Will's a Great Helper - Part 2

Feeding Hallie

Lately Will has been very aware of who - between himself and Hallie - "gets" to go first and who "has" to go second when it comes to things like eating breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner; taking naps; and getting diapers changed. He easily remembers who went first most recently and then lets me know who should get to go first the next time around. ("Mama, Hayee eat yunch first so I get to eat snack first. She not eat snack 'til I done.")

To keep him from focusing on first and second, I asked Will if he would help me feed Hallie her lunch bottle. He was happy to help (however only for about 12 seconds) as long as he was allowed to wear his red sunglasses.  

Hallie and daddy sing the blues

These pictures are great. Hallie has been sitting in the bumbo (the blue chair thing) and liking it a lot lately. We thought we'd try having her sit in it and keep me company while playing the piano. Will used to really like this. Either Hallie didn't, or she was just getting into the emotion of the music.

Will's first day of preschool

Today was Will's first day in the preschool room at daycare, and at mom's request, we took his "first day of school" pictures.

His teachers in the toddler room, where he has been since he started going to this daycare almost a year ago, were very sad to see him go. But he finally got to join most of his friends, who are just a bit older than him so made the transition to the preschool room months ago.

Also making the transition with him is his good friend Sophia, who has a notable relationship with Will which defines whether he gets to play Mario Race or not at the end of the day. If you ask Will if he was a good boy at school, he usually replies: "Yep! I not hit Sophia! I get to play Marr Race!" (or some sword-related game). They have a cute love-fight relationship.

not a posed picture.

Anyway, he had a great day today and he not hit Sophia. What a big boy.

Will's a Great Helper - Part 1

Today's entry is the first in my new "Will's a Great Helper" series.  I realized that I have a number of pictures of Will trying to help me take care of Hallie, so whenever Tom needs a little break from blogging (or when he doesn't have time because of work, like right now) I'll share one of my stories and hopefully include pictures as well.

Holding Hallie

Will holds Hallie quite often, but usually the activity lasts for only a few seconds because Hallie strongly dislikes the insecurity that comes with sitting on a two-year-old's tiny, uncomfortable lap.  Hallie starts off smiling when I set her down, but within 10 seconds of Will wrapping his bony arms around her she's screaming at the top of her lungs and Will is announcing "Mama, I all done wiff (with) holding Hawee (Hallie)."  The pictures below document the one time Will was able to convince Hallie that his lap wasn't all that bad.

Shot #1: A miserable Hallie claws an enthusiastic Will in the face...  

Shot #2: Hallie's still unhappy, but Will can tell he's winning her over...

Shot #3: Success!  Will was so proud of himself, and Hallie refrained from crying for a whole 13 seconds.

And one shot of a mama and her babies...

More fun getting clean

Following the latest bath picture post, it is my pleasure to share a couple very cute pictures we took recently with Hallie, having fun getting clean.

Just this month she is old enough and solid enough to play in the bath with mom:

And last weekend she had her first shower-hugs with dad!:

Hallie's bath pictures: 4 months

Look at this sweet baby. She's almost completely bald now, but getting new hair coming in, and it appears to be blond like Will's hair.

Do you see the resemblance? Like her big brother did when he was about 4 months old, Hallie has discovered her hands, and how good they taste. She spends most of her time trying to figure out how to get both hands in her mouth at the same time. She also has turned on the drool faucet in the last few weeks and regularly has a "slobber mane" that rivals her brother's in his prime.

She is a talker now too. They love her at daycare because she's so chatty, sometimes talking through her naptime. She also likes to squawk loudly when she wakes up from naps or at about 6:30 each morning. I have several videos of conversations I've had with her recently which I'll compile and post soon.

the 4th (of last month)

Ok we have more or less caught up with pictures to present-time. There were still several that we took on the 4th of July, so despite it being over a month ago, I'd like to invite everyone to feel patriotic all over again.

We went to the Ann Arbor 4th-of-July parade. This is something Erin always wants to go to, and I kind of don't care so much. But it ended up being a lot more fun than I was expecting. And it was really neat for Will. He got loads of candy and other accessories.

There were all kinds of cool things in the parade to look at - people on horses and silly bikes, big firetrucks, marching bands with good music...

and...

DOZE GUYS HAVING A SWORDFIGHT!!

(on the right: the actual picture taken when Will first saw the swordfighters)

After naps, we met our friends Shameem and Lisa at a nearby lake to do some patriotic grilling and playing.

Will had lots of fun playing all kinds of fun games, like "whoop the football at things then try to get it back before mom or dad does". We also played bocce ball (whoop a bocce ball at things, very similar) and soccer with a new red-white-and-blue ball Will got at the parade. Shameem and Lisa grilled up a delicious dinner which Will ate happily - including Shameem's spicy chicken wings, that's my boy. This is also where we discovered Will's peanut allergy after giving him one.

When we got back from the lake we had just enough time to do some fireworks. Shameem let us take a couple boxes of his sparklers and had a great time waving them around. Eventually, Will got his finger burned a little on a not-quite-cooled but burned out sparkler and we had to get the boo-boo bunny, and that about sealed the night for him. We had Will all bathed and ready for bed but were determined to let him stay up to watch our neighbor Mr. Chen's annual fireworks display, but alas he was too sleepy. When Mr. Chen finally started his show after it got dark, we tried to wake Will but he was OUT. Little guy had a long hard day of playing, can't blame him.