this many cookies

Will has a good start on learning his numbers. He can tell you how old he is (one), likes to read books about numbers of things, and even has a number jigsaw puzzle that he can do. We've started small, been trying to teach him the numbers, one, two and three: he understands when he has three, two, and one minute(s) left before he has to get out of the bath; can count the number of strikes until you're out; and knows that when mom or dad give him to the count of three for him to do/stop doing something, when we get to "three" it is time to laugh in our face and continue to disobey.

Anyway, with his hands, Will can do "one" ok but when we show him the number of fingers for the other numbers, he gets confused and doesn't quite have the precise motor control to do them. So usually, when we count to three together, he shows "one", then just his whole hand for any other numbers greater than one. You can see this when he's counting to three in "Take me out to the ballgame".

But he's such a smart boy that he has discovered a way to communicate the number two. I think he first did this with Grandpa when we last visited Lincoln, but I'm not sure he actually made the connection between "showing us two" and the meaning behind the number until this most recent event.

Will always gets a cookie as he's finishing a meal (except breakfast; yes, I have been known to give Will cookies after breakfast, I have been scolded and I no longer do this). If he finishes that cookie and wants another, we make him take one bite of something he hadn't finished from dinner first. It's a good deal that he understands and he usually goes for it. Last week we did this as we normally do and I asked him if he wanted another cookie. His response:



Two. Two cookies.

I told him he could have two cookies if he ate two bites of chicken or whatever, and he did. So he got two. Then he wanted two more.



I was so excited that he understood the concept of two that I just kept giving him cookies each time he asked for two more. Erin was there and she passively approved. They are just little graham-cracker bites anyway.

When he finally was finished (or, more appropriately, when I thought he needed to not eat anymore cookies), I showed him how to do "ten" because he had eaten at least that many cookies. So now sometimes he does this when I ask him if he wants another cookie:

Will and Duke play together

We have two cats, and nothing against Clementine, but Duke is just much more of a buddy to Will. Probably because while he's the friendlier of the two cats (usually), he's also stupider, so Will can play with/tease him longer before he gives up; and lazier, so if he happens to be located somewhere Will wants to play, he's less likely to run away.

Anyway, we have leashes for the cats which we put on them when we let them outside sometimes - we don't tie up the other end, but when they have the harness on it seems to have a psychological effect and they never try to probe the fence for escape routes like they normally do. Will found Duke's leash one day and discovered that when he runs with it, Duke likes to chase it. So Will and "Deekdee" have a new game.

so mad

Will does this sometimes and it's so hard not to laugh. The other day I was working from home and Will repeatedly came up to me while I was typing on my laptop to insist that we look at pictures of "Wiyee" (his word for Will). When I told him we couldn't right now because daddy was working, he would get very mad and sad, and could barely control his grief long enough to run to the living room and bury his face in the carpet. I had the camera ready when he approached me the next time and did the same thing.

Will root, root, roots for the Tigers

Well, we did it. We took Will to his first Tigers game yesterday, and it was a huge success. Will was a very sweet boy and he was so excited during the whole event.

Here's right as we're leaving. We left to drive to Detroit and meet our friends right when he woke up from his nap. We got him all decked out in his Tigers outfit though - he has a sweet Magglio Ordonez jersey - that's his favorite Tiger because they used to have the same hair (Will, Magglio).

We got downtown before everyone else so got to wander around a bit. Comerica Park - where the Tigers play - is very impressive. There are balls and giant tigers everywhere, so Will was constantly pointing at things and either yelling "Wow! A Baall!" or "RAaarrr" (Tiger roar).

We went looking around some nearby memorabilia stores for a Tigers shirt for mom. Lots more "A Ball!"s and roars.

We met our friends KC, Rachel, Jim, and others, got our tickets and went in the park to get dinner. What better dinner to have at the ball park then a hot dog!

Comerica Park has a Ferris Wheel made out of balls. Wow!

