Top 5

Traditional names continues to rule in the "name your baby boy" game. According to a press release today, people aren't as inventive with the naming or the spelling of boy names. We definitely followed that rule! We wanted a traditional name, traditional spelling, let this baby grow up to be an international businessman! This year's top boy names:

1. Jacob (again!)
2. Ethan
3. Michael
4. Alexander
5. William

This kid's already a hard worker! He's definitely CEO material!

(Note: in the interest of full disclosure in case you're questioning a prop baby or prop vacuum in comparison to other vacuuming pics, we do have two. Vacuums, that is.)

Funny Games

Will's favorite activities include unloading the kitchen drawers of plastic cups, lids, and bowls, and spreading them throughout the house. Especially popular is walking around with a sippy cup lid clenched between his teeth. I usually assume he's thirsty and fill up a cup with water and attach the lid, but he's not interested in that game!

I'll have to get a picture of one of his other favorite kitchen games: pulling the Leap Frog magnet game off the fridge and throwing it around on the tile floor.

All Boy

This morning we had a crazy schedule. Will woke up early (5:30) and was really clingy, so I wasn't sure if he wasn't feeling well or just sleepy. We were back in bed for an hour nap by 8:30. When we woke up, we went outside to play where Will beelined for the rock pile. I just sat and snapped pictures, as he was pretty oblivious to me!

Sadly, shortly after the fun in the rocks, Will tripped on the patio and bumped his forehead on the cement. He is sporting a road rash, but he's doing fine. He had a busy, busy day playing with his visiting fans: Grandma Hilary and Uncle Ryan. We were going to all go to the zoo this afternoon, but traffic was bad and the weather looked worse. Instead, we played at the house and took a quick trip to the elementary school playground.

Smiles for Uncle Ryan - even with the bump above his eye

11 Months Old

Well, the second photo attempt went okay. Not our best work. :-) However, much to Onkel Ryan's delight, Will dug his German Easter bunny book out of the downstairs toy box and carried it around all evening. We stopped and flipped through the pictures several times, but his 2 minute attention span and my lack of German language skills didn't get us far!

Hey, Froggy, this Bunny is painting stripes on big eggs. Did he paint you, too?

Ha ha! That's a good one!

This has been a very big month for Will - and, therefore, for us!

• Walking! He went from a few tentative steps 3 weeks ago to walking all the time and everywhere. He was also quick to master walking with his hands full! Rarely is he not carrying at least one thing. Usually it's something in each hand!
• Talking! No, he doesn't really talk except for Mama (although, I swear I've heard "Rachel" several times this week. . but that seems too advanced, so I'm not going to count it yet!) but he is always talking (or screeching) and carries on long conversations with himself and/or us.
• Sleeping! I don't want to jinx myself, but now that we've worked through some teething issues (up to 8 teeth now), he's mostly a reliable sleeper. He goes to bed between 7:30-8 and wakes up between 6 and 7.
• Eating! It's only been a month since we started having him eat the daycare lunches, and he's gone from some and a few to a lot and all. It's still some or none on "weird" stuff, but for the most part he is really taking to new foods and enjoys feeding himself. He has baby food fruit mixed in with baby cereal for breakfast (plain cereal is boring now), and usually another container of baby food veggies for a mid-afternoon snack at school. At home the past few weeks it's mostly finger foods. He'll let us feed him yogurt and applesauce.
• Smiling! Yes, he's generally a happy, laughing baby, although he's prone to separation anxiety and has mini-meltdowns (he sits on his bottom and folds his head and chest over his legs and starts to cry) if he's not happy with the turn of events. Usually it's that I put him down or took something away from him. But when he's laughing, it's contagious!

