A little bit of this…little bit of that

Finally, I am sitting and have some time to kill and the desire to blog! All three haven’t happened in awhile so I’ll take a little time and do an old fashioned update.

What’s new with our little guy? Well, I blogged about his walking. That was pretty huge. Walking also means falling. And we have done plenty of that! Twice in the same week (the week he first started walking) he fell really hard at school and had a big swollen lip. I never got a picture of it because he was fragile at the time and wouldn’t let me put him down long enough for a pic. In the pic below you can see the after math. The lip finally shrunk back to normal and he had just skinned it up. I can’t for the life of me figure out what he hit it on. It was the weirdest thing to see him with a big, fat lip!Taking a picture of the boy is increasingly difficult. He’s mobile. And he doesn’t really care if I document his every little move. So, I try. I am amazed at the great professional pictures our photographer gets of him. How does she do that? On this particular day below, he was drooling…a lot. I don’t know why because I don’t think he was teething. The doctor said it should be awhile before he gets anymore teeth since he has the top and bottom 4. Who knows. Trap him in a highchair – that’s one way to get a pic! Of course it is open-mouthed and there is some food in it, sorry! I haven’t weighed him, but I think he is definitely gaining weight. He’s got a belly! A cute belly. Still skinny in the arms and legs, though. But his pants are staying on a little better thanks to the belly! If they have them, he is wearing 9 month pants. If they don’t he is in the 6-12 month pants. Luckily one brand has the adjustable waist, which works nicely.The kid is a picky eater, go figure. I still can’t get him to eat much meat at all. Except hot dogs. Does that count as meat? Funny though, they tell me at school he eats great and eats almost everything. Maybe he’s just messing with me? Or maybe it is peer pressure. Ugh. I don’t know. He does love him some mac ‘n cheese! What’s not to love about that? Messy, too! Wagon rides! We LOVE wagon rides in this house! He will freak out when he sees the wagon. He wants in it pronto. I really enjoy when daddy is able to go with us, too. Fun times! When I take him by myself on my days off it is a good workout! Those stupid hills that I used have to run up for boot camp come in handy for walks. It is quite a workout pulling a kid in a wagon up a hill! Yes, I am a boot camp drop out. I am not proud. But, I have some good reasons…sort of. I got sick and couldn’t breath one week and then I was working a ton. Oh well. It was a good motivator and helped me finally get back into my old jeans. Mission accomplished. Now I just have to figure out how to stay in them on my own. More wagon rides! Timid. Our child is timid. Kevin and I both really hoped he wouldn’t be anything like us in that regard. But, really? He’s our child and we were both horribly timid as kids. I still am to some degree. He just isn’t quite sure about new experiences…or new people. Here is a picture of him unsure of the grass. I keep putting him on it hoping he’ll get used to it. Ha! We are trying to work through the fear of strangers thing. I think it partly just his age. He loves people that he’s used to. He gets excited to see his teacher in the morning when I drop him off. However, they tell me he doesn’t do well with subs that he doesn’t know. He now also freaks out when we try to take him to the nursery at church. Like they have to peel him off of me. I hate that. It breaks my heart. I am glad he at least does go to school because if he didn’t, he might really have a hard time with people. Maybe it is just a phase. I’m hoping. Bath time! Daddy is in charge of bath time most days. Daddy is not so gentle with the water! I try not to get it in his face, but daddy says he’s tough! This picture makes me laugh. Sweet boy looking up at his daddy. He loves his daddy! Look mom! No hands!!

Spending some time with G.J. watching the Rangers! Unfortunately the outcome was not good. Luckily he was asleep for the bad part! This morning I was doing something in the other room and found him like this. He had found his snack thing in his diaper bag and decided to pull out every single piece of snack in there! Then he was eating them off the floor. Yummy!

Will is really just funny these days. He keeps us entertained! We enjoy seeing his funny personality more and more. What a cutie! I love when he teases us and plays with us. He does his own version of peek a boo. He ducks below the coffee table and pops up! Hilarious! We also are starting to see his feisty side. He is testing some boundaries and exploring this world and doesn’t like to not get his way. When he’s really tired and restless he sometimes seems to attack me! He’ll pull my hair out of frustration. He also pulls his hair out of frustration – so strange! I guess that is his method of venting! It hurts, though! He continues to be fairly low maintenance, though. He still sleeps great and plays well. He’s still in a pretty clingy phase, but it isn’t so bad. Most of the time I don’t mind. Occasionally a momma needs some space, though! We love this kid so stinkin’ much! Life is so fun with him around and he continues to surprise us and challenge us. And that’s a little of this and a little of that for today!

