Merry Christmas

A Birthday and a Big Boy Bed

This cutie pie turns 16 today.  I can't believe it.

Klein, I am so proud of you.  You are a great (big) little brother and a great uncle to William.  Happy birthday!

In other news, we packed up William's crib today.  This past week, while Patrick was out of town, William decided to start climbing out of his crib.  The first time he did it, it was around 6:30 in the morning.  Apparently he was tired of waiting for me to come get him out of his crib.  I heard a strange noise, then the monitor started beeping (because nobody was in the crib anymore).  As soon as I turned off the monitor, I turned around to see William pushing open the door to my room.  I was so tickled and couldn't believe he had climbed out.  I was hoping it was a one time thing, but the next two nights it happened again.  Only now it was at 1:30, not 6:30 which was not so cute.  There has always been a twin bed in his room, so Saturday we started putting him in there for naps and bedtime.  He seems to like it okay, but getting him to stay in the bed until it's time to get up will take some work.

If you know me well, you know that I like to have a plan.  My plan was to switch to a big boy bed, lose the nunu, and potty train after William turned two.  Now that the bed situation was taken out of my control, I have one less thing to tackle this spring!

LSU Homecoming

Last weekend was the LSU Homecoming game against Western Kentucky.  Part of the homecoming festivities is a lawn decoration (pomp) competition and there is also a homecoming parade.  Most of the sororities host breakfasts for the alums and their families, so we took William this year.  

We didn't make it down the row to look at the other decorations, but Chi O's was pretty great, and they won first place.

 We were able to find a ticket for William for the game, so he got to experience his first Saturday night in Death Valley.   Hopefully it was the first of many!  We couldn't get any decent pictures in the stadium because he was so interested in everything else going on around him.  When Patrick would stand up with him, William would yell "LSU football!"  or "LSU Tigers!"  Now everytime he sees a football, helmet, or someone wearing a purple shirt he yells "LSU!" 

Mississippi

We spent last weekend at the Mississippi camp.  There are lots of things there to entertain boys of all ages.  William enjoyed picking up sticks.  He wanted Patrick to put this one in his pocket, but it was too big.
John Daniel came along, too.  He and Patrick went squirrel hunting and played with fire.  Patrick was not happy about having to put the stump fire out before we left. He was really sad about it.

Doodlebug loves his daddy! 

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!  We celebrated with our little sock monkey (thanks, Lindsay!) by taking him trick or treating down sorority row and around our house.

 

He wanted to eat every piece of candy given to him at first.  We had to remind him to put the candy in the pumpkin.  He isn't quite ready to say "Trick or Treat" or "Thank you" to strangers yet.  Patrick would walk with him up to the houses, and when they'd get back to the wagon he'd tell me, "Halloween, Mama."

 

 His favorite thing about the Halloween season has been the decorations.  The bigger the spider or ghost, the better.  And candy corn, except he calls it (and yellow corn) acorns, just a little overgeneralizing.

 Happy baby, or should I say toddler?!

The First Haircut

After weeks of Patrick asking me about it and too many people assuming William is a girl, I finally caved and took him for a haircut.   This is the before, it was a mess:

William did great.  He had his pick of which chair to sit in, and he chose the yellow taxi.  The place had huge spider decorations on the ceiling and a train table where William would have played all day.  Here is a picture of the during:

Now, I was super nervous about the haircut...I didn't want it to make William look too different or too old, so I asked her to keep it long and shaggy, but clean it up some.  By no means was it a drastic haircut, but it's an improvement.  Baby steps. 

Ta Da!  Below is a profile pic, it still looks kinda long from this angle.  I'm sure it won't be too long before I'll take him back again, but I needed this first trip to get used to the place and the idea that my baby boy is growing up.  I'm still going to put off a real big boy haircut as long as I can!

A New Look

Over the past few weeks, we've been making some home improvements.  First, we had the windows replaced.  I loved the old wooden windows, but some of them were in pretty sad shape, so we decided to go ahead and replace all of them.  After the windows were finished, we decided to have the house repainted.  We went from this:

To this!

I knew I wanted white trim with a light gray house and darker gray shutters with a yellow door.  It took awhile to sell Patrick on the yellow door idea, but now he loves it too.  It took awhile to decide on the actual colors.  Who knew there were so many shades of gray?  I was overwhelmed by the options and we had a deadline, so thankfully Patrick picked out the final colors.  We are really happy with the way it turned out!

18 Months

I took William in for his eighteen month checkup this week.  He weighs 27 lbs 8 oz (90th percentile) and is 34 inches tall (95th percentile).  Everything looks great!

