Will and mom go for a walk

Will has figured out how his legs are supposed to move in order to walk, so with a little help, he can strut around. Here Erin takes him for a walk outside.

Will's hair: to cut or not to cut?

I love Will's hair but it's getting ridiculous. When he gets it in his mouth while eating you know it's starting to get too long. When Grandpa Paul has someone tell him "what a beautiful daughter you have" while taking him for a walk, even when he's dressed up in a very boyish blue outfit (as opposed to something like this), you know it's really starting to get too long (and that Grandpa Paul looks young enough to have a 1-year-old).
I figured it was about time to retire the Reader's choice poll for best Will video, so we have a new poll, as you can see on the left side of the page. Not saying the poll will have any bearing on what we actually end up doing with his hair but it would be interesting to see what people think.

Will plays with/torments the cats

This toy has always been one of the favorites, or most despised, for our cats. Will discovered it a few weeks ago and saw how interested the cats were in it, so now I think he's made the connection and uses it to lure them close to him so he can grab them. He probably gets the same sadistic pleasure as I do by almost letting the cats get the feathered end, then quickly pulling it away.
Watch for when he ended up sitting on the toy and couldn't figure out why he couldn't hold it up. funny.

Will comes home to play with dad

Erin and Will were in Madison all weekend for Katie's baby shower, leaving poor ol' dad to hold down the fort all by his lonesome self. Well, technically the cats kept me company and I did get a lot of work done, but I was really glad when they got home yesterday afternoon. Erin was holding Will when I got home and she opened the door. Will had been upset about being picked up while he was working on grabbing Duke, but as soon as the door opened and he saw me, for a split second he had a very confused look on his face, then immediately a huge smile. He leaned over to me and gave me a big hug, it was so sweet.



So while Erin unloaded the car and started putting things away, we played with lots of stuff. Here we were just sitting in the chair and chatting and I tickled his feet for awhile - he likes that now.

Saggin'

Since Will has been froggy-crawling all over the place (until now), a lot of times his shirt and/or pants get pulled down a bit as he drags them on the carpet. Either that, or this is a fashion statement - check out his saggin' pants.



Showing off his Elmo drawers.

Crawling: evidence

As I mentioned in last night's blog post, we witnessed Will's first non-froggy-style crawl last night. He was doing it again this morning so I quickly grabbed the camera. If you turn up your volume you can catch the sound effects that Will makes to accompany his locomotion ("dadadada").



For contrast, there's a video of the froggy crawl here.
By the way, Erin reports that she saw Will standing by himself, unsupported, for a couple seconds the other day. Probably won't be too long before he's walking!

A real crawl! (non-froggy-style)

While Erin and I were eating dinner tonight (in the basement, watching the Tigers while Will played with the toys in his basement toy-basket), Will pulled the handle off the green lazyboy, exposing the sharp edges of the shaft used to recline it. So to distract him away from the interesting and dangerous thing, I set up some of his more attracting toys and beckoned him to them. I looked away and Erin suddenly got really excited: "Look! Look!" I thought she was talking to Will (look at the exciting toys!) but when I glanced at Will I saw he was crawling, on his knees, and doing it well enough that I hardly even noticed he was doing it for the first time. Very exciting.

We baited him with some other toys a little ways away, and he immediately belly flopped and froggy-crawled to them. So he hasn't completed the transition. But at least we have some hope that his shirts won't be so dirty and stretched out while he continues to get closer to walking. If he does the real crawl a little more often and I'll try to get some videographic evidence in the near future.

tailgating adventures with dad

Erin has had to work the last two Saturdays, so Will and I have gone tailgating with our friends in the mornings. So far Will is an excellent tailgater - he is especially excited when we play tailgating games, and likes all the attention. Note that Will and I have matching Team 7AM tailgating shirts.

We tailgated at Katrina/Arleigh/Meghan's house last week. We played beer pong, played catch with dad and lots of other people, hammered stuff and grilled chicken wings. When we had to leave we forgot Will's book Ted Gets Wet, but Arleigh was nice enough to bring it to me in the lab last week, after she and her roommates read through it a few times. She said it was hard to give back - a real page-turner.

