Will - 9 Months

Happy 9 Months Will!

When I first got these monthly stickers, I was sad that they ended at 12 months. What was I thinking??? They seriously should have stopped at 6 months. Will is 100% NOT interested in monthly picture time anymore. He preferred to practice his standing up instead.

Will's personality is getting bigger every day. And he is really turning into his own little person. When we go to the grocery store now, he sits in the seat of the cart and has a blast flirting with all the people and trying to get everyone's attention. I don't feel like running errands is as much of a hassle anymore, because he is my little buddy now and seems to enjoy running around with me. He makes the tedious things fun.

His language is developing more and more each day. He loves to hear his own voice! He now says "da-da-da-da-da" although he isn't really meaning anything yet. I do think that he knows what he means when he says "gie" though. "Gie" = Maggie or any other dog (or doggie as we have always said). When he sees a dog he gets so excited and yells out "GIE" and practically jumps out of my arms to get to it.

Food:
I definitely don't feed him as much as I should. He should be eating more baby food and starting finger foods now, but I feel like we are delayed in this. I try to give him a serving of baby food at breakfast and dinner, but it just doesn't happen consistently everyday. His main source of nutrition is still formula. He does love babyfood fruit though - apples and blueberries, peaches, strawberry banana. And he can devour some chicken and sweet potatoes! Since he loves apples so much, I decided to make my own in the Baby Bullet for him...he doesn't like them. He actually doesn't like anything that I make myself. I'm not giving up though.

Mobility:
This kid is on the move! He is now crawling, not just scooting. And he can be across the room in no time! He is trying so hard to stand up on his own and I really think he will be walking soon. I didn't really want him to walk this soon, but he is an overachiever. One of his new favorite activities is crawling up the stairs. He usually only tackles a couple of them, but he has made it all the way to the top once or twice.

He is becoming more independent and can entertain himself for a little while. This is really great! The not so great part of the past few weeks is that Will has developed separation anxiety. If there is someone around that he is not comfortable with, he will not let me or JT out of his sight without screaming. And if someone tries to hold him, he becomes absolutely inconsolable. Luckily he sees NeeNee, Gram, and Hope enough that he really could care less if we are around then. I know this is just a phase and it should be over soon, but it is heartbreaking. JT and I tried to leave him at the nursery at the gym, and they had to come find us because they couldn't calm him down. JT refers to this as "the time Will got kicked out of daycare". He is lucky that he is cute so all of these people forgive him!

Maggie is doing a good job being tolerable to Will. Will just can't seem to get enough of her, but she definitely has had enough of him! The poor dog just wants to lay on her bed and sleep, and the next thing you know Will has crawled over there and is poking her nose or pulling her ear. They do have some good playtime though. Will got a ball pit for Christmas, and he likes to take them out of the box one by one. Maggie is always there to retrieve them, but unfortunately her teeth end up destroying a few.

Will is hearing the word "NO" more often now. He always responds to it, but then resumes whatever he was doing pretty quickly. This most often comes up when he is irritating Maggie, climbing out of his Bumbo seat, or trying to play with computer cord.

Thanks for another wonderful month Will! We love watching you grow each and every day!

Will - 8 Months

Happy 8 Months Old Will!

It seems like every month there are so many new things to report about Will. He is growing so fast and I am beginning to feel like I need to do daily updates instead of monthly because there is always something new. This month's highlights...

- Sits up on his own

- Pulls up on couch and stands up in crib now

- Can entertain himself when left alone for a little while

- Looks for toys that he drops now because he knows they are around somewhere, whereas before he would cry because it was out of sight. Now I think he drops things just to make us pick them up.

- He loves to play in a box. Bubble wrap is an added bonus.

- Plays peek-a-boo. We call it "Where's Will?"

Food:
Apples and sweet potatoes are still the favorites. We have tried chicken and he isn't too sure about it yet. I don't blame him, I wouldn't be a fan of pureed chicken either. I have to give it to him with sweet potatoes or carrots and just sneak in a bite of chicken every once in a while - he makes the funniest face! His new love is peaches. Mum Mum rice snacks are these dissolvable wafer things that he can hold and chew on. They really just turn in to a big pasty mess. I feed Will in his high chair and Maggie swarms around it. She has learned that Will + high chair = good chance she is going to get to lick up some food. She is a total distraction to Will though, because all he wants to do is pet her while she is so close. He isn't a fan of a bib either. He rips the velcro ones off and plays with it, or tries to give it to Maggie.

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.