Will has always been fascinated by emotions. Long (LONG) before he learned his colors, he learned “sad” and delighted in telling us about who and what was sad. But it was only just tonight that he added “happy” to his vocabulary.
And suddenly the world opened up that much more. “Hap-hap-happe-hap-ha-hap-HAPPY NAN” he told us as he looked from his bed to the picture of the Turchin clan that hangs on his wall. “Happy Mer!” “Happy mom!” “Happy Dad!” (with plenty of stuttering at the beginning of each description.)
As he hugged us goodnight he told us “Happy mom” and “Happy dad” and hearing that DID make us happy.
We are working a TON on two word phrases. Everything that we see and describe (and he then parrots) is two words. “Red truck” “brown rock” “sad dog.” He’s doing a great job, but the stuttering is more pronounced now because it’s the two word phrases that bring it on. He gets so sad and frustrated sometimes when he can’t spit it out–that part makes me want to run far away from two word practice. Nothing is more pathetic than “sa-sad-sad-sa-sad-sad-sa-sa…[whine and then sob]” but we keep on keepin on.
The boys have been sick the last two days so we haven’t been out and about. But on Tuesday we all went on a little hike and it was so much fun to see Will in action on a trail. Always with a rock or a stick in hand…usually going too fast for his own good and tripping and falling (though he seemed to master both the word and the concept of “slow” this last trip). We saw a snake and lots and lots of bunnies…which was good, because I’d promised Will a chance at seeing both of those things. He knows to stay on the trail and only sometimes forgets (those damn bunnies–they just beg to be chased).
His first hike was with Nic at Garden of the Gods (I posted a few pics on the work blog). They were out on adventures while I was home working, so all of this is second-hand. Nic said Will walked along saying “trail” “trail” “trail” most of the time, and when they finished the loop and Nic asked Will if he wanted to go home, Will said “no. more trail.” so they started on the loop again…and then after the halfway point Will turned around and said “home?” and wanted to walk back the other way, but Nic told him that home was the other way. So after that Will walked and walked saying “home.” “home.” “home.” Apparently even our Energizing Bunny of a toddler has his limits!
We are into our busiest two months of the year, so hopefully we will continue to keep it together and meet all of our deadlines and still have time for outtings. We worked out a great schedule last week that has everything feeling very smooth. Nic watches Will in the morning while I work, and then after naptime, it’s family time until Will goes to bed…and then I catch-up on anything else I had wanted to accomplish that day or take a break and read. (re-reading the Twilight books is sort of a full time job for me…and I’m also reading Animal, Vegatable, Miracle, and it is a darned good thing that we are poor as dirt or I would have us 100% on a local organic diet and be looking into buying our own cows and chickens.) It’s much easier to be optimistic at the end of the first week of our busy season, though, than I imagine it will be in a couple of weeks when the work has piled up! 
I expect to see the light at the end of the tunnel around the beginning of November. September will be the worst of it, because we have so (SO!) many weddings, albums to design, print orders to process (this takes an astonishing amount of time), and then it is senior portrait season on top of that…along with families wanting to get in nice weather pictures for Christmas cards and gifts. I keep reminding myself that I will be missing this busy-ness (and all of the incoming money) in January! If only photography was a year-round thing in Colorado like it is in some of the southern states!
Will’s first sentence: “Pirates say argh.”
Pronounced totally perfectly–every word exact.
It’s 3am (well, 4am now), and I can’t sleep (thanks to someone very short who also can’t sleep) and so I’m pouring over google maps and the internet planning my trip to New York in December! (Betcha didn’t know that I was so cool!)
One of my clients is flying me out to NYC for a weekend in December to shoot their engagement pictures. It will be my first time away from the boober overnight (I’m flying out Saturday and returning Monday evening)…but something tells me I’ll manage. Because this is 3 miles from where I’ll be staying.
I am so excited!
We seem to have cracked the bedtime craziness that always threatens to consume us all in endless hours of more kisses and hugs. Things we’ll be great for some time, then we’ll have a disruption to the routine (babysitters on wedding nights don’t help) and then it will get all out of whack for a while. We cracked the whip this week (which, in this family, means you only get one set of hugs/kisses–after that, you’re simply escorted back to bed) and we have far fewer bedtime interuptions from our little creeper.
Except that this time, the routine is a little disturbing to me: he falls asleep on the floor in his doorway. Either wanting to be closer to us, or waiting for us to cave at his cuteness and come give him kisses and hugs. Either way, it’s pathetic and sad!
As entertaining to me as the sounds that Will makes are, the ones that he DOESN’T make are the most interesting to me.
Like how “x” and “s” sound the same when he says the alphabet (he has “x” and thinks “s” is the same thing)
Or how he pronounces “orange” “oranch” and how “swinging” and “swimming” and even “climbing” sound nearly identical.
I was thumbing through my iphone notes this morning and discovered a couple of things I’d jotted down that I’d meant to write about here. They are a couple of weeks old, but here goes:
Will rubbed his eyes one day around naptime as he was crying about something and said “eyes tired.” He is very European and likes to put his adjectives after his nouns. His red ball is “ball red.” (It has Lightning McQueen on it and he sleeps with it at night.)
About a month ago Will had his neighborhood friends over and Nic gave them all a snack. He handed snacks to Tori, 15, and Jameson, 5…and neither of them said thank you. But Will did! (He is super polite and says “thank you” and “your welcome” all the time.)
He LOVES watermelon. Nic bought some from Costco a couple of weeks ago and Will kept going into the fridge, grabbing a whole one, lugging it out and saying “more melon?”
He also likes presents. He totally gets the concept and gets very excited when packages arrive here. If you tell him that something is a present, he treasures it more. “Pres?!” he says. Like “someone thought of ME?” Sometimes he asks for “more pres” which makes me laugh.
We are super busy around here. Next week starts our “six weddings in five weeks” stint, and I am already behind from August photo mania! It’s fantastic for us, though, and I appreciate having Nic around. He is very much a Mr Mom these days–taking Will to the zoo or the pool so I can get some uninterupted work done. I definitely dream of a future in which my photography income would be enough to support the family and things could be just as they are now.
Nic has decided to go back to school and become a teacher. He has loved being home with Will this summer and a teacher’s schedule will allow him to do that every year, plus it is very condusive to photography–being off work during wedding season! The money will be terrible, but I make enough with photography to supplement it, and with both of us working, we should be able to be back at our previous income level. The program Nic applied for is a 9 month program that starts in October. It’s all online and part time, so he’s still looking for full time work in the mean time. He continues to send out lots of applications and go to interviews, we just don’t have any good news yet. I’m not worried about it anymore, though–one way or another, it will all work out. We’re just keeping our eyes open and following any opportunities we see!