Our seats were not good. But sometimes the super-bleacher seats are the most fun. We had some good dancers, including a very entertaining beer vendor, and a great section of fans around us - Will entertained a lot of them. The young man sitting in front of us was a very good sport, even after getting hit by various things Will threw (raisin box, twizzler, water cup - multiple times, his cap, my cap...)

Will brought his glove.

So silly!

The game started off quietly - you don't always know what's going on when you're up that high, and also the Tigers were not doing much to excite the crowd. After the 5th inning, the Tigers were losing by a score of 6 - 0. Since, at this point, it was already after Will's bed time and he was being rather wiggly and disobedient, Erin and I were planning on packing up and heading home soon. But we decided to wait until the 7th-inning stretch, so Will could sing "Take me out to the ballgame".

But then, I had this feeling we might want to stick around.

Sure enough, in the 6th inning the Tigers scored a run (now 6 - 1). So there was some excitement, and Will got to high-five and fist-pound everyone. When the 7th-inning stretch came around (by the way, Will just stared off into space and sucked his fingers during the song, did not want to sing at all, what a letdown), Erin and I both thought he was doing well enough, and the excitement of the previous inning had interested him enough, that we could stick around a little longer.

In the bottom of the 7th, the Tigers rallied to score 5 runs and tied the game 6 - 6. Then, in the bottom of the ninth they won on a walk-off homerun, which is about as exciting as it gets. Erin and I had already decided we were leaving after that inning (because we were not about to wait out extra innings, since it was already a couple hours past Will's bedtime), so I couldn't have asked for a better way for the game to end.

Somehow, Will didn't fall asleep in the car the whole way home. We finally got him to bed at about 11, and he was only a little slow getting up this morning. But still roaring and very excited about the game last night. When I dropped him off at daycare this morning, I told him to tell all his friends about the Tigers game he went to - he ran inside yelling about "A BALL!"

BALL! me out to the BALL! BALL!

I mentioned in the latest bath pictures post about Will's recent obsession with baseball, in particular the Detroit Tigers. Well, tomorrow we are taking him to his first ever Tigers game, and we're very excited.

There are a number of teams that are more closely affiliated with the song "Take me out to the ballgame" (which is 100 years old this year!), but Will knows it as the song they play all the time when we're listening to the Tigers on the radio. Sometimes we'll be doing whatever around the house and have left the radio on, and Will will suddenly be all excited, yelling about BALL!s - it sometimes takes a second to realize that a commercial for an upcoming Tigers game is being broadcast (including some of the song).

The song is also part of a little book on the Tigers that our friends Jenni and Steven got for Will, so we sing it with him sometimes. Actually, we sing it a lot lately. Other than the hand gestures for "root root root" and "one-two-three strikes you're out", he's mainly interested in singing just one lyric.

bath pictures: 21 months

Hey everyone - hope you are having/had a nice 4th of July weekend. Will was sick on Friday so we postponed the bath pictures a night. Yesterday he was all better though and we had a great day, so he was very cheerful when we took pictures last night.

So Will's 21 now (ha...ha). The summer has treated Will and mom and dad well - there's been lots of excitement for us lately. And there will be much more - in a few weeks we're going to see a bunch of family - Erin's parents, Sara & Jeff and friends at Anne & Sean's wedding, then it's to the Lodge for a week where Will gets to play with my side of the family and be reunited with his shark tent.

The past month we had a great weekend trip to Lincoln for a couple reasons: 1) Uncle Grant was having a guitar recital, and 2) Grandma really really needed a visit from Will. Even though it was a short trip we were really happy with it. Will wiggled and pooped his way through his first airplane trip without incident otherwise, gave out hugs and kisses and played very well with everybody. In addition to the shark tent, he got a new toy which he plays with a lot. And he got to drive a bus!

In keeping with the 4th-of-July theme, Will is becoming an all-American boy. We've been enjoying the summer to the fullest: swimming, racing, playing disc golf, singing and dancing a lot. Also bike rides have been a pretty fun activity lately - we've gone at least once a week. When we're bike riding, Will has two jobs: 1) to help us find any buses or big trucks by pointing and yelling, and 2) to say "bump bump" ("buhp BUHP!") when he and I go over a bump, in order to warn mama. He's pretty good at these jobs and they keep him awake when we're on our way home and it's close to nap time.

