365 Days Until Christmas

Here is Will doing his bit in the little Christmas program at our Church Christmas breakfast. He was supposed to sing jingle bells...and he had been singing it all week at home...but, of course, once on stage he just wanted to shake the bells and didn't sing at all. He got to see Santa too, but he was not about to get on his lap. He didn't go into hysterics like last year, however.

Christmas is over! It is kind of sad...all that work and anticipation and it only lasts for 1 day. I will back up a bit and catch up before I talk about Christmas.

We went to Zoo Lights at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City a week before Christmas. We got our friends Rich and Teresa and their little boy Max to go with us. Unfortunately it was fuh-reezing! And when the website warned that "you may not be able to see all of the animals because they are not active at night"...what they really meant was "you will be lucky if you see ANY animals." We saw a bear and a tiger and the tail of a kangaroo rat. It also didn't occur to me that the zoo would have no lighting besides the Christmas lights (hence the name "Zoo Lights"). It was dark...and did I mention cold? It was kind of a bust. Sorry Zoo but it was. At any rate we took some pictures.
In this one you can look closely at the two dots of light above Bryce's head and maybe tell that there was a tiger sitting on the overpass thing above us.
We got a "new to us" entertainment center. It's nice that this one has a compartment to put Will away.

Will wanted to hold Sawyer the other day. He hasn't wanted to hold him since shortly after he was born, but the other day all of the sudden he was desperate to hold him so I took some pictures of the two of them. Of course, after about 30 seconds Will decided it was more fun to suddenly let go of Sawyer and watch him face plant into the carpet so we had to take the baby away. I'm not sure why they are both naked...it could have been any number of reasons. Will keeps a close eye on Sawyer these days. If he sees Sawyer put anything near his mouth he freaks out. For instance, if Sawyer sucks on his hand Will runs over and grabs Sawyer's hand and pulls it out of his mouth and says "Don't put your hands in your mouth!" Or if Sawyer is sucking on a blanket or a toy Will will go yank it out of his mouth and yell "Don't put that in your mouth. It's disgusting!" I'm not sure why he is so concerned lately, but it is kind of obnoxious because Sawyer is perfectly content to sit there and suck on a blanket until Will starts messing with him.
Will helped me decorate the tree (which we didn't buy until the Tuesday before Christmas and didn't decorate until Thursday). He didn't quite catch on to the idea of using hooks to hang up ornaments...he kept trying to make them stay by just placing them on the branches. And he didn't like them to be spread out around the tree--he only liked them in big clusters.

Will had quite a Christmas. He came downstairs in the morning announcing "Santa's here! Santa's here!" The first thing he saw under the tree was the basketball hoop and he said "Whoa basketball!" Then he looked around and said "There are cars in some of these presents!" He grabbed the nearest package and said "Maybe there are cars in this box!" He was quite confident that Santa had left him some cars since that is all he has been asking for over the last few months. He did indeed get some cars and spent the entire rest of the day playing with them except for a few short breaks when he played basketball instead. He opened his first present around 9 a.m. and he played with his toys until 8:30 p.m. He didn't have any breakfast or lunch besides some chocolates out of his stocking and we finally strapped him down at the dinner table and got him to eat a roll, but other than that he was busy with his new toys all day. He didn't ask for any t.v. or anything. By 8:30 he was totally exhausted. I put him in bed (with his new cars right next to him of course) and he was asleep within 30 seconds I think. Today I think he was still recovering. He came down this morning and the first thing he said was "Look at all these toys! Merry Christmas!" He has been kind of sleepy today and mostly wanted to lounge on the couch and watch his cartoons.

Ott Look-alike Meter

I copied this from Lauren's blog. I think it is about as accurate as pulling a percentage out of a hat, but whatever!