Last night I went to my monthly “cooking club” with a few new friends. I took Will along because one of the women brings her daughter that is just a couple of months older than Will, and they had a fantastic time playing together (Taylor is “girl” to Will, Will is “boy” to Taylor). And Will was so enamoured with her that he insisted on closing the bathroom door before peeing–certainly a first! Last night’s host has a cat, and Will was in love. Even more than he likes dogs–he loved that cat! He was so gentle and sweet…it’s a good thing Nic is allergic or we would be forced to get one!
Speaking of pets, our sweet Fifi had to be put to sleep this week. Mitzy isn’t taking it as well as she did with Buttercup–she is out of sorts and anxious. She spends a lot of time looking for Fiona, which breaks my heart. We are looking for a new home for her–we’d decided a few months ago that once Fiona died, we’d look for a new family for Mitzy. She will be miserable as an only ferret, and we can’t take on another pet right now. We are hoping to find a good family for her–hopefully that works out, because it would be very sad for her to be lonely.
In the last week Will has started tickling me out of the blue. He’s terrible at it–it’s basically just very gentle pinches, but he says “tick, tick, tick” in a cute little voice when he does it–just like I say “tickle, tickle, tickle” to him!
Yesterday I was giving Will a piggy-back and he burped one of those scary juicy burps and I said “don’t throw up on me!”
And then he started fake throwing up on me.
WHAT?!!
How does he know what throw up is and how does he know how to fake it?! It’s been AGES since he was sick!
Totally blew me away.
So today when he was on my back and made a funny gurgle I said “don’t throw up on me!” just so Nic could see the performance.
I’ve been dreading this since the LAST time we hired a nanny.  I hate hate HATE interviewing people and searching for our own perfect Mary Poppins (and one who won’t totally flake out on us).
We had the first of what feels like will be many interviews today. I wish we could keep Brooke here forever!
Is green.
He confuses yellow and blue almost always, but he likes those, too. Gray is “shiny.” And pink is red.
Will’s favorite letter is “o”
This morning we went to the DMV to finalize becoming Coloradans and Will pointed out all the “o”s to us.
He gets “t” and “b” confused.
And when we were looking at the “department of motor vehicles” sign and I asked him “what comes after the “l” he started making monkey noises and we laughed at his ridiculousness. “e” is not a monkey.
And then I realized that “m” comes after “l” in the ALPHABET and “monkey” starts with “m” and that’s what his alphabet game shows for “m”…so monkeys really DO come after the letter “l”!
If you say “Will!” he answers “wha?”
When he poops he calls his turds in the toilet sharks.
If you try to take a piece of candy from him and he realizes he’s about to lose, he’ll run and throw it in ferret poop so you can’t have it either.
His favorite song is the “yeti, yeti, yeti, yeti” call from The Backyardigans (video to come later this evening)!
I updated my iPhone’s software to the 2.0 software today, which is pretty exciting for me (lots of new applications that make it possible to use some of my fave websites in new ways)…but it’s also exciting for pictures. I’ll now be able to upload pics directly from my phone to the usual place in a very easy way…so the galleries there won’t be quite so quiet!
It also makes it even more fun to use twitter (mom and kelly–you need to get on this), so I think I’ll do more twitter updates, too. 
And with that, it’s back to trying to keep a very wet will from jumping all over me!
Will has taken to sleeping on his favorite books. Puts it on his pillow, then lays on it.
Now that’s love right there!
“Hi, big truck!” (in reference to our garbage truck today)
Three word sentences are VERY rare here, so it’s a big day!
I remembered what I had wanted to write last night!
Will thinks helicopters are “cities” because in his plane book the line reads “here is a helicopter over the city.”
It took us a while to figure that one out. But when he says “city!” he means “helicopter.”
We’re working on that one!
I have learned so much about how I speak from watching Will learn to speak! In the last couple of days “some” has emerged as a critical word. He’ll bring me my cup of tea and ask “some?” or point to Nic chopping vegetables and say “some?” “Some?” coming from my ever-so-frequent use of phrases like “would you like some?” “sorry, sweetie, you can’t have some”
Like when he was littler and he thought “back” meant “put” because I was constantly saying “put it back” and so whenever he wanted you to put something somewhere he would point and say “back!”
He has been busting out the words lately. We think it’s because he can say more words than he realizes. Because he certainly KNOWS them all. We are so used to narrating our lives for him, and in the last two weeks all of a sudden we’re hearing “NO! NO!” as we narrate. Like “first we’re going to finish dinner, and then we’ll take you up for a bath” meets a chorus of “no!” “no!” Or today when I said “do you want to take a shower now?” (meaning to ask Nic) I heard a little voice shout “no!”
“No” and “mine” being his two favorite words of late. Except the “mine” train is getting shut down pretty hard. He has been informed that mommy has things and daddy has things…but Will has NOTHING.
Another of my favorite words doesn’t translate very well to typing. It’s Will’s version of “fix it” which comes out like “zit.” And he is enormously brave and trusting if you promise to “fix it.” He sits so still and quiet when Nic promises to “fix” a splinter or broken toenail. Will had glue stuck to his ear today (among other places…which included MY face somehow) and it was “ouchie” (which glue is once it has dried and stuck to your face (as I now know). I set about ripping it off his ear, which I know was uncomfortable, but because I said I was “fixing it” Will sat just as still as could be and only wimpered a little. If you tell him you’re fixing it, he has the utmost confidence that whatever pain or discomfort must be endured, is totally worth it in the long run.
(I seriously want to bottle this and sell it to women in labor.)
In final Will thoughts (since I haven’t been very good about writing these things down lately…damn impending financial ruin distracting me from memory keeping), I am pretty sure that Apple tests their software products on two year olds. He can work my iPhone. He knows to press the button to emerge it from sleep, then slide the screen hubajube to the right to unlock it, then press the “ipod” icon, then select the backyardigans tab, then select the episode of choice.
(Which is how my phone quickly became known in this house as “the show machine” [or really, the “cho” machine, since that’s how Willie has been saying “show” these days.) He’s very into “calls” and “phone” and God help you if you answer the phone and don’t let him say “hewo?”
