31 Days to go!

Hello from Texas! We've had another low-key week here. It's continued to be hot and humid...and it will only get worse from here. On Monday Will got to swim in his new pool in the back yard. He had fun splashing around and it definitely cooled him off. He went back and forth between his sand table and the pool so he got the full beach experience.

Tuesday we took a trip to the library. Will loves the large aquarium they have there. He also loves pulling all the books off the shelf so I have to stay on my toes right behind him. We did check out a few books for him. Two in particular that he really likes are the book about Monster Trucks and one about a fireman and his truck. Due to the aforementioned mischief in the library, I didn't get to preview the books before we brought them home. So the story about the fireman putting out a house fire includes the family carrying their "sofa, lamps and tables" out of the house in the middle of the fire. And the second the fireman puts out the fire (which had flames coming out of the roof), the family gets to move back into the house and get on with their lives. After the first time I read it I checked the date and it was written in 1946. I guess we've made great progress in fire safety since then. I'm hoping he's not really internalizing this particular story. After we read it to him we tell him that if there is a fire, we're not taking the furniture.

He does, however, internalize many of the things he reads and sees. For example, his favorite story at the moment is "Go, Dog! Go." Lately he has been acting out parts of the book with various toys. He loves to say "up the tree, up the tree," which is part of the book. And today he used his cars and trucks to act out a scene from the movie Cars where Lightning McQueen revs his engine and scares a bunch of tractors until they tip over. It's always fun to see that he remembers stories and can act them out with his own toys.

The Cars movie is his new obsession. He asks to watch it almost every day. We've seen it so often lately that I can only handle it every two or three days or so. He likes to line up his cars while he watches the movie and he usually insists on having his firetruck and Sarge (which are both from the movie) in his hands as he watches. It's really the only movie that holds his attention for more than 5-10 minutes at a time. Since Cars 2 is coming out this summer we are thinking we might take Will to his first movie in the theater to see it.

The biggest news this week is that we have given up sleepsacks. We're still in an adjustment period but we started having problems with him being too tall for them. So we went cold turkey starting Thursday for Will's nap. He now sleeps with a pillow and blanket, but still in his crib. I think it takes him longer to get to sleep without it, mostly because he has so much more freedom to stand up and walk around his crib. But I don't think we've had any meltdowns or problems related to taking it away. Really, he seems to have substituted his new comfort objects (his cars) for the old (the sleepsacks). So he doesn't seem to mind not having it- as long as he has his cars. He's not entirely used to sleeping under a blanket so I usually go in after he's asleep to cover him up.

Also this week, Will has been very concerned with what belongs to whom around here. It used to be that everything was his. Now he likes to describe who different objects belong to. I put on some of David's flip flops to take trash out one day and Will got very concerned that those were "Daddy's shoes." He reminded me until I took them off. He often says things like "Mommy's water," "Daddy's computer" and "Zoe's food." He likes to label everything he can. He's become such a good little talker. My favorite is that we have him almost trained to ask for help when he has trouble doing something. It doesn't always work, sometimes he just goes straight to meltdown, but about half the time he needs help he says "Help. Help, please." Always like that- "Help. Help, please." I love it!

On Friday we had another play date with Tyler. Tyler, who is Will's age, has a younger brother named Alex who is about three months old. We had a little test when Will picked up one of Alex's pacifiers that was on a table. He stared at it for a while and kept saying "baby." I told him to put it down because it was the baby's and not his. I thought for sure he was going to pop it in his mouth, but he didn't! He put it back down and walked away.

Today we had our Saturday morning waffles then went to the base so David could get a haircut. Will got to go to the park and then to the Apple store at the mall. I tried to get him some new shoes too but he was not having any part of trying them on. He has been wearing size 6, which is now too small, and I already have size 7 shoes for him, which are too big. He's pretty solidly in between. He threw such a fit in Stride Rite, though, that I had to just leave and order them online. He did get a new hat which, as you can see below, he thinks goes pretty well with his alphabet jammies.

This week should be another low-key week. I've completely cut out all unnecessary errands and activities and I've seen a real difference in how I feel. I feel so much better when we take it easy. And Will has been so cooperative- I really couldn't ask for anything more. If I'm not feeling great, we stay at home and he has been perfectly happy to play inside during the last couple of weeks. His eating and napping are also much improved lately. So far he's really doing his part to help me out here in the home stretch! By my count, we have about 31 days to go until Baby Luke arrives!