The Walking Update

Well, Will has made some serious walking progress in a very short amount of time. The last video I posted was the first time we had ever seen him let go and take off walking. We had seen him take a step or two between the coffee table/couch, etc. but had never seen him just let go and take off. Well that was definitely the beginning of the walking phase. In the last two weeks he has become fairly comfortable with walking and seems to prefer walking. He'll still crawl on occasion (when he needs to get somewhere fast) but he really walks more than crawls. We're still working on uneven surfaces outside but inside, he does pretty well. I can't believe how quickly it happened. I don't know why I'm surprised, it is the same as always. He waits until he is absolutely positively ready and then he's a champ.

Here is a video of him walking. Kevin calls it the e trade baby video. He loves our phones, of course. I give in and let him play with it from time to time and shouldn't because he did something and messed up my settings and I can't figure out how to get them back! Oh, well.

Oh, and for the record, he still does the one foot, one knee crawl. I really thought he would eventually do a traditional crawl, but he didn't! Funny kid.

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins!!

I’m back! I know, it has been awhile. My Oct 15th deadline was a little hairy and things were a little chaotic around here. But we’re back in business. I’m back to my part-time schedule and working a lot for those 2 weeks made me really appreciate how good I have it with my job. It also allows me to really stop and enjoy the down time. I’m thankful to be able to have a bit of the best of both worlds.

So today, we talked daddy into taking the day off with us! This morning we had a blast at the Dallas Arboretum seeing all the pumpkins! I had never been when the pumpkins were out and it was quite a treat. I had never seen so many pumpkins in my life! We took tons of pictures, of course. Believe it or not, this is just a few…

There was so much going on and so much to see and lots of school kids, so we had a hard time getting many smiling pics of Will. Didn’t stop us from trying!

Maybe I’ll just taste this one…

Daddy…let’s go this way! It is still so funny seeing him walking. I’ll post more on that separately.

There were a bunch of pumpkin houses that each had a theme. It was really cool.

Does Kevin look like a daddy here, or what? Diaper bag, camera bag, pushing a stroller? Funny! This was a beautiful spot, the crepe myrtles covered this walk way and there were water fountains at the end of it.

Will loved all the fountains. He got very excited and would really start jabbering when he saw them. He really wanted to get in. Daddy finally let him put a hand in. He seemed satisfied.

Yay fall and yay for a beautiful day and beautiful place to walk around. Will was worn out after all of that and is taking a nap right now. I’m thinking I could do the same! I’ll do some blog catching up soon! Have a good weekend!

One Year Stats

Here I am again – way behind on blogging. Things are pretty busy at work right now, so blogging is going to have to wait. Only two more weeks and then I go back to my schedule that I love so much! And – we’ll get to enjoy the fall weather! I love this time of year.

I have been horrible at taking pictures the last few weeks. Not a ton has happened except the exciting first steps (see video below). Other than that, everything has been good and we are just trying to get through my busy time at work.

We went to the doctor on the 22nd and Will is healthy, as always. He is skinny, though. I had noticed he had really slimmed down and was shocked when they weighed him. He’s only gained 1 lb in 3 mos. He’s grown several inches, though. The doctor wasn’t worried at all – thank goodness. He is storing fat in the right places, so no need to be alarmed. He’s just going to be long and lean it seems. (Which makes finding pants that fit a pain). We are struggling a little bit with eating. He’s a bit finicky. Part of that is just him being his age and let’s be honest - I tend to be the queen of finicky, so he probably doesn’t have a chance. My mom thinks it is funny – pay backs.

We are completely off formula! Yippie! Like seriously – yippie! No more formula…no more bottles! Oh happy day! A) it saves us $ B) no more bottle washing C) it saves us $! I was slightly worried when they weighed him that they’d make us keep on it, but he said it was very okay to switch to whole milk. And right now milk is cheap! I was shocked at how easily Will transitioned off the formula and the bottle. He is a champion sippy cup user now – even the hard tops. It took a little time, but he caught on like he always does.

Here are the stats:

Weight: 18.7lbs (less than 3%)

Height: 30.25” (60%)

Head: 45.2 (20%)

I should have his one year pics to post soon. Oh, and I am pretty sure we are going to get his hair cut tomorrow. Sniff sniff. But as much as I have wanted to wait – he has ventured into ghetto. The hair is looking rough. Especially in the back. And it only looks decent right after a bath when it is freshly combed. It is time. :(

Steps!!

So today it finally happened and believe it or not - we caught it on video! He took his first steps completely on his own today. Over the last week he's really been pushing his toys around and walking really well holding our fingers. This evening Kevin and I had him going back and forth between us in the hallway where it is carpeted. He did really well and would take 2-3 steps coming to us. Then I decided I wanted to video him pushing his toys around and I guess he decided he wanted the camera. So he came after me without any prompting! Kevin and I both looked at each other shocked - did that just happen? He continues to surprise us over and over again. He does things in his own time and there is nothing wrong with that. (And Kevin would say that he is just like me in that regard - I'll do it when I'm ready!). We are so proud of the little guy and are so pumped we have this video! Yay Will Ryan!!