A Day at the Zoo

Since William has become increasingly interested in animals, we decided to hit up the zoo again. He loved it! It was REALLY hard to get him to keep moving from one exhibit to another. I think next time we'll just camp out at the monkey exhibit. Those were his favorite! He also stopped to play in the dirt several times, climbed up on the chairs in the eating pavilion, and tried to jump several fences to play with the animals :) Maybe he belongs with the monkeys?!?

 "Dada, bir bir." Bir = bird = parrot :)

 Checking out the zebras.

 Mesmerized by the elephants.

Pretending to be the animal he resembles the most...a tall, lanky giraffe :)

William had a stare off with that elephant. He won.

He LOVED the monkeys. I'm pretty sure he wanted to climb in there with them. 

 This was the look on his face for the entire 2 hours we were there. I think we're going to look into getting a zoo membership!

18 Month Check-Up

William had his 18 month well baby check-up on Thursday. The appt. was at 10:30 and I knew he was going to be tired because he usually goes down for his nap around 12pm. The first thing he spotted when we walked in the office was the huge bucket of suckers they give you on your way OUT. Well...needless to say William was the exception to that rule because he lost it until the nurse gave him one. He's always done so great at the pediatrician but this time he KNEW the doctor's office wasn't a fun place to be.

Poor thing got his foot hung under the door when the nurse came in to measure him. There were LOTS of tears over that incident. It was traumatic for all involved.

He recovered quickly from his foot getting jammed under the door when I brought out sucker number 2 and a new ball. Shortly after this happy, sweet picture was taken the nurse came in to give him FOUR shots. As usual, he was back to his happy-go-lucky self moments later.

Weight: 28 lbs. 8 oz. (75th %ile)

Height: 35 3/4 inches (off the charts)

Head circumference (can't remember but off the charts)

His pediatrician was very pleased with his physical growth, motor skills, and cognitive development which we are very grateful for!

18 Months Old

It's REALLY hard to believe William is ONE and a HALF. Didn't we just celebrate his 1st birthday?! Not a lot has changed since I did his 17 month post. I think he's about to turn a corner in the language department and start saying more. He understands pretty much everything we say to him.

Some new words I've heard over the past couple of days include sick (stick), sues (shoes), tuck (truck) rock, sock, wah-wah (water).

He can identify almost all major animals, body parts, and makes animal noises for dog, lion, monkey, elephant, duck, snake, and pig. Truth be told, Grant and I are probably the only people that would recognize the animal noises ;)

This is probably TMI...but at school they've been working on telling the teacher when they need a diaper change. He will let us know when he goes poo poo now. I've tried to sit him on the potty a couple of times and he just laughs hysterically. By no means are we going to potty train soon!!!

 Pottery Barn outing with Mommy ended in William getting to run around the Summit for a while. Something must've been really exciting/funny :)

 

Something I've noticed over the past month is that in some ways he's still such a baby and in others he seems like such a big boy! The picture on the right cracks me up...he's never taken a paci. He found this one in a drawer one day and carried it around for the remainder of the day and night. Thankfully, he hasn't acted interested in it since. 

 We went to a pumpkin painting party. William had a blast and I had fun chatting with other moms. 

 We've spent a LOT of time outside on the deck and in the backyard playing on the swing set.

William ripped the baby gate out of the wall. Yep, we have our very own Hercules living under our roof. 

A couple of nights ago I tried on some of his winter clothes from last year to see if they'd still fit. Believe it or not, this jacket is a size 9 month and fits him relatively well. He did NOT want to take it off OR get out of the laundry basket. Toddlers are so funny!

Happy 18 months William!!

Young Love

This past weekend we went to a gorgeous wedding for a third (?) cousin of mine on the Shaw side. In true William fashion, he found a little girl (distant cousin of his) about his size and decided she was HIS lady for the evening. I din't have my real camera so these are all phone pics from various people's phones :) These two were quite the attraction of the evening after the bride and groom themselves!

Love at first sight...

 William started off with a hug...How precious is that flower girl?!

 Sweet Sarah Jane was such a good sport. Believe it or not...she is 14 months older than William!

"Would you like to dance with me?"

 They started off with a little innocent hand holding while dancing.

 Then William moved in for the real deal...

Now William has documentation of his first kiss. We all joked that this is what kissin' cousins is all about...hahaha!

Pumpkin Patch 2013

We headed south of town to Calera for our traditional (2nd time) family trip to the pumpkin patch. The most fun part was riding the train to the patch!

 Our wiggle worm bounced from seat to seat while we tried to keep him from diving out the window onto the tracks!!

He loved running around and sitting on ALL of the pumpkins.

 He took pumpkin sitting very seriously ;)

 I think he thought the pumpkins were balls. 

 "What now, Mom?" 

Right as the conductor said "All Aboard" to leave the pumpkin patch, William discovered the sandbox. He wasn't quite ready to leave.

Just to compare...here is baby William from our 2012 pumpkin patch trip.

Such a little bit then!

Styles' 1st Birthday

This past Saturday our little family of three headed to Montgomery to celebrate Styles' 1st birthday! William is just 5 months older than Styles and I LOVE getting these boys together. I know it'll be fun watching their "long distance" relationship blossom over the years. In true Kat fashion, she put on the perfect 1st birthday bash. We had so much fun visiting with our special friends!

All of these pictures were from Kat's camera. I take no credit! I told Kat that she and Robert should go into the photography business. They've got serious skillz :)

William had THE best time socializing, blowing bubbles, eating chalk, running around their house, and eating lots of sugar. He stayed up until 9pm Saturday night and was up at 4:30am Sunday morning. Eeekk!!

 Before long, baby Jack will be able to keep up with the big boys!

 William ate SIX of those sugar cookies with minty icing in the center. They were so good and kept him somewhat tame ;)

 Checking each other out. I could just eat them up!

 William was trying to give Styles a little love in this one. Hilarious!

So fun to get together with best friends from college with our little ones!