This past Saturday we went back to the same house for a tailgating breakfast. This time Will's girlfriend Regan came too. They were wearing matching outfits! We tried several times to get a good picture of the two of them looking at the camera. The picture on the left was the best one, but Will looks like he's already a few beers down. Regan brought a lot of fun toys which she was nice enough to share with Will. Also, Regan can throw Will's throwin' ball pretty well herself.

After breakfast we went to the golf course for some serious tailgate action. Michigan was playing Notre Dame - usually a wild rivalry game, but since both teams are doing horribly this year, it wasn't too rowdy. Also the game didn't start until 3:30 so when we were here around 10:30 it was a relatively tame environment and Will got to do lots of fun things. The best was when my friend KC and I housed a couple of Notre Dame fans in beanbag toss and Will helped us celebrate. KC and I got some serious high-fives from Will afterward but when one of the ND fans tried for one, Will denied him. Harsh.

Then it's home for Will's afternoon nap. After such eventful mornings, Will gets pretty tuckered out. The timing has worked out really well the last couple weeks - right about the time Will wakes up from his nap, Erin gets home. Then we watch football for the rest of the day!

Will climbs the stairs

This is an example of what a little climber Will is becoming. He can actually make it all the way up a flight of stairs if you encourage him. Also another reason we have to keep an eye on him ALL THE TIME now. Shortly after this video clip ends, Will fell backward and I caught him.

Will plays piano by himself

Will did this completely on his own, out of the blue. On Saturday I was getting ready for us to go tailgate after mom went to work and I heard someone playing the piano. I figured it was Duke, since he walks on the piano keyboard fairly often (and one reason we now shut the cats in the basement at night). Nope, it was Will figuring out how to play the piano without anyone else's help or even a lap to sit on. Lucky I had the camera in my pocket at the time. Since figuring out he could do this, he does it all the time now. He actually got mad yesterday when the piano bench was scooted out a little bit so he couldn't quite reach the keys.

"Mama" (finally!)

We (well, mostly Erin) have spent literally months unsuccessfully prompting Will to say 'mama'. Usually Erin would ask him: "can you say ma-ma?" and he would reply "DADA!" or with some other nonsensical stream of phonemes.
I'm not really claiming he knows what he's saying yet, but it has been fun that the hard 'd' was one of the first consonants he was able to pronounce, so 'dada' has been pretty much his default announcement. He picks up a new consonant every few weeks and works on that for awhile: recently he's been big on "ga", "gwa"/"cwa", "la", and "ra". He tries them with emphasis on different parts of the sound, at different pitches, and at different volumes.
Yesterday, I was changing Will's diaper and he said, very softly: "mehmeh". I was so excited I got Erin and we tried for awhile to get him to repeat it. He didn't (he gets stage fright sometimes) so Erin didn't believe me. Then later in the day he let another 'mama' out, then 'mamamamamama', and by the end of the day (and more this morning), he was droppin' 'mama's all the time.

tooth update: teeth

Over the weekend, Will's second tooth started to come in. It's next to the first one on the bottom row. It's funny to hear them clank when he suck/chews on things. Like when we let him take sips from our glasses of water - he gets so excited and kind of 'bites' the glass repeatedly as we're trying to tip it just enough so he can get a sip. clank clank clank

Another thing: he started smiling differently sometimes. Instead of the big, open-mouthed, toungue-out, 'say ahhh' smile, he does this funny little grin: big and wide and gummy, like he's trying to show off his new choppers. It kinda looks like this smile but with two little tooth-nubs on the bottom.

Will's first kiss

Well, he kisses his mom and dad all the time (or more accurately, gets kissed - reference the "Dad rule" for dad-kissing requirements) but this is the story of his first girl kiss.

This is Cate Nadziejko. She's a very sweet little girl. Smart too - she knows Erin and I by name (it helps that I have the same name as Thomas the Train). We went to visit her parents, Carrie and Jason, last weekend for the Hawkeye game in Chicago. Cate was a very gracious host, sharing her room and toys with Will. She also let Erin and I eat her fruit snacks when we used the bathroom.

Will has many girlfriends and chick babies are always giving him the 'eye', but ever since he was born he has had a special crush on Cate. Here is a picture of when I caught Will practicing kisses on a picture of her. Then here he's deeply engrossed in a love note from her.