Ott Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Free genealogy

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

It has snowed the last two Saturdays in a row! And not just a little dusting, but all day kind of snow. It makes things feel so Christmasey. On Sunday we rushed home from church, changed clothes, and went to try to get a Christmas card picture. We had the camera on a tripod and were doing the "press the timer button and run to get in the picture game." We had to hurry because Bryce had to be at a Home Teaching (church) appointment at 4:30 and we didn't get home from church and dressed until close to 4. I won't put the best picture on here (wouldn't want to ruin it for our Christmas cards)...but they are all pretty much the same. We couldn't get Sawyer to look at the camera because Will was making so much noise and Sawyer was much more interested in him than the camera. Will really wanted to play in the snow, but he wasn't dressed for it and we were in a hurry. Nevertheless when we tried to get him in the car he took off running and ended up face-planting into the snow. He didn't care for about 20 seconds and then he looked at his hands covered in snow and started screaming. I guess he discovered that really cold hands hurt! We cleaned him off and put him in the car, but he cried all the way home until I took him out of the car and then he looked at his hands and said "My hands are all better!"

I went to check on Will the other night and found him sound asleep with his nativity stable and one of the wise men laying right on his face. He must have really been out because he didn't even wake up when I took 5 pictures with the flash going off in his face each time. Will has taken a special liking to the wise men. He has to have them in bed with him each night - he says "Where are my kings?" He doesn't like Mary or Joseph, however. My mom bought the set for him and let him open it before she left at the end of November. Will looked at the pieces and said "This is baby Jesus taking a bath" (he was in a manger) and "This is Santa Claus" (one of the wise men has a beard and red robe) and "This is the donkey from Shrek." So I think he pretty much has the real meaning of Christmas down. Lol.
Bryce sanded our office on Saturday to get it ready for paint. He came out looking like this:
"In life, I was your partner, Jacob Marley." [The shirt is from our family reunion this summer...Bryce doesn't generally wear shirts with his name on the front.]

We tried to instill some of the spirit of giving in Will tonight by taking him to Wal-Mart to pick out gifts for a 2 year-old boy whose card we chose off of an Angel Tree. We thought we had prepped him for the event by spending the last 2 days explaining that he got to be a special Christmas helper and go to the store and buy some toys for a little boy just like him. I don't think he quite caught on though. He was all too happy to help choose some toys...and then went hysterical and was sobbing "NO, we are NOT giving these to little Justin" over and over again all through Wal-Mart. Ah the joys of Christmas!

The last few days Will has become very specific in what he wants me NOT to do. He wanted me to play with him yesterday, but I was trying to clean up the house at least a little bit and Will was following me around saying things like, "No! Mom, you are NOT putting laundry in the washing machine!" or "No! Mom, you are NOT putting lights for Christmas on top of the cabinets."

Will thinks "too many" is a definable quantity. Whenever he wants something the conversation goes like this: "Mom, I need some (fruit snacks/crackers/books/etc)." So I give him one of whatever it is. "Mom, I need three!" So I give him three. "Mom, I need five!" So I give him 2 more. "Mom, I need too many!" which I think means the rest of the pack, or all that are available, or as many as I can fit in my hands. It is always the same order: 3, 5, too many! Will also never wants anything, he only needs things. I may have already mentioned this one, but one day in the grocery store I made the mistake of walking down the candy aisle which led to Will screaming "Mom, I neeeeeeeed some candy" much to the amusement of the other woman in the aisle.

We were in Kinko's last week printing Bryce's thesis (he is finally done-hooray!) and Will was looking at all the greeting cards. He was taking them out one by one and saying "This is what it says..." and then he would say something random. I couldn't hear the first couple he said and then he picked up a card that had a cartoon picture of a husband and wife talking on it. Will looked it over and said "This is what it says: Go to the store!" I guess that is his summary of marriage.

I went to the mall with my little sister Mollie last Friday to try to get some Christmas shopping done. We were in Sears and Will started yelling "I'm stinky! I'm stinky! Nasty! Disgusting!" He was attracting quite a few looks. So I checked out the situation and discovered that he was perfectly clean--I guess he just wanted to embarrass me.

More random Will quotes

These posts would be more interesting with pictures. <-- I added some. It snowed last weekend for the first time of any significance this season. Will loved it. It is now Dec. 9th and it has been snowing off and on all day. It is a winter wonderland outside!

