Weathering

Friday, January 30, 2009

Will the Pod Person

Will took a nap today for the first time in three days. I decided to wake him up early so that bedtime wouldn't end up being too late. Here is what I found when I entered his room:



I could not stop laughing. Luckily he stayed asleep long enough for me to grab my camera and snap away as fast as I could. Here's the rest of the series. He's not usually very happy when he first wakes up from his nap, and today was no exception.








Poor kid. I finally cheered him up with a Girl Scout Cookie.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

2009, so far


We have spent a lot of time at home this month. Now that Ryan is in a convertible car seat instead of the infant seat, grocery shopping with the two boys is impossible. I used to put Ryan, infant seat and all, in the big part of the shopping cart while Will rode in the kid-seat part of the cart. True, this left little space for groceries, but we did all right. Now that this arrangement is no longer possible, we do our grocery shopping on the weekends when Matt and I can work together to control Will's awesome need to be wherever in the grocery store we are not. And as a result, the boys and I have basically nowhere to go during the days. "But," people keep saying to me, "what about those shopping carts where two kids can sit together?" Well, behold above. I took this picture at Lowe's earlier this month. I thought it would be so cute to have the two kids riding together in the race car. Will did not. This temper tantrum was one of the approximately fourteen million that have characterized this year so far. It was probably the most public of them, however. The longest one lasted an hour and resulted primarily from my refusal to let him eat peanut butter and jelly without his pants on.

The month has not been all temper tantrums, though. We've watched Kung Fu Panda several times and played doctor on more than a few dozen occasions. We've also had a bunch of very nice tea parties, one inside Will's igloo, a Christmas present from my cousin Lu.



Also, if anyone wondered what Will looks like sleeping, it's like this:



Yes, that is him really sleeping. He almost always sleeps with a pillow on his head. At first I really didn't like that, but he's been doing it for so long now that it doesn't bother me too much.

Will also continues to amaze me with language. These days you can come very close to having an actual conversation with him including a legitimate exchange of information. His memory is excellent and he is extraordinarily observant. He loves to sing songs and ask questions. Yes, he can be quite difficult to live with, but he's a great little person. Yesterday he helped me make Matt's birthday cake and today he helped me mop the floor and clean out the refrigerator.

As for Ryan, he's getting more and more excited about playing, both by himself and with Will. I used to hold him all the time because he seemed to like that better than being in the swing or bouncy seat, but now he often prefers to be on the floor surrounded by toys. And when that doesn't work, I carry him around in a fabric shopping bag.

Friday, January 02, 2009

The Christmas Tooth


Ryan got his first tooth Christmas Eve. See it?

Here's how we spent New Year's Day.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Christmas 2008



Happy New Year!

We had a fun Christmas this year. It started with an early celebration with Matt's parents the Saturday before Christmas, since they flew on Christmas Day to California to work on floats for the Rose Parade. Matt's brother Jon and his girlfriend Kristen then joined us at our house on the 23rd and stayed through Christmas morning, which was very nice. It was great watching Will and Ryan enjoy Christmas morning. To be honest, Santa didn't bring Ryan all that much stuff since he is not yet seven months old and really doesn't care. But he loved his new toys and played happily all morning. Will got more presents, but it was refreshing how not greedy and appreciative he was of each one. He wanted to play with each present for quite a while before he moved on to the next one. In fact, we ended up taking a considerable break for breakfast and then rushed him through the second half of the presents in order to get on the road to get to my parents' house in upstate NY. I felt bad, but knew that he'd have plenty of time to savor everything all over again when we got back home.

We were then off to my parents', which was a strange drive (for example, Matt, Will, and I ate leftover pumpkin pie in the car for lunch because we didn't want to stop so early into the trip and I didn't have time to make sandwiches before we left). I was convinced that the traffic would be very light on Christmas Day, but it was still bad in New Jersey so it took longer than we expected. Still, it was all right and a delicious dinner was waiting for us when we finally arrived. Kate and Carlos were there already, along with Auntie Em and Joe, so it was a pretty festive night even though Meagan and Chris didn't join us until the next day. The 26th was our official family Christmas since the whole family was there together. This was as merry an event as always, and the boys got lots of very cool new toys.




And we basically just hung out for the next several days. One day Will went sledding down the hill in my parents' side yard and built a huge snowman. He had a fabulous time and recouped his strength once inside with a cup of hot chocolate.




Now we are back home and enjoying a leisurely few days before Matt goes back to work.