Door stoppers

It didn't take long after we brought Maggie home that she found a way to entertain herself...


Not surprisingly, Will has the same fascination...

Thanksgiving 2011

Will had a very busy 1st Thanksgiving! He traveled and met so many new people over the long weekend.

We started off with lunch on Thursday at Gram and Gramps house - a lunch with 42 people! NeeNee, Uncle Jon, and Ashley even joined in the celebration. It was great to have everyone all together! My favorite part of the day was that Mama was feeling better this year, so there was no pressure for making those perfect rolls (refer to last year's Thanksgiving post)!

On Friday morning we headed to West TN. When we got to MAO's house, Great-Grandmother finally got her hands on Will. Uncle Anthony, Aunt Tina, and cousins Taylor and Teagan were there too. This was the first time that MAO had all of his grandbabies together - that is something to be thankful for! We enjoyed spending time with Jayme, Madyson, Kristi, and even met Uncle Tim for a minute.


Then we were off to Adamsville so JT could go watch his high school football team play for a chance at the state championships. Will got to meet lots of JT's high school friends and got a tour of Adamsville.

We came home Saturday afternoon and were ready to rest! Will was such a trooper through the whole weekend! He was a great traveler and was almost always in a good mood. Sunday he was clinging to me more than usual, but I have to admit that I enjoyed that! He was so exhausted and glad to be back home.

As always, we are so thankful for our family and friends! JT and I both thank God every single day for our precious Will! He is the greatest gift we have ever received!

Will - 7 Months

Happy 7 Months Old Will!

Picture time gets more and more interesting each month as Will becomes more mobile and easily distracted. I imagine the pics of the next few months will simply be a blur of Will as he jumps off of the chair. First he decided that the giraffe pillow was in his way. Then he wanted to eat the giraffe pillow. Finally he began to cooperate. And then he decided picture time was over.
Toys: Will is so playful now! He is sitting up by himself which has given him a chance to explore and grab things with both hands. He has a new fascination with the glow-worm that Uncle Kyle got for him. He likes the songs and loves that the face lights up. He is still into Bug and Sophie too. But his most favorite toys are simply household items - a paper towel, empty paper towel roll, and electrical cords (dangerous I know, but it is the first thing he goes for). He is also obsessed with the computer keyboard and likes to type/bang on the keys as hard as he can.

Another household discovery - the door stoppers. Funny, this was Maggie's first favorite thing in the house too. Most of these have been removed because Maggie's obsession with them drove us crazy!

He has his own version of peek-a-boo and he picked up on it pretty quickly. It started at Gram's house where he thought he was hidden by the giraffe on the playmat. Now he tries to hide behind the bar of his playmat at home. He has a blast!

Food: Still stuggling, but we are making progress. He likes sweet potatoes, apples, and sometimes green peas. He is not so fond of pears and bananas. He just never seems interested in eating any of it though. He just loves his bottle! I have learned over the past week to give him the spoon and let him play. Eventually he wants something on it, and then he eats it all up. He mostly wants to feed himself though. I think I'll have better luck once we get to finger foods. He has his 2 bottom teeth now.

Will still isn't exactly crawling, but he can scoot all over the place. Before he gets going, he has to prepare...his whole body shakes and then he takes off. JT says he is "stuck in neutral" at first. If there is something he wants, he will go after it!

Will has had his first cold and it has gone on for almost 3 weeks now. It is so frusturating to not be able to give him any medications for this. We've tried Vick's, saline nose spray, and got him a humidifier. He is doing better each day, and it really hasn't slowed him down any.

Halloween 2011

Happy 1st Halloween Will!

I knew this Halloween wouldn't be a really big deal because I had to work and JT was going to be in Memphis. It didn't really bother me since Will isn't going to remember this one anyway. Publix was having Trick-or-Treating at the store from 4-7, so the plan was for Gram to dress him up and bring him to work so I could see him. Little man decided to get his first illness though, so we didn't want him to get outside and around a bunch of people. Will and Gram had a few of the neighborhood kids Trick-or-Treat at our house, so he got to see a few people. Gram said he wasn't too interested though.

Luckily we got a picture of Will in his costume on Sunday. Pops and Nonna came to visit and brought a cute little monkey costume along with a banana candy bag. So cute! I dressed him up and off to Karen and Jamey's we went. Thank goodness they were prepared with candy since we were a day early!

That was so much fun, we decided to ring our own doorbell for Daddy to answer! (No candy at this house though.)

Happy Halloween to our little monkey!

Sitting Up

Will has been sitting up on his own now for about a week. It may sound crazy, but I think this is a huge accomplishment! He now has both hands free for whenever he wants to grab things!

We went to Cracker Barrell with Pops, and Will sat in a high chair for the first time.

He didn't sit there too long by himself because he wanted to be in everyone's lap trying to grab food. The end result was that every spoon on the table ended up on the floor. He had a good time though, and that's all that matters.

How do I know if Will has a fever?

Just one of the questions that I ask every "mom" friend. The answer is always the same..."You'll Know!!!" Will has felt a little warm before but nothing like anyone has ever described (being hot from head to toe).

Yesterday Will had his 6 month shots plus a flu shot. He was running a low-grade fever of 100.5 in the evening (which is expected from shots), and I could tell just by touching his head. I was proud of my mommy instinct! I gave him some Tylenol and he played like normal until bedtime. At 11:30 he was SCREAMING! I went to get him and I when I picked him up I instantly realized what everyone had been talking about - I kissed his head and he didn't feel warm, he was HOT! Sure enough his temperature was 102.5. He was screaming as I was trying to get him dressed and this woke JT up. We were both panicked so we decided to be the classic example of a new parent and called the doctor in the middle of the night. To our surprise, the doctor answered the phone...no leaving a message and waiting for someone to call me back, no nurse triage, the actual doctor on call! I told her I couldn't remember what the temperature was that I should be concerned about and she said 104 or his temp now if Tylenol couldn't get it down. I had just given him the medicine so we had to wait and see. Just like old times, we paced the house and sang to him. After about 45 minutes he was cool and calm so we put him back in his crib and he slept the rest of the night.

What a helpless feeling! I know this is the first of many fevers. I know it will be worse when he is actually sick. He woke up happy and with some crazy hair! Apparently he sweat that fever out through his head - it was to cute to try to brush it out.

So glad that you are feeling better Will! Mommy and Daddy will always wish that we could transfer your pain to ourselves.

Adventures in the Kitchen

Well, I think we all know how this is going to turn out...disaster!

Bill and Rita gave me the Baby Bullet for a shower gift. I can make my own baby food with it. It is really just a glorified food processor, but it comes with great little storage cups, menus, and recipes. I decided that I was going to use store bought baby food first to see which types of things Will actually enjoys eating before I slave away in the kitchen. He loves sweet potatoes, so that has been my first attempt.

I picked out a sweet potato and boiled it.

While that was boiling, I cleaned all of my equpiment and set it all out.

It turned out perfect! Time to put it into little storage cups now, but the blender seems to bulky so I think I'll remove the base to make it easier.

Really?!?!?! Did I not just wash this and know that there was no bottom?!?!?! So my final product resulted in 3 Baby Bullet storage cups instead of 10. At least the little storage cups are still smiling.

Oh well! Lesson learned. Better luck next time...

By the way, Will loved my sweet potatoes! He didn't care that I made a mess.