Yesterday Will grabbed a hair clip out of my bathroom and said "This is for Mommy's hair" and handed it to me. I took it and stuck it arbitrarily on the top of my head and Will looked at me and said, "You look cute Mommy!"

Will was being a pill the other night when we were trying to put shoes on him or something and Bryce said "Will, do you need a spanking?" and Will said "Yes, I need a spanking." So Bryce swatted him on the bum which did not faze Will in the slightest. Will continued to be a pain so Bryce said "Will, do you want another spanking?" and Will replied "Yes! I want another spanking!" Hmmm. Yesterday Will was harassing Sawyer and I said "Will, you're about to get a spanking. Do you need a spanking?" and he responded "Yessssssssssss!" like I had just offered him a trip to Disney World. We don't really spank him and apparently the threat of a spanking is being lost in translation.

I asked Will what Santa was going to bring Mommy and he told me "Boots and an hourglass." This kid sure has creative gift ideas. Grandpa gets a monkey and the Fox and the Hound dvd for his birthday and Mommy gets boots and an hourglass for Christmas. Then I asked him what he thought Sawyer would like for Christmas. He didn't have an answer so I started asking him things like "Do you think Sawyer would like a burp rag?" and Will would crack up and say "Noooo! Sawyer doesn't want a burp rag." We did this about a million times with things like an empty bottle, a piece of garbage, some spit-up, a dirty diaper, etc. Then I asked Will if he thought Sawyer would like some poop for Christmas (classy I know, but we are dealing with a 2 year-old's sense of humor here) and Will just about fell off his chair laughing before he responded "Noooooo! That would be disgusting! Don't be silly Mommy." For a whole 5 minutes I was the funniest person Will could ever even imagine.

A little later I was trying to finish up my Christmas shopping online and I got up to get something. Will hopped up into the computer chair and was banging on the keyboard and messing things up. I grabbed him to put him down and he lunged for the keyboard yelling "No! I'm working!"

Last night at dinner Will said he was going to say the blessing on the food and it went something like this "Thank you for the milkshake...thank you for McDonald's... (it was actually Arby's but oh well)...thank you for the bag...thank you for Sawyer..." and eventually we just cut him off and said Amen.

I grabbed Will to take him upstairs for a nap this afternoon and he looked down and said "Good night Sawyer! Thank you for coming." I'm not sure where he thinks Sawyer is visiting from, but whatever. Then when I tucked him in bed he said "I love you Mommy. Thank you for coming to see me." I guess we are all just visitors in Will's world.

As for Sawyer: I put him in the hop n' pop play thing today and he was very determinedly reaching out and pushing around some rings on a loop. It's the first time I've seen him successfully grab something on purpose. Sawyer is clearly enamored with Will these days. I was trying to feed him this morning and whenever Will said anything Sawyer would stop eating and grin and look around the room for him. This is definitely an improvement over the look of sheer terror that used to come across his face whenever he heard the sounds of impending Will. Will only occasionally tries to kill Sawyer at this point--such as yesterday when he put a pillow over poor Sawyer's face while he was napping. I'm not sure what goes through his head.

Both Sawyer and Will are asleep at the moment. These moments are extremely rare and usually extremely short as well. Ahhhhhhh. Basking in the moment of a quiet house.

PS: Will woke up from his nap. He came downstairs and said "Hi Mommy. I'm glad to see you."

Still so full...

Will got a magazine in the mail that had a song in it. He said "Music for the piano...I need to play it!" and then ran off. I found him like this.
Poor Sawyer...those Dickerson genes set in early. For now, we will borrow this pair from Mr. Potato Head! This picture kind of makes it look like he has teeth, but he doesn't- it is just the glare off of spit or something.
Will is ready for the slopes! Don't mind the mess in the background...it was clean at one point that day...very briefly.
This was Sawyer's first bath from quite some time ago. He was pretty mellow about it.

