Pitiful

Bless his little heart. Little Will came down with a stomach flu yesterday afternoon. Threw up I don't know how many times from about 3pm-11pm. This sickness has made me realize that Will really hasn't ever been very sick. I mean, even when he has a bad cold, he is going Mach 10 and won't slow down for a second. But not with this one. Poor guy just nestled on the couch last night watching cartoons. He discovered juice with bubbles (Sprite) - it was hilarious to watch him drink it. He puckered up his face and wrinkled his nose at his first taste of carbonation. Then, smacked his lips and said "more?" Today, he's had a few cheerios and a little bit of grits and some gatorade and water - and he has kept it all down. Whew! But he does have a little temperature and has been napping for 2 1/2 hours so far.

So, the real sad thing is that he missed dressing up and going to school with all his friends. Trick o' treating at the church office with his class, and then the Halloween party. I know he would have loved to see everyone dressed up, and he loves wearing his puppy costume. Hopefully, we will make it out, at least for a couple of houses, tonight for trick o' treating.

And I have been Lysoling every surface in the house, thoroughly cleaning anything that met contact with you-know-what (trying to get a 22 month old to throw up in a bowl is a little tricky), and washing my hands a hundred times in hopes that Ellis and I can avoid the flu ourselves.

Pumpkin Fun

Also - after carving pumpkins today - we took Will shoe shopping. I figured I'd better check his foot was not any bigger. And thank goodness I did because he is in shoes a 1/2 size too small! Little boy now wears size 7 - almost 7 1/2! Sigh. He really is growing up, isn't he?

What we've been up to ...

Although I have not blogged in a couple of weeks with pictures of Will, he has been staying very busy and having lots of fun with the fall weather.

Two weeks ago, we went to the fair. Will had a hard time understanding that he was not big enough to get on any of the fair rides this year, especially after having just been at Disney World where he could ride just about anything. (By the time he is tall enough to ride all of the kid rides at the fair, he could ride everything at Disney World, including all the roller coasters.) But as long as we steered clear of the kid rides, he had a great time. We visited all the livestock. Will was amazed by the big geese and loved running up and down the aisles in the poultry building.

And he had fun at the petting zoo. He wasn't too sure what to think about the sheep and goats trying to eat out of his hand. He just laughed and screamed!

Two weekends ago, Will and I headed up to Greenville with Gwen, Clare and Wesley to meet up with Jennifer, Alex and Cate for a day at Skytop Orchard (an apple orchard/hayride/pumpkin patch place). Unfortunately, bad weather thwarted our plans, but we found a makeshift pumpkin patch to appease the kids and snap a few photos:
And then we went back to Cate and Alex's house for some lunch and playtime.

I quickly discovered that Will was well old enough for a playset - he loved Alex and Cate's play set. Might not be a bad birthday gift??! :-)

I took this photo thinking it was so sweet that Alex and Will were playing in the yard together ... umm... until I realized they were playing with dog poo! Which Will got on his clothes and in his hair! Nice, Will, real nice. But a quick clean and extra clothes solved that problem quickly. :) (And its still a sweet photo - and now cracks me up since I know what they are really doing!)

Then, Will had his very first painting experience because his mommy is too mean to let him paint yet. (The idea of paint everywhere makes me always look for another activity.) But he enjoyed it immensely!

And it didn't take long for him and Wesley to wipe out in the car ride home...

Also, last weekend we visited a pumpkin patch nearby to get our own pumpkins and snap Will's Halloween picture. He loved running around in his puppy costume and was a hit with the folks there.

"Love You"

The sweetest, most precious words came out of Will's mouth to me last night. Ellis and I played with him and got him ready for bed together last night. As he nestled in Ellis's arms for bedtime stories with his pacifier and lovey, I kissed him, told him to sleep well, and then said "Love you!" And you know what he did? Looked at me and said "Love you" back to me. Tears totally welled up in my eyes and I think my heart almost swelled out of my chest with those tiny little words.

We have not been getting Will to say "I love you" back to us or anything because I wanted him to say it when he wanted to and when he understood a little bit of what the words meant. I think love is a very abstract concept for a toddler to grasp, but he obviously knows it means something special.

My dearest little William, I LOVE YOU!

Camp Ton-A-Wandah

I had a wonderful time this past weekend with the girls in Hendersonville, NC, at Camp Ton-A-Wandah. I have to admit I am having a rough time getting into the swing of things at the office today. It was great to act like your 10 again - making arts and crafts, swinging on a ropes course, singing silly songs, dancing to a DJ, making smores by a campfire ... and just hanging with your girl friends. I am super proud of myself for doing the ropes course, which made my heart race way faster than it did when I was 10!

I relied on the girls to take pictures, so take a look at Gwen, Julie and Jennifer's blogs for pictures. (See links in the post directly below.) I am already looking forward to next year's adventure!

I tried to upload the schedule, but blogger does not like pdf files. So here it is re-typed:

Grown Up Girls Getaway Schedule

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00 Registration (Linden Hall)
4:00-6:00 Tour of Camp/Get to Know You Games (Bridge by the Dining Hall)
6:30-7:45 Dinner (Dining Hall)
8:00-9:30 Wacky Olympics (Gym)
9:30-until Smores (Tribal Ring)
Music (Tribal Ring)
Movie Night (Little Rec)
Games (Dining Hall)
Star Gazing (TBA)

SATURDAY
8:30-9:30 Breakfast (Dining Hall - coffee will be available starting at 7:30)
9:30-10:00 Activity Sign-Up (Dining Hall)
10:00-12:45 Activities
1:00-2:00 Lunch (Dining Hall)
2:00-2:30 Happy Nappy (Cabins)
2:30-5:30 Activities
5:30-6:15 Shower Time
6:30-7:45 Dinner (Dining Hall)
8:00-10:00 TAW Talent Show (Little Rec)
10:00-Until Karoake (Little Rec)

SUNDAY
9:00-10:00 Breakfast (Dining Hall - coffee will be available starting at 8:00)
10:00-11:00 Closing Ceremony (Little Rec)
11:00-12:00 Free Time (finish activites, pack etc)
12:00 See you next year!

Some Mommy Time

If you read the links on my blog, then you have heard about the fun I plan to have this weekend with Gwen, Jennifer and Julie. We'll be heading back to camp for "Grown Up Girls Getaway." Gwen's got a great description of what we'll be doing on her blog, and Julie's latest post tells you how we all ended up going.

Looking forward to a fun, stress-free weekend with friends! Something tells me that Sunday will come all too soon.