A Family Day

Will, and his parents, were super excited to have his cousins, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Clarence and Nanny come visit him today. We grilled burgers and such and ate outside (while its still cool enough and the flies aren't around). The kids just played and played and played and played on that playset. I absolutely loved to see Will and Anna play this time. They really "played together" for the first time and, overall, got along very very well. I know Will missed her this morning! Kate helped me make strawberry ice cream...which we all enjoyed about 4 hours later (word to the wise - always always make sure you have plenty of rock salt around when you make homemade ice cream).

It was a really great day to spend with Ellis's side of the family. And the weather could seriously not have been more perfect!

A Slide!

Ellis and I ordered a playset for Will so he would finally have something to play on in the backyard. The guy came and put it together Friday. Seriously - when people tell you not to put it together yourself - they MEAN IT! It took this guy (who does this day in and day out) almost 6 hours to put the playset together. And ours was one of the smaller ones. Thank goodness we decided to let them do it.

Before:

After:

Will came home with Daddy right after the playset was put up. We caught his look of surprise on video and he was ecstatic! Ran down the steps, right up the ladder on the playset and slid down that slide. Bapa and Grandma came over shortly thereafter and played on the playset with him too! He has played on it so much this weekend. Ellis and I are very pleased with the way it looks, tucked in the trees and shrubs and such. We agree its one of the best purchases we have made in a long time. :-)

Happy Easter!

Last night, Will left a carrot in his Easter basket outside his bedroom door for the Easter bunny. The next morning, it was fully of M&Ms, smarties, a stuffed bunny and other goodies. His morning started off with M&Ms for breakfast, Bapa and Grandma visiting for the egg hunt, playing with bubbles, and breakfast before we all got dressed to go to the church's Easter service. It was a wonderful, fun morning!

(This tiger bubble-maker was a gift from the Easter bunny.)

Handsome boy!!

Church Egg Hunt

Saturday morning, Will had fun at our church's Easter egg hunt. Once again, Will dashed - well, sprinted - past tons of eggs spread out all over the church lawn for one in particular all the way on the other side ... in the mud. Hilarious.

The First Egg Hunt

Sunday was the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. It was pretty funny to watch Will this year. He would bypass tons of eggs to zero in on the one egg he had his eyes on.

Afterwards, I helped Will check out the toys and fruit snacks that filled his plastic eggs.

This year, the neigborhood rented a blow-up slide for the kids. Daddy and I were a little leary about letting him go on it by himself. But one of his classmates was there and she did just fine so, I figured, give it a try Will! And he did great! He needed help both times from some of the older kids to get up to the top. However, once he was at the top, there was no need for coaxing to get him to slide down. And the look of pure joy when he reached the bottom of the slide after the first time was priceless!

Playhouse Disney and Fun with Friends

Saturday, Will and I met up with his upstate friends to go to Playhouse Disney. (The dads got to stay behind, drink beer, and enjoy the sunshine and warm day ... us moms were jealous, to say the least.) I think Will just loved it, and other than freaking out around intermission for a "SNACK!" he did really well. His favorite, by far, were Little Einsteins. I really wish I could convince Will's dad that a trip to Disney needs to be an annual event!

Here he is right when the show was about to start --

This is his $8 lemonade that I caved in and got him when he was dying for a SNACK! and the snack line was a mile long. Later, during the show, Julie went and got popcorn for the boys to chow down on. It was Will's first taste of popcorn and I don't think there was any question that he loved it. He had to scoop it in huge handfuls and munch on it as he stared at the show. :-)

After Playhouse, it was an evening of FOL fun. I really love to see how Will can play with Alex and Charlie more and more. I know it won't be long before Cate is there in the midst of things keeping the boys in line!

Potty Training

Let me just say that the whole potty training thing was very daunting to me. I wasn't sure when to start, what kind of pottys to use for Will, whether to use pull-ups, etc. And I just didn't want to read all of the "help" books that tend to only confuse me with all the conflicting ideas.

In the end, Will kind of showed us how he was going to do it and I am amazed! No, he is not potty trained yet, but I think he is more ready for it to begin than his parents are! Will regularly pees in his potty before bath time every night. Last night, he even held it until after bath time and then let us know that he needed to use the potty - and then pee'd for a long time in it. We were working on the poo poo in the potty issue - he did it once at home and it scared him when he saw it in the potty!! (I tried so hard not to laugh when that happened.) But he did it again on his own at day care this week.

So, we have little pottys everywhere in the house. Yesterday, I bought one of those to convert a normal toilet so he could sit on it because he seems to much prefer the "big potty" (probably because it flushes).

It is amazing how potty training puts parents on a whole new level of parenting. You know you are the parent of a toddler if you find yourself sitting in the bathroom, cheering you son to poo in the potty, clapping and dancing in excitement if anything goes in the potty, and reading all kind of books about boys and animals using the potty. One of the books I checked out of the libary? Potty Poo Poo Wee Wee! :-)


(I promise to put up pictures soon. We have a big weekend of Playhouse Disney, friendship in the upstate and a neighborhood egg hunt, so I should have some to share. )