So Thanksgiving has come and gone. A quick run-down. On Nov. 14th my parents flew in from Connecticut. They stayed for two weeks. Dad sheetrocked, taped, and mudded our office. Mom visited her mother (who fell and broke her hip about 8 weeks ago) and cooked Thanksgiving dinner. We had dinner up at my grandma's house in Orem and it was attended by: Mom, Dad, Bryce, Erin, Will, Sawyer, Mollie, Mollie's boyfriend Parker, Megan, Kyle, Evan, Evan's friend Laurel, Laurel's baby named Paul, cousin Liz, Grandma, and Uncle Gary. Got that all? The day after Thanksgiving we went out to lunch and ended up at the mall even though we had no intention of shopping on Black Friday. That night we had a little early birthday party for my dad since all the kids except Michael were here. The next day we went to Heber and ate lunch with my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Steve and then continued up to Park City for a short trip to the outlets. My mom and dad celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary while they were here. Mom and Dad left on Nov. 28th and now we are back to the same-old...well, except for that now we are trying to get ready for Christmas.

Will's latest:
- I gave him a pack of fruit snacks and he said "Thank you ever so much Mommy!"...Also, he lined up all his toy cars at Great-grandma's house and then told them "Thank you ever so much cars!" Ohhhkay.
- The other day Will woke up early and came and got in bed with me, but he was being crazy and climbing all over my head so I told him "Will, if you don't want to lay down then go downstairs and play with your cars." He said "Ok" and climbed out of bed and as he was going out the door turned around and said "See you later Mommy. Thanks for snuggling!"
- I set up a little glass nativity set on the entry way table. I had Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus grouped together and then a little ways away the 3 wisemen were arranged as if they were headed towards Jesus. I heard Will messing with it the other day, but didn't notice anything until I went to put something away under that table later that afternoon. Will hadn't moved any of the pieces, except to turn all of the wisemen around 180 degrees -- apparently they changed their minds and are headed back home.
- Will informed me yesterday that he wanted to watch The Incredibles...but then he told me "I like that movie. I just don't like the scary robots." This means that he makes me put the movie on for him and then makes me fast-forward through all except about 2 1/2 minutes of it.
- Will knows all of his letters now. He has recognized the letters for quite some time, but instead of saying "A" he would say "apple" because that is the picture with the A on his alphabet puzzle. So he would spell like this "Beach ball, Yacht, Umbrella" when he saw my BYU sweatshirt. Apparently something clicked this past week because now he says all the right names for the letters. I only mention this so that I'll be able to accurately tell all of our other children how much faster Will was at learning the alphabet than the rest of them. Poor non-first children.
- It snowed yesterday. Bryce attempted to help Will make a snowman, but Will preferred a "giant Cozy Cone"-- translation: a giant traffic cone like the Cozy Cone Motel on Cars. Some punk kid(s) knocked it down last night though. The camera batteries died before I got a picture.
- Will kept running off down the street yesterday and then he would throw himself on the ground and start stuffing snow in his mouth. I was trying to get him to go back home, but he kept saying "Noooo, I'm not done eating snow!" I tried to convince him to eat the snow in our yard...but I guess the snow is always tastier on the other side.
- I bought Will a cheap advent calendar, but he determined that it was a book and kept demanding that I open it. I kept trying to tell him that it was not a book so I couldn't open it. After about 5 minutes of this argument I told him, "Will, it is NOT a book. It is a special calendar called an advent calendar. Can you say advent calendar?" and Will looked at me and yelled "NO! It is NOT an advent calendar!"
- One night when my parents were here Will was being crazy and running around the house with his toy lawn mower. My mom and dad left for the night and we told Will that he needed to calm down and get ready for bed. He just got crazier and started pushing the lawnmower around again while yelling "I'm being obnoxious!" over and over.
- I wanted to take a quick shower on Friday and Will didn't need one so I locked him out of the bathroom. He spent the next 10 minutes crying and banging on the door yelling "Mommy, the door is stuck!" (Hmm..how did that happen?) When I got out of the shower I opened the door and found a totally naked Will with the remains of a dirty diaper smeared all over him. I went in search of the diaper and found it in the other bathroom halfway rolled up like the way I roll up diapers before throwing them away. I also discovered that during his screaming Will had apparently been rubbing his dirty rear end all over the bathroom door. This job does not pay well enough.
- My mom bought Will some Cars underwear which he was ecstatic about. He immediately stripped and pulled on a pair with Lightning McQueen on them. He was not pleased with the picture being on the back so he took them off and turned them around. He spent the next 1/2 hour showing them off and strutting around the house. I about died from laughing. I took some video which will embarrass him for many years to come. My baby's first pair of underwear...what a milestone.

