ROAR contest

Will likes to roar. He likes lions and tigers and dinosaurs (dinosaur swim trunks), all of which roar, and his lion-blanket thing which he sleeps with is named "Roar". Sometimes we have roar contests, like the one in the video below, to determine who is the most ferocious lion in the house. Duke is the least ferocious.



We also sometimes have roar contests in stores just to let everyone around us know how ferocious we are. Mom doesn't like to participate in these contests very much.

Will's secret...

Hey everyone, Will has a secret!

(scroll down)

(keep scrollin')

(almost there)

And here it is:

That's right, Will is going to be a big brother! We're all very excited.

Erin is due in April :) and she is right in the middle of the worst part of the pregnancy :(
So Will and I are being extra helpful for her when mom's feeling sick, and we're hanging out a lot doing dude things when she needs to take naps. We'll keep everyone updated.

Will eats apples like a big boy

Last weekend we went to Wasem's fruit farm, an orchard 10 miles or so away from us, it was great. A classic Michigan Fall experience. We picked more apples than we will ever be able to eat, but we're trying. In case you've never had the experience, fresh apples off the tree are so delicious, like candy. So Will and I ate a lot when we were at the orchard, and still eating them for almost every meal. He insists on eating them like a big boy - won't really be very interested if you slice them, he likes to eat them like so.

By the way, this is how Will wears sunglasses every time - upside down. Probably because they fit his little Ferris nose better that way.



Joining us for our trip to the orchard was my buddy Neal, and Will's buddy "Nee!". He's one of the few non-grandpa people that Will likes to hang out with. Neal also likes baseball and buses and sometimes Will gets to ride the Neal train (similar to the dad-train, but on Neal's shoulders). Neal's girlfriend Susan also came with us, and we eventually got Will to call her something that sounded like "Sutu".

Here's a short video of Will picking an apple which he chose off the tree.

groundskeeper Willie

A couple weeks ago Will and I went to visit mom at work and help out a bit with the annual Red Cross garage sale. They had this lawn mower toy there as part of the sale and Will immediately took to it, pushing it all around the garage. When it came time to leave and for Will to put the lawnmower back where he found it, he was very sad so we decided to steal it. Actually we thought it was a fair trade considering the large number of Will's old toys that were donated to the garage sale.



Anyway, he has been playing with it a lot outside but hadn't had a chance to actually use it to help dad mow the lawn until last week (we didn't get any rain for awhile so no mowing was necessary). So we had a great time mowing together - Will following me at times and mowing a different part of the lawn at times. He was covered in grass when we were finally done.

mama. dada. wyall. ba-ba. wet!

This is the string of words Will has been repeating since we played outside in the rain last weekend. The three of us (mama, dada, and "Wyall") were joined by Will's buddies from next door - Ambrose and his sister Hannah - and we got very wet. "Ba-ba" is Will's name for Ambrose. In fact, Ambrose calls Will "ba-ba" also. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and so Will has been reliving it by telling this 5-word story all week.

We did a lot of splashing - walked up and down the sidewalk and splashed in every puddle we could find. Then we played with some sidewalk chalk. Hannah discovered that sidewalk chalk could be applied to the concrete at the bottom of a puddle and that it then turns the entire puddle different colors. You can see some of that in the video below.

We got a few other toys out as well - threw a ball back and forth, walked with Will's umbrella, and got out some garden tools to use as splashing devices. This ended up backfiring when I showed the kids that the shovel could be used to scoop up water and throw it - Erin and I got much colder and wetter after that.

Shortly after the fun with the garden tools, Will started getting the chattery teeth and got grumpy because he didn't want to share, so we all went inside for a hot shower and shower hugs.

My favorite part of this video is at the very end when Ambrose and Will are walking together with the umbrella. Ambrose wants to hold it and reaches for it. Then Will realizes what's going on and gives Ambrose a very emphatic "NO! MINE!" He said this just before my camera ran out of memory, and so I'm really glad it caught that tidbit.

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.