so it turns out
That a baby’s stomach is the exact size of a chocolate chip cookie.
I learned last night why mothers have said “you can’t have a cookie–it will spoil your dinner” for centuries. I have never believed that saying. I come from a philosophy that believes that cookies take up zero room in your stomach. There is always room for cookies, and there is always room for dinner.
Apparently this is not true when you’re one.
I gave Will a cookie last night when Nic got home from work, since we were all having my delicious homemade cookies and some milk. But 20 minutes later when we went to feed him dinner, it just wasn’t happening.
He was full to the brim with cookie.
Lesson #312 of mothering boobers: no cookies before dinner, even if they are homemade and delicious.
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there’s no stopping him now.
As we walked down the stairs this morning Will said “dight!” as he pointed up at the lights. And then when I handed him some juice and said “juice” he said “du.”
When I took a glass away from him that he found on the coffee table, he put his hand to his mouth–trying to do the sign for “water” (which we use for anything in a cup) so I got him a cup of his own, and it was just what he’d been asking for.
There’s no doubt about it–he gets that we have a language, and he’s eager to play.
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he won’t say mama, but he will say…
FERRETS!!!!
It just figures, doesn’t it? Mama went by the wayside and pretty much everything has been “da!” for the last two months…but now the ferrets are in a league of their own. He’s calling them ferrets. It comes out “di-dits” or “da-dits” or “ra-rits.” But the “its” is new and let Nic know what Will was trying to say as he chased them around the bedroom. You can hold out a ferret and say “What’s this, Will?” and the answer comes back clear: “dadits!”
He’s doing so much communicating. These last two weeks have been just a language explosion. I’ve been really sick today, so when I sat down to feed him lunch, working on sign language was the last thing on my mind. But when I said “do you want more?” he brought his hands together–the sign for more. Not only does he know how to sign when he wants more, he’s able to associate the sign (and the need) with my saying the word. It blows me away.
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more!!
We’ve wanted Will to use sign language to communicate with us, but until now, he hasn’t been very receptive, so we tailed off our attempts. His recent burst of communication (waving, shaking his head “no,” etc.) made me redouble my efforts. He was doing a modified “lights” sign last night (being his favorite things in the world, I figured that would be an easy one to start with), and today,while mooching off Nic’s ice cream, he signed “more!” 
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clapping for Will
Yesterday as he was eating breakfast, Will waved his arms around in a weird way. I mimicked him, and he looked at me like I was retarded. So I thought hard about what he was trying to say. And then I remembered. While Joan was here, she played pat-a-cake with him. So I held out my hands, let him grab onto them, and clapped out to pat-a-cake. He beamed. It was just what he wanted.
For the next 24 hours he wanted to do it a lot. So we talked about how much fun we had when everyone was here, and we talked about all the things we remembered from the trip, and we played pat-a-cake (but clapped for the whole thing–he doesn’t like the rolling or the marking with a b, or the toss up at the end–he only likes the clapping part). As we drove around town today on our errands, I could see him in the back, waving his arms towards one another–thinking about the clapping games…
And tonight, at dinner, he finally did it. He managed to clap all by himself.
I’ve never seen a baby so proud of himself.
Or more excited to practice his new skill over and over again.
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lots of changes
For the past couple of months, I haven’t felt that Will was doing anything particularly noteworthy. Nothing to write down in my month log, really. But in the last week it feels like so many changes have come about all at once. He’s communicating with us in a very real way now.
Yesterday when I told him “no” for doing something naughty, he looked at me and frowned and shook his head–totally immitating the way I always look at him and shake my head when he’s naughty. It was like he was saying “yeah–that’s a bad baby.”
This morning after Nic left for work, Will sat in the laundry room (where the door to the garage is) and waved at the door. Bye bye daddy.
This afternoon, Will didn’t want to eat his string cheese snack. But he DID want to feed it to me. So the tables were turned and Baby was handfeeding Mommy. He laughed and laughed–he thought it was the funniest thing ever. And when we were done, I handed him a washcloth so he could wipe MY face with it–and it was like Comedy Central around here.
Right before his nap, Will was playing with his books on the bookshelf. He started to put his foot up on the bottom shelf, and then stopped and just shook his head. That’s right–that’s not allowed.
