bath pictures: 15 months

Ok Will has definitely getting close to outgrowing the blue bathtub. Not only does he usually splash/kick most of the water out of it through the normal course of the bath (with a little extra splashing solely for fun), but he now also tries to stand up in the tub a lot, which is becoming more hazardous. It is kind of funny though - a lot of baths nowadays follow the storyboard below.

We had an eventful Christmas season, which kept us very busy and contributed to the lower number of blog posts for December. I still have a number of pictures which I have not had time to post yet, but will soon enough. But here are the beginnings of our Christmas 07 chronicles: part 1: at home, part 2: at the Lodge. It was a wonderful Holiday season for us even though, at times, it was exhausting.

Will got lots of great toys from Santa, friends and family - he is indeed a very privileged little boy. His favorites are those which make noise, which makes our days at home with him full of song and dance. We also watch TV together a little more, even though mom resists letting him watch too much. Our favorite shows are Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer (which, contrary to common perception isn't a girl show at all, so I guess I overreacted when I insisted he not wear these Dora swim diapers). Dora has some especially catchy songs which Will really likes. She made our long drive home from the Lodge much easier for all of us, thanks to a talking Dora book and a Dora DVD (played on the new portable DVD player Grandpa Mike got for Will).

Erin talks about a nice woman who runs some of the events she and Will go to at the library - she describes the children who come to these events as either "scatterers" or "gatherers". Will is definitely a "scatterer" (here's evidence), but lately he has been appreciating putting things in their places. For example, many of his new toys involve putting a panel (with a letter/animal/vehicle on it) in place and pushing a button to play the accompanying song. Today he figured out how to put the pieces in for his first wood puzzle. Also, when we get him up from his nap, he almost always has a sucker in his mouth and is holding his lion-blanket thing - when we pull him out of the crib, he will throw his lion and sucker back into it.

As Will is more able to move around on his own (he can stand up unsupported with no problem, is taking a few steps here and there and can climb up and down stairs and furniture on his own, under supervision), he is starting to test his limits. So Erin and I have tell him "no" a lot, after which he usually cries, collapsing with grief that we don't want him to pull Duke's tail or climb into the dishwasher (more on this in an upcoming post...). It's comical sometimes, but Erin and I have to try very hard not to laugh so he knows we're serious. This morning we failed to suppress a laugh when Will picked up the pancake on his tray and started rubbing it into the hair on top of his head. He looked at me for approval, I told him "no, Will" and he started whimpering and looked to Erin, as if he were asking her "why won't dad let me rub this pancake into my hair?" Neither of us could keep a straight face after that, so he'll probably be rubbing food in his hair until we can get that under control.

I (and future Will, when he can read them years from now) really appreciate all the comments readers of this page leave. They give a pretty good indicator of how many people check in to read about the latest in Will's and our lives. However, since most posts don't bring in a lot of comments (not asking for them, just observing), sometimes I wonder how many people are really checking. So you may have noticed, I installed a hit counter on the left side of the page. It's not a perfect count, but gives a pretty good idea of the number of times people come to the page or link directly to any individual posts. The counter started at zero when I installed it on December 11th. Since that time, as of this post, there have been 629 visits to the site, which I think is pretty impressive. There are no prizes or anything like that, but it's nice to know people are interested in Will's life and his growing up.