Christmas 2012

Since Wills is still too young to get into the whole Santa thing, he woke up at his usual time which is around 8. We went straight to his high chair for breakfast and he didn't even notice that Santa had visited and left a few things. After breakfast, we got down to business with his presents.

Santa brought a Cozy Truck

Wills thought it was awesome. He stayed in it pretty much the whole time and his Daddy and I opened the rest of his presents.

Holly and her treats.

Wills' stocking loot. A dinosaur hoodie, bath paint, little people super friends, a hippo ornament, and a new diaper. He is super excited about the new diaper =) It's the New York diaper and it has taxis on it. 

He got out of his truck when he saw Daddy playing his drum. 

His monster feet house shoes. He can't stand them. I am hopping if I leave them out he will start to love them like he did his hats. 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2012

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to do dinner, mass, and presents with Charles' family. Last year we attended the 4:30 service which lasted over 2 hours due to all the people in attendance and how long it took for communion. Wills actually does pretty good in mass regularly, but we knew a 2 1/2 service was going to be pushing it this time around. We decided to do dinner at 5, have Wills open his presents, go to the 7:30 service, come home and put him to bed, then do presents with the grown ups. Father Rick mentioned that there were over 1400 people at the 4:30 service and our church only seats 700 in the sanctuary. I think we definitely made the right choice to attend the second service!

Christmas PJ's

Wills has 4 sets of Christmas pajamas and we have done laundry often enough so that he has worn a pair every night since Thanksgiving!

I have already started his collection for next year too!

Wills getting social

We absolutely love our nanny and feel so blessed that she is taking care of Wills. Unfortunately, he seems to be taking after Charles and I both and is somewhat introverted, especially around people he doesn't know very well. Because of this, we decided to enroll him in a couple of classes to give him more opportunities for social interactions.

He goes to Gymboree class every Tuesday morning with his nanny. They have tunnels, and fluffy mats, and slides, and all sorts of things to climb. He loves it! They have open play a couple times a week and Charles and I have been able to take him to that. I also got to take him to class the week of Thanksgiving. He has such a good time. (Please excuse the poor quality iPhone photos.)

This fall, he was also enrolled in Kindermusik. It was every Monday night and I got to take him to this. Sometimes Charles would get off in time and get to go with us. He was in the youngest class which goes up to 18 months. They get a bag with a cd, some baby friendly instruments, and a book. The whole class is centered around music. Ms. Ginger is an amazing teacher. You feel a bit like a fool while you are in there, but the babies love it and that is what counts! We have signed Wills up for the spring semester and he will get to move up to the next age group. He was one of the oldest this semester, so I am excited to see how he does with the older kids in the spring.

Wills and his certificate of "Enthusiastic Participation"!

Dirty Santa 2012

We hosted our annual Dirty Santa party a couple of weekends ago. This is definitely one of my favorite activities of the Christmas season. I love to see what is going to be the hot gift and I love getting to taste all the yummy desserts everyone brings.

This year I decided to do a chili bar for the food. We had regular chili and vegetarian chili with Frito's, baked potatoes, french fries, and hot dogs as well as all the toppings of cheese, sour cream, onions, tomatoes, and jalapenos. It was really easy and so yummy.

We also have several friends who are pregnant or nursing, so I decided to do a hot chocolate bar. I used my cocoa latte, which makes the absolute best hot chocolate at the perfect temperature for drinking. I had dark chocolate and peppermint hot chocolate with marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles, cinnamon, candy canes, and pirouettes. I also had some peppermint schnapps for those of us who could have it!

For our version of Dirty Santa, a gift can be stolen 3 times and after the third steal it can't be stolen any more. We also let the person who drew #1 go again as the last person. The hot items this year were lottery tickets, a keep it local card, beer, and wine. Some of the funny gifts were a set of nose cups, a mustache mold, inappropriate coasters, and an actual "dirty" item.

The Dirty Santa party is truly one of my favorite parties to host!

Walking!

Last Friday Wills decided to start walking. He is still a little unsteady, but he is definitely getting the hang of it!

Fifteen Months

Wills had his 15 month birthday 2 weeks ago. We finally made it to the pediatrician for our 15 month well check yesterday. It was supposed to be last week on Halloween and I rescheduled it just in case the 3 shots he was getting didn't agree with him. Turns out it was a good choice. He has been pretty fussy and very tired since then. Luckily you can't tell by looking at our photo shoot tonight! 

What you can tell from the photo shoot is that this little boy does not sit still. Eating and reading books are about the only times he is not on the move. He is still not officially walking. He will regularly take 4-5 steps and then realize what he is doing and promptly sit down. He is a super fast crawler and has this funny little half crawl he does when he is carrying something. He still has quite the appetite, but unfortunately he has also developed quite the opinion. He will no longer eat it just because you put it in front of him! We have discovered if you put soy sauce or barbeque sauce on it, you can get him to eat just about anything. 

He is still saying "ba" for ball and has expanded to footballs as well as basketballs. He also says "da" for dog. He uses it for cats too. Another word he has is "boon" for balloons. He still says "mama" and "dada", but they are said for all kinds of things, not just Charles and I. He has said "bye" and "baby" but without any real consistency. He can show you his nose, his toes, his hair, and his ears. Never when you really want him to though! He will always give you a high five when you ask. He also will raise both hands up in the air when you yell "Touchdown"! Any time he does one of these tricks, he claps for himself, which I think is so cute.

One more tooth has appeared since his birthday, so he now has four on top and four on bottom. We started brushing our teeth a couple of months ago. Thank goodness you don't have to do it for two minutes and you don't have to floss. It takes about 30 seconds tops and we are happy if we get to brush across the top and bottom row twice each. We then let him take the toothbrush and do it himself. This consist of him sucking the remaining toothpaste off of the toothbrush and then chewing on the head of the brush so it is now pretty smooshed looking. 

Fifteen Month Stats:

Weight: 24 lbs 3 oz, 42%

Length: 33 inches, 91%

Head Circumference: 48.9 cm, 87%
Clothing Size: 12 to 18 month tops, 18 to 24 month bottoms

Nicknames: Buddy, little man, big man, dude

Must haves: Board books, basketballs, Holly

Wills has become really aware of Holly over the last few months. If she is any where near him he will go over and pet her. He also likes to feed her from his highchair and have her "clean" his hands for him. Yesterday she was sitting up and he crawled over and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. Melted my heart. I am so thankful she is still around for him to know and love. 

I think any day now I will be posting a video of him walking. Stay tuned!

Happy Halloween!

Wills wore his costume four more times this week. We went to our friend Donavan's birthday party last Saturday, Trunk or Treat at our church last Sunday, then he wore it to his Kindermusik class on Monday, and then finally he got to wear it for Halloween. We got way more action out of his costume than I ever expected!

Having some pineapples at the birthday party

The birthday boy and Ethan playing with new toys

Excited about going to Trunk or Treat

Headed home with his loot (that he did not get to eat)

Baby massage at Kindermusik

We went trick or treating with our friends the Fong's. The daddies stayed at the Fong house to hand out candy while the mommies did the trick or treating. Hudson walked door to door and did the real work, while the little boys got pulled around in a wagon. I think they definitely learned some good tips for next year. Hudson was always so polite to wait his turn and say "thank you". 

Side note: I felt the need to leave out a bucket of candy at our house since we weren't there. I was prepared for the candy to be all gone when we got home, which it was. Unfortunately my cute pumpkin bucket that it was in was also gone! I was very disappointed and will not be doing that again next year!

Ready for bed after a fun night of Trick or Treating

With all the opportunities Wills had to wear his costume this year, I will definitely be willing to put in a little more effort next year! I have no memory of wearing my Halloween costume any other time than on Halloween, so I just had no idea he would wear his so much!