It’s so cool to watch him understand things. He’s beginning to get the hang of things around here!
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birthday boy
Will is one today. I thought it was time for a couple of Will updates instead of a mushy one year post (which might still be coming at some later point today, but Will had a really bad night, so I’m running on empty).
Will took six steps last night. Heather and Erik were working with him on walking, and sure enough, the boy took six steps all by himself before falling. We wish we’d played that game earlier! As it was, Will was moments away from a tired it’s-my-bedtime-meltdown, and they left this morning at 5am, so there was no time to repeat the trick.
This morning Will waved goodbye to Nic totally unprompted. Nic was standing in the bedroom door saying goodbye, and Will waved. And a few moments ago, when Will was playing in the living room, and I was doing dishes in the kitchen, I turned to look at him and he smiled and waved at me. Cutest smartest baby.
Joan stayed home with Will Sunday night so that Erik, Heather, Nic and I could go out. We went to an amazing piano bar linked to the famous Broadmoor hotel–The Golden Bee. While we were having our awesome time, Heather admitted that at first she and Erik thought we were crazy for telling Will “no” about things. “He’s just a baby! Telling him no isn’t going to work!” And then they saw him shake his head “no” at us when he was done eating. And again when I went to hand him off to Heather, when he preferred to be held by me.
And, of course, the most dramatic example of his understanding of “no”–testing the rules. He climbed up on our bottom bookshelf, and Heather and Erik told him “no.” He got down, then looked at them and put one foot on the shelf. Heather and Erik said “no.” So he put his foot down, then looked at them and put it up in the air, hoovering over the shelf.
It’s something Nic and I have seen over and over for the last month or two. We call it the “is this okay?” game. If he bites and you tell him “no,” he’ll stop, then bite you softly. Like “what about this? Is this okay?” And again he hears “no.” So he’ll put him mouth on you and then lift his jaw so that one row of teeth digs into your skin. Like “I’m not biting, so can I do this?” Again–”no.” So he’ll try again, this time just resting his teeth on your skin.
It’s his thing. Finding out the maximum amount of naughty he can get away with. Pushing the boundaries, testing the limitis, and it’s how we know he’s a toddler.
He loves the “how big is William?” game. You don’t even have to put your arms up–you can just ask “how big is William?” and those little arms go up over his head.
He loves to hang out in the laundry room–especially the gap between the washing machine and the wall. He’ll walk in there, then drop down to his knees to crawl out and get stuck–he’s a lot wider crawling then he is walking!
In other family news, we had a great Valentine’s Day. We got a babysitter to sit with Will after we put him to bed so we could go out for Japanese and eat ourselves sick. Nic brought me a beautiful bunch of roses when he arrived home, and I had snuck a handmade card onto his door handle the night before.
Nic’s mom and her friend, and his sister and her fiance were here for Will’s birthday weekend. We are so happy they came–and they did it under pretty exhausting conditions–a red eye flight into Denver on Friday night, and an 8am flight out of Denver this morning!
On Saturday we had Will’s birthday party, on Sunday we went to lunch in Old Colorado City (and stopped at the gorgeous [thought snooty] yarn store to pick up yarn so Heather could make her first pair of socks [she picked gorgeous green tweed chunky weight yarn that is knitting up so fast she’s doing laps around my piddly socks]), and yesterday we got to go see the cliff dwellings that I’ve wanted to visit since moving here. Pictures and videos to come on the other site later today.
In other news about the other site, Heather let me know that I had a capitalization problem with the passwords–the video password was capitalized, but the others weren’t. I’ve changed it so that they’re all lowercase now.
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guest author: Will.
“How to Get Three Baths in One Day,” by William F. P. T.
Okay, kids. If you’re anything like me, you love taking baths. But you probably only get one bath a day, right before bed. If you’d like to change that, here’s what you do.
Step one: Poop in your diaper while you’re playing quietly by yourself. Make sure it’s squishy and stinky. Your mommy will say “Oh, I smell poops,” and go to get the supplies. This is when you make your move–sit down and rub your butt just the right way so that it squirts out the side of the diaper. Sit cross legged so that you can get your feet in it. Then put your hands in it. Make sure you get it all over the carpet. This will be important later.
