today marks Will's 2 year, 2 month, 2 week and 2 day birthday! We had a great day because we had nothing that had to be done today; we didn't even go swimming. I had flirted with the idea of a trip to the zoo, but I quickly vetoed it. We're all super tired this week because Jason was out of town for work, and I'm in the middle of another tax season. So, we watched golf on TV, made small trips to Target and Sam's Club, fed the ducks in our neighborhood, and played with our own toys at home.

So what is 2-2-2-2 year old Will up to?

• Hair: he's finally ready for a real haircut! Hopefully it will only be a few more weeks before we actually get around to going somewhere to do that.


• Sleeping: we are struggling with getting him to bed early enough. We all have so much fun playing - and get such a late start after work each day - that he's getting to bed at 8 or after instead of the 7:30ish we should be shooting for. A lot of time gets eaten up by a nightly bath, as well, since sweaty summer days require a daily bath.


• Counting: he can rattle off 1-10 (and sometimes does some past that but I don't recognized the words as numbers). He does not correlate those numbers to the number of items or a picture of the number, but he's good at reciting them! A great start!


• Potty training: he loves to sit on his "big potty" (Cars themed) and "little potty" (Baby Bjorn) which we have sitting in his bedroom closet. Not a single drop has ever landed in a potty, but he knows the motions of taking off his pants and diaper and sitting on it. He does it at school 2 or 3 times a day, as well (they have kid sized toilets next to their room). This week he told me twice that he pooped ("I poo, too, Mommy!") and asked me to change his diaper (by laying down on his boppy). However, in both cases he actually just needed to poop, so shortly after I got his new diaper on, he filled it up! Ironically, he didn't admit to having pooped after the fact.


• Talking: all the time, about everything! And he usually repeats things we say. We understand his words well, but the rest of the world needs translation. At school on Tuesday he was telling his teacher about seeing the "trash truck" that morning, and she couldn't get the word trash. But when I translated she said, "oh, you saw the garbage truck," so maybe she wasn't familiar with a trash truck. :-) He loves to use the adjectives big/little and colors to describe things. He's also using the word "heavy" a lot right now. Jason has him saying "awesome," but I've never heard it.


• Memory: he is already recounting old stories to us! Unfortunately the one he keeps telling this week is "Rachel bite my hand, right there." Ummm. . . .so what happened is that while shooting a video of him talking about the thunder on Thursday night, I distracted him and he held his grilled cheese sandwich away from his chair. So, she snagged it. I have video proof that she didn't really "bite" him per se (although her teeth probably snapped his fingers and she definitely got in trouble for being aggressive with him and stealing food).


• Singing: he loves The Wheels on the Bus and The Itsy Bitsy Spider, but, by far his favorite is doing actions to If You're Happy and You Know It. For some reason he thinks these actions should be performed while sitting on ball. It's absoultely hilarious! This is part of his before bed routine, which is one more reason why we can't get the lights out before 8!


• Loving: he's a great hugger and gives us kisses, too. We also hear an "I love you, TOO!" in response to our telling it to him. And we do love him so much!

Just Plain Cute

This picture is worth at least 2,000 words, so I won't write any more! :-)

Well, except to say that regardless of how often he asks to sit on the potty, nothing has ever happened on it.

Snooze

I've been getting to wake-up Will this week, and I couldn't resist a picture of him with all of his "stuff." Unbelievably there is still room for him!

Pizza, Party and the Pool

Wow, weekends go so fast! I only took one photo this weekend - a self-portrait during story time last night. Will was so wired last night - and this was after we let him stay up almost two hours late!!

On Friday I took an early train home and we went to Giordano's for dinner. It made me think of dining out at Pizza Hut when I was a kid! Will and I don't like stuffed pizza all that much, so I had fried zucchini sticks and a salad and he ate a bowl of minestrone soup. Jason gets more leftovers that way!

On Saturday I worked all day and the boys ran errands and played. In the evening we went to our next door neighbor's for their annual summer festival. Will had a great time running around in their yard, so we had a great time sitting on the patio drinking and chatting! Unfortunately, we all came home with lots of mosquito bites - despite the tiki torches and bug spray.

On Sunday we went swimming in the morning and took a long nap in the afternoon. Jason got out more pieces for Will's Thomas the Train starter set (they've been in the box since Christmas) and he played a lot with that this evening. We also used A LOT of stickers and our markers to make cards for Will's Daddy and his Uncle Ryan.

We learned that Will doesn't like thunder anymore. He never liked it, but now he seems a little afraid of it. We're continuing to see such huge developments in his speech and reasoning. The thoughts he's putting together continue to amaze us. This is such a fun age!

Cooking and Eating

The easiest pictures to get of Will these days are when he's eating - or cooking! Here's a few from this weekend. . . .

Saturday's lunch was our farmer's market finds. He's getting more familiar with corn on the cob and actually ate about half of this half-ear. He was not a fan of the turkey bratwurst.
For dinner we made pita pizzas. I minced up yellow squash and mixed it into the pizza sauce. I snuck it past Jason, but Will wasn't interested in the pizza by the time it was cooked. We ate outside, and he was much more interested in birds.

Sunday dinner was after errands that included a trip to Starbucks, so Will is enjoying his ice water and using his straw to scoop yogurt. He loves to scoop! In fact, as I write this, he's using graham crackers to scoop applesauce. The best one was using a slice of cheddar to scoop scrambled eggs earlier this week.