William Wednesday

William has been up to so much since I last wrote, so I think I'm going to do a bulleted style format rather than trying to creatively merge it all together :)

• William LOVES tunnels.  In Colorado we knew about a small tunnel as you enter the mountains and the Eisenhower tunnel which is longer and more well known.  After those two were gone we thought we were done, and WIlliam kept asking for tunnels so I felt bad.  Little did I know that we'd see a dozen tunnels on our westward journey.  And what a pleasant surprise when we found there's a tunnel in Monterey!  It is commonly used as a point of reference I've realized - like "oh just past the tunnel" or "right before the tunnel"...and we go through it every day.  William loves it!  As we enter he always says "hi tunnel" and then as we are leaving he says "boss(or melvin) get OUT of the tunnel.  bye tunnel!"  And THEN...we see...ALL THE BOOOOAAAATS!  Just as you exit the tunnel going into Monterey you pass where all the boats park (park???  stop???  halt???  what is boat terminology here?)  so William gets very excited for all the boats in the water.  Which brings us to...
• William LOVES the water!  He gets excited every day when we drive down Highway 1 and he can see the ocean out of his window.  He always exclaims "see the ocean!" or "see ALL the water!"  or "big waves in the water".  He is so happy when he can see the water.  And boats in the water - well that's just beyond heavenly for our little transportation-loving 2 year old.
• Along the lines of transportation, he becomes more and more enthralled with his cars and trucks and buses every day.  His favorite vehicle changes from day to day, and it is expected that Austin and I just automatically know which one he will want in the bath and which one he will want in bed.  Problem is - its never the same!  Orange bus had a nice long run, but now white truck is in the lead and Blue Trash Bus comes up every now and then too.  During the day, though, he loves all his buses.  We have the windows open all the time (no AC plus nice weather...new lifestyle) and William likes to push a chair up to the window and use the window frame as the road for his cars.  He will line as many cars up in the window frame as possible then yell "ALL THE CARS LINED UP ON THE WINDOW!!!!"  He gets very proud of this accomplishment.
• We have a park down the road from us that is very amusing for him.  I think we've been to the park probably 10 of the last 12 days...and I don't see that slowing down any time soon.  He loves to ride baby jackl to the park and park baby jackl in the grass.  Then we run from slide to slide, climbing and jumping and sliding...he LOVES the park.  He's such an active kid - I don't know where all the energy comes from or how it multiplies as it is exerted.  Seems to work the opposite for me.
• There is an explorer that is the same color as Melvin who lives at the house across from our first house here.  The first day we saw it William tried to walk up to it thinking it was Melvin, butever since then he has understood that it is not our Melvin it's another Melvin.  So anytime we see it he says "hi other melvin".  That has spilled over into parking lots too - anytime we see an explorer he says "hi blue melvin" (or whatever the color is).  He's always spot on with identifying explorers which amazes me.  If he sees another car similar he says "hi different Melvin" which means it isn't an explorer but it looks like Melvin.  He's such a genius!
• His behavior was slowly getting worse as our travels went on and I think we got into our house and re-established our routine just in the nick of time.  He was starting to act out and even bit us a few times, which I can only attribute to his confusion and lack of control over his environment.  The first day after we re-established a strict night time routine he was like a different child.  It's amazing what a little structure can do.  Are all kids like that or is ours just especially routine-oriented?
• He started school on Monday.  So far I think its going very well.  Drop offs have been very hard all week, and in fact Monday was probably the hardest drop off I have  ever had.  Harder than his first day at Goddard!  But his teacher called us midday to tell us how great he was doing - he was engaged in all the activities, a very happy and sweet boy, and he LOVED all the cars and trucks.  No surprise there!  He was thrilled to see us when we picked him up and he told us all the fun things he had done at school that day.  He still cries a lot when we pull up to the school, but I am sure once we are gone he adjusts well.  I just hope it isn't a long time before he gets excited to go to school again - he just has to get  comfortable and the new school has to feel like home.  All in time I assume.
• He has started to really enjoy rehashing books for us.  He says he's reading, and he does tell the story on each page but of course it's by memory and repetition.  he does GREAT though!  I am always interested to see what exactly he keys into on each page.  In his blue truck book there's a page where a dump truck says "thanks little brother" to the blue truck and I never would have keyed into that particular line, but once William gets to that page he says "thanks little brother" and then flips the page.  He likes to "read" Clifford, Blue Truck Book, his bicycle book (it's really an ABC book but there's a bike on the front) and the hungry caterpillar.  He's VERY good at the hungry caterpillar which tugs at my heart strings because it was the first book I ever read (actually read the words) when I was a kid.  Special book!
• When we were driving here and staying in hotels William asked for "mommy dada old house" a lot, but since we've been here he hasn't uttered the words.  I think that's a good sign that this feels like home now and he's comfortable here.  He does still ask for Oh Gosh and Katy, but I think that's going to be an on going thing.  I think it'll be hard for him to understand that we can't just get in the car and go see Oh Gosh, but hopefully we will get to see him regularly enough that the bond can still be there.  It's very special to see my baby building such a strong bond with my brother.
• He's still a dada's boy.  Mommy gets cuddles and hugs when dada isn't around, and on Monday he did run to me first...but besides that its all dada all the time.  He likes to play games with me, he loves for me to sing all of the wonderful songs I've written him ("William's favorite truck is the blue trash bus, William's favorite truck is the blue trash bus, William's favorite truck is the blue trash bus and he loves to take him in the bath."  then repeat with take him to bed, take him in Melvin, etc.  what's not to love about my musical talent???) and he LOVES to help mommy cook.  But besides our special little things between us, overall he just adores his dada.  It's such a precious adoration, but also makes me wonder...is dada ALWAYS the hero and mommy ALWAYS the shmuck???  Please chime in...

That about covers where he is I think.  He is enjoying exploring our new home and seems to really love that we're by the water, by the park, and the things he gets to see along the way.  Just keep praying that his adjustment at school goes well and that I find a job before the end of May so that we can keep him in school!  He really thrives there!!!