So, what is William like at 18 months?  He loves playing outside and can climb into the playhouse and get himself down the slide.  He also loves to climb back into the car while I'm unloading our bags and act like he's driving...this happens daily.  He's a pretty good eater, if he stops eating then that's my clue that an infection is brewing.  Some of our go to foods are oatmeal, scrambled eggs, spaghetti and watermelon.  Is he a clean eater?  Definitely not.  We are working on the food throwing, but from what I'm hearing it's pretty typical of toddlers.  His vocabulary is growing everyday, and sometimes he'll combine two words, like "Up, Mama" or "Da da bye bye."  The relationship between William and Murtle is also improving.  William likes chasing her around the house, and sometimes Murtle will chase him back.  The other day he took her leash out of the drawer and was trying to put it on her, I guess he wanted to go for a walk! 
I have loved every second of being William's mom, but now that he's entering my favorite age it is so much fun!

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Patrick and I have been tossing around the idea of taking William to the zoo for awhile now.  He's at such a great age and very into animals.  This weekend we actually had no other obligations and the weather was nice so we jumped at the chance to take him to Audubon Zoo.  He loved it!  Our timing couldn't have been better because we made it to nearly every exhibit during their show and feed time.  William wasn't scared of anything.  He touched every animal he could, which included a hedgehog, lizard, skink, snake, sheep, goat, chicken, elephant, beetle, and giraffe.

I think the elephants were his favorite, or at least they were my favorite.  I'm sad I couldn't get a picture of William petting them. 

Not afraid of anything!  He definitely doesn't get that from me.  I nearly lost it in the reptile exhibit when a string on my clothes rubbed me, making me think a poisonous dart frog had gotten out of his cage and jumped on me.

Pops, this picture of the Rue Garou is for you.  He doesn't look so scary here.

Feeding the giraffes.

We all had so much fun and can't wait to go back!

Time flies!

I know it's been said before, but I'll say it again, time and life flies by so fast.  William is growing so much and learning new things every day.  He loves to climb behind the wheel of my car whenever he gets the chance.  When he sees me looking at him he is cracking up laughing, so proud of himself!  This afternoon he got to hang out with our neighbor, who taught him how to push a lawnmower and hold the blower.  Unfortunately, he'll probably be tired of those chores by the time he's actually old enough to do them!

The weather was nice this weekend, not miserably hot in the mornings so we were able to go for a few walks.  Poor Murtle got too tired and hopped in the basket of the stroller for the last part of the walk.  

 

On another note, we are so excited football season is here!  I've been trying to get William to say "Go Tigers", but we aren't there yet.  I know he'll have it down before the season is over!

Quality Time

Knowing that I go back to work Monday, I have really wanted to spend some quality time with my little family.  Thursday afternoon it actually felt fairly comfortable in the shade, so I pulled out William's sprinkler for some outside time.  Here he is trying to catch the water.  He also enjoyed trying to drink from the sprinkler.

I'm including this next picture to document William's eye color.  I cannot believe they are still blue!  I am so thankful for my mom's blue eyes which means I have the recessive blue eye gene that showed up in William, yay!  If you look closely, you can see he has a brown line in his left eye.  This first showed up when he was about 3 months old and I just knew it meant the whole eye was turning brown, but it really hasn't changed since then.  I read somewhere that it is hereditary, somebody way back in our families must have had a similar mark.  According to my friend, Lindsay, in ancient times it meant you were destined for greatness, which of course William is.

My parents and brothers came in for a visit Friday afternoon.  Patrick and Rachel met us for dinner, and it was great to have all of us together.  We need to do it again soon!
Look how happy he is bringing sticks to his dad!  I think his camouflage boots go perfectly with the monogrammed seersucker jon jon, don't you?

And this hair...how could we possibly cut it?  I know that when the colder weather comes around it'll stop curling up and at that point we'll have to cut it, but I'm not touching it until then.  I love the curls!

This next picture is my favorite from today.  It was taken as I was taking off the camera, but I love the expression it captured of my sweet baby boy.

The original plan for today was to take William to see the hot air balloons at Pennington.  They flew right over the house Friday morning and he has been looking for them in the sky ever since.  However, we had a storm come through Friday night which cancelled the balloon festivities for today, so instead we hit up the downtown farmer's market and the new water park in town.  The water slides were a hit!      

Dog Days of Summer

Going Night Night

It is HOT!  I am a huge fan of summertime, but the weather lately is a little unfortunate.  It's either raining or too hot to go outside and play, which means lots of indoor playtime for the doodlebug.   

William has been hanging out at daycare during the day.  If I can get him there early enough, he gets some playtime outside on the deck with his friends.  Unfortunately, several of his friends are going through a biting phase and William ends up being the victim.  I hate that he's getting bit, and I'm really scared that he's going to learn to bite, but thankfully that hasn't happened so far. 

William has also started climbing.  Here he is attempting to climb the stairs up to the loft.  Luckily, he only gets up about one step before we stop him.  He thinks it's hilarious to climb up the stairs or onto the coffee table.  I have to admit, it's pretty cute so telling him "No" with a straight face is difficult!

Happy Birthday, Dada!

Happy birthday to my favorite playmate!  Thanks so much for playing with me, bathing me, putting me to bed and ALL other things that you do. 

