William Wednesday

You pretty much know all about William's week already, but I'll see what else I can come up with.

He LOOOOOOVED having his family in town. Some of my favorite parts:

-he ran up to Dana one night, out of nowhere, and said 'I love you aunt Dana!' and gave her a hug

-he held conversations with Kelli in baby talk

-he bossed Katy (Brian's dog) around like no one's business

-when he found out Oh Gosh was sleeping in his bed he made sure I never touched oh gosh's spot!

-he and Kelli took 2 baths together and splashed half the water out of the tub

In addition to the key moments I picked out (and there are plenty more!) he was really on his best behavior. Nothing makes you look better as a parent than a well behaved child, so I was pretty thankful he turned it up a notch. Only 2 fits/tantrums the entire time. That's a win for a mommy of a 2 year old! And aunt joy even told me, 'he doesn't even know he's in his terrible two's!'

GO WILLIAM!

And as for the potty - still no more wet accidents! Only dirty. Still waiting for helpful tips...

A few pics before I go...










- manda

As promised

As I promised in my labor day post, here are some pictures to finish it off
















Her shirt says 'I love my aunt' - in case you were wondering.


Not afraid of ice cold water anymore








Brian saved William from all the waves. Too bad his boots couldn't be saved.








Carmel by the sea, pebble beach in the background


Adoration






Oh yeah - and he did AWESOME with the potty, despite the hectic weekend. His only accidents were dirty ones. Any suggestions for that, by the way???
- manda

Labor Day Amazingness

I just wrote an awesome blog.  On my phone.  And it's gone.  I just thought you should know that so that if this post is less than stellar, you can feel better knowing the intent was there.

But, basically, we had the best labor day weekend.  Ever.  In the history of labor day weekends.  Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration but it sure beats last labor day weekend when I sent Austin back to Afghanistan that's for sure!

Before we were even in Monterey it was determined that Brandon, Dana and Kelli would fly in from Houston and Brian would drive in from Colorado for Labor Day.  But I had no idea how awesome the weekend would be!  First of all, someone up above must have had a hand in lifting the fog because we had the most beautiful 72 hours I've seen here on the Monterey Peninsula -and the fog returned today, right on cue.

We spent the weekend at the aquarium, walking around Fisherman's Wharf, feeding sea lions off the dock, driving to Big Sur, and finished it off with a Labor Day bbq at Aunt Joy's house.  It was fantastic.

William was particularly smitten from the minute Brian arrived until his head hit the pillow last night.  Brian got to our house Friday around lunch and, because I was at work, he, Austin and William came and met me for lunch.  The story goes that the entire 20 minute ride consisted of William showing him EVERYTHING.  "look, it's a bird oh gosh"  "oh, that's a sprinkler oh gosh" "oh gosh, look, it's a car" and so on.  He was in heaven with his best buddy around, and he fell back into suit as Oh Gosh's shadow in about .5 seconds.  He needed to know where Oh Gosh was at all times, and generally wanted to be doing the exact same thing.

He was equally excited that baby Kelli was in town.  I was a little worried about his sharing - he's actually never had to share his own toys, and the one time he had to share Oh Gosh's attention with Kelli didn't go very well.  But he was awesome!  He actually LOVES sharing his toys with Kelli and he seems to think anytime she's crying it's because she needs Mater (or any other Cars character)  He also loved to feed her goldfish, we just had to make sure he knew she can't have 10 in her mouth at once.  (we had to help HER understand that as well!)

I'd love to have a "favorite" memory or moment from the weekend but I don't.  It was just great all around!  There were lots of comical moments like when Brandon thought the sea lions in the bay were statues, or how Brian managed to be the nicest person at our table at every restaurant yet managed to have terrible service every time, or how William at some point decided he needs to replace "mommy can I please have ____" with "i NEED ___" and because his uncles laughed, it continued.  All weekend.  But there were just too many to note, and they probably aren't nearly as funny when you weren't involved.  I'll just reiterate that it was the best weekend and I am so thankful that we could host our family in our house.

Aunt Joy was just over the moon to have us all, and we also got the treat of meeting her granddaughter, our 33 year old cousin who we've never known!  It was really special for me.  Joy was just as sharp as ever and had prepared envelopes of pictures for Brandon and Brian, and a card for me.  My card was actually a card Mimi had sent Joy in the summer of 2009 for her birthday.   Mimi had just found out I was pregnant and told Joy she was full of excitement and had something "special" to live for.  Sweetest card, and I'll keep it forever.  It's not very often that anyone gets to see Brandon, Brian and me all together - and Joy was very aware how special it was.  She was so thrilled and we loved being able to spend the day with her.

