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!