Nic has transitioned to being Will’s primary care giver. The first hint of this was when the nanny told us that Will asked for Nic a lot while we were out shooting, but not me. Me? He’s used to me being gone, or me being unavailable in the office proofing pictures…but Daddy…Daddy has been home for almost two months! DADDY isn’t supposed to go anywhere! The other day Nic was working on our cars in the garage and Will asked about him 100 times. “Da?” “Da gone.” “Da home?” “No. Gone.” Of when Nic went out to run errands the other day, Will miraculously didn’t hear the garage door open, but I did (this almost never happens). I told him “Daddy’s home!” And he looked at me and said “No. Gone.” I had to drag him downstairs and convince him that Da WAS home!
But the nanny is also a huge hit. He doesn’t even walk us to the garage anymore! I felt so good on the morning of our first wedding. He came to the door to see us off, we gave him kisses and I said “now go watch Fraggles and have fun” and he ran off and that was that! And at our last wedding he watched us pack up, got his kisses, blew us some more kisses, and waved and shouted “BYE!” and never even stopped jumping on his little indoor trampoline!
We’ve decided that Brooke isn’t allowed to go back to school at the end of August (she goes to school out of state). She must stay and watch Will forever. He loves her, and that’s that. (In her words: “the first two times he was pretty stand-offish. The first day he didn’t even want me to sit by him. But now he’s all over me!” The last time she had the audacity to try and leave without getting HER goodbye kiss. This was totally unacceptable to Will!)
I have been typing all these things because there was something in particular I wanted to write tonight, and of course I can’t think of it. Oh well. At least I thought of all of these other things.
Will took a knock to the head a month ago (he and Nic were running and Will slammed the door in Nic’s face, it bounced off Nic’s knee and slammed Will in the face). It immediately swelled up into a giant lump and he had a red line down the middle. No bleeding, but the stress of the giant lump was enough that the line hasn’t gone away and I’m worried it will be a scar. More worrisome was the fact that the lump got smaller, but hasn’t gone away. So Nic took him to the doctor yesterday (I had a photo shoot) and it sounds like quite an adventure.
Nic says that Will was very well behaved–maybe the best behaved that he has ever been. He had his head x-rayed (apparently the x-ray tech was super patient and between getting Will to kiss the wall [which he found appropriately bizarre] and getting him to smell it, they got some good x-rays).
The doctor thinks that the lump will eventually go away, but he DOES have a ridge in that spot (which he thinks is why it swelled up so quickly, so large, and has taken so long to go away). The other option is that he fractured that spot and it calcified over. But the doctor thought that was unlikely, since it’s right in the middle of one of the hardest parts of his body, and if he’d fractured it he would have passed out and it would have been a much bigger deal. Nic asked if it was because of the plates of his head fusing together too quickly (we had a friend whose baby that happened to) and he said no–this spot is right in the middle of a plate–the plates are higher up.
Which leaves us with the fact that Willie B is a bit of a freak with a klingon-like forehead. And after a lot of poking and proding of our foreheads this morning, we decided he gets it from me. (FRICK!)
“Oh man!” and “Ah Geez!”
Makes me feel like I don’t swear as much as I thought I did, hearing all these PG sentiments coming out of Will’s mouth!
One of my favorite things that Will says is: “Wow! Coooool!”
Will loves his Hungry Hungry Hippos game. Each of the hippos has a different eye sticker with various eye expressions. One of them has a dazed and confused expression that could easily be seen as sad if you are two. The other night Will looked at that hippo (the orange one) and said “Sad.” “Po. Sad.” We told him that the hippo was okay, but he wasn’t buying it. He kept saying “sad. po.” and gave it a hug.
The next day he refused to play on the orange one, saying “no. sad.” “sad. po.” And when I tried to play on the orange one, I got pushed aside. “SAD!” “NO!”
What a caring little boo he is!
Yesterday I stopped by the liquor store to pick up cheapie rum for my rum cake (not wanting to make a $20 cake). I went to the usual place, but it’s been a while (I’m sure they miss us) and a new lady was working at the front counter. As I approached with my $7 bottle of rum and credit card, she looked at me and asked to see my id. I handed it over and she looked totally surprised as she did the math. “Oh, you’re TOTALLY fine” she said. Apparently she thinks I look 20 years old, which may just keep me from having a quarter life crisis next month.
I posted some prettied up pictures from my parents’ visit on the business blog today. Will looked particularly adorable that day.
My first wedding of the year is tomorrow–I’m going it solo, so that will be strange!
We went to the zoo yesterday and realized that Will would be perfectly content if the zoo consisted only of the hippo/penguin/snake/fish house. He just ran back and forth and back and forth in that little room–totally overwhelmed by what to pick to look at.
I need more zoo, though. I’m not happy until I see the cute little tree porcupine. And Nic needs to see the bears. So maybe we get our money’s worth out of our membership after all.
For the last few months, Will has been very interested in tails. Who has them, who doesn’t. What they look like, if they’re yucky. Last night at bedtime he looked at his weiner, grabbed it, looked at me with the light of recognition on his face, and exclaimed:
“Tail!”
I have finished uploading a bunch of new pictures (just one last batch from the zoo with Heather and Erik to go). They uploaded strangely, so even if you’ve seen the ones on the 1st page, you might have missed some farther back. My absolute favorites are of will riding the little kiddie rides in Manitou.
Discs with prettied up versions will go out to our visitors soon!
I had forgotten about last spring’s plant-killing hail storms until one shredded Nic’s back garden today.
It’s that time of year. Thunderstorms and hail.
Last night we had the most amazing lightning storm. I had all the windows in the house open and woke up to fierce wind. I went to close the windows and spied the most beautiful lightning storm in the distance. It was pretty far away–I couldn’t hear thunder, and the sky other than that one cloud storm was totally clear, so you had beautiful black skies and stars and then a giant cloud that lit up constantly with lightning. I woke up Nic to look, but he was sans glasses and one eyelid was practically swollen shut, so I was the only one who got to witness the majesties.
I booked our 25th wedding today. We started our wedding business four months ago!
We announced a price increase a couple of weeks ago, so we have been crazy busy with bookings and consults for the last couple of weeks (hence the unintential blog silence). I’m getting caught up on accounting and sales taxes and proofing and personal photos now. I’m uploading a bunch of photos tonight and tomorrow to the usual place from my mom and dad’s visit and Nan and E’s visit. (Both visits were huge hits that Will talks a lot about…and insists on seeing pictures of). Will is starting to remember who gave him presents–he knows the toys my mom and dad got him. Heather and Erik also brought him presents (some from them, some from Joan), and Will knows this, because he talks about them when he sees them. (Sucks for Joan, apparently you have to be present to get credit for a gift in Will’s world.)
