Hats off to Will

Will is feeling much better now and has been much more independent lately. He still has his clingy moments but for the most part he has been happy and playful this past week. As you can see below, he found one of my hats and has enjoyed playing with it. He has been very goofy lately so he's very entertaining. He makes funny noises, rolls around on the ground, spins around in circles and does a funny half walk- half jump sort of dance. Jumping is his new favorite activity. He used to step down off curbs very gingerly. Now he reaches for my hand and, once he has it, he jumps off the curb. Most of the time he lands on his feet- but not always!

Will had a good time playing with his friends at the gym nursery and at the church nursery this week but we had a playgroup at our house on Wednesday that was not as successful. I counted fifteen kids at one point and most were much older than Will. It was pretty much mass chaos. Will did not have a good time and he spent the entire playgroup on my lap. It was just too many people and too much commotion. He didn't mind them playing with his toys, he just didn't want to play. Once everyone left Will was so much happier. I could almost see the relief! I don't know that we'll take on another hosting gig any time soon.

Will's vocabulary has continued to expand. He can now identify several animals and objects. He can say new words like "garage", "bus," "sky," shirt" and many others. He can point to 7 or 8 different body parts when asked. He is also working on mastering zippers. Many of his sweatshirts are zip-up hoodies and he can unzip and take off his sweatshirt without my help. He tries to zip them up but he's not quite able to do that yet.

This past week Will has been insisting on sleeping with at least one car. He almost always grabs a car when we tell him it's bedtime and if he doesn't have one, he'll say "dar" until we hand him one. It's pretty funny. He is so tall that he has nearly outgrown the XL sleepsacks he has been wearing to bed. He can't sleep without them so he's not quite ready to transition to a blanket. On Saturday we made a trip to Hobby Lobby for some Thomas the Train flannel fabric. I dusted off the sewing machine and made him a bigger sleepsack. The craftsmanship is not so pretty when you look closely but it fits him and is functional, which is all I had hoped for! He looks cute in it and he likes the trains.

Though he used to go to bed with little difficulty, Will has recently started telling us "no" when we tell him it's time to go to bed. Today he started looking tired during mid-afternoon and I told him it was time for a nap. And he said "no." We repeated and repeated and finally I picked him up and took him to his room for a nap. Same thing happened going to bed tonight. He also has a little hiding place next to a book shelf where he goes when he tries to hide from me. No such luck yet though- I always find him!

Much to my delight Will has been doing a lot of "reading." He has a few "favorite" books that he likes. One in particular is a Thomas the Train "Lift the Flap" book and he loves it. He has very specific opinions on when he wants to read certain books. When we do our bedtime stories sometimes we have to hold up a few different books before he finds one he wants to read. He also has been taking our books off bookshelves and pretending to read them. I keep telling him there are no pictures in those books but he likes to pretend. This Sunday after we got home from church he went into the kitchen, climbed up in a kitchen chair and started "reading" the Sunday paper. Just like Mommy and Daddy! We've recently gotten him some sneaky Sesame Street books to add to the rotation like "Too Big for Diapers" and "Big Enough for a Bed." We're trying to plant some seeds here. We also got him a new Elmo DVD called "Elmo's Potty Time." We're not going to attempt potty training or moving to a "big boy bed" until after we move to DC but we figured it's not too early to get him thinking about it.

Regarding the pacifiers...we're still using them. I made one attempt to not give him a pacifier during the day but then he got sick and I caved in. You can't take a pacifier away from a sick baby!! We have not made any more attempts. We are planning a trip to DC in February so I'm thinking maybe we'll give it another shot in March. David reminded me that there's always going to be another trip on the horizon or an illness or some reason not to do it. But Will and I just aren't ready quite yet. But soon...

As far as Baby Dickinson #2, I am almost 18 weeks along. I've been very tired lately but otherwise feeling ok. We will be finding out whether it is a boy or a girl on February 15th! We really will be happy either way but I know a lot of people we know are thinking pink. Just a few more weeks and we'll know!