Christmas Lights

I'm convinced this is the most wonderful time of the year for us and our 20 month year old.  Will has embraced Christmas, loves our Christmas tree, and always wants to see more Christmas lights, more Santas, etc. 

Tonight we went to an ornament exchange with my mom's group which was just so fun.  The little ones exchanged ornaments, and the mom's got to catch up.  Will ate his weight in snacks, and then we went and looked at Christmas lights on the way home.  His new thing when he sees a good light display is to say "WOW".  He says it with enthusiasm which is just adorable.  This is quickly followed by an "I want more."  I think we will try to look at the lights most nights this month. There are some incredible displays in our neighborhood that I could happily visit daily which would make this little guy quite happy.

Playing with a train ornament

checking out the tree

point out a Santa

Oh Christmas Tree

We took this little Santa to Home Depot to buy our Christmas tree this year.  He loved Home Depot - it is like a park for him.  There were so many things to play with that he was quickly distracted from the task at hand as you can see from the pictures.  We got the tree home and decorated it while Will slept.  It worked out perfectly, and he loves to talk about his Christmas tree (sounds more like ris-mus-ree).  Photos of the Christmas tree are coming soon - we just have to locate the tree skirt!

looking for something his size...

checking out all the trees

little Santa

found the hose...

Enjoying rides on the flatbed (until we noticed the no riding sign at his feet - oops)

dirt makes him smile

back at home, he loves going for rides in the ornament box

Weekend at the Parks

This weekend the weather was cool but sunny so we spent most of the weekend outside.  Will doesn't seem to mind the cold and he just loves all the parks we have around town.  We went to the Bee Park (as he calls it) as well as a new park for us, Smith Park.  It might be a new favorite as it has a metal scoop that you can control and move sand around the sand box.  Once he found this, he played with it for the longest time (which equates to 15 minutes).  It was too sunny for pictures, but we will definitely be back for a visist so I'll try again next time.

little gardner

hiding in the flowers

smelling the flowers (Ahma taught his this!)



20 Months Old!

Will is 20 months old today!  2 months from today (around 9:30am if all goes as planned) he will get a baby sister!  Oh, how our lives will change...

This has been a super fun month.  I love the fall!  This month Will...

* says "yesh" instead of "yah"

* says "no"

* says little sentences like "I want more"

* rode his first carousel

* continues his love for fire trucks and playing in cars

* is very interested in airplanes and loved his trip to the Flight Museum with Dad

* likes to go up and down the stairs on his own - often without holding onto anything

Santa!

Before Thanksgiving, we went to a festival in Snider Plaza where Will sat on Santa's lap.  He wasn't all that into Santa, but he didn't cry.  We just got the pictures today - check him out!

He cried yesterday when he saw Santa, and I started to wonder if he has a memory from last year's Santa visit.  You might remember this picture of Will on Santa's lap - Will is tugging at Santa's beard and Santa is giving Will the finger.  They may have gotten off on the wrong foot...

Advent Festival

Tonight Aunt Leen and I took Will to the Advent Festival at our church. We spent the evening with the Mary, David and Lundon Tanner which made the evening super fun.  The festival included dinner, a live nativity (which we missed), little petting zoo (animals from the live natvitiy) and games for the kiddos along with a photo op. 

Will's favorite things of the evening include:

•  the water fountain
•  walking up and down the steps without holding onto anything
•  talking about Aunt Leen's car
•  pouring lemonade from one cup to another
• the petting zoo after we left the area.  He was still talking about the sheep tonight before he went to bed. 
• the balloons
• the tractor that sits outside the church (unrelated to the advent festival)

He wore himself out!  Luckily there was no Santa, so there were no tears tonight!

I look like Lee Ann Rimes!

I had to share one of my favorite moments from Thanksgiving where my little man gave me a huge compliment.  We were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade and Lee Ann Rimes was performing a solo.  Will looked at the TV, pointed, and started chanting "mommy!  mommy!".  I told him "yes, that is mommy singing on TV!"  What a huge compliment - I just had to go along with him.

Unfortunately my high ended yesterday when we went to the SMU Pi Phi house to get a (crying) picture with Santa.  There are tons of composites on the wall, and there was one from 1980 that was eye level for Will.  He suddenly saw me in all the pictures.  He pointed me out in a few of them - you can imagine the hair and clothing styles from 1980.  While I appreciate the idea that Will thinks I look college age, I realized that maybe he thinks anyone with blond hair is me.  Or maybe he thinks I am stuck in the 80s.  Sigh.

In the spirit of always posting with a picture, I had to find a recent shot that I hadn't yet shared.  This is one of the many pictures from my Christmas card out takes.  I was so excited about getting a picture of Will with tree lights, and when I asked him if he wanted to play with them, he quickly said "no".  He took the lights off and ran to play with a truck instead.  I had to surrender my goal to get the perfect shot for the perfect Christmas card.   Instead, our Christmas card this year will not be that Christmasy, but it will be Will in his element. He is much happier when he is playing with his toys vs. my props.