Summer has arrived all of a sudden and my attempt to hold out for a few more weeks on the air conditioning lost hard core today as Nic flipped the switch to “cool” for a few hours today (in spite of my budget nazi protests). We are into the world of otter pops and sunscreen, which reminds me of why I’m not actually a summer fan: it is such a sticky season when you’re a mom.
I got wildly into the Twilight book series a week or so ago. (didn’t help the blog silence) Had to borrow the sequels from our fifteen year old neighbor, and I’m not as ashamed as Nic thinks I should be. I asked Nic if he would take me to the Twilight movie that comes out in December or if I would have to go with said teenage neighbor. He said he would take me. (I know this had nothing to do with love and sacrifice and everything to do with the fact that he is wildly curious about what could have me so obsessed.) Everyone I has to read the books, but if any of you dare go into that whole “Jacob is better than Edward” world…well, you better take that crap to someone else. I skipped over a good 300 pages of the second book (wikipedia filled me in, thank you very much) because I wasn’t about to waste three hours reading pages that weren’t about Bella and Edward.
I am so grateful that I didn’t hear about the books until now, because if I had started reading them when everyone else had, then I would have had to wait so much longer to see how it all ends. Now, I just have to wait until midnight on August 1st. (Which has me in a tiny bit of a panic because I’m shooting an Indian wedding Aug 1-2…so thank god for the internet spoilers I’m counting on is all I can say about that….or you’d have one distracted photographer.)
On the subject of Willie: he’s good. Sticky, but good. Already turning his summer brown. Working off his latest bumps and scrapes (they have me a little nervous because I don’t want them to turn into scars, but a ton of sun doesn’t exactly help that). He had his two year appointment and got the check of approval. The doctor couldn’t believe he was potty trained, but since I couldn’t check off “uses plurals” I figure it all evened itself out. Of course this means nothing, but so far according to his chart they think his always-at-the-top-of-the-growth-chart-ness will out-importance his mother-bringing-down-his-father’s-height factor and have him at 6′2″.
He has a new nanny that we like a lot, and he’s very into drawing with chalk in the backyard. He loves having Nic around all the time! And he would eat three hotdogs at every meal if I let him (I draw the line at 2).
Me! Me, me, me!!! When you search for colorado springs wedding photographers…WE ARE ON THE FIRST PAGE!!! In the #5 spot! I am so happy–thanks if you clicked on our link!
I have spent so much time on our googleability in the last couple of months and found out a week or two ago that there was a fundamental flaw with our site that was killing me. Got that fixed, and WHAM! Out of the bottom of page two and into the middle of page one!
I love Mother’s Day. It’s my favorite holiday.
Yesterday Nic planned a day of outtings and surprises. We started at The Egg and I–our favorite breakfast place that we haven’t been to in a long time. A very special treat.
And then we drove. And drove. And drove. I didn’t know where we were going, but we drove to the Royal Gorge Park in Canon City (a surprise for me) home to a petting zoo, and highest suspension bridge in the world. May is military appreciation month at the park, so Nic had heard that the tickets were 1/2 off. But even better, moms got in free, so our family got a total bargain!
Will loved seeing the trains and petting the goats. He was very excited about the burro rides, so we waited in line forever (and I was ready to lay the smack down on an 8 year old who tried to cut)…but after all of that waiting he freaked out and didn’t ride.  But he did get a huge kick out of the trains, so it was still awesome!
Pics in the usual place.
When he runs back to his bed from the potty at night, he does this hippity hop skipping dance that is totally cute.
He is SO good about going to the potty before we run errands. All I have to say is “we’re going bye bye in the car. run to the potty.” and even if he went five minutes before that, he’ll run to the potty, sit, concentrate, and pee a teeny bit.
We went to Nic’s going away work luncheon yesterday, and there was a four year old girl there that wanted to play with Will and totally didn’t get that he was TWO. He doesn’t know how to play ring around the rosey, and doesn’t understand the rigid rules of four year olds taking turns (just take it away from him when it’s your turn) because he’s two! But he was the same size as she was, so I could understand the confusion.
If you have a second, can you do a google search for “colorado springs wedding photographer” and then go to page 2, a couple up from the bottom, and click on our website link? I’m working on getting us off page two, and if people click on us first when they search for those keywords, it helps bump our rankings (don’t worry, I’m doing a lot of other things, to). It only works a couple of times, so there’s no point in doing it ten times in a row (it’s smart about ip addresses), but if various people on various computers click on our url when they search for my keywords, it can help. Thanks!
In appreciation, maybe I’ll post some pictures today of Will and his cute haircut playing with the new game his uncle Chris sent!
It melted away as rapidly as it arrived. A few hours of February in May and that was that.
Will’s been really into grabbing my fat in his chubby little hands. He’ll grab my belly fat as I’m sitting on the couch…and just now he stuck his head up the back of my shirt (he likes to play “where’d willie go” that way) and grabbed two handfuls of fat.
It’s like “hey kid–maybe if you weren’t such an asshole while I try to work out to denise austen in the mornings there wouldn’t be all that fat for you to make fun of.”
Meanwhile he can’t throw stones, cause his hair is looking ri.di.cu.lous. Someone needs a haircut BADLY.
And today we have two inches of snow. Stuck to the roads and everything.
It’s May. And in Colorado, sometimes that means winter.
Will’s sick and cranky. He woke me up this morning a all-painful headbutt to the eye.
But I uploaded a cute video, so at least there’s that.
We had a fantastically full day today. It started with church. We got there 30 minutes early because I thought if I played with Will for long enough in the nursery he wouldn’t scream and cry when I left. Of course when we walked to the doorway (not even in the nursery yet) we got yelled at by the nursery staff for showing up too early (“you’re way too early. you can’t drop him off until 9:15.”) As if my idea of a fantastic coup is dropping Will off 15 minutes early at the nursery for mass. SCORE FREE CHILDCARE.
(I sort of hate this month’s nursery staff, but Nic says it’s the nursery ladies’ job to be bitter.)
I explained that I just wanted to play with him for a while so that he wouldn’t be so upset when we left. I’m not sure they fully believed me, but we sat and played with Will for half an hour and then left and it made all the difference in the world. No crying or fussing at all. (In fact, the nice nursery lady [the least bitter of the bunch] said when we came to pick him up that it was really smart that we came early. So there. [sometimes going to church makes me utterly un-churchy.])
