Will's First Christmas

We had a great first Christmas with Will. We went to Austin and celebrated with Will's grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, great aunts and uncles and cousins.

Here he is awaiting the arrival of Rudolph...

This year, the bows and cards were as big a hit as the gift itself. We are enjoying this stage while we can!


















Will reading the cards and passing out gifts at the Kerr's house.

Will and his new truck!

On the move

I love putting Will in our green chair and taking his picture... but now he sits for just a second before he tries to stand up of dive off the chair. This guy is just happier on the move...

Time for some babyproofing...

The Pacifier

Will never fully embraced the pacifier for it's intended purpose, but he does think it is a funny toy. He usually smiles when he sees it and laughs when he plays with it. If he crawls around with it in his mouth the "right" way, he holds his breath and he quickly has to stop, sit and catch his breath. It is really funny to watch. Sometimes he will just sit and play with it and hang it out the side of his mouth like a cigar. We were going to throw away our collection of pacifiers when we realized Will didn't care for them around week 4 or so, but now we are glad we saved them!

Proof

If this picture isn't evidence enough of Will's new teeth, his crib surely is. Will apparently is a "crib chewer." We prefer to call him "baby beaver", but either way, this boy started widdling away at his crib. There are scratch marks and even areas when you can see the natural wood underneath. So, now his crib is covered with blankies... tied on by some ribbon. Initially, I saw the scratch marks and assumed I had some time to "research" what to do in this situation. Then after his next nap, we saw the newly exposed natural wood and came up with our homemade solution. No research needed.

Our 3-toothed reader

Will just loves the Clifford Christmas Presents book. He loves to open the flaps on every page. This is one of those books that he will sit and look at over and over and it definitely keeps his attention.

He now officially has 3 teeth! He got one the day after his eight month birthday, and then one last friday, and one today. He has 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top, but they are tough to photograph since they are still tiny. He's is also pulling up everywhere these days. He is one busy and curious little guy.

My favorite Friday

Our nanny needed the day off, so I took the day off to stay home with Will. As a result, I think nanny needs to take more time off... I had a great time today.

When Will was having his morning yogurt, I noticed another little tooth next to the one that showed up last week. He officially has 2 (sharp!) lower teeth. Since he got his first tooth, he now loves to carry something in his mouth when he crawls. It can be anything really, a toy, a piece of paper... you name it. I think he is just proud that he has something to hold it in his mouth when he crawls.

I went to get Will from his nap, and when I walked in the room, he was standing up in his crib waiting for me. He was oh so proud of himself - he had the biggest grin on his face. At this point, I felt like the universe was with me in that he was doing these things for the first time on the first day I have had alone with him since he was 3 months old. (Seriously!)

I put Will in his Santa suit and took him out Christmas shopping. We headed to North Park and we completely lucked into getting his picture taken with Santa! Someone in line had an extra ticket and gave it to us. We waited all of 15 minutes before it was our turn! It was cute to see Santa on Santa's lap. Will didn't know what to think, so he just held onto Santa's beard for dear life.

After this awesome day with Will, I would really like to consider going to a 4-day work week. Maybe that is what I will ask for for Christmas!

Christmas Traditions

Last week at my mom's group meeting, we talked about holiday traditions we want to share with our little ones. There were so many ideas shared - making gingerbread houses together, doing a service project as a family, decorating the tree together, the list goes on. I love the idea of having holiday traditions.

For me, I loved lighting the candle at church when we sang Silent Night. They would dim the lights, and you would light your candle from the flame of your neighbor's. I loved watching the candle burn and always wondered if/when the wax would drip down onto my fingers. I didn't want to blow out the light but finally would when the lights came up.

I also loved when we would go to Zilker Park to Santa's Workshop which I swore was the actual North Pole. I mean, I knew it was the North Pole. We took a little train that transported us from Austin, TX to Santa's workshop for the evening. It was magical.

On Christmas morning, we had to wait upstairs while my dad turned on the Christmas music (Magic 95 FM) and brought in any last minute gifts. It was so hard to wait upstairs especially since I had likely been up since the crack of dawn. On the way down we would open our stockings and kick off the gift giving extravaganza. It is always a most fabulous day to enjoy our family and a delicious feast.