When your mom comes back, she will probably take a deep breath and say “oh holy mother of God.” Give her a big smile so that she knows this isn’t about her, this is just about getting more baths. Try to be patient while she does the prelimary wipe-down. You’ll get your bath, you just have to wait a minute.
Next, your mommy will run you up the stairs, holding your body as far away as hers as she can. This is your clue that bathtime is next.
Step two: Enjoy your bath.
Step three: This is where the poop all over the carpet comes in. After your mommy dries you off and puts a diaper and a new shirt on you, she’ll leave you upstairs to play so that she can clean up your poop. You should crawl over to your pet ferrets and talk to them over the baby gate. When they say “Hey! Let us out, big tall naked king ferret! We’ll let you chase us around!” you should listen to them. They know a thing or two, and you should pull down the gate for them. But do it quietly so that your mommy can’t hear. But if she’s anything like my mommy, she will probably be so wrapped up in her precious carpet poops that she wouldn’t hear a train crashing into the living room.
Step four: Now is the big moment. Leave the ferret chasing for later–this part is crucial to getting that second bath. Crawl into the ferret room where you are never allowed to go. Now, whether or not you actually play in the litter box is up to you. The important thing is to make your mom think there is a chance–however small–that you might have somehow touched poop or pee. Me? I don’t think I did, but I can’t remember.
Step five: Get very very quiet. This is important, because if you are quiet for long enough, your mommy will shout up to you “Baby, you’re too quiet–what are you up to?” and come bounding up the stairs. This is where it is important for her to catch you in the ferret room. I was carefully posed over the cage, eating ferret food. It was delicious.
Step six: Enjoy your second bath of the day. Smile a lot, otherwise your mommy might start to think you don’t love her.
Step seven: Wait until your daddy gets home so you can have your bedtime bath. I can certainly think of ways to get more baths, but it’s important to play your hand carefully. Every mommy has her limit, and with mine, more than three baths might make her run away. Me and Daddy need her for snuggles. (and dinner, too.)
PS–even with all of the baths and carpet cleaning, Mommy managed to put up three new videos of me.
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halfway
I finished my first full-sized sock yesterday. Actually, I finished it twice. The first time I botched the grafting pretty badly and decided to rip it out and try again. This was NOT easy. But worth it.
To motivate myself to make the sock’s mate, instead of just going on to a new project, I wore my sock all day. Just one. The other foot was very cold, and helped to impress upon me that one sock does not a finished project make. It makes for one dejected foot. Hopefully, in another two weeks, I’ll have two socks, and two happy feet.
It’s a little “Joseph’s Technicolor Sock” like, but I wanted to use fun yarn, and when I gave Will a choice between several (including a very tasteful plain navy), this was his pick. It’s loud and obnoxious. Not unlike Will.
(PS–I think I fixed the comments section. Feel free to test it out by telling me how brilliant my sock knitting skills are.)
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dumb as a stump
I just discovered today that this blog has “comment moderation” meaning I have to approve a comment before it shows up. And all this time I had been wondering why no one had left a comment!
Sometimes I can be pretty dumb.
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some people
Some people use hair products to style their hair. Not William Francis. Will prefers to use squished banana to style his hair into peaks and curls.
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why is it?
Why is it that the 10% off coupon arrives the day after you drop $600 on new lighting fixtures at Lowes? sigh.
We’re working on getting rid of the U.G.L.Y. brass stuff the house came with. First stop–lighting fixtures. Next–replacing doorknobs and hinges. After that we’ll paint a wall in the living room, finally take down the creepy Angel Bathroom, tackle the kitchen cabinets, and put Pergo all through the downstairs. Hopefully we’ll get it all done just in time to move and not enjoy the fruits of our labor.
I put up a bunch of pictures of Will being a little daddy’s helper–climbing around at the base of the ladder while Nic worked. Will, a huge connoisseur of light fixtures and ceilings, was totally excited to see all the new lighting when he woke up the morning. He kept crawling from room to room, looking up at the chandeliers and giggling.
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oh man.
After watching me lock the dishwasher and walk away, Will went over, flipped the switch, opened the door, and crawled onto it.