Anyway, in spite of the mean nursery ladies (it was the same ones this week as the ladies that yelled at me last year for checking on him and caused our year-long absence from church, which reminded me of my friend Erin who stopped going to our church in Virginia after the nursery ladies there yelled at her) we had a very nice time.
We went to Costco afterwards for lunch and bulk paper towels. Will gets so excited about getting pizza at Costco that he can barely contain himself–he kept breaking free from us and running to the counter to shout “ZA!!!” (“pizza”) at the cashier.
Will fell asleep on the way home and I got my work stuff ready while Nic dashed off to get a haircut.
I was hired by one of my brides to shoot her grandparent’s anniversary party and it was a fantastic experience. The whole family was very sweet and fun and loving and I can’t wait to shoot her wedding, since I already know her family now!
While I was off being a photographer, Willie woke up from his nap and Nic took him to the zoo! They had a fantastic time from the sounds of things–the hippo house was the biggest hit–they just ran between the fish “fish!”, hippos “poes! yuck! eeeew!” (from a previous visit when a hippo pooped and a woman standing next to us made a big deal out of it), and penguins “guins!”
I beat the boys home and was talking with Kelly on the phone when they walked in. Willie came over and gave me a giant hug and then ripped the phone out of my hand. I thought he wanted to talk to Kelly, but all he wanted was my undivided attention–he thrust the phone at Nic and then came running back for hugs and to tell me all about the animals.
We had dinner, talked about the zoo, and played outside for a long time. A very full day–I sort of feel like I went to the zoo, too! (That’s because my boys are so good at telling me all about their adventures!)
I realized the other day that even though Will has been potty trained for ages, I still don’t have any pics of him on the potty. I brought the camera upstairs tonight so I could catch the Will/Nic adorable teeth brushing routine as well as some ritual “kid on the potty” pics. There are bunches, so they should all be up in an hour or two.
Last night kinda sucked around here. We were feeling a little bummed about the job situation and the economy and the size of my thighs (which precludes me from making decent money as a stripper) and Will’s need not to live in a meth lab.
So I thought today I would write about the things that are good.
(But not before a petty annoyance: it really upsets me when junk mailers write “do not throw away!” on the envelope. Because I believe them and open it up only to find crap. Meanwhile, USAA and the government never write “do not throw away!” and every so often Nic will be like “where the hell are those new credit cards I’ve been waiting for?” or “why hasn’t USAA sent us our tax info yet” or “why haven’t my Jeep licensing tabs come yet? My current tabs are six months expired!” Maybe I shouldn’t be in charge of the mail anymore.)
Good thing #1: All of my wedding consults/bookings this week. Weddings are going super well for us.
Good thing #2: When I woke up in urine, we had a spare set of sheets to use
Good thing #3: I dropped off my senior portrait hand-outs at the local high school today and they were 100 times cooler than the hand-outs that the other guy was dropping off (but the fact that he hadn’t had time to staple them together because he had just gotten out of the hospital after having a stroke made me feel a touch awkward). But we’re focusing on the good here.
Good thing #4: I really like Will as a two year old. One was tough. Looking back, one kind of kicked my butt. But the terrible twos? No way. Terrible ONES. But two is awesome. He does rad stuff like bring me things that I ask for or entertain himself with a dvd while I take a shower ALL BY MYSELF (the kid is seriously awesome–he can find the one he wants to watch, turn on the tv, change the input to vcr, turn on the dvd player, insert the disc AND press play at the correct point in the menu [twice if you have to choose between widescreen and normal]!) I do NOT mind tv if it means I get to shower by myself!
He says “stuck” but not “lunch.” “Hippo” but not “toy.” He makes the most hilarious faces and poops on the potty. He claps for me when I pee. And gives me hugs and kisses all the time. He does a really good job of restraining himself when he wants to hit me (you can see it in his face, and 98% of the time, he does the right thing and chooses not to hit, which is 48% higher than the old days when he would smack me one like an abusive spouse). He sleeps well at night and getting him to bed is getting steadily better. He goes down for naps like a champ and sleeps at least two hours during that nap. He is a pro with a spoon and doesn’t make that much more of a mess than Nic. He gets to ride facing forward in the car, so he doesn’t cry all the time about the sun being in his eyes. He will color happily at my feet for twenty minutes while I get something done.
Two is awesome. I think it is the best yet. In fact, I think I’m going to go spy on his cute little napping self right now and think about how good two is.
No news on the job search. Nic called to follow up today and apparently they’re waiting on some feedback from some people.
Ummm…feedback faster, people. I need health insurance for my amputee.
(But at least it’s not bad news. And gives me time to go around the rosary a few more times. Mary better be working overtime on this one.)
are up. I know it’s been a while!
only it was my bed.
I woke up cold and wet.
Which is worrisome because it should have been WARM and wet.
I could have been marinating in cold pee for hours.
(Normally Will sneaks into our bed at about 1 or 2 after a quick stop at the potty. Clearly last night the bathroom time happened in the wrong order.)
…who goes to the potty so he can fart.
His father could learn a thing or two from him about fart etiquette.
Will has been using the words he does know to make up phrases for the words he doesn’t know. Two that come to mind:
“deet crack” (ferret crackers) = ferret food (because giraffes eat crackers, so surely whatever ferrets eat are ferret crackers)…when Oscar came for dinner this weekend with his mommy Laura, he had “dog crackers” (his treats)
“wa jew” (waffle juice) = syrup
He is getting more and more words. Just yesterday he said “car” instead of “zoom” as we went out on errands. He tells me all about everything he sees as we drive around. And he shouts “bye bye” to any building we leave or truck we pass. He waves to people.
He says “baby” now instead of “wah-bah” which breaks my heart a little.
And I finally got brave and am using underwear on him for our outtings (he has been great about using the potty on errands, but I have clung to the security/convenience of knowing he had a diaper on as back-up). He is getting to be a regular Aunt Kelly on his tour of the bathrooms of the world.
It is dangerous to take him to Target, because he is like his Mommy–he wants everything that is there.
We play “monsters” a lot, where I chase him around roaring at him, but he has a “safe word” for when it gets too scary. He likes it for a couple of seconds, then gets too scared and says “ouchie” and rolls to the ground. This is my cue to stop being a monster and to hug and kiss him for his “ouchies.” And then he wants me to go back to being a monster.