11 Months - Sort of

This is traditionally the post of Will and Froggy to commemorate another month. But. . . although Froggy was willing to sit nicely and smile for a photo shoot this morning, Mr. Will was not! So, we'll try again tonight! In the mean time, here are some other recent pictures: Will has really started "cheesing" for the camera. He pulls out this smile when the camera is blinking! That's also cheese ravioli on his tray and pasta sauce on his face! Usually he drinks water with meals, but he didn't have much formula yesterday, so I gave him some in a sippy cup. He drank a little but poured most of it on the tray and floor. Good thing we've moved dinner into the kitchen with the tile floor! He was getting too dangerous for the dining room and its tan carpet.

Will experimenting with his new toothbrush. This is his second day with it. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to get him a toothbrush before he had 8 teeth! I was just using a wash cloth previously (when he'd let me). But, he's been getting some stinky baby breath, so I think it's time to move to the toothbrush and also get him to drink more water after meals.

What's for Dinner?

There has been a learning curve with Will's new feeding independence. Somedays he eats a ton; somedays he tries to wiggle out of his chair before I even have any food on the tray. It seems like the days I try to make his something special (cheesy scrambled eggs, cheese quesadila, chicken and steamed carrots, to name a few), he's not interested in eating. And then there's today when he enjoyed the random food I put in front of him: an appetizer of whole wheat goldfish crackers and his main course of toasted frozen waffle smeared with applesauce and a side dish of cubed kiwi fruit. I mean, what sort of mother serves that for dinner?! It's just what was handy and kept him busy while I unloaded the groceries and the dishwasher. The waffles were new. Plain were boring, but once the applesauce was added, he shoveled in the bites. Combining two of Will's favorites: playing with his plastic food containers and looking out the window. And rarely is there something in one hand and not the other; he has to be able to hit them together.

What?! We're not going outside?

Rachel's 9th Birthday

Rachel celebrated her 9th birthday on Saturday the 24th. Unfortunately, she had to celebrate at the kennel since the rest of the family was traveling. :-( But, last night she was finally reunited with her boy and his food! She enjoyed a tasty birthday dinner of chicken and steamed carrots since Will wasn't interested in eating them.

Here she is this afternoon waiting on me to take her for a walk and then relaxing when we got back. She's quite white in the face, but she's as beautiful as always!

I took off last week and this week from work in order to rest up and catch up from the winter tax busy season before I start into the summer tax busy season. We were at my parent's house most of last week, and I'm just finally tackling a few things around the house. I think I need two more weeks to get caught up! It's amazing how little things like dry cleaning and mail stacked up while we were in survival mode during the tax season! Oh, and I'm catching up on my naps and my magazines. Will is going to daycare this week while I'm home so I can get more done. He's a good helper with the vacuuming, but not the paperwork. :-)

A Trip to Kansas

Will said it had been too long since he had been on an airplane, so he talked me into a trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa's in Kansas last week! I was a little worried about flying with him now that he has discovered his "voice" and his feet. . . But, for the most part he was a charming (or sleepy) baby. Jason spent the week in Florida on business, but we did get to carpool to/from the airport together!

Will loved playing with Lucy and Maggie and their toys! Their licks also illicited hysterical laughter.

And Grandpa was tons of fun! Will got to enjoy the view from Grandpa's shoulders; he especially enjoyed hanging on to his hair.

On Friday we roadtripped with my Mom to Kansas State to have lunch with my sorority housemom. And we also hit up Varney's Bookstore for new purple shirts for the whole family. We had a great time!

And, finally, Will decided that since he's enjoying so many new foods recently that he should try some plastic steak, too! :-) Strangely enough, the dogs don't like that toy much!

Will and Joey

Will received a very special gift from his Momma on Saturday: a Cabbage Patch Kid! I picked "Joseph Morli" from my collection as the one that Will gets to have. I assumed that he would love having a "baby" to play with since he's such a people watcher, but so far there hasn't been much interest beyond poking at his eyes! And so far he hasn't actually picked up Joey from the toy box to play. Will just investigates Joey's face if I put the baby in his lap.

And, yes, he has his pacifier in the middle of the day. Tooth #8 is coming in, and the pacifier is helping everyone feel better about that! :-)