Sawyer's latest:
- Urrr...he still enjoys blowing spit bubbles and if you squeeze his thigh he might let out his little "uhuuuuuh" laugh that is more like a grunt than a laugh.

Kids say the darnedest things

I don't really have much to report except that Will has said some amusing things lately. The other night I was sitting on the couch and Will was playing and he looked up and said "Mommy, are you a brownie lover?" I have no idea where he got that from.

I told Will that Grandpa Dickerson's birthday was coming up and asked him what we should get him. I said, "What should we get Grandpa for his birthday Will?" and Will looked at me and said "A present." (duh Mom) I said "What kind of present?" and Will thought for a second and said "A monkey and the Fox and the Hound movie." Alright then. I'm sure he will enjoy those.

I was talking to Bryce about something the other day and Will looked over and said "Mommy's freaking out."

Yesterday Will was pretty much a terror the entire day and after spending 2 hours trying to forcibly improve his mood by forcing him to take a nap I gave up and strapped him in his booster seat for a time-out. He spent the next 15 minutes yelling "Scrubbing power!" over and over.

Will informed me yesterday that his snack got taken away in nursery at church on Sunday because he "kept putting the animal crackers in the water" and the "teacher said no" and "took his snacks." I said "Did that make you sad?" and he said "No!" with a huge grin. Will loves nursery, but I'm sure he is a handful for the teachers.

On Saturday we went out to run some errands and Will fell asleep in the car on the way home at 6:30. He hadn't had a nap so he was exhausted and rather than wake him up I just took him up to his bed when we got home. Of course, he woke up at about 8:30 and wouldn't stop crying. I asked him if he wanted some warm milk because that is what he usually asks for at night when he is tired, but doesn't want to admit it. He started rolling on the floor and screaming "No warm milky" over and over. I went and got him some anyways and when he saw me coming he started screaming even louder. I picked him up and put him on the couch and was holding the milk and Will grabbed my arm and was directing the cup towards his mouth while still screaming "No warm milky!!" Why do little kids think falling asleep is the worst thing in the entire world? If someone brought me a warm drink and wrapped me in a blanket I would happily comply.

Will has added "babe" to his vocab...as in "Thanks babe!" or "Here you go babe!"

Every morning I ask Will what he dreamed about last night and every morning he says "Clouds" matter-of-factly.

Lately Will keeps sticking his fingers in his mouth. He has never sucked his thumb-not even when he was a baby, but when he is getting a new tooth or nervous he will stick like his whole hand in his mouth. I think maybe he is getting some molars because he has been doing it a ton lately. I asked him why he had his fingers in his mouth and he said "They're yummy!" Ok.

Will has figured out that there is nothing keeping him in his new twin bed at night. Luckily, he doesn't get out of bed in the middle of the night, but lately trying to get him to go to sleep is a challenge because the moment you leave the room he gets out of bed and sneaks down the stairs. The other night Bryce put him to bed and a few minutes later I hear some noises and look over and see little fingers wrapped around the wall at the bottom of the stairs. I didn't say anything and a minute later he poked his head around and started giggling. Bryce went and put him back in bed and then waited in the hall in the dark. Sure enough, a minute later Will opened the door and stepped out so Bryce jumped out and said "What are you doing?!" I think Will about had a heart attack- but then he started laughing. Bryce put him back in bed and then we repeated the whole cycle again, but this time I waited in the hallway and scared him. Of course, we were only making things worse because he thought it was hysterical. When Will got over the initial shock he would say "I scared Mommy!" He says that whenever I sneak up on him or surprise him or whatever - "I scared Mommy!"

Every morning Will wakes up and gets out of bed and comes into my room and says "Hi Mommy! I woke up! Wake-up Mommy!"...it is pretty cute...but usually pretty early too.