This was so sweet - here is a little hug.

And a couple of smooches!

Will, master of the crib.

As I mentioned in the latest bath pictures entry, Will can pull himself up to standing on several things around the house. This has only been happening for the last two weeks or so, and now is pretty much what he tries to do all around the house. Last week Erin and I went in to get Will after his afternoon nap and were surprised to see him standing in the crib, waiting to be picked up.



While I ran to get the camera, he got a little impatient, as you can see here. Don't worry little guy, we'll pick you up!

PS - Erin said one time she got him from his nap this week he was standing with his head directly under the mobile thing, like he was wearing it as a hat. All the animals were around his face, he was very proud of himself.

tooth update: Will likes to brusha

As we continue the chronicle of Will's tooth (see the previous entry on the tooth progress, and here: a closeup shot), Will has now accepted tooth brushing as a normal part of getting ready for bed. It has actually become something he looks forward to. Sometimes when we're in the bathroom and we want to keep him entertained we'll let him play with his toothbrush, which is kind of like him brushing his teeth on his own.



Also sometimes in the morning when we're getting ready for the day we brush our teeth together.

bath pictures: 11 months

Well, things have been very exciting for our family in the past month. Will is a full-on crawler, and in the last few weeks, a climber as well. From the froggy-crawl position, Will can maneuver himself backward into a sitting position, or crawl forward to a table, piano bench, crib, or dad's leg and literally pull himself up into a standing position. We always clap and give him a high-five when he does this and he puts on the biggest grin for his accomplishment. Last week I was working from home for an afternoon and got almost nothing done while Will was awake - I would put him in the middle of the living room surrounded by toys, but before too long he would spy me at the table, then really excitedly crawl toward me and start climbing up my leg.

Just a few days ago, Erin and I went to get Will up from his afternoon nap and he was standing in his crib waiting for us to open the door. He's so proud of himself when he does this. We got a few pictures of this, to be posted soon...

It was in one of the climbing adventures a few days ago that Will toppled over and bumped his face on the coffee table. Hence the third eye in the middle of his forehead in these pictures.

The first picture here is further proof that Will has half of Erin's genes - he no longer can keep his eyes open for the flash of a camera. I'm not exaggerating - for the first 7 pictures I took of him in the bath this evening, he blinked in every single one. I honestly couldn't blink that precisely if I tried. It literally took about 20 pictures to get the two smiling, open-eyed pictures at the bottom of the page.

Now, I just happened to notice that in this picture, you can actually see Will's first tooth. Click on the picture to get the zoomed in shot - it's on the bottom, just to the right of center. We've been brushing it every night.

Splash splash splashin' in the tub. We have more fun playing in the tub lately - read a few waterproof books, squeeze squirt toys, and try to pull all the shampoos off the shelf on the side of the tub. I also thought this picture gave a good profile shot so you could see how long Will's hair is getting. We're starting to get people confusing him for a girl. We're not cutting it any time in the near future.

If I had to pick one major theme for what's new with Will since last month, it would be all the fun playing we've been doing. Will can now play by himself with his toys or his ball and he plays disc golf and catch with dad and mom. He's also continuing his development as a musical prodigy by constantly playing either his Winnie-the-Pooh piano or the real one with dad, and also has tried playing the drums.

Two other firsts that must be mentioned here: Will got majorly sick for the first time. We spent a lot of time comforting him and watching comfort TV shows like Sesame Street (thank God for Sesame Street-On Demand!).
The other big first: Will's first kiss from a little girl! Details in an upcoming post...

10 months
9 months
8 months
7 months
6 months
5 months
4 months
3 months
2 months
1 month
first bath

Will chases his beachball

Will has this beachball which he really likes to play with. He loves holding it in his lap and slapping it, putting his face on it, etc, but when it inevitably gets away from him, it's very difficult for him to get it back - as you can see. When he reaches out to grab it, he usually ends up swatting it further away. This continues until he gets too frustrated and cries until you put it in his lap or until he sees something else, like a block or a cabinet door, which trumps his interest in the ball.

On a side note - this video is a great showcase for the "froggy crawl".