But if there was one thing Will's really excited about lately, it's baseball. Since hockey and basketball seasons are over and football is still a couple months away, baseball is on TV all the time and there are lots of baseballs to find in my Sports Illustrated's. We watch the Tigers games together whenever we can, and Will loves to sing "Take me out to the ballgame" - which they always play when the Tigers are on TV or the radio. It's really cute - when he sings along he just sings "ball" over and over. But he does the fist pump for "root, root root for the Tigers" and holds up fingers to count "one...two...three strikes you're out".

Here's some big news: we're taking Will to his first baseball game this Wednesday!

To add to this fun, last weekend he and I were screwing around at Target while mom was shopping and we found and bought him a little teeball glove and a baseball. Since then he hardly puts them down. I got my glove out so we could play "catch", and he's sort of getting it, but the glove is still too big for him to put his hand in it correctly so it's mostly just fun to hold the ball and glove and yell about them. "WOW! a baah[ball]!" Call Will and he'll tell you all about his ball.

As of this post, there have been 5526 visits to Will's page.

Unky Grant plays the guitar

Happy 4th of July everyone. I'm sitting at home with a sick Willie - he's ok, but quite pukey (as evidenced by our full washing machine of Will's clothes and bedding, and mom & dad's puked-on clothes). A real bummer because we were going to march with the Red Cross in a parade today. There will be firetrucks in the parade too, Will would have loved it.

But at least we can watch TV while we sit in bed here. Will started getting sick Wednesday evening, had a major puke all over dad after his bath and with fresh clean jammies on. Then, God's cruel joke, the power went off (there was a pretty good rainstorm) exactly when I was trying to get Will to the bathroom, without...dripping too much. Because it was dark outside and the lights went out, we couldn't really adequately clean up, and I have to give Erin credit for being uncharacteristically tolerant of there being vomit in various spots of our bathroom until it was light enough to clean up in the morning. Then the power was out for about 24 hours. You don't think about how nice it is to be able to turn on mindless TV until you're sitting in the dark trying to read books to a sick boy all day.

So enough of that rant, and sorry Grant for having that as a header for this post.
So, finishing up the pictures/stories from our trip to Lincoln a couple weekends ago. My brother Grant just finished his second year as a classical guitar major at the University of Denver. And he is really good. So on the Sunday of our trip, just before we had to leave to go back home, Grant played a guitar recital.

This was a bigger deal than I was expecting - there were probably 50 people at the recital. There was much preparing - the girls cooked up a bunch of great food while the boys moved/set up furniture and vacuumed.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Grant while he was playing (maybe if anyone else has them, they could let me know and I could link them?), but I abandoned the camera in order to concentrate to see if he made any mistakes so I could make fun of him about it later. Anyway, I was very impressed, and apparently everyone else was as well. Grant recently got a new custom-built guitar (one which Will cannot touch!), and he played it to its potential.

After Grant played his four pieces, plus an encore ("Freeeeee Bird!!"), we ate and socialized a bit and then, too quickly, it was time to go to the airport. Since we were kind of dressed-up, we took a few family pictures, for as long as Will would cooperate.

Will had an especially good time hanging out with Grandpa on this trip, and they even dressed alike so they took a few pictures together first. The best way to get Will to cooperate was to get him to do a "pockets" pose.

By the time we got the rest of the family in there, Will was done being cooperative. He did NOT want to be picked up, wanted to stand by himself in the back. Hence the picture below.

isn't this a great picture!!

The picture below is also pretty nice, and even though Will isn't looking at the camera, it was one of the better ones for him in this short photo-shoot. After this shot, he basically screamed and ran off, and would not come back for more pictures. These two are pretty good though.

After the photo shoot it was time to get ready to go. So Will gave his hugs, but shared something special with Uncle Adam: a fist-pound. Awesome.