William Wednesday

It's that time again. My head has been spinning the past few days and the only thing that has kept me on track as far as what day it is has been knowing when to post William Wednesday. Sad, yes. True, yes.

You heard a bit of William's week yesterday, so I guess I wandered off the beaten path a little bit. Other than being sick, he had another really fun week! He was sick for about half of it, though, so I guess I can't say it was the most fun week we've had to date. But the older he gets, the more fun we have. He didn't do anything new this week, just fine-tuned some skills he already had. He has now taken steps along the coffee table from one end all the way to the other, trying to grab anything in reach. I think he's done this every day since Thursday, so basically we can't leave anything on the coffee table unless we intend for him to insert it in his mouth. He has also taken steps towards me as I've held his hands, but he doesn't do that one as well because if I'm that close he just tries to lunge into my lap.

Along the lines of mobility, I can't believe how much better he gets with his crawling every day. Even though he's trying to learn to walk, he's still perfecting his crawl. I've watched a few videos that we've taken over the past 2 months and it amazes me every time at how much improvement we see in such a short amount of time. Last week he usually paused once or twice mid-crawl because he was trying to move forward with the same arm/leg that he had just used. He'd stop, get confused a bit, reset himself and start crawling again. Well, less than a week later that kink seems to have been worked out. Nancy and Reagan are not enjoying this, though, because now he can quickly get to them wherever they are. I can just see the disappointment in Nancy's face as she realizes what was once her cuddle buddy is now her predator. And Reagan never has gotten on board with the whole idea of having a baby in the house, so he definitely doesn't enjoy the mobility. Oh well Reagan, you can get on board or you can go pout in the corner! That's what I have to say about that, and his choice so far has always been to pout in the corner. :)

We've been playing new games with him too. One thing that I've done since he was first able to hold up his head is to bounce him on my knee while singing "this is the way the baby rides, the baby rides, the baby rides..." and go through baby, mommy, daddy, and cowboy - each time making my bounces faster and more vigorous (I'm sure plenty of you have played this game) Well, this week I've started playing with him sitting on my hips while I'm laying on the ground, then I raise and lower my stomach/hips with the chant. For some reason this new way of playing the same game is AMAZING and infinitely more fun than the old way. He starts to get excited when I change from the way the mommy rides to the way the daddy rides, then when I do the cowboy bounce he cracks up. He squeezes his little precious fingers around my hand as tight as he can, as if I would let him fall off. It's too funny!

Another game that he's enjoying is when Austin lays him across his calves and raises/lowers him. He did it for about 5 minutes on Monday night, then he stopped and William crawled away. Less than 5 minutes later William crawled back, climbed up on Austin's feet and wrapped his arms around his legs - just waiting for Austin to get on board with play time again. Then when Austin started raising him up he buried his face in between Austin's calves and started laughing. Clearly he enjoys bouncing!

So, all in all his week was a fun one. He isn't going to let some little ear infection interrupt TOO much. And I think he's really looking forward to going back to Mr. Scotty's house on Sunday to watch some football and play with Rusty. Mr. Scotty just installed the direcTV Sunday ticket, meaning every Sunday he will have the Texans available for viewing. I think we should just reserve our seats on his couch now. Good thing William has fun too! :)