Old Blog Posts: December 2008

Willie and I drove up to Denver today to run a few errands.  We went to the same mall we went to when we saw Santa.  When we went to visit Santa Will kept saying that we were going to the North Pole.  I think he thinks we did because when we walked in the mall he said:

“Christmas town!”

Once that kid makes an association…he rides it till it breaks.

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We’re really proud of Will and his talking.  It’s really coming along.  For example, last week I told him we were going to go to the store and he flung himself down on the ground and shouted:

“No shopping!!!”

I didn’t even mention shopping–just going to the store.  And he’s never said “shopping” before!

Tonight as I was putting both boys to bed (when everyone’s sick we just all go to bed in our bed together), I told Nic “tomorrow is p-r-e-s-c-h-o-o-l” and by the time I had said “l” Will shouted “friend school!  friend school!”

He can’t even SAY preschool.  But he knows how it’s spelled!

Last week Will had the stomach flu and spent about seven hours barfing his brains out.  During the worst of it, Nic was taking care of Will in the master bedroom while I hosted cooking club downstairs.

Tonight Nic has the stomach flu.  And Will knows just how to take care of him.

We were all laying in bed when Nic jumped out of bed and ran for the bathroom.  A few minutes later when he asked me to bring him toilet paper, Willie came with me (my shadow of course).  He thought Nic was playing a game (why else would daddy be sprawled out on the bathroom floor?!) and tried to climb all over him.  I told him that Nic had to throw up (by saying “daddy needs to [barfing noise]”)

Will sprung into action.  He patted Nic gently on the back, then grabbed my hand and made my hand rub Nic’s hair.  Then he hopped up again.  “Da wah.”  He went to the sink to get Nic some water.  When Will was sick he was constantly begging for water.  But it might have also been because Nic taught him how to rinse your mouth with it.  Either way, Daddy needed to barf, and Will wanted to get him water.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to get Will away from Nic (which wasn’t happening by my “let’s go to your bed and read stories” method) so I asked Will to come downstairs with me.  Will ran down the stairs, pushed a chair over to the counter, and climbed up and started looking through various cups.

We found one, he filled it with water from the fridge, and then practically ran back up the stairs to get it to Nic.  And then came my favorite part.

He went right up by Nic, and slid one hand under Nic’s head, and put the other hand on Nic’s chest.  Trying to hold Nic EXACTLY HOW NIC HAD HELD HIM WHEN HE WAS SICK.  It was so precious Nic had no choice but to lift his head and take a sip of water.

Then Will grabbed the throw up bucket (which I will admit was still hanging out in the bathroom, though it had been rinsed out).  He put it right under Nic’s chin and said “bucket.  [barfing noise]” and tried to help Nic prop up his head.

I convinced Will that Nic didn’t have to throw up that exact second.  Again Will lept to his feet.  Barfing emergency over?  Well he knew just what to do next.  He ran to the back of the toilet and grabbed one of the paperbacks I have stashed there.  I thought I knew where this was headed.  In between bouts of illness in their exile in the master bedroom last week, Nic had just laid next to a dozing Will reading his book.  So to Will, part of caretaking must be reading a paperback.

He came back, sat next to Nic’s head, opened the book, propped it on his thighs, and studied the page.

And waited for his daddy to need him.

It was so crazy cute and sweet and loving.  But Nic needed some alone time, so I took Will downstairs. The way to separate a caretaker from his patient?  Promise to let him watch The Wiggles.

When your child throws up on your kitchen floor at the moment you are expecting 10 guests, 2 of whom get to watch your child throw up all over your husband’s nice work sweater.

Will was violently ill all Thursday evening.  Nic was amazing and had him upstairs in the master bedroom while I entertained Cooking Club downstairs.

He loves preschool, though.  Thursday morning he was asking to go to “friend school.”  He went all day Monday and Wednesday and so took at nap there, and that fascinates him.  He talks about it a LOT “friend school nap” and when I picked him up on Wednesday he had to show me the cots and tell me all about it.

Last night I sneezed and Will said “bless you” with perfect pronunciation, and then he hopped off the bed saying “tissue.  nose.”  And brought back a kleenex, which he held to my nose.  He said “blow.  blow.”  So I did.  Then he crumpled up the kleenex and ran off to throw it away.