For now, the one Christmas tradition we are committing to is an annual photo ornament. I love seeing the photo ornaments on our tree - including one of mine from elementary school with a picture of me on a Styrofoam ball that was cut in half. The picture was cut out into the shape of a circle and attached using glue and adorned with a ribbon. It is fun for me now to see these pictures of me when I was little, and I want to do the same for Will. We ordered his ornament from Shutterfly, and I think it is the perfect first in this holiday tradition.

Maggie's Christmas Collar

Every year, Maggie shows her love for the season by wearing a Christmas collar that is shaped like a wreath. It is really cute, but she has worn it for years so I didn't think anything of it when I put it on her this year. Will however thought it was the funniest thing that happened that day. Check out this video of Will laughing at Maggie's Christmas collar...

Will got a tooth!

At 8 months and 1 day, Will got his first tooth. He had been teething for months - we have gone through LOTS of tylenol and teething tablets. There were nights of rocking him while he chewed and chomped until the tylenol kicked in. However, the entire week before the tooth there was no teething. I guess I didnt expect this, and so i was a little surprised when he chewed on my finger to feel something sharp and little... the tiny little tooth making its way on the bottom left. He does seem to like it as he can more easily keep things in his mouth while he is crawling.

Will is crawling like a champ these days. He has a funny crawl where his leg is off to the side and he pushes off with his foot (the picture in this post was taken mid-crawl). Here is a video of him making his way down the hallway. He just keeps getting more and more fun!

December already

I cannot believe it is December already! The fall always goes by so quickly, and now we are in the debates of what and how to decorate for Christmas when you have a crawler. We are hosting a Christmas dinner on Sunday night, so the clock is ticking! It should be fun and I think Will is going to enjoy having a few new items to look at in the house. I am hoping he is mesmerized by the Christmas lights and doesn't notice the breakable ornaments. It seems that might be the only kind we have.

Our little Santa went to see the real Santa yesterday. He seemed to enjoy all the hustle and bustle of kids running around, holiday music playing the background, and then sitting on Santa's lap. He looked around, looked at me, looked at Santa, and then gave me a few pats on his belly. It was so fun to for me to see the 2 and 3 year olds rehearsing what they wanted for Christmas so they would be prepared to tell Santa what they wanted. Some got stage fright and forgot what they wanted. Some were scared of Santa. And some just ran into his lap and hugged him. I look forward to many more Santa visits in the upcoming years!

Preparing for Black Friday

Will is scoping out the ads and preparing his shopping list for Black Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lowering the crib...

There have been only 2 times now that I can remember where I have become a little sad that Will is growing so quickly. When he moved from the 4 oz bottles to the 8 oz bottles, I remember thinking that he could never drink that much and that the bottles looked so big. I was sad for the upgrade as it meant he was no longer tiny...

Since then, I have had only one more moment where I was sad. Today we had to lower his crib. Yesterday he couldn't pull himself up and today he can! When I watched him pull himself up using the top of the crib to hold him, I called for Chad that we needed to lower the crib immediately! We did, and now his room looks so different. I really enjoyed going into his room these past few mornings and seeing his little smiling face just over the crib. He would sit up and wait for us to come in. Also, it was easy on the back just to lower him in to go to bed.

Well, we lowered the crib to the lowest rung. I am not sure our nanny will even be able to lower him into the crib without a little step ladder! We will find out tomorrow. His room has a different look to it now, and I am a little nostalgic for the days when he was little and immobile.

Now, he is just so fun and I love watching him attempt to crawl. I assume he will put it all together any day now and we will be chasing him 24x7. He is at a new fun stage where he is saying "dada" and lots of other things, and he has a smile that lights up the world. While I am sad to leave some of the stages we enjoyed, I am looking forward to all that lies ahead!

Top 10 Things Will is Thankful For

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wanted to share Will's top 10 list of things he is thankful for this Thanksgiving.

