22 Months Old

In TWO months William will be TWO years old. As cliche as it sounds, the days are long but the years are short! We are so thankful for our growing, healthy boy. William does everything full speed and with 110% effort. Everything about him is intense and as challenging as it can be at times, I wouldn't trade his spunkiness and zest for life for anything! I'm assuming 98% of toddlers are like this, but I don't have another child to compare him to :)

I love seeing his personality develop and seeing him become more passionate and interested about certain things. He loves family, Elmo, being outside, the "pahk" (park), ice cream, chicken, squeeze pouches, milk, playing on the ipad, Chuggington (cartoon), his friends, dancing, and climbing. He dislikes baths, getting strapped in his car seat, sleeping past 6am, sitting in a high chair/booster at a restaurant, dogs, cats, and getting dressed.

 We've been on a DQ/TCBY kick over the past month or so and William has developed quite the love for ice cream and yogurt just like his Mommy. 

 He finally started showing interest in watching TV. He's very picky about what he'll watch but he'll sit still for 20-30 min. to watch a show. 

 Sometimes I take William up to Barnes and Noble to play on the lego table and train table. It's usually a good activity for late afternoons when I've run out of ideas for rainy days when we're stuck inside.

 Grant and William's new Saturday morning activity is a Krispy Kreme date followed by a run to Dicks sporting goods. Grant lets William play with the all the balls in the ball bin. 

We've spent a LOT of time at the park! 

 His very favorite spot in the house is sitting on the toilet tank while watching Mommy and Daddy get ready. He also loves to dance up there :)

 Snomageddon Part 2 came mid-February. It was insane. William didn't get to partake in the snow fun because it didn't start coming down until around 8pm that night. Grant joined all the adults and kids in the neighborhood for a snow ball fight!

 William's early mornings mean he's wiped out before 8am. Poor thing fell asleep on the way to school one day. I ended up sitting in the parking lot for 15 min. to let him get in a short cat nap. 

 He's absolutely obsessed with a game on the ipad called Tozzle. He could play it for hours. 

 He came face to face with the Chick Fil A cow last Saturday and almost had a panic attack. Poor thing couldn't even eat his lunch because he was so scared the cow would come back to our table :(

 He got a tennis lesson from Aunt Birdie. 

He's definitely trying to talk more but it's still mostly cave man jibberish :) One of the words he uses all the time is "heee" which actually means "yes" in his world.

Typical conversation:

Me: William, do you want a cookie?

William: Heee

Me: Is the cookie good?

William: Heee

Me: Do you love Mommy?

William: Heee

Me: Are you ready for a nap?

William: NOOOOO (said in a VERY sassy, dramatic way of course)

 His nap time/bedtime routine has gotten very complicated!!! This one particular day it took me 1 hour to get him down for a nap. He ONLY likes Grant to rock him at night and put him down. He has a series of things that must happen before he gets in his crib. I would put him in his crib and let him CIO for naps but I'm afraid he will dive out. I know he still needs to be in the crib but I worry about his safety if he's mad enough :)

Lately he must brush Elmo's teeth before we can brush his. He is obsessed with all things Elmo! 

Circus!

The circus was in town at the beginning of the month and we couldn't resist taking William to "The Greatest Show on Earth." What made it a REALLY wonderful day was Rah-Rah (Ragan) and Kow (Kyle) went with us. He adores his godparents!!

 We were all impressed at how still and interested William was for 2.5 hrs. He was mesmerized by the lights, action, and animals!

 I think the adults were equally amused :)

 Of course Grant was a sucker for the $20 light up toy. 

                                               

We can't wait to take William back next year!!! 

The Snow Day I'll Never Forget

I don't even know where to begin with this post! Tuesday started off as any ordinary day at our house. Grant woke up, went to play basketball before work, and then went to his office. William and I headed to the library around 9am for our weekly story-time gathering. As story-time finished up around 10am, I looked outside and noticed it was snowing pretty hard, but nobody else at the library seemed to take notice or be concerned about the roads. While we were walking out, William darted off to play on one of the big kid computers and so gracefully fell and busted his nose.  So, I quickly hurried to the car with him screaming bloody murder and didn't really have time to think twice about whether or not driving was a good idea.

As I was driving home, slight panic started to set in because I skidded across the bridge on Hollywood Blvd. before getting on 280 and briefly lost control of the the Tahoe. This happened several other times on 280 before I turned onto Overton. I got to the very top of Overton and quickly realized it was going to be a lonnnngggg trek home! Several cars had already skidded off the road and began hitting each other and were "stuck" (aka I was terrified to go any further!). I watched the man in front of me slide down and hit another car. Then the policeman who arrived at the scene came up to my window, and I quickly proclaimed, "I'm not moving. I have a baby in the car" to which he quickly replied, "then call 911 and get them to take you home." He said this in a very serious voice but he had to be joking, right?! Anyway, after the policeman refused to move my car for me, I realized I had to be a big girl and figure it out on my own. With God's grace, I managed to cross the hilly part of Overton on a side street and skid to the bottom of a hill (literally). By this point, everyone was colliding into one another, so I again pulled over on the side of the road and decided I wasn't moving.

