look at this frog

We've been trying out a few costumes lately, in preparation for Mom's favorite holiday, coming up in about a month. We've been trying to teach him to say "trick or treat" - because we're taking him trick-or-treating this year - and he can sort of say something that could be interpreted that way. I think Erin has this idea of dressing him in a different costume for every day of Halloween week. So this frog suit might go to daycare one of the days. Will seems to really like dressing up in costumes.
This is by no means a request, but if any of you readers were thinking about getting Will something fun for an upcoming gift (birthday in a couple weeks), some fun costume or dress-up accessories might be a good idea...

baseball highlight reel

Often when I ask Will what he wants to do, his response will be "ball!". Which is his way of communicating that he wants to play baseball. Sidenote - it's also a common response when I ask him if he wants to sing a song (Take me out to the ballgame). So we get out his Tigers cap and glove, and head outside to play with this toy. He knows to hit the ball with the bat, then run - he just sometimes gets confused about where he's supposed to run to.

Here's a video of some of the highlights from a game we played one afternoon.

these piggies smell yucky

Will thinks stinky things are funny, I'm so proud.



He actually does this all the time. Often when we're in the car, since I assume there's often not much else to do but to play with his feet. So he'll work to get both shoes off, then pull his feet up to his nose, sniff them, and loudly proclaim how stinky or yucky they are. Then he'll look at me, point his toes and say "dada?", as in dada, it's your turn to smell my feet. I always do.

"booh bah"

Erin is a big fan of Winnie-the-pooh - aka "Pooh bear" ("booh bah") - and she has been her entire life. Any of you who, like me, have spent time teasing her about her stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh bear know this (only light teasing!). So anyway we have lots of Pooh books and art and stuffed animals, and sometimes we watch the cartoon "My Friends Tigger & Pooh" (although Erin and I usually watch ironically and I have a hard time suppressing crude jokes about which characters I'd like to drop-kick). Fact is dad's a bit of a fan of Pooh also, at least his friend Tigger (that's Tigger on the right).

A little-known fact: Erin actually has a tattoo of Pooh next to her navel. Will knows this well, and whenever he has an opportunity to check out Pooh and say hello he usually will. For example, when we sit him down in his highchair to eat and are putting on his bib, he is at the right height to look for "booh bah". Even when I am seating him, he'll pull up my shirt, talking about "booh" and then he's confused when he sees my big tummy but no Pooh.

So last time Grandma Brenda came to visit she brought Will his own Pooh costume and he played in it for awhile. Sadly, I guess it was too small so it had to be returned. But he had a good time in it for awhile.

bath pictures: 23 months

Well, Willie is almost "doo" years old. And he's my little buddy. I've been quite busy and so the blog posts have been limited, but we've had some very good times together over the last month - highlighted by a fun trip to Madison to visit Grandma and Grandpa and play with his new friend, Connor. He is becoming a big boy now, with a developing sense of humor, an increasing vocabulary, and a strong sense of order that he probably got from his mom. For example, he will often rearrange his toys or stuffed animals to be just so, and gets frustrated if we mess with them after he's set them up according to an arrangement only he understands. Many times when he's playing with something, he'll insist that Erin or I sit in some particular location and watch him. If we get up or change seats, he will angrily insist we return to the location where he placed us in the first place. This makes for a fun game - I'll get up and move somewhere else when he's not looking, and then watch his reaction when he realizes I moved.

Another indication that Will is growing up: we are starting potty training, and we have thus far had two successful pee-pees. It has been very exciting to cheer along with Will for these successes.

What's hot right now: baseball, hotdogs, kitties, music, tickling, kitties, and choo-choos.



Will is also getting the hang of brushing his teeth, so we're letting him do more of it by himself. He still needs a little help (which he's pretty reluctant to accept), but he's getting better. We're trying to teach him to spit (see the picture below-left), and he knows to rinse his mouth when he's done (with bathwater).



Erin and I have decided he's finally too big for the blue bathtub, so this will be the last set of bath pictures with it. Tonight he took a bath like a big boy (in the regular bathtub), but I had to take a bath with him to show him it was fun and not scary. We played with his bath choo-choos.

As of this post, there have been 7117 views of Will's page since last December.

what does Will want for lunch?

a HOT-DOT! (hotdog)



He sure likes hotdogs.

a potty pee-pee PS

Will peed in his potty for the first time on Sunday. But I missed it (I was playing video games with my friend Dan). So last night I got Will ready for bath, he sat on the potty for awhile, did the tuck, and ordered me to leave (he insists on privacy when he's in the bathroom, even though he does not give it when the roles are reversed). I peeked in on him several times to encourage him, and each time he ordered me out of the room. But after several tries, running out of and back to the bathroom a few times and then resetting and re-tucking, he couldn't do it. Eventually I had to give him his bath, so even though he wanted to keep trying, I had to take him off of his seat on the potty, and he was not happy about that.

After his bath, I had him wrapped in his bath towel and he again insisted on sitting on the toilet. After an argument in which I told him he either had to take his towel off and sit on the toilet buck-naked or go and get ready for bed, he took it off, sat and tucked, and ordered me out of the bathroom.

I went into our room to tell Erin about this situation, and the next thing I know, I hear excited footsteps, and Will runs out of the bathroom with a huge grin on his face, and literally does a Tiger Woods fist pump and yells "YEAH!" Sure enough, I checked and there was pee in the potty. We were very excited. Will got a gummy dinosaur (he gets a treat after every successful use of the potty - a trick we learned from Cate's parents), and he just beamed for the remainder of getting him ready for bed. So we'll see if he can do it again tonight!