In Sawyer's world- he continues to be happy and sweet and calm. He is napping at the moment. I have heard him blow bubbles and make a raspberry noise several times in the past, but last Tuesday evening I was playing with him and he figured out that he could blow bubbles on demand and was clearly pleased with himself. He giggled at me on Nov. 2nd--the first time I've heard it. I've only heard it 3 more times since and each time it has just been a tiny "huh huh". He is very smiley, but not a big laugher yet.

None of this is very exciting, but I'm trying to write things down that I otherwise won't remember a month from now. It is even less exciting because I don't have any pictures to go with it thanks to the broken state of both of our laptops. This desktop doesn't have any way to add pictures from a memory card that I know of, so alas, no pics for now.

My mom and dad are flying in tomorrow. I asked Will "who is coming to visit you?" and he said "Grandpa Dickerson brings you monies!" Clearly he is looking forward to robbing Grandpa of his monies. Sawyer's 4 month appointment is tomorrow. How time flies.

Happy Halloween!

I can't believe Halloween is already over! I barely got my Halloween decorations put up and now I have to put them away. I think this was the first year that I neither went to nor had a Halloween party of any sorts. Usually there is always the Church party if nothing else, but this year I missed it because I went up to Idaho over the weekend. I did see the BYU-Idaho Symphony Orchestra's Halloween concert that Megan was in so I guess that counts for something.

This was the first year that Will has actually been old enough to catch on to the idea of trick-or-treating. Last year we took him to 2 houses, because once he had a piece of candy in each hand he was not about to let go even long enough to get more candy. I can't believe how much he has changed in 1 year--look up last year's Halloween post and compare for yourself! This year we made it down our street and the neighboring street. Will probably would have kept going, but it was getting kind of cold out so we stopped. At every house Will took about 5 minutes carefully selecting a piece of candy before he'd either make up his mind or, more frequently, Bryce would choose for him. The well-meaning candy givers would just hold the bucket out for Will to choose and that is just way more options than a 2 year-old can handle. He would stand there staring at everything saying "Hmmm" and then reach for something and then change his mind and then choose something and then put it back, etc. So we probably went to maybe a dozen or 15 houses, but it took well over an hour.

I must say I am rather proud of myself for making Will's cowboy chaps all by myself. I made a pattern out of paper and then cut them out and sewed them together and sewed on the binding. I asked Bryce "Aren't you proud of me, I actually thought of something, bought the materials, and then followed it through to completion?!" If you know me it is that end part there that is truly impressive. All I can say is Take That Howdy Doody! (long story...ok not really...my only other experience trying to make any article of clothing was when I attempted to make a pair of pants for a Howdy Doody mannequin...it ended...poorly)

I couldn't find Sawyer's costume. He was going to be a bat because that is what Will was for his first Halloween. Despite my all-day searching, however, I only succeeded in finding the bat wings - the suit they attach to and the hat are still missing. Poor Sawyer. The bunting I put him in had ears on it though so that kind of counts right?

Will was sitting in his booster seat today eating lunch and he grabbed his napkin unfolded it and tucked it into the collar of his shirt and continued eating. I guess he didn't want his applesauce getting on his basketball t-shirt. Yesterday I handed him something and he said "Thank you honey bunches!" Also yesterday Bryce was working on the computer and Will was sitting with him and he looked up at him and said "Daddy, you make me happy." He said that to Sawyer the other day too. I was taking them out of the car after a trip to the grocery store and Will said "Soy Boy you make me happy." Lately Will also says "Give me a hug!" and then holds his arms out wide. It is so cute. How can kids be so cute and drive you so crazy all at the same time? It is encouraging to think that my wild child might someday be a civilized human being after all.

Halloweeeeeeen

We are busy getting ready for Halloween. After two failed attempts due to the fact that it has rain/snowed for the last FOUR weekends, we finally made it to the pumpkin patch last night. It was supposed to close at 7 and we got there at about 6:30, but there were still plenty of people in line. It was cold. We waited to take the wagon ride to the patch and by the time we got there it was totally dark! It is slightly more challenging to pick out pumpkins in the dark. Especially while trying to keep track of small children. Will picked out his very own pumpkin- the biggest (and therefore, most expensive) one he could find of course. While waiting in line Bryce taught Will "how to climb the fence." I'm not sure who was more proud of this accomplishment, Will or Bryce!

