“i climb top tree”
Will said “I” for the first time today–with my mom and dad as witnesses! He was trying to climb to the top of the tree in our front yard. Granny was trying to tell him that he’d gone far enough. 
happy birthday will!
It’s Willie’s birthday today. But he doesn’t like to be reminded of it. 
When I say “happy birthday, Will!” he says:
“NO! YOUR momma birthday!”
I guess he’s okay with me eating all his cake then.
Will’s reaction to packages plus quick vegas recap
For the last month, every time I open a box Will has gasped and said “AMAZING” in a totally reverent voice.
I went away for four days, and it all changed! This morning I grabbed my big stack of mail, which included two Amazon boxes. Each time I opened them, Will said:
“It’s so beautiful.”
That kid cracks me up.
The Vegas trip was rad. Totally informative, totally fun. I already miss the “routine” of Vegas, although I like that I didn’t have to be up at 6, and I love that it’s 10:30 and I’m still in my PJs. I’m going to miss the nightly foot soak in the suite’s jacuzzi bathtub with the girls, though!!
It was awesome to hang out with my online friends and make new ones. I need about two days to just sit and think about all the info that was presented, and then a week to sort out all the different conflicting info!
The weather sucked–it was completely overcast for our trash-the-dress shoot, and only got in the upper 50s on the very last day. Next year the convention is in March, so hopefully it will be a tad warmer!
I miss the crazy long walks that we had to take every day–all of them indoors. Bizarre that you can walk two miles and never hit the outside! The convention was at the MGM Grand and we stayed at the MGM Signature–I hope for the exact same set-up next year. The Signature was even closer to the convention space than the MGM Grand rooms, with the added bonus that you didn’t have to walk through a casino and it felt nicer, newer (which it is by a long shot), and more upscale. Because I waited for three hours on Sunday morning for our room, they upgraded us to one with a balcony on the 28th floor–talk about a total score! It was nice to poke our heads out of the balcony after long days inside with no windows–I think we’ll definitely splurge on a balcony next year for our own mental health!
It definitely got me motivated to be a better photographer this year. I hope I can step it up to the next level!
wedding #50
We booked our fiftieth wedding today!! We’re really proud–it’s a huge accomplishment because we only just started booking weddings one year and three weeks ago!
speech therapy for the ornery
I’ve been working with Will on a few sounds that get muddled. One of them was (and I say “was” because after two days of practice he’s already doing it correctly now!) the “b” at the end of words like “web.”
But trying to get Will to practice something, or play NICE word games, did not work. No chance in hell.
So I invented a “speech therapy for ornery babies” process that goes like this:
Mom: “You’re a grub.”
Baby: “No, YOU’RE a grub.”
Mom: “No, YOU’RE a grub.”
The ornery child can keep this up all day long.
“time machine”
Will spends a lot of time talking about time machines. I have no clue where he gets this from!!
“stop it, will”
In general, it seems that Will understands that Will is his name. If Nic says “Hi Will,” Will says “Hi Da!” If I say “love Will!” he says “Love Mom!” But when it comes to the negative stuff, Will seems to lose that. If he wants you to stop, this is what he says:
“Stop it, WILL.”
It cracks us up. Also hilarious: “No–YOU stop it.”
We did some video taping tonight to make sure we always have it.
not welcom
I’ve gone to Will’s class twice now during preschool in order to either attend a party or help Will with a presentation. Both times he has totally melted down, almost cried, and tried to hit me. He HATES when I come to preschool.
This morning was his day to doing a little presentation about Washington. I taught him that apples come from Washington, which he was going to say, and then I also was going to read to the class a little storybook about Seattle that Joan gave him. When I went to sit in the little chair the teacher uses for storytime Will totally freaked out. He got that look like he was going to cry (the Santa face) and tried to push me off the chair. He was totally freaking out, so I asked the teacher to read the book and Will and I would sit in the circle with everyone else. Except Will was just losing it. Totally misbehaving.
Then it was time to share the apples from Washington that we brought in. Will wouldn’t sit in his place. He was just laying on the floor. Time-out didn’t help. And then all the other kids were asking me questions about Washington and saying thank you for the story and apples and it made Will crazy. The look on his face when a little girl walked by and hugged my leg summed it all up: “GET YOUR OWN MOM.” He came and clung to my leg while all the other kids gave me hugs. And then he wanted to be held and carried out of preschool (it was time to go), which he never wants.
I’ve never seen him be jealous of when I interact with other kids before. I wonder if it’s because he never sees the other kid’s parents. Maybe he just assumes it’s like some sort of toddler store and all those kids are just waiting to snag a mom or dad!
hell is probably gonna freeze over…
but I updated pictures today from Jan and Feb.
“Check this out!”
I just heard the trample of little feet and “I go pee” as Will ran off to the potty.
The other night Nic came downstairs and said “Will just said: ‘tell momma come see.’ ” (He was drawing with a paintbrush and water on the bathroom mirror.)
And today I told Will we should go find Nic and Will said “come on! Follow me!”
And just now as I was about to hit “publish,” he came into the room jumping and said: “check this out!” (SERIOUSLY?!!! How old is he!)