This kid is in cahoots with childproofing companies.
If he put half as much effort into walking as he does climbing and opening, he’d be running by now.
In other news, I posted three new videos on smugmug. 
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blowing bubbles
While Will was in the bath tonight, I said “blow bubbles, baby!” and blew some air bubbles. Immediately, he farted, and a dozen bubbles escaped from his butt.
That wasn’t what I’d meant, but I appreciated the effort anyway.
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the train birthday
Will’s birthday party is train themed, because we’re giving him his first train set! Everyone’s been asking which one we’re getting, and I finally ordered it today, so here’s the scoop (good thing Will can’t read):
We got him the Brio mountain adventure set (let’s be honest–we got that one because it was the one Nic liked the best, and for the next 6 months Nic’s probably going to be the one playing with it the most), the milk wagon (cause I love milk), the fuel wagon (it’s never too early to teach him that fuel=money), and the car transporter (cause I thought it was cute). If you already got him any of those pieces, it’s all good–that’s the beauty of train stuff–the more cars/engines/mountains/track, the merrier!
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strange boy
Will loves V-8. Can’t get enough of it. Which is pretty cool.
What is not so cool is his other favorite drink–coffee. I came downstairs Saturday to find Will climbing all over Nic. “Save me!” Nic whined, as he held his coffee cup over his head.
It turns out that in an effort to get Will to leave his coffee alone, Nic let Will have ever-so-tiny-a-sip. Nic figured that once Will tasted it, he’d realize it was gross and go find other games. But Will didn’t that it was gross. He thought it was the elixir of the gods. Poor kid. He’ll have to wait another 16 years before he’s allowed to have it again.
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it’s over
In addition to the arm chair, the dining room chairs, and Nic’s office chair, Will has found a way to climb up onto my desk.
My life as I knew it is officially over.
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mr. independent
Will likes to do things on his own, thank you very much. Meals are always a little tricky, because Will wants to hold the spoon and feed himself. We always give him an extra spoon to hold to keep things a little bit better under control…but on Friday when I gave Will a spoonful of his oatmeal, he spit it out of his mouth into his hand, put it on his spoon, and then fed it to himself. Thanks, Mother, but I’ve got this.
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will’s shouts
(ranked in order by how much they increase my heart rate) 4. The glee shout. 3. The I’m unhapy shout. 2. The “I’ve got a hold of a ferret by her side fat” shout (very similar to the glee shout). 1. The “I’m up high somewhere and can’t get down” shout. In other news, my friends and I opened up a little online store today. We are very excited–the pink hat and pants are mine. http://hyenacart.com/sixlittlemonsters/
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so here we are
This is my new blog. Same momma, same tolerant daddy, same cute baby, same silly “Will touched his elbow for the first time today” details. Just a new address and a slightly different focus.
The other blog walked a weird line between being an attachment-parenting/natural-living advice manual, a Scrapbook Blog (and all the craziness that entails), a keep-the-family-updated place, and a provide-an-audience-for-my-writings venue. This is just a keep-the-family-and-friends-updated journal. So you won’t have to hear any more about cloth diapers (unless we should have some catastrophic and tragically entertaining diaper malfunction) or rambles about my new Safeway friends. I want to channel that time/energy into freelance writing (so cross your fingers and you could read about my new Safeway friends in actual magazines…which will probably be the end of my Safeway friendships).
Photo-a-day is also getting phased out–I’m going to be uploading photos to smugmug.com now (to a password protected account). The good news is that you’ll be able to buy 4×6 (or 36×120 if you really really love it) prints of the photos you want to have and the previews will be bigger than the old site. The bad news is that I’m not calling it Photo-a-Day anymore. Starting with Will’s 1st birthday, I’ll be calling it Photo-When-I-Get-Around-to-It. If you saw the nasty cut and black eye that Will is currently sporting, you would agree with me that this is the wisest course of action. All eyes on Danger Boy, all the time.
Speaking of which, it’s time for me to go back to being a mommy. Which today involves trying to tame The Laundry Monsters that are invading our downstairs. It is a sad state of affairs when every member of the household must run downstairs completely naked at the start of each day to find some clean underwear.