We've been promising Will a trip to the pumpkin patch for some time and when I took Sawyer to the doctor on Friday (more on that later) the doctor was wearing scrubs with pumpkins and cats on them. Will pointed out the pumpkins and then somehow the idea that he got to go to the patch and pick a pumpkin became that he got to go to the patch and pick a kitten. He kept saying "Will gets to pick his own kitten at the patch!" I tried to intervene in that thought process and correct him which the doctor thought was pretty humorous. I kept saying "No, Will gets to pick a pumpkin! Any pumpkin he wants!" which only caused Will to insist even louder "Will gets to pick a kitten, any kitten!" Sorry Will, but you got a pumpkin.

Yes, I took Sawyer to the doctor on Friday because his cold turned into a cough that sounds like a 55 year-old chain smoker. As expected the official diagnosis was "Well, it's probably some kind of virus--just keep an eye on him." You know it is cold and flu season when my weekly routine involves at least 1 trip to the pediatrician's office. [We took Will in last week for severe croup. The poor kid completely lost his voice for 2 days! They gave him a prescription for some medicine...which Will gagged on and threw up an entire strawberry milkshake all over the back of our car, his car seat, and himself. I've cleaned for over 4 hours and the car still smells. Joy.]

On Saturday Mollie came over to help entertain the boys while we painted Will's "big boy cowboy room." It is a tan color officially known as Ralph Lauren county cork or, apparently, "Baltimore Orioles" as the can said. On Monday I was taking down all the painting tape and Will walked into the room and said "I like this beautiful color. It's from Lowe's." He now has a "big boy bed" too-- a regular twin size bed. He took a nap in it yesterday and slept in it last night. He didn't even get out of bed until 9 this morning! I guess that was enough for him though because when I put him down for a nap today he informed me that he wanted to sleep in his crib, so that is where he is now.

While I was trying to clean up the painting paraphernalia Will was busy emptying out the bathroom cabinet. I went to stop him and told him that he couldn't get into the cleaners and stuff because they were dangerous. I picked him up to haul him out and he kept leaning towards the cabinet with arms outstretched yelling "Scrubbing Power!!!" over and over. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

On Friday night Mollie watched the boys while Bryce and I went out for our anniversary dinner. Yes, our anniversary was in June, but Bryce's office gave us a gift certificate that we hadn't used yet. Mollie told us that while we were gone Will was playing with his magna-doodle. Mollie told Will to draw a picture of Sawyer so he drew some scribbles and then looked at his work and declared "He's so cute!" Will also tried to draw Aunt Mollie so Aunt Mollie prompted him by asking "What does Aunt Mollie look like?" Will thought for a second and responded "Aunt Megan!" Good answer. [They are twins for those who don't know.]

This entry started out by mentioning the snow. Yes, snow. Bryce and I stayed up watching Jumanji on Saturday night and when I got up to go to bed at about 1 I glanced out the window and saw that it was snowing like crazy! There was still snow on the ground in the morning. It is not even Halloween yet. What happened to fall? I think we totally skipped it this year.

Here is a newsworthy item: Sawyer slept through the night for the first time! Saturday, October 20th was the big night. I had him sleep in his car seat next to my bed because his cough is worse if he lays down flat. He fell asleep at 10 and I woke him up to eat at 6! Of course, I woke up about 8 million times wondering if he was still breathing. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a repeat performance yet. Well, I guess he did sleep from 8 p.m. until 3 a.m. the next day which is a good 7 hour stretch. It just didn't happen to coincide with when I wanted to be asleep.

I think Will may have finally fallen asleep. I put him down for a nap over an hour ago, but I heard him yelling randomly until about 10 minutes ago. Sawyer fell asleep too so I should take this opportunity to shower. Bonus pics of Sawyer in a smiley mood today.

Everyone's favorite...the dentist

It has been kind