Such a good little boy!

We went to Bernadette’s ugly Christmas sweater party last night, which was a total crack-up.  Will loved playing with the dogs and kids.  And we won honorable mention for our ugliness.

There are so things that I just really admire about Will.  His independence, his empathy, his ability to make stuff happen, the way he remembers stuff FOREVER…and today, I added a new one to the list.

I took him to his second day of preschool today.  We got in the car and went on our way, but the minute we pulled onto the preschool street and he saw the building, he started to cry.  “No!  Done!  No!   NO!”  Tears were streaming down his cheek.  When I parked he shouted “Drive!  Drive!” and pointed at the steeing wheel.  Lots of crying and “no!” and “done!” and even a couple “please!”s and it all was just so sad.  I carried him to his room and he cried the whole way.

Then I set him down to open up the door, and he locked it up.  By the time the door was open and all those little kids were looking at him, he was just a sad looking boy standing very quietly by his mommy, trying to look brave.

We walked into the room and he turned so his face was toward me and no one could see him, looked very sad, and asked for a hug.

He got it.  We did a little more hugging and I showed him around the room a bit, we said goodbye, the teacher took him to the window to look at a bunny hopping around the playground and I left.

I stayed to spy on him, and he was doing great–just playing.  And when we picked him up the teachers said he did really well!  No crying!

Willie is so brave!

After preschool we went straight to the Christmas tree farm.  Nic is working swings today and tomorrow, so we decided to put these daylight hours together to good use!

And once again, Will’s recall amazed us.  He ran right through the trees and up to the office porch where they had the hot apple cider set up.

The last time we were there was last year!

We picked out a great tree and I can’t wait to put lights and ornaments on it tomorrow–I know Will will be so excited to have our very own Christmas tree!  Right now, to him, it’s just a tree in our living room!

I stayed to spy on him

Nic and Will both had first days today–Will started preschool and Nic started work!

Nic’s day went really well.  He didn’t even cry.

Will’s day went really well.  He only cried a little.

I took Will to his classroom and since we’d been to check it out about two weeks ago he took to it really well.  He went for the play phone first thing.  (This should sound awfully familiar to my mom.  Will seems to have a lot of mini-Traci preschool behavior.)  I stuck around for a while, and then left.  He didn’t even give me a real goodbye hug, even though I kept telling him that I would be back soon, but I was leaving and he was staying to play.

I went and got his paperwork sorted out and then snuck back to spy on him.   He was playing with a little xylophone piano thing.  Everyone else was doing circle time.  (Again, a lot like a mini Traci who had no use for circle time [according to my preschool report cards.  i also had no use for walking down steps one foot at a time.].)

I watched him for about ten minutes, and he was just playing and doing his thing.  He climbed up on a mini table at one point and was told to get down.  I thought he might cry but he didn’t.

I went home, content that he was content.  I called them to check on him about an hour later and the teacher said that it dawned on him that I wasn’t there at one point and he got really sad.  But they gave him a candy cane and he perked right up.  He was playing with another little boy when I called.

I picked him up an hour later.  Got there early to spy on him.  They were all outside having recess in the snow.  Of all the children, Will was the most covered in snow.  By a long way.

He was having a great time.  Convincing him to come inside wasn’t the easiest thing (the key with Will these days is to say that if he doesn’t come right now, he will go straight to his room when he gets home.  it works like magic).  But then he ran right into the classroom and then straight for the door.  Apparently he was ready to go home!

We went to get his hair cut afterward and he was so tired it was perfect (his easiest haircuts are all when he’s super super tired).  Then I took him to Carl’s Jr for a celebratory lunch.  Then home to bed and he was SO READY for naptime.  I think that was my favorite part of the whole experience!

I can’t wait until Wednesday! 

This weekend Nic and I were sitting on the sofa when Will jumped up and yelled “pee potty!” as is his way.

He scampered into the potty and we heard this:

sound of pants being pulled down.

GIANT JUICY FART.

“Oops.

Fart.”

peeing.

We about died laughing.  Funniest Will moment EVER!