daily adventures

the morning drive with will is one of my favorite times of the day. we get all set for school and he gets so excited to go out the door and get in the car. 'Mamma Car?' he says, to ask if we are going in mom's car. we start down the stairs and he says 'hand?' and i take his hand to help him down the stairs.

we get all loaded up and head down the driveway in the car. he waves and says 'ba-byyee dadda!' down the drive he says 'WWwwweeeeeeee'! then, we make our way down the street while will waves hello to all the animals. 'Bye Duncannnn' for the golden retriever next door. 'Hi Chimp!' to Champ next door. yes, he calls him chimp. we head around the corner to pass by the green bus. 'BUSSS!' 'will, what color is the bus?' BLUUEEE. Oh well, the word green isn't coming very easily yet.

two days ago, I got a new one - 'CHICKEN!' Umm. Chicken? Oh yes, that's right, there is a new, darling black and white kitty at the next house whose name is Chicken. We met him once while we were walking last week.

It was trash day so he called out TRASHHH for every can. Then, we get downtown and daddy has taught him Stop Sign. 'Stop Sign, Stop Sign.' Smiling the whole way, we have some bright, spunky kids music on as background noise. he is holding a fave toy (usually a ball or car) for the ride and his sippy cup of milk - which he still doesn't like drinking out of.

we turn onto Lincoln (main st.) and it's MOOOOOTTTOOOOOO! As loud as can be. (that's motorcycle) then, of course, 'BIKE, BIKE!' and, we roll through town and stop at the light where we turn to go to the rodeo. 'NEIGHS' - he wants to go to the rodeo and see the neighs (horses). (don't know how he knows the turn for the rodeo) pass the Rabbit Ears Motel with the bunny logo and he says 'HopHop!'

Today we sang the ABC's and he yelled out DOUBLE-UUUU, when I got to W. (wow.) Then, I line it all up for him. 'OK, honey. So, Mamma's gonna take you to school and you are going to play and have soo much fun with Miss Lynn and Miss Crystal (he is the youngest kid to ever say CRYSTAL and she was crying when she told Matt) and all your friends. Then, mamma is going to pick you up and we'll go home and play catch and ride bikes or go for a walk with dadda and rocky and at.' (he is looking intently now) Then, tomorrow, we'll do the same thing and then you know what the next day is? The Week-end!' to which will declares every time: 'BIKE!'

By this time we are usually passing the gas station that has the big plastic dinosaur in front (with a saddle on it. wierd?) and he yells 'DOUGH-YY'. that's dino. Then, we turn onto the street where his school is and I get 'ChooChoo!' Yes, there is a train that goes by the end of the street every day.

Alas, we make it to school and he is so eager to get out and walk in on his own.

These are the best times. wow. can't wait to do it all tomorrow.

Will the Tivo

Sooo, it's no secret that Matt has a SMALL obsession with Tivo. Well, now he is getting Will into it.

This is what I hear this weekend coming from the master bedroom in the morning:

'Will, this is the Tivo remote. It allows you to Pause, Play and Fast on the TV. Can you pause?'

So I come into the room and pause/freeze in mid-air when Matt says 'Pause' again. Will looks up and smiles. Matt says 'Play' and I continue what I am doing. Matt says 'Fast' and I hustlehustle speedy run around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Will is dying laughing at this point. Then he yells out PAUSE. So I stop and he is so proud. Matt yells Fast and I go fast again. Then Will catches on and says 'Pause' 'Play' 'Fast' and I am doing it all.

And so it begins...the new game. Every time will says one of the words he laughs and smiles. sooo great.

Thanks Tivo.

Counting and colors

SOooo momentous day yesterday!

Master Will was walking around the house holding two balls - a softball and a fuzzy blue one. He looked down at the balls and furrowed his brow a bit and said 'TWO BALLS'. Um are you kidding? I was dying. Does he really know the number two and that he was holding two balls in his hands? It all started with Nana Niki months ago when she was saying that the little man in the truck (Monsieur Azul) has two eyes - one, two!

Then, last night the babysitter (we had softball) was playing one of Will's fave games - 'Go on a Hunt!' Basically, it goes like this. 'Will, let's go on a hunt!' So, he runs and gets his miner/adventurer hat and puts it on and comes back to see you. Then you tell him something to hunt for. Truie (the sitter) told him to hunt for the blue ball. He ran over to the pile of balls and picked out the blue one from all of the other ones there. Brought it right back to Truie. She was DYING. Sooo impressed.