And, because I'm on my work computer I better cut this short.  Or shorter than I otherwise could, I should say.  I'll add a picture or two, or 10, from my phone in a bit - but just know that no matter how awesome our weekend looks in pictures, they pale in comparison. 

Did I mention I had a wonderful time?

William Wednesday

I am blogging from my computer today, so that means that the pictures on my phone will not make it into this post.  No fear - I will attempt to post a second William post just of pictures for you :)  

With that disclaimer noted, let's move on!

I am sure you've been waiting patiently for 7 days to see how our pottyin' boy is doing.  And I'm happy to report - he's doing great!  Thursday and Friday he had 2 accidents during the day at school, but went potty every time it was offered.  Saturday I was nervous about how we'd incorporate the potty into our busy plans for the day but it went well!  We put him in a diaper for our drive up to San Francisco but when we got there and went to the restroom his diaper was still dry!  He was scared of the public toilet though, so we opted for diapers while we were in the city.  We still tried at the same time intervals, but I didn't want to push the public potty thing.  Heck, who likes public potties anyway???  Sunday he kept his big boy underwear dry all day with just 2 dirty accidents, and he has now been dry through the night 3 nights in a row!!!  Last night he told us he doesn't want night time diapers anymore, he wants pullups.  (downside to daycare/preschool: they learn EVERYTHING you've tried to keep secret)  So I promised him that we'll buy lightening mcqueen pullups next time we are at the store and until then he only has to wear diapers for bedtime.  That worked last night, hopefully it's a good enough compromise tonight too.

Saturday morning before our trip to the city I had to go into work for a little while.  That meant William and Dada had some boy time at the park.  Boy time at the park means he gets to do more daring things that mommy would never approve of - and he loved it!  He climbed all over the playground that I never take him to, and I think he did pretty well.  He talked about it all day so I'd say he had fun!  Then after I was done at work and we had all eaten lunch we drove up to San Francisco (very strategically timed for naptime) to celebrate Austin's birthday kid-style.  Friday night we had a parents night out date, so Saturday was a William celebration.  And he LOVED it!  We went and parked near the Fisherman's Wharf and walked around the area.  IT seems like it could be a lot of fun as long as you go during non-peak season. The amount of people in the small area was really unbelievable.  We had planned to go there to eat dinner at the Rainforest cafe (remember the gorillas and how they're loud in the rain??? yup - William still loved it!)  We scored the best table in the house - William was able to see the Gorillas, Elephants, Waterfall, starry sky, fish tanks, and butterflies.  He was in a rainforest heaven.  For dinner we ordered him chicken nuggets and fried shrimp and just told him it was nuggets.  Either he was starving, the shrimp didn't taste like shrimp, or my baby likes shrimp!  I can verify that the shrimp did VERY MUCH taste like shrimp, so I guess he just likes shrimp.  Which is great!  Will save him a lifetime of hearing "oh just try it, it doesn't even taste like shrimp..."

After dinner we just walked around some more, saw a bread factory making sourdough bread in animal shapes (mmmmm teddy bear bread) and saw an Alligator bread that weighed 50 pounds!  Ah, love carbs.  Once we could tell William was  tired, and we were too, we headed back home.  it was a fun little trip to the city though!

William's speech has really been fine-tuning lately.  Now that his vocabulary is so profound he has been working on pronunciation.  The exit off Hwy 1 to go to our house is Lightfighter, and when we see the sign WIlliam always says "that sign says lightfighter'.  But what used to sound like "fi-fi-er" is now "lightfighter".  Exact pronunciation.  Just this week he has started to say complex words accurately and make letter/sound combinations I've never heard him make.  So cool!!!

Along with pronunciation, I think he is starting to learn sarcasm and jokes.  Austin and I have a stupid little back and forth banter we do, not sure where it came from, when the other one says something we don't like or somewhat condescending.  For example, if Austin were to tell me, "You sure are driving like a grandma" I would reply "you're a grandma" and he'd say back "i'll show you a grandma!"  It works for anything - and we say it all the time.  We have said it a few times to William but telling a 2 year old "You're a marshmallow" doesn't really go over well. He'd get so mad!  If he asked for a marshmallow and Austin replied with that he'd say, "No I WANT a marshmallow".  The stupid little game made no sense to him, but he has since caught on.  Yesterday Austin asked him if he wanted chicken nuggets for dinner and he said "I'll show you chicken nuggets!"  uh oh..............