After sitting on the side of the road for about an hour watching cars skid down a steep hill, a man came up to my window and asked if I was okay. I quickly told him I was freaked out about driving down the hill and asked if he could get my car to the bottom of the street and then I'd go from there. So as he was driving me down the hill, I asked if he lived nearby by. He quickly figured where I was going with this and invited me to come to his house, but FIRST he had to get his car down the steep hill. He then walked back up the hill in the freezing cold to retrieve his car and get it to the bottom of the hill. This process took about 45 minutes. Thankfully I had a box of wheat thins in the car, and William pretty much ate the entire box. I, on the other hand, snacked on stale pecans that were still in the back of the Tahoe from Christmas :)

When the man got down the hill, William and I hopped in his car and headed up another very steep hill to get to his house. When we arrived at his gorgeous house, his wife greeted us at the door with hot banana bread and milk. Their high-school daughter was still driving around in the elements trying to make her way home. Thankfully, William was on his best behavior and relatively calm in the beautiful mansion :) When the teenage daughter got home a couple of hours later, William quickly took to her and she entertained him in their basement while I tried to track Grant down.

In the meantime, Grant had made it to Lakeshore near Brookwood Mall and 280 had completely shut down by this point. Therefore, he decided to WALK to me and William. About an hour later, Grant showed up at the house frozen solid. It was close to 3:30 by this point. Around 4pm, the man of the house decided he would attempt to drive us home in his SUV that had 4-wheel drive. So we all loaded up with him and slowly inched our way home. It was hands down one of the craziest days of my life.

Since Tuesday, I haven't been able to stop thinking about the generosity and kindness of the family that took us in. I can't wait to share this story with William one day when he can understand. The entire city of Birmingham was pretty much shut down from Tues. - Fri. All schools and daycares were cancelled, which meant I was at home with William for 4 long days pretty much stuck inside. We made the best of it though and we'll never forget "Snowmageddon" in January of 2014.

21 Months Old

William turned 21 months old yesterday! He has kept us laughing nonstop over the past month from his many attempts at jumping (i.e., flailing his body around and jerking his head back), funny facial expressions (i.e., poking his bottom lip out and turning his head to the side when he's caught getting into something), nonstop "talking" (i.e., babbling nonsense), making his crying noise and sad face when we say "what does a baby say?," and his latest obsession with coins. He will do anything you want him to for a penny "muh-ee." For instance, tonight I wanted him to finish his spinach/pear baby food pouch that I knew he didn't like. All I had to say was "I'll give you a penny if you finish it" and he slurped it down. Success. And when we run out of pennies around the house, we empty his piggy bank and start over ;)

 Juju, Stee, Aunt Birdie, Ah-Dah (David), and Quin spent a couple of days in Key West after Christmas. William pretended like he was right there with them one night :)

New Years Eve day and night! 

 New Years Day!

He's been getting into trouble at school for kicking and hitting this past week. Grant and I are mortified but also understand all children go through this phase. He was one of the last in his class to hit (no pun intended) this phase, and I'm hopeful he'll quickly outgrow it. We do timeout at home but it's practically impossible to get him to sit in a corner for more than 6 seconds.

 Bed head :)

 He's still in LOVE with our neighbor Mae Mae. We had dinner at their house Friday night, and he spent over 3 hrs. chasing her around the house and playing with all thinks PINK :) We've also let William indulge in a DQ ice cream a couple of times over the past month!

William and I spent 2.5 hrs. at Overton Park one day when it was beautiful outside!

 He spent one weekend in Dothan with Juju and Stee so we could clean out our garage and do other household projects. The picture below is the face he made when I approached Juju's car to take him. He kicked me and pushed me away :(

Other random facts: He wears a size 8 shoe (!!!) and mostly 2T or 3T clothes. Even though we've been very pleased with his daycare, we are really praying he gets a spot at our church daycare. He's first on the waiting list for his class. Not only would this school be less expensive, it'd be a great way for him to get a good solid Christian foundation at an early age. He's TERRIFIED of baths, like refuses to sit down and screams bloody murder the entire time. That's made bath time super fun :)

We got to keep baby Quinn for a full day and I got to experience what it's like having two children. Quinn was sooooo sweet and William adjusted pretty well too. He did insist on drinking from a bottle the entire day and has since requested a "baba" instead of his usual sippy cup. 

 I love this silly little boy SO SO SO SO much!!!

First Haircut (20 Months Old)

William had his 1st haircut last week! I was armed with mini Reese's (thank goodness) and he did great!!! I was so proud of him! He looks so handsome with his new "do" but I'm obviously a little biased :)