First Teeth!

Splashing

Here is Will having a blast at Clare's 2nd birthday this past weekend. The boy loves water. (See below for other videos and the 8 month post that they relate too. Dropshots and blogger were giving me a headache tonight ... I could not get video put within the same post ... so I gave up and did it this way.)
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

Freedom!

This was about a week ago. I assure you, Will is much faster now and does not take much coaxing to move around. But I just love how excited he gets when he realizes he can get somewhere on his own.
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

Swimming in the Pool

This was Will's first swim in the pool when we were at the beach this summer:
Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Share Photos - Free Video Hosting

8 Months

Will turned 8 months old today. He has changed so much in just the last month. He is now keeping Mom and Dad very busy chasing him everywhere, and he is into everything! Although he is Mr. Squirmy now, particularly wearing me out for diaper and clothing changes, he is still just a delight to be around. I am always looking for every opportunity to spend time with him. We really are so blessed to have such a happy baby - and coming home to his smile everyday is more than I could ever ask for.

(I finally have my computer up and running so I have some video I can finally share...)

1) Crawling is by far the biggest change. It seems his speed and agility in crawling increases exponentially each day. He can now navigate obstacles with ease, make a beeline for Mitiz's catfood, move from the living room to the kitchen to see what I am dong in no time flat. Whew! Its fun to see him start to be able to "choose" where he wants to be and what he wants to do. Mitzi is a bit alarmed by this change. I think she was content for him to grab her tail once in a while because she could get away. But chasing Mitzi is quickly becoming his favorite game.

2) Two teeth! I have tried to get a picture of them but haven't been successful yet. Will cut his two bottom teeth at the same time. I think he is on his way to cutting another one too...

3) His favorite noise to make right now is "tah tah tah". He does it in this kind of stage whisper. Its so cute. He has said "ma ma ma" and "da da da," but has not associated those sounds with anyone yet.

4) Did I mention Will likes to get into everything? I think he gives the daycare workers a time every day. They had to put up a gate between the "fun" room and the crib room because Will was going back into the crib room and pulling the trashbags out of the container. He also apparently gets excited and crawls after any baby that has a bottle, and will try to "steal" another baby's pacifier! Its pretty funny to hear that now, but I hope he behaves himself as he gets older! :-)

5) Speaking of pacifiers, my fear of having a 2 year old in the grocery store with a plug in his mouth seems to be alleviated. Will used a paci so much that I thought it would be impossible to get him away from it -- but he really did it himself! He rarely has a paci in his mouth during the day (and never does if Mommy is around). I give it to him for naptime and bedtime -- its kind of nice because it "signals" that its time to go to sleep.

6) I count my lucky stars that Will is such a great sleeper. The past week I have had to wake him up at 7 to get him ready for school and yesterday and today he slept until past 8!! I can't believe it! He really goes to sleep pretty quickly - within about 5 minutes after story time. Unfortunately, he refuses to take naps at daycare because there is just too much noise and excitement for him. I really hope he will grow out of that because he takes 2 big naps at home on the weekends. Yesterday, he slept from 2-5:45!!

7) His favorite games are peek-a-boo (hands covering your face work just fine), keep away (as in moving an object as soon as he is about to grab it and moving it to another place in front of him), and chase (when someone chases him while he is in someone else's arms).

8) Will loves, loves, loves water!! Swimming has become his new favorite thing. We've been to Grandma and Grandpa's pool twice since the beach. The second time, Will's eyes just lit up with utter excitement when he saw the pool. He loves to splash splash splash - especially at bathtime.
Yesterday, Will went to Clare's 2nd birthday at Saluda Shoals' water park. I was amazed how much he absolutely loved sitting under the misting water. I hated to hear the park closes next weekend already, but hoping to go back there next week with Daddy.

Ah! I just love this boy...

Tubes In

Yesterday afternoon, we took Will to have tubes put in his little ears. Everything went fine and he was back to his usual self by dinner time. It was pretty awful though. The ENT gave us the option of doing outpatient surgery and, although it would have been less scary for Will, if we could avoid putting him under general anesthesia, we wanted to do that. And making Will not eat and wait in the hospital a while before the surgery would have been very confusing for him - as would the waking up and having to stay in the hospital for a little while until they discharged him. So, we did it at the ENT's office. The whole procedure took all of like 10 minutes, but man it was grueling.

Will was in a great mood before the procedure, playing and laughing with us in the room. Dad stayed in the room when the doctor put the tubes in, but I had to leave because I just knew I wouldn't be any help if Will saw me shaking and crying. From Ellis's description of the whole thing, I think I made the right choice. But I stayed in this little room around the corner and I heard every little scream from that poor little boy's mouth. Needless to say, I was in and out of tears, pacing and biting my nails, praying it would be over soon.

But Will was a very brave boy. He cried until the car got moving on the way home and then slept the whole way home. After some juice, he took a good 2 hour nap. And when he woke up, he was back to his old self. Even though the whole thing was scary for all of us, especially Will, I do think we made the right choice to do it in the office with just local anesthesia.

So, hopefully we have said GOODBYE to ear infections.

On the Move

Will crawled for the first time last night!! I couldn't believe it. He just changes so fast! Yesterday morning, I found him sitting up in his crib, legs spread eagle, leaning forward with his head on the bumper ... dead asleep!! :-) I tapped him on the head to wake him up and he looked up at me, sucking on his pacifier. It was the cutest thing.

Then, last night, I was so excited to pick up Will from day care and spend some time playing with him. Work has been busy lately so I feel like I've barely seen him these past 2 weeks. And I think Will just might have been really excited to see me, which made my heart melt! :-) We played and played on the floor and I watched in awe as he moved from sitting up to laying down, to on all fours, back to sitting - over and over again. He was moving all over the place by doing that. Then, I was making a funny noise that Will found fascinating - so I laid on the floor a ways from him and he moved on to all fours and crawled to me!! (Can't tell you how good it felt that his first crawl "steps" were to me!) He did it again when Dad came home, crawling a good 3 or 4 feet.

So last night Ellis and I cringed a bit as we realized exactly what all he is going to get into. He found the blinds, curtains and air conditioning vent just a fascinating new world to explore when he moved off his usual blanket and toward the side of the room. And I can just envision all the things he is going to want to play with. MUST baby proof the house asap. And I think its time to move the crib level down too...

Lucky

Seriously, how lucky is Ellis to get this face in the window of his office door during the work day??

And how much do I wish I could have that face at my office ... Sigh. Sure makes me smile to get a picture emailed to me though!!

And can't wait to go home and give him a big hug!

A musician to be??

Will has already shown some musical talent. I can't say he exactly harmonized with Gamma on the piano, but he did make some sound with the keys!

Bath Time Fun

More Pictures from the Beach Week

Gampa took some great pictures when we visited him and Gamma at the beach, so I had to share a few with all of you...

getting tickled by Gampa

laughing in the pool

did I tell y'all this boy loves to eat? this is a classic, screaming face from Will when I wasn't shoveling in his food fast enough. :-)

yearning for the beach...
spalshing in the ocean
sweet boy looking out at the ocean...

(p.s. I re-posted some pictures below that came out so dark on blogger. not sure why that happens, but I've lightened them up a bit...so you can actually see faces!)