There is a lot ive wanted to write about lately – but its all going to be thrown into one massive pictures/stories post.
Ive been trying to soak-up every last minute of my family of 3. The weather has cooperated, which has allowed us to take numerous trips to playgrounds, parks, the zoo, and the harbor. We have also had a day trip to rehoboth beach, DE and a weekend trip to Philadelphia for my departmental retreat where Phil and Wil checked out the science museum. Things are slowing down now as I get bigger and closer to my due date. Most everything is ready for baby girl to arrive. I just have to finish up things at work! (I joke that my form of ‘nesting’ has been cleaning and organizing all my work code – not cleaning the house. I hired someone to do that. I’ll stick to commenting and annotating my analyses.)
I waiver back and forth between anxiously awaiting our new addition and mourning the ‘loss’ of Wil as my only child. Im so so happy to give him a sibling – but I know it’ll rock his world for a bit. Wil has been such a happy boy, these last few months in particular, that Im sad to go and change everything on him. Even his teachers at daycare have commented on how well he has been doing lately. Not that Wil has ever been that troublesome. I know Ive been lucky with a mostly happy boy. But he has never been that great of an eater (meal times have always been a struggle) and hes had some issues playing nice with others (he was sent home with a few ‘incidence reports’ from daycare). But over the last month – hes really turned a corner with his demeanor. He is happy nearly all of the time. I didnt know kids could be so delightful, haha. Ive always been use to pacifying Wil – trying to guess at what hes fussing about or what he’ll actually eat or playing helicopter parent at play groups so he wont push or bite the other children. But now, he eats without too much trouble, his teachers say he participates in circle time more (songs and interactive time), and he even gave his friend a hug as we were leaving the other day!
One thing that I think has really helped, is his vocabulary. I think he really enjoys words and talking. By far the funniest word in his vocabulary is ‘Mommy’ – which coming from him sounds like ‘Amy’. He drops the first ‘M’ so its more of an ‘ommy’ which sounds enough like ‘Amy’ that everyone laughs when he starts yelling it and running at me. We joke that we have a very formal relationship. ‘Daddy’, on the other hand, comes out clear as a bell. Weve been working on colors and counting, but those are taking some work. Currently when you ask what color something is, his only response is ‘yellow’. EVERYTHING is yellow. Until you correct him and then he’ll repeated after you. But initially, its yellow. He also loves to growl. This started as we were learning animal sounds, but now he likes to growl and grunt randomly as hes playing and walking around. He sounds possessed half of the time. Good thing its 2013, or someone would have given this kid an exorcism already. He also growls when he shows you his muscles. When I go to change his clothes, or if he sees someone else without a shirt on, he growls and ‘flexes’ his muscles. Its so adorable. I hope we have a video of it. Hes starting to put a few words together in strings. Usually ‘more’ followed by whatever he wants. He also enjoys singing. Usually just ‘LA LA LA’ – but he has taken to singing the new kids on the block with daddy at nighttime. Phil starts singing ‘Oh oh oh oh oh – the right stuff’ and he will start singing along.
Wil still sleeps in his crib at night – but naps on a cot at daycare during the day. So far he has not fought the crib or tried to climb out. We are planning to get a floor mattress soon for him to get use to sleeping outside the crib at home since we will want to use the crib for the new baby after a few months. We are slowly starting the potty training process, but he hasnt taken much interest yet. He initially was terrified of sitting on the toilet, but after a few m&m rewards, the potty doesnt seem so bad. But he still doesnt really get the concept of using it for intended purposes. We now have a small toddler potty downstairs that he gladly goes and sits on and then requests his m&m reward, haha. (M-M?!) So now we need to start enforcing actually using the potty for the reward.
Wil is a very active boy and loves to run around. He is not scared of stepping up or down off of things anymore, which is scary for us! He still doesnt have the best judgment on what might be too far of a step down, but will just go for it. Which has resulted in a few falls when Phil and I arent paying close enough attention. He loves to go down the slide head first and then tries to climb back up. He loves playing with water – either outside, or in the sink, or bathtime. Whenever he has a ‘boo-boo’ we immediately go and rinse it in water in the sink and its immediately all better.
Im sure there are other unique things about Wils development and habits that I dont have written down, but this will have to do for now. Im curious to how the next kid will be different – and this little family blog is my best attempt at storing memories for the future. As anxious as I am about the change, my mom says I will look back at all these pictures of ‘just Wil’ and see them as an incomplete story of our family. He has had a good run as the only child! Hopefully we’ll all adjust to being a family of 4 soon enough. I cant wait!
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