Will waves at dad

This is how Will waves - palm up, open and closed fist. He started doing it reliably when we were at the Lodge, but he has to be in the right mood to wave at people. Also, I think he also waves at things when he wants to touch them (as in, 'come to me'), as sometimes he waves at the cats, the 'stein, or ceiling fans.

Grandpa Mike's trick

This is a trick my dad uses on babies. It works very well and is fun for everyone. Will caught on right away, and now he automatically starts making noise if you put a finger near his mouth.

vacation part 3: arriving at the Lincoln Lodge

The "Lincoln Lodge" is what my parents call their lake cabin, which is outside of Minocqua, Wisconsin. After Kara's wedding we all drove up together (minus AJ, who flew in the next day) and everyone from my side of the family was there for the better part of a week. It was the first trip up there for a lot of us. The cabin is a work in progress, but it's becoming a very nice place and we had a blast. In fact, Will and I are headed back up there this afternoon (Grandma Susan is there for the entire month of July).



Here's the scene when we first got there.




It was great to see Adam and Chandi - they're in Vancouver so we've only been able to see them once or twice a year. Will liked Aunt Chandi's hat.




But he did not like having to wear his life jacket or hat. Grandpa and I took him out on the boat for his first time and we couldn't get a single smiling picture. To be fair, this was right before nap time. A couple days ago we took him out on the boat in Madison and he was much more tolerant of the life jacket then.




We spent a lot of time in the sun, so there were lots of sunglasses lying around to play with. Between mom, grandma, and aunts Chandi and Jenna there were probably 20 pairs up there.

vacation part 2: Kara's wedding

My cousin Kara married Randi Grafft on June 23rd in Kara's hometown of Charles City, Iowa. Randi is a good guy and a man after my own heart - an Iowa grad and a rabid Hawkeye fan, just like Will: pic 1, pic 2, pic 3, pic 4.

It was a very nice ceremony, and Will made it through the whole thing without making too much noise or calling too much attention to himself. Thank you Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. Also chewing on the wedding programs helped, although when he succeeded in biting chunks off we had to fish them out of his mouth which got pretty messy. The reception was also a very good time - most of my family hadn't seen Will since Adam & Chandi's wedding reception last October, and he was just a crying potato back then. It was especially fun to run into the Horner clan when we stopped at McDonald's for lunch down the street from our hotel before the ceremony. We had a great time demonstrating all Will's newest tricks (spitting and grunting) while he sat in the highchair between our two tables. Cousin Olivia was nice enough to give Will her happy meal toy - an awesome surfing penguin thing.




Family weddings are great for Erin and I because we can "let" our family members hold Will while we cut loose a little bit. Here's Will with Unky Grant, and with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa's giving Will a little of his beer. Just kidding, of course - it was at this wedding reception we discovered how much fun (empty) disposable plastic cups are.




We still had to get Will to bed on time so we didn't mess up his schedule too much. After all, he has needed all his sleep so he's a sweet guy for all the people he's been seeing on our trip. So we regrettably left the reception early and headed back to the hotel for a little Goodnight Moon naked reading while mom prepared the bath. By the way - I was supposed to be supervising him in the meantime - Erin warned me about letting him roll around naked, and sure enough, he peed on the bedspread. Sorry Super 8.

vacation part 1: trip to the zoo

We left Ann Arbor early on friday, June 22nd on our vacation. The first stop was in Madison to spend the night, drop off our cats at Grandma and Grandpa's since we couldn't haul them with us to all our destinations. Our car was so full of cats and people, luggage for 3 weeks, and Will-related accessories that we had to buy a cartop carrier. As a result of all the crowding, the car drive was not as easy on Will, because it was hard for mom/dad to crawl to the back seat and entertain him when he started getting grumpy. The carseat monkey only works so many times.
Anyway, when we got to Madison we decided to go for a walk and took Will to Henry Vilas Zoo, which is just a couple blocks from the Mueller house. We took him here before but I think this was the first time he could really appreciate looking at the animals.



We spent a lot of time looking at the polar bear and the lion, both of which Will knows from his book Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? Will also really liked the monkey house.




It took several tries to get these pictures.


On our way home from the zoo we went to the nearby playground. This slide is a giant shoe that's something like 80 years old and gets repainted every year. Erin used to go down it a lot as a child and it's apparently still very popular - we had to politely ask some oblivious children to stop climbing up the slide while we were taking Will down it in order to get this picture.

bath pictures: 9 months

Will's 3/4ths birthday happens to fall on the same day as the birthday of our country - Happy 4th of July everyone. We're at Grandma Brenda and Grandpa Paul's house so we don't have our blue bathtub but Will's getting big enough that we might not need that one much longer anyway. It's harder to bathe him without it though because he wiggles so much and reaches for everything that interests him, which ultimately causes him to dive face first in the bathwater. At least he's now more tolerant of getting his face wet.

So, speaking of wiggling, Will continues to live up to his nickname. He still can't quite crawl, but he can scoot on his tummy - backwards. He hasn't figured out how to get up on his knees to get any leverage so all he can do is push himself up with his hands, which if he's on the right surface, causes him to slide backward. This has gotten him into some funny locations, under tables and shelves, today under the radiator in the Mueller home office. The newest, very fun thing, is that Will has learned how to wave his hands at people, and if he's in the right mood, he gives out waves like candy. By the way, despite what it looks like the bottom picture on the left is not him waving - his wave is an opening and closing of his fist, palm up. I will post a waving video soon. In the last month Will has also gotten better at conversing, whether that is in grunts or spits. Also, although he still really likes some of his toys (especially the Herky doll, or at least I say he does), the most entertaining things right now are straws and plastic cups. Books are really good too - he has a couple of favorites which we read to him a lot (Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb and Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?) and a few cloth ones which he puts in his mouth more than reads. He can turn the pages himself and usually starts getting impatient about halfway through a story and just keeps turning page after page. He also really likes sitting with me at the piano - moreso than in the past, because he now has 100% figured out that smacking his hands on the keys makes a terrific noise. Recently I've been practicing a lot to play for some weddings so I've gotten good at playing in the extreme high and low registers while Will sits on my lap and bangs away happily.



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

We're back

Hello loyal readers. We are now on day 13 of our 3+ week vacation. We were away from a reliable internet connection and/or didn't have the time required to blog for awhile (hotels, Grandma and Grandpa Ferris' new lake cabin in northern Wisconsin, then occupied by preparing for and going to Laura's wedding, etc.). HOWEVER, the camera was put to good use, so look for several posts in the next week on the fun we've been having so far on our vacation!

As you can see, the winner of the favorite Will video poll goes to the 'Yes? No!' videos, with honorable mention going to the 'Pbbbtht!' videos. This video will be part of the profile on the left side of the page for awhile, until we come up with another idea. For the record, my personal favorite is 'Put Messy Will in the Sink'.