So, our pottyin' boy is learning to correctly annunciate and have sarcasm drip from his lips.  And do you know what could be a deadly combination with all of that?  Being a leader.  And guess what?  As much as you can measure leadership in toddlers, I'd say he's atop the charts.  He is a little trendsetter in class and his teachers tell me all the time about things that he's started.  Last week I talked to Ms Rebecca on the phone and she said, "I just have to know, who is toodles?"  I just laughed as I tried to explain the character from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Toodles is a little creature in the shape if the classic Mickey head/ears.  Whenever Mickey and his friends are having trouble solving a problem they call for Toodles who then brings them a tool to help them solve their problem. So, when they need help, they all call "oh TOODLES".  I don't know why or how that became the key part of the cartoon for William, but he LOVES when Mickey calls for toodles and sometimes he may call for Toodles himself 20 times in a day.  And he doesn't just quietly call him, he SCREAMS for toodles.  So apparently not only does he have the other kids in his class calling toodles, but Ms Rebecca said the teachers can't help but do it too.  Oh TOOOOOOODLES!

So, a leader who wears big boy underwear, has a sarcastic sense of humor, and is also the most handsome boy in the world...naturally he'd have girls flocking to him right?

Right.

One day last week when Austin picked him up from school his top two girls (currently) were both still there.  He usually says bye to Erin and whoever else is still around, but apparently this time Kristin was still there and she ran over to William to hug him goodbye.  Austin said you could instantly see wheels turning in Erin's head as she then, not to be overshadowed, walked over and hugged William too.  

I believe I have the makings for a perfect storm right in front of me.  But it's so fun to watch!!!  This morning I looked at him as he was sleeping and I thought to myself, "it's hard to be sad at how fast time goes and how quickly he grows because every stage is just so much fun I don't even have time to grieve the stage that's gone!"

Give me 10 years, I'm sure.

He called me gracious

I can't remember if I have shared with the blog world that Melvin and I were in an accident 2 weeks ago. If not, there you have it! We got smashed. The #1 question on everyone's mind when I've told them is whether or not William was with me, so I'll start by letting you know he was not. I was on my daily trek from Salinas to Monterey to pick him up, so he was safely building magna-tile towers with Erin.

But not me!

We were driving along a highway with the sort of traffic where you go from 45 to 0 back up to 45 in about 30 seconds repeatedly. So the best driving advice someone could offer would be: keep your eyes alert on the road.

Well, apparently the person behind me didn't do that and after I had come to a complete stop with plenty of room in front of me he slammed into the back of Melvin.

SLAMMED. Either he was going 40 mph or Land Rovers are just beasts. Or maybe both! But it hurt. I saw him coming so I thought enough to turn my wheel an try to steer clear of the F250 in front of me. Had I not, I'd think Melvin would be in a scrapyard right now.

When I got out of my car I was greeted by the most frightened 18 year old boy I've ever seen. He was TERRIFIED. And so apologetic. He just couldn't believe it! He was so sorry! He doesn't even know what happened! He was so glad I was ok! He was so sorry! (all the ! To emphasize his reactions) He shared with me that he was off to college in a week and neither he or his mom have ever had an accident or a ticket and he hates that her insurance rates are going to sky rocket on top of college tuition...he went on and on. And he was such a nice boy!!! Unlike the other times I've been rear ended (# of times not to be disclosed) I did not shed a single tear. I felt too bad for him! How could I cry and make him feel worse?

At the end of our encounter he said 'well I am so sorry for this, it was great to meet such a gracious person' and we went out separate ways.

Well, I guess it's good that he is long gone to Wheaton college because I'm afraid my grace has run out.

I want my car back! Do you know that every morning for the last 7 work days I have climbed into my lame rental car and tried to push the non-existent button on the dash to start 'er up? And do you know that upon realizing I actually need KEYS for this dinosaur of a vehicle (slight exaggeration as it is newer than Melvin...) I instantly remember I have no idea where the keys are? I apparently have grown too accustomed to never physically holding car keys.

And do you know what else? There is no Bluetooth. The state of california believes cell phones in the hand are a distraction to drivers (psshhh) and it is illegal. So it's Bluetooth or nothin. Or you are like me and attempt
To use speakerphone and lean your head towards the arm rest to better hear the speaker over the road noise. Distraction? I think so. Just let me hold my phone! Or give me my car back.

And what about Sirius satellite radio? Radio here is lame-o. I need my music back.