He is big into answering the phone. The cutest little “hello?” “hello?” “hello? hello?” and then he usually roars. We talk on the phone a lot when I’m driving home from meetings. This weekend he answered the phone while Nic was in the shower oblivious. I heard “hello?” I said “is daddy there?” and he said “ROAR!” and roared at me a few more times before putting the phone down and walking away. We need to work with him if he’s going to be my secretary.
You may have read about the Colorado wildfires or be seeing things about them on tv.
Last night as I was driving home from a wedding consult (with the most beautiful couple I’ve ever seen in real life) I saw the weirdest cloud stretching from our neighborhood down to the south. Very dark like rain, but very thin and low. I commented on it to Nic, who told me it was from the fires.
It was very warm yesterday (in the high 70s) but the wind was crazy, so last night we opened the windows to cool off and within minutes my eyes were burning and it smelled like someone was having a campfire in our front yard. The fires are far south of us, so it amazed me that the smoke reached us and still looked and smelled like smoke.
We’re supposed to get rain this afternoon, so hopefully that will put the fires out.
Nic’s interview yesterday went very well, so cross your fingers for us! (Mine are turning a little blue.) 
It sounds like they want to make a quick decision, so I think we would probably hear by the weekend if it is good news. If we haven’t heard anything by the weekend, send vodka.
Will was quietly playing with my phone this afternoon while I got dressed. Or so I thought. He was really applying lipstick all over his lips, cheeks, ears, weaner, butt, feet, and our bed linens.
Pics in the usual place.
…that politicians are basing their decisions on whomever happens to answer the phone at 8:30 at night and has the time and patience to answer a survey.
I was thrilled when I picked up the phone and was asked to be part of the survey. All those years of watching The West Wing and never once did anyone poll ME. (probably in large part because I was 15 and in England) I could only have been more excited if they were asking me help with television ratings.
Anyway, I answered the poll and was terrified by the questions they asked. I can tell you one thing right now: the results of the poll were useless. In speaking with a complete stranger, I felt the urge to answer to please or impress her. This scewed my answers. For instance, I know I won’t vote in the November election. The last time I tried to vote (by absentee ballet) they sent it back to me because my signature had changed in the past 10 years. By the time it got back to me the election was over. Made my vote feel sad and lonely and pathetic and used. Teach me to bother.
And I know that in November we will be Colorado citizens and I won’t bother registering or going to vote (don’t judge me) because I don’t really see the point. Eight years of Bush and pretty much all the things that could go wrong did go wrong…and it’s left me apethetic. I don’t really care because regardless of how strongly I feel about an issue, things could go the other way. I have my own things that I actually CAN control, like whether or not Will poops on the potty. Those are the things that get my passionate feelings because those are the things that with a little persistance, I can make happen.
But when she asked me how likely I am to vote, I didn’t want her to hang up on me and lose my only chance to participate in a cool survey, so instead of saying “I’ll only vote if they make it as easy as an internet poll” I said “somewhat likely.” And when she asked me how important it is to me that everyone in the US has healthcare I didn’t say “I don’t give a hoot as long as my little finger-slicer/face-cutter has healthcare” I said “somewhat” because I didn’t want her to think that I was a selfish bitch. All sorts of useless judgemental questions. Who writes these polls anyway if *I*, a housewife in Falcon, Colorado, can immediately see that the results are useless?!
And it got scarier–she began asking me what I thought would make the healthcare situation better, and what I thought would turn the economy around, and what I thought was the cause of the economic downturn. And these were multiple choice questions and not one answer was “the economy is cyclical” or “wait for the passage of time and the cycle to go up again.” And when she was asking about health care and the job market and my answer choices were all reactionary and hysterical and desperate, there wasn’t an essay question about how obtaining health insurance for my family has become my full time obsession as our coverage under Tricare comes ticking to a close or how the housing price plummet directly affects my ability to live where I want, or how the economy means that Nic isn’t getting a job as quickly as we would like. And not one question asked “are you an economist or doctor or sociologist qualified to answer these questions and shape public policy?” or “If the bride is fat, what can you do to make her look less fat?” (which would be a question I’d be qualified to weigh in on.)
Anyway, it scares me that politicians care what I think. Or really what any yahoo who has the time to answer polls at 8:30 at night thinks. I guess it’s all part of being elected, but I would feel a lot better if they were asking these tough health care questions of actual professionals, and not people who spend their evenings making pimples disappear and skin look a little less blotchy red.
We left Will with the nanny for the first time yesterday while we went to an engagement shoot in Denver and it went so well! Will cried a lot when we left (which I was prepared for because he did the same thing at church that morning) but she called us in a couple of minutes to let us know that he was fine and happily playing with the NEW and DIFFERENT toys she grabbed from her car.
She is so sweet–she organized our toy drawers and bookshelf and baskets. They read tons of stories and didn’t watch any tv. They played outside and colored and played trains. They danced to Will’s Fraggle Rock cd. And Will went to bed without any trouble! (She said she’s sure it probably won’t work that easy next time since it did this time!)
After Will went to bed she tidied up and was reading our parenting books and magazines! She has carseats in her car and she doesn’t have any babies of her own (and they are BRITAX carseats)!
When we got home she gave us the full run-down and said how much she enjoyed Will–that she laughed a ton because of how he does so much talking with his whole body. Very expressive, our Will.
I cannot even say what a relief it is to have someone so wonderful to watch Will while we are gone. It makes it so much easier to leave him! So worth the expense! (And we’ll be bumping our wedding prices in June to cover it for future weddings/engagement sessions. Around the house, we call it the “Will needs a good nanny” price bump. )
Will loves playing with the sand that is under his swingset area. He could play with it for hours and hours and hours. But I can only be out there with him for about 5 minutes before I freak out because the entire area is one giant cat litter box.
ARGH. What we need is to get a covered sandbox for him and use woodchips or tire material under the swingset. Thank goodness that’s not hundreds of dollars or anything.
I am playing with Will and some of his little Disney figurines this morning. I had Mr Incredible and Stitch and was making roaring noises and pretending like they were battling it out…and Will stood there looking at me like I was retarded. Then he grabbed Mr Incredible and Stitch out of my hands and had them kiss “mwah, mwah, mwah!” (which I’ve never shown him). Then he got really upset because Stitch’s gun made it so that he couldn’t properly “HUG!” Mr Incredible.
He needs Barbie and Ken, not Mr Incredible and Stitch.