Love, William & Murtle

Destin

We were fortunate enough to spend last week in Destin.  I love a good beach, it's my happy place.  Addie, Patrick's grandmother, started taking the family years ago and Ms. Lynn is keeping up the tradition.  Lots of extended family makes the trip as well, so it's a great chance to catch up with everyone.  There is a group of little girls a year older than William, and I love watching them for hints of what he'll be like the next year.  I think next year the group will grow even more with my family and the Klines.   

William loved to be in the water, the pool especially.  The sand didn't seem to bother him, but the heat did.  We ended up at an urgent care clinic towards the end of the week, but for once the ears were clear, only this time it was the tonsils!  After a few doses of antibiotic he was in much better spirits.  He loved watching the big boats and airplanes on the beach.  He kept calling the para-sails "moon"!

I was terrible at taking pictures on the trip.  The first time I brought my camera to the beach William wasn't into being outside.  The second time he was much happier, but I got impatient waiting for the camera to adjust to the heat and put it away before it was ready.  I need to get over trying to take really good pictures and just take something!

15 Months

Playing in Pops' and Grandy's boat

It seems like our summer has been super busy.  I finally took William in for his 15 month check up with the pediatrician today.  William is 32 1/2 inches tall and weighs 26 pounds, both measurements are in the 90-95 percentile, and the pediatrician is pleased with his growth curve.  Developmentally, he only expects about 3 words from a 15 month old and by my count William has over 2 dozen, although his favorites and most frequently used are Dada, Murtle, truck (big truck!), helicopter, and tractor.  As a speech language pathologist, William's communication skills are something I really worry about, especially with his frequent ear infections, so I'm so happy he seems to be on track. 

We spent the week in Grand Isle with Grandy a few weeks ago and it was great.  I think we'll have to make in an annual event!  William loved playing in the boat and listening for and seeing the helicopters fly over the camp.  Without the fun parent (Patrick) there, I had to step up and venture into the water with William.  However, William quickly realized Grandy was even more fun, so I was very thankful for her willingness to help entertain the Doodlebug. 

Playing in the pool on the camp deck

 We've also squeezed in William's one year pictures (I was holding out for the fantastic photographer in our family) and a much needed visit with Granna and Honey.   Next up is a week in Destin!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Patrick, Dad/Honey, and Mr. Chris/Pops!  You are all great fathers and we love you with all our hearts!

Summer is here!

Finally, it's summertime!  I've spent the past two weeks adjusting to our new summer routine.  William is still going to daycare for a few hours every day.  Every time I say that I feel like I need to justify it:  we have to pay whether he goes or not, and he needs the consistency.  He switched to a new room last week and he seems to be doing well.  His teacher learned quickly that giving him a ball is the key to distracting him so I can leave!  He should stay with this teacher for the next two years, I think, and William seems to like her.  She's been working with children for 30+ years and seems super nice, so I'm happy. 

I am so thankful that he is learning to talk!  I started making a list of his words and I think he has about 20 that Patrick and I can understand.  His favorite things right now are cars, tractors, helicopters, and trucks.  He loves loves loves to play outside and has learned how to climb up the steps on his swingset.  He loves to point to and label our eyes, noses, and mouths.  When he's in the mood he'll do some hand motions to "The Wheels on the Bus."

We went to the ENT for his 6 month post tubes check up this week.  His left tube is out completely and the right one is 80% out!!!  This probably happened so quickly because of the ear infections he was still getting.  We'll see how the summer goes and go back to the ENT in September to determine the need for a second set of tubes.  I'm hoping and praying that his immune system picks up and he won't keep getting these infections.      
I have been enjoying the free time to run errands, read, and do things around the house.  I hope to take some time to improve my picture taking abilities this summer.  I had one photography lesson and need to practice some more before I schedule the second one.  Patrick and I would like to make some improvements around the house, so I'll get to oversee those projects.  I'm starting to worry that the summer is going by too fast already!

Is It Summer Yet?

William got a sprinkler for Easter and we tried it out this weekend.  It was a hit!

 

After he tired of the sprinker, he moved on to the water hose.

This upcoming week is my last week of school, yay!  We have a busy few weeks ahead...New Orleans, Grand Isle, some overdue one year pictures, and a room change for William at daycare.  Hopefully once I get settled into my summer routine I can come up with some more substantial blog posts!

Happy Mother's Day

 

To Grandy

To Granna

Thanks to this little guy, to me!  We took him to see Mike the Tiger today!

And Happy Birthday tomorrow to Honey!  Dad, I need a newer picture of you and William ASAP!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!

Easter 2011

To celebrate Easter, we went to Thibodaux Thursday evening then drove from there to Rayne Saturday morning.  William had two Easter egg hunts, one in Thibodaux where the eggs were filled with treats, and one in Kinder with the Klein family. 

He received this frog ball in both of his Easter baskets.  The first one came from Ms. Lynn and unfortunately met its demise when Patrick and Livee (the dog) were playing with it.

This is a perfect image of William.  He's pointing, as always.  He wasn't a fan of the Easter grass, so he dumped it out.  He found two eggs and was done hunting, he spent the rest of the time hitting the two eggs against each other and throwing them.

Happy Easter!