And what about a sunroof?

And comfortable seats?

And a back-end that William can climb in and walk straight to his seat?

And side view mirrors that mechanically fold in for easy entry/exit in the garage?

Not to mention the hassle of receiving an insurance check yesterday for $4,000 less than the body shop told me it will cost.

I no longer believe Shreve (what kind of name is that anyway?) wasn't texting on his phone. I no longer think he's never been in an accident. I don't even know if he is now at college! Why do I now wonder if he lied? Eh, why not? I mean he likely was being truthful but it's way easier to get mad at a liar.

I guess on that one day I was gracious. Today I just want my car back.


- manda

The short straw

You know how there's the classic picture of a dad sitting on a porch cleaning his shotgun coincidentally as his daughter's date shows up to pick her up? And you know that cute story of a guy trembling in his boots because he's about to meet a girl's dad and he might possibly rip the boy to shreds? And you know how there are a thousand songs about how dads loved their daughters first and no one is ever good enough for a man's baby girl and on and on and on?

And you know how everyone just universally smiles at this beautiful display of patriarchal protection and love?

How many times have you heard people sigh and grin at the sweet thought of a mother shoving recipes down the throats of her son's girlfriends? Or when she tells them how her son likes his socks folded? Or when she insists no one can care for her son when he's sick the way she can?

You've probably never smiled at the thought. Like me, you've probably cringed at it. I HAD those mothers-of-boyfriends. I've stubbornly fought back on how to fold clothes and make banana pudding and chicken casserole and just how to precisely fold a cold rag for a feverish forehead. I've rolled my eyes as I was told all of the little oddities about my boyfriends, thinking 'thanks, but no thanks. You're nuts'. never once did I think it was cute how over protective the mothers were.

And now I get it!

William's future wife very well may be greeted with a handbook. He's a particular creature with very definite likes and dislikes and he's strong willed and opinionated and needs his space sometimes and...and his future wife needs to know these things. I would mean it in the most loving of ways! Really I'd be helping her. Who will ever have better advice or guidance on how best to love my son than me???

But it will never be viewed that way. I'll just be that crazy mom. The one talked about over coffee. The one the girls pretends to like as her friends encourage her behind the scenes. The one William has to defend because despite my craziness he will love me more than his girlfriends will want him to. That'll be me. I already know.

Other than the one large instance of mothers having the joy of carrying our babies for 9 months, do dads EVER draw the short straw again? Cause once again, dads get to be cute and loving while doing the exact same thing that's makes mothers crazy and loathed.

But I promise I'll know better than William's silly little wife. You mark my words.


- manda

William Wednesday

My week has been crazy busy at work. Not the craziest ever, but pretty busy. So I've been squeezing in some extra hours at the office and at home, which means I have less to report on William.

But I have news!

He's a potty-in' boy!!! A few weeks ago I think I mentioned that his teachers said he was doing great at school with the potty which was equally awesome and frustrating. Frustrating because he was adamantly against the potty at home. I began to think maybe our potty just scared him because of it's height (at school they have toddler size potties..,real potties just short) So Saturday Austin went with him to target to pick out his own big boy seat.

Well, it worked - but not for the reasons I had thought. He isn't afraid of the height - I know this because he wants his potty on TOP of the normal potty. So now he sits 3 feet off the ground. But...it works, so I'll go with it!!! For the rest of Saturday and all of Sunday he went potty excitedly every time we offered.

He is not yet to the point of telling us if he needs to go, and he still went in his diaper in between potty sessions, so on my weekly shopping trip I bought a new case of night time diapers and regular diapers.

Then yesterday we got this:



If its too small to read, I'll summarize: his teachers suggested underwear.

What??!!

I called today to tell them I'm PERFECTLY HAPPY to supply underwear but wanted to be sure they thought he was ready. Cause at home he still isn't. But they insisted that he's had dry diapers all day all week!

So after dinner tonight when he successfully used the potty we offered him this:



Big boy undies!!! Spiderman!!! HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF A TODDLER! He wore the underwear and kept them dry for one hour, then it was bath time! Spiderman is still tinkle free!

I am packing lots of extra clothes tomorrow and I full except some wet reports, but we're excited!!!

And...can't blog about the potty without mentioning that every time he goes pee pee he gets a sticker and he gets to watch yaya's potty dance video.

The rewards stop one day right??? Cause I may have dreams of 'pee pee in the potty...pee pee in the potty...ALL DAY LONG'

But he loves it, and that's what counts :)
- manda