Our new nanny came over yesterday to get to know us better and go through his nighttime routine with us (NOT on paid time and she was the one who wanted to do it–how cool is that?!)
She is fantastic and Will really likes her–she got some big hugs and of course was shown all of his toys and books. She said she wants to come over 1/2 an hour early on Sunday (the first time we’ll be using her) not on the clock so Will can be totally comfy around her when we leave.
She’s worth every penny. I bet she has a magical carpet bag, too.
I showed him that he could stick his alphabet fridge magnets inside of the dyer…so now they all have to go in there with him.
Will took some toys and headed into the laundry room this morning to sit inside the dryer.
Not sure what is up with that kid, but I sure do have to keep an eye on him before he puts himself through the delicates cycle.
Will had a nightmare last night.
I woke up to screaming at 11:30 and ran into his room, disoriented and a little freaked, and found him perched on top of the rocking chair in his room (not on top of the seat part, but on top of the highest back part) and still scrambling to get to higher ground.
I grabbed him and tried to put him back into his bed, but he was really freaking out. After a few minutes he settled down and seemed to be falling asleep, so I left to go back to my own cozy bed.
And then he started freaking out again. Talking about monkeys. And then covering his face with his hands and whimpering.
I brought him into bed with us and tried to get him to calm down. But he wouldn’t stop talking about the monkeys and running and being scared and hippos being yuck and a few other things that Nic and I couldn’t translate (by this time Nic was awake, too). I tried reading him a few stories, even his favorite Hug book about all the animals he loves hugging, but he wasn’t having it.
Nic suggested that I take Will downstairs and watch a movie (the same tactic Nic uses on me when I have nightmares). We went downstairs and watched Cars…and Will didn’t fall asleep. The movie ended, and Willie still didn’t fall asleep. I took him back upstairs, and finally finally finally after some belly rubs and losts of tossing and turning on his part (why don’t we have a king sized bed?!) he fell back asleep to the world of the scary monkeys.
I felt so badly for him because I didn’t know how to help him. The words you use for nightmares “it was just a dream, it’s not real, you’re safe” aren’t words we use very often and I doubt he understood me. And the words he wanted to use with us weren’t words WE understood. It was like playing charades with a two year old in the middle of the night. “First word–monkeys.” “Second word–scared.” “Third word–huh? what are you doing?! I don’t get it!”
Willie and I were awake for three hours in the middle of the night, so I’m pretty tired today. Of course, Will shows no signs of it…
It’s a bummer because nights have been going so well lately. Our bedtime struggles with Will seem to be behind us. For the last couple of nights, when we say “good night” and turn off his light, that is the end of it. We don’t even have to use the gate and he doesn’t get out of his bed anymore. Halleluja! It’s not a moment too soon, either–this week we start our six week string of engagement sessions, and so the new nanny we just hired (she seems fantastic–super pricey, but fantastic) will be covering Sunday night bedtimes. It’s nice to have someone fantastic to watch him while we’re shooting, and it’s also nice to know that we have upheld our end and hopefully bedtime will go smoothly for her!
For some months, when Will is thirsty he uses a cup and the fridge water to help himself. Tonight, though, he didn’t have a cup.
He was playing on the sofa with Nic and got up and ran to the bathroom.
“Good job, buddy!” We praised. “Good peeing!”
Until we heard the sound of the toilet lid close and the faucet running. I peeked around the corner and Willie was using the toilet as a step stool, and had his head underneath the running faucet to drink water.
He’s nothing if not a problem solver.
Nic reported that while I was at my photo shoot this morning, Will showed Nic the ferret’s food and said “deet crack” which of course translates to “ferret crackers.” Because giraffes eat crackers, so ferrets must, too.
I posted a ton of pictures of Will coloring easter eggs just now. So many of them perfectly capture the various faces of will.
As we drove away from the zoo this afternoon, Will waved and shouted “Giraffe bye! MWAHH!” (the mwah of course, being shorthand for a kiss.)
He also now has Tori’s name down perfectly!
“ut-oh. poor mom-mom.” when I discovered that the oatmeal had exploaded in the microwave.
Will had his follow-up appointment with the specialist today, and it will be his last doctor’s appointment that is finger related.
The specialist was just as amazed as we are will how quickly it is healing/regrew. No one would ever guess that less than a month ago, it was missing! Of course, the missing nail is a little weird now, but that will just take a couple of months to come back and THEN no one will ever notice.
I wanted daughters because I wanted little people who would share my love of pretty things and family history and making cookies and photos and most of all fabric.
It turns out I didn’t need a girl, I just needed a Will.
He loves his fabric scraps so much that last night when I needed an activity for him I thought “hey! I should get out one of my giant tubs of fabric!”
He sat in my lap for 45 minutes going through each and every piece of fabric. Unfolding, talking about it, and then laying it in our lap (“blan” he would say, for “blanket”). Yard after yard, fat quarter after fat quarter (it got very warm under there) and it held his interest. *I* got bored before he did and called off the game to go make dinner.
I’m sure this fabric love won’t last for many years, but it sure is nice for now. A boy of my own who loves fabric as much as I do.
The house down the street–our exact model only with a larger corner lot and with a large unfinished basement is on the market for $12k less than we paid for our house. And that is the LISTED price. I’m sure they’ll still pay closing costs and maybe even drop the price down more.
And that, my friends, is why I just handed Will a crayon and told him to go to town. ;P
I have an artist on my hands. We are working on the whole “ONLY ON PAPER!!!!” thing, but in the mean time I have found crayon on our walls, doors, dining room chairs, carpet, Will’s bed rails, the rocking chair, and the futon. The futon was my favorite, because next to the orange streaks was a whole mess of baby wipes. He had tried to clean it up.
The other thing he loves are post-its. He will take a big stack of post-its and slowly work on unsticking every.single.one. of those sheets. I hate losing good post-its. But I love quiet activities.
(I feel the need to add a disclaimer to this story, since I know it is very bad form to leave the tv on during dinner…but it was a special occassion because both Will and I have been exceptionally needy/clingy today.)
Will in the last week has discovered “scary.” Nic didn’t understand why Will kept trying to turn off the tv just as they were starting to watch Monster’s Inc this weekend…and then Will hid under the quilt on the sofa. It was the beginning scary scene.
Today at dinner we were happily eating pizza and talking, and turned on Monsters Inc. Even though Will had a few bites of pizza left, he started shouting “DONE! DONE!” Nic and I, not watching what was going on with the tv, were like “hey crazyhead, you still have a couple of bites left.”
Will’s mean parents weren’t even going to get in down from his booster seat to hide from the scary part! So the next thing we knew, Will had ducked his head under the table.
Nic figured it out and started laughing, and I turned off the tv until the scary part was over.
We wonder why it never occured to Will to just close his eyes!
Will’s entire fingernail fell off today. From the amount of blood you would have thought I would have heard at least an “ouchie,” but no…all he did was walk over to me, hand me his fingernail, and say “bro.”
Broken, indeed.
I saved the fingernail to show Nic when he gets home. Sick, right? But I can’t bring myself to just throw away an entire fingernail. (Which is the same reason we left Will’s fingertip in a bag on the counter in the ER.)
First we had “houch” then we had “ouch” and now we have “ouchie.”
After saying the last week or so I have come to realize that Will is totally right–”ouchie” IS more rewarding to say. The second syllable makes all the difference
Squatting on all fours. Feet on the back of the seat, hands on the front, head down, watching the proceedings.
This is a special position saved by Will for the true peeing emergencies. My guess is that he doesn’t think he has time to mess around with sitting down. Just get up, and get going.
This week we have been working hard on bedtime. We’ve been struggling in the last couple of weeks (and then totally spoiled him right after his finger accident) and so this week we’re trying to get back on track.
It involves putting him to bed as usual, and then turning off all the lights in the house and pretending that nighttime is really boring (which it actually is when you turn off all the lights and tv and computer and just lay on the couch waiting for Will to go to bed). Things have been going well and he is vastly improving. Tonight, though, he suckered Nic into a very cute goodnight.
We put him to bed, and left as usual. Went downstairs. For a while he was quiet…then he went to the gate and began chattering and fussing and calling for us. Unusual for him, he didn’t turn on his bedroom ligh and run around playing. After about ten minutes, Nic went up for a visit (it was Nic’s night–we take turns to hold on to our sanity). But unusual, he didn’t come down for a good ten or fifteen minutes. It was completely quiet, completely dark. But Nic hadn’t come down. When he came down, all was quiet. Will was asleep.
“What the heck happened up there?” I asked.
It turns out that Nic had matter of factly led Will back to his bed (as usual) and pulled the covers up over him. Then Will asked for a hug, so Nic gave him one. All usual. But Will didn’t let go. Instead, he held on tightly to Nic’s neck with one arm (resting his face against Nic’s as he loves to do) and began petting his face with the other. Every so often, he would put one hand on each of Nic’s cheeks and bring his face up for a kiss, then he would go back to hugging Nic and petting his face, drifting off to sleep. This went on for ten minutes. After a final kiss, he held tight to Nic’s finger and fell asleep.
It’s cuteness like that that will knock a hard core betime training session right on its butt.
He found Nic’s music stand under the bed and is completely entranced by it. He can’t get enough of trying to figure it out.
We are looking for childcare right now. No easy task when you have the kind of kid you’ve left at childcare twice and half the time he’s lost a fingertip.
I emailed a couple of people that were listed on craigslist, and got an email back from a woman inviting me to call her today. So I did.
She picked up the phone, but continued having a conversation with someone else. At first I thought it must have been accidental, but her voice was so loud I knew she must be holding the phone to her face. She spoke to the other person for about 15 seconds (about enjoying her pedicure, girl you so deserve it, etc) then said (I presume to me) “hang on” and then spoke for another 30 seconds before saying again “hang on” at which I point I said “that’s okay–I’ll call back another time” (yeah right) only to have her finally turn her attention to me.
We spoke for a while (because at this point I felt socially obliged) but the whole time I wanted to scream “are you KIDDING ME?! Do you really think I’m going to entrust my child to someone who doesn’t even know how to ANSWER A PHONE PROPERLY?!”
sigh. the search continues.
Holy crap I love having a two year old!!!
Tonight Nic and I were snuggling on the sofa complaining about our lack of blankets. Our usual sofa blanket was upstairs in Will’s room.
Nic said “Will, can you go get us the blanket from upstairs?”
And you know what?!
He DID!
It was like the heavens opened and the beams of light shone down and the choirs of angels began to sing. Dude. Two ROCKS.
…your husband doesn’t think that a couple of drops of urine (on his side of the bed no less) are no reason to change the sheets.
Will was jumping on our bed naked this morning and a couple of drops came out (as happens to the best of us [you know who you are Miss “I can’t jump on a trampoline”]).
I said “great. I just changed these.” And Nic very seriously waived it off as “just being a couple of drops.” I looked at him with giant eyes and he looked back as if to say “look–the house is covered in urine particles at this point. what the hell does a couple of drops even matter.”
It’s hard to say who was potty trained more–Will or Nic.
One of the most common sounds around here is that of a train engine in distress. The whirling of wheels going nowhere.
Will doesn’t believe that makeup should be kept for girls, and he doesn’t believe that trains should be kept for tracks. He turns them on, sets them free, and then walks away.
It is my job to find them (which I do by hunting down that annoying sound), turn them off, and return them to their roundhouse.
I found a way to get ready in the morning that doesn’t involve crying or head butting or tantrums in general. All Will asks is that HE get to participate in the morning routine.
We start with a shower. Then we “spritz” our hair with spray conditioner (Will’s word for it is exactly the sound the spray makes “spppz” “sppz” “sppz”) and brush it. Then we get out the face lotion and I dip my finger in it, and Will dips his finger in it. I put it on my face, Will wipes it in a dab on his cheek.
Next comes the make-up. A student of the Bare Minerals philosophy, Will is skilled in the act of “swirling,” “tapping,” and “brushing.” I grab my favorite brush, and Will grabs his. I put some makeup in the lid, swirl, tap, and brush my way to beauty, and then hand the (now empty) lid to Will for swirling and tapping. We do foundation first, and then move on to the eyes.
Nic observed this ritual yesterday, and instead of saying “jesus christ–why do you insist on turning him gay?” he said “aaaahh–he watches you so closely” and “we can really make fun of him for this when he’s older.”
Some day Will will be too old to put on makeup with me. It’s hard to say who will be sadder about that–me or Willie B.
One of the nicest things you can say to Will is “good job.”
It started during potty training and it is a phrase he loves. He would tell himself “mm jop” every time he climbed off the potty.
It is the highest form of praise to Will.
His other favorite phrase is probably “BABY NEEDS KISSES!!!” which I shout before tackling him and covering him in kisses. He always smiles and giggled–it even works when he is cranky!
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