10. Pumpkin bread at Starbucks (I am equally thankful)

9. Maggie, our pug. We are thankful she doesnt seem to mind when Will tugs her ears.

8. Being held, preferably anytime you arent sitting

7. Applesauce

6. Hair. He loves to tug on your hair. Chad has no idea how painful this is!

5. Loli, his nanny

4. Walks

3. His blue silky blankie

2. Swinging at the park

1. Bathtime

Back in Dallas

The rest of our trip went really well, and in a lot of ways we were sad to leave. Will enjoyed his time on vacation, although he still enjoyed the comforts of home...away from home. He still loves his 100 First Words book. Here is his really getting into it. He loves to pat the pictures and for some reason he really is drawn to the telephone picture. It clearly is his favorite image in the book. Wonder where he got that...

It was really priceless to all be together non-stop for so many days. That kind of quality time is hard to come by in our busy lives, and so we will have to make an effort to ensure we get away together as a family. We were excited to get back to our time zone so we are no longer getting up when the clock says 4am!

This is a picture of Will sitting in my seat. He looks so big to me here...The flight home wasn't as fantastic as the first, but Will did just fine once we were moving. We made it home safely and with all of our checked bags. For someone who never checks bag, it was a big deal to trust American Airlines with 4 bags.







Will waves goodbye to Palm Desert!

Poolside in Palm Desert

We are having a great time in Palm Desert! Will is loving his first vacation, although he didn't get the memo about the time change. So, we are up every morning somewhere between 4am-5:30am, and then we are back in the room around 4pm for the night. The sun seems to be on the same schedule as us which definitely makes it easier than I would have imagined.

We have been to the Living Desert, El Paseo Drive, The River, and we have spent lots of time poolside. Will seems to enjoy his time in the pool, and his time in the deck chairs people watching and playing. He appears to be quite the flirt... sharing his big smile with anyone who stops to talk to him.

It hit me today that this the most time I have spent with Will since going back to work, and it is the most time the three of us have spent together consecutively...ever. It has been great for all three of us. We have learned a lot about our little guy, and we feel really lucky that he has been such a great little traveler.

Will's First Flight

We made it to Cali! The trip was really uneventful. We do have more bags than I believe I have ever traveled with - I even had less when I spent a summer abroad. This amazed me as we shipped most major items... in the end there is just a lot of baby stuff you need... or your want to have in your bag of tricks in case you need it.

Everything went well. My favorite part was boarding the plane - we were the last folks to board in first class, and when we took our seats I saw most people do what I would have done. They had that look on their face that said "oh no, a baby in first class. What if he cries the whole time? Did I bring my bose headphones?" I gave that face for years, so I can recognize it a mile away. I know people understand and feel sorry for babies that are crying on flights, but I was really hoping we weren't going to be in the situation where people were feeling sorry for Will. Luckily, he did incredibly well. He drank milk on the way up, climbed all over us like we were his jungle gym, removed our glasses multiple times, took a good nap on me for an hour, and then ate sweet potatoes on the way down. He never made a single cry, but he did let out some good giggles after take off that had people commenting on how cute he was, etc. People seemed very friendly especially after they saw that Will handled flying like a champ.

One of my favorite images that I hope to keep in my head for a while (since I didn't have the camera handy) was watching Will sitting in Chad's lap and both of them were looking out the window as we were coming into Palm Springs. Will was loving the beautiful scenery (or maybe just the fact that we were moving) and it was just so cute to see the two of them in that moment.

After his first flight was such a huge success, I have faith that Will inherited my travel gene. Surely it is something that is in the DNA... I guess we will know for sure after the ride back home!

Cali bound!

The countdown continues... 3 days until Will boards his first plane and we head to California! Thankfully I have some great new mom friends who have shared their tips and tricks. We have shipped formula, diapers, wipes, tylenol and even some new toys to our hotel so they should be waiting for us when we arrive. I am hopeful for an easy plane ride, and I am trying to stay optimistic on how Will might react to the 2 hour time change. Hopefully he will understand that when we set our watches back 2 hours, we are hoping he will also change his internal clock. Im keeping my fingers crossed!

Who doesn't like mashed potatoes?

We found the first food Will doesn't like... mashed potatoes. The boy likes peas, broccoli, green beans... but not mashed potatoes! How can this be??? I fed them to him once, and he had a little bit of a gag reflex. I figured it was just because they may have been a little thick. Well, today we made them thinner, fed them to him, and he did the same thing. Who doesn't like mashed potatoes? The good thing is, we like them so we have a freezer back full of homemade, bite sized mashed potatoes. I hope his taste buds change so he can enjoy the starches as much as his parents.

Oh yes, and Will is still living at home. I think this might be the cutest onesie ever.

Happy Halloween!

Will had a few costume changes for Halloween! We didnt take him trick or treating, but the big treat for us was getting his teething pain under control. Thanks to Kristi for introducing us to Hylands Teething Tablets... when used with Motrin our little guy was back to normal in no time. Here are some of his his halloween pictures.

He is getting close to crawling!

This boy is getting closer to crawling everyday. Yesterday he wasn't quite up on all fours, and today he is! He loves to get on all fours and rock back and forth... and then he goes back down. I figure it is now a matter of time before he coordinates the arms and the legs to move!

Will is super active these days - always grabbing at things and putting them in his mouth. Yesterday I set him on the counter at CVS to pay for my things, while I was getting out my credit card, he took the straw out of my drink and while I was putting it back, he was pulling the paper from the cash register that prints the receipts. He is at a stage where I cant take my eyes off of him! Well, I have always felt that way, but now it is not just due to admiration.

Our little lion

One of Will's Halloween costumes is this adorable lion costume. I just love it. Will doesn't. I think the headpiece is a little too much for him. He is a smiley kiddo, but we didn't get a single smile from him when he was in the lion costume. My mom's group met up at the Arboretum to get our kids photographed in their costumes. We had a Nancy Medina from Petite Photography take pictures of the group and then each family individually. It was super fun to see all the kids dressed up! I'll share the link once the pictures are ready. Here are some we took of our little lion...

Still no smile...



















Chad with our lion in the Mom's Group dads shot

Will's Baptism

This weekend was Will's baptism. He was batpized at Highland Park United Methodist Church on Sunday, Oct 18, 2009. He was a champ! He sure looked adorable, and he seemed to enjoy his cake. He enjoyed his taste of the icing and equally loved touching the cake. Will's grandparents came in from Austin for the big day, and we had a great time with them. Here are some pictures from his baptism day.

Aunt Leen and Uncle Chuck with Will

Ahma and Bapa with Will

Lovey and Granddad with Will

Me and Chad with our little guy

Little Sleeper

Dear Will,

Thank you for letting your parents sleep in these last few days. We are hoping you are practicing for the time change that will happen in a few weeks when we fall back an hour. While it is nice to sleep in a bit, we do miss having more time with you in the morning before work. But like all things so far, this is probably a phase and soon enough you will be getting up at 630am again. So, I guess we will enjoy these times and get some extra z's while we can.

Sweet dreams little love!

Thank you Pumpkin!

We owe this pumpkin a huge thank you. We drove back from Austin yesterday after a great visit with Lovey and Granddad, the Snyder 5, and the Pettey 4. The weekend was fabulous and the drive back was long. I mean looong. It took us almost 5 hours to drive the distance that normally takes us 3. The delay was due to rain - it poured the entire time.

You would think in order to add an additional 2 hours to the drive that we must have stopped a few times. After stopping for gas just 10 minutes from my parents house, we didn't stop again until we pulled in our garage. Will was a dream baby during the ride. I certainly don't expect our 6m old baby to sit for that long without getting antsy and needing a change of scenery. Instead, he took about 3 naps and did not even let out one cry. Chad was able to recline his seat almost into the back seat next to Will, so he leaned back and fed him a bottle.

But seriously, 5 hours! Will, we owe you. We owe you big time. When you are old enough to cash in on this one, remind us of this drive back to Dallas and you can have whatever you want. Anything. You name it.