bath pictures: 12 months

Wiggly Willy is one! I can't believe it. One year ago today, we took these pictures, but I remember it like it was only yesterday.
Sorry for the late post everyone - it's been a very busy week for dad. I left my conference on time to get home and kiss sleeping Will on his birthday, and then the three of us celebrated today. There are some new toy playing and birthday cake pictures to be posted soon.

What an eventful month! Will has been adding new tricks to his repertoire on nearly a daily basis. Arguably the biggest accomplishment is that Will can now say "mama" and does so regularly, especially when he's distressed (like when mean ol' dad tries to change his diaper). However "dada" is still the preferred utterance.

Will has now completely adapted to the full-on-his-knees crawl, and he also can climb stairs and pull himself up on most things, which allows him to reach a whole new world of things that are ok (like the piano keys) or not ok (like glasses of drink on the coffee table - which he now likes to tip over) to grab. He is a mobile little monkey, my guess is only a few weeks away from being able to walk on his own.

Since tailgating season has started, Will and I have been able to spend a lot of party saturdays together (at least before the afternoon nap). It was on our tailgating trip to Chicago to visit our friends Carrie, Jason, and Cate that Will experienced his first kiss (from a non-mom/grandma/aunt girl).

Will's starting to be able to make connections between things he or Erin or I say and the meanings behind those things. For example, we have been trying to teach him how to put away his toys at the end of the night. Just today I think he figured it out (video coming soon) - when we pointed to a toy and then to the bucket he would pick it up and put it in. Also, he has discovered the ability to clap - it's the cutest thing. He does it when he's excited about something. I think he learned this because whenever he would finish all his food during a meal Erin and I would clap our hands and give him high-fives. This led to another connection he made with clapping - when he wants to be done eating, in addition to whining and trying to slap the spoonful of food away, he claps his hands (as in, "I'm done!").

The voters have spoken - we're not cutting his hair any time soon!

11 months
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6 months
5 months
4 months
3 months
2 months
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first bath