Apple Juice

Matt taught Will to say Apple Juice today and he says it clear as day - Ap-ple-Joose. Says it slowly and enunciates perfectly. It is hilarious and so cute. He looks so proud when he says it and we cheer and give high fives. Too cute! He even said it on the phone to Nana Niki and P-Bill!

Ass-Ass

Age: 8 days shy of 18 months

Will is playing and rolling around on the carpet in the living room a couple of weeks ago. He stops to a halt and stands up with a furrowed brow. Runs over to me and says 'Ass-Ass' and sticks out his tongue. I look at his tongue...covered in dog fur. (Hey, it's no lie that we have a bit of fur around our house.) Yup, he was letting me know that he has Ass-Ass (That's 'Will' for Atlas) fur on his tongue. I told him to stick it out and we wiped it off. And onto the next thing.

He does this about daily now.

P-Bill, Pillows, Sleeping Bag and Milk

1) Last night Will and I were downstairs, outside watering our fave little bed of flowers together. He holds the long watering wand and I control the water (thankfully). He loves to point it everywhere and get everything wet, and put his hand in front of the nozzle every once in a while. And we now have a cute little snake that has taken up residence in the flower bed - he suns himself and plays in the bark/mulch during the day and sleeps under the deck at night. Love it all. He is rad. (not sure why it is a 'he'. are there female snakes actually? their boobs would leave little grooves in the sand as they slithered along. heh.) Matt and Will named the snake Joey. So, we watered the plants and said hi to Joey (hiii, noey - in Will-speak). Will then decided to run over to the corner of the driveway and was looking intently at some piece of wood. I came over and asked him what he was looking at...'BILL', he said. I said 'Grampy Bill?' 'BILLLL'. Um. Oh! Right, that is where grampy bill taught will how to hammer the nails when he was here. Will was touching the nail and saying Bill. I asked him if P-Bill taught him to hammer and he said 'hammer'. We then went upstairs and were playing catch on the deck. Will ran over to a chair and said Billllll. I then realized that that is the chair that Grampy Bill sat in while he was here. Wow - had P-Bill on the brain today!

2) While having our after school snack on the couch last night, we were all sitting and enjoying each other and Will got on a tear. He was rolling around in the pillows and jumped up and decided to bring us the pillows so we could get a closer look. (: He got one pillow and brought it over to Matt and said 'Dada'. Got another and brought it to me and said 'Mama'. Then, got up on the couch, put his hands behind his head and leaned back on the third one and said 'Willllll'. (What color is Will's pillow? 'BLUE', he said.)

3) We bought Will his first sleeping bag this past weekend, in preparation for Hall Camping this weekend! Can't wait. And neither can Will, since he won't let the sleeping bag out of his sight. As Will says, it is 'lelllo'. (yellow) He sprints up to it and dives onto it, burying his face and rolling around on it. Fabulous. I keep telling him that this weekend we are going to sleep outside in our sleeping bags! He doesn't quite know what to do about that. His eyeballs are massive.

4) Sooo, we kinda realized that we need to get Will to drink less milk out of a bottle and more out of a sippy cup. At school, he drinks milk from his sippy cup all day. But at home, he loves the bottle. So, Matt and I decided to drop it cold turkey. He is pretty adaptable and good. So, this morning, I filled a sippy cup, heated it up and handed it to him. Furrowed brow - 'milk?' 'Yes, Will, today we will have milk in a sippy cup.' 'NOOOOOO!' He put it on the floor and walked away. I walked over to him and sat next to him on the couch, while he stood. I looked him in the eye and said 'I'm sorry, honey, I realized I didn't explain this to you. There comes a time when people don't drink out of bottles anymore and drink out of cups....' I explained it all and ended with 'so, that's why we should have milk from a sippy cup during the day now.' He looked at me and then away. I gave him a squeeze, got up and walked away. Glanced over my shoulder...he had grabbed the sippy cup, gotten up on the couch, laying back on a pillow and drinking from the sippy cup. He just needed to know why. I don't blame him.

LOVES weekends!

Age: 17 months

Every day on the way to school, I tell Will the 'agenda' for the day and next couple of days, so he has something to look forward to. We particularly focus on the weekends, of course.

So, this morning I was telling him that we are going to dinner with Pauline and Bryan after school and then tomorrow is Friday! 'And you know what Friday is, Will?! The start of the WEEKEND!' He smiles and says 'BIKEY'. So, apparently he has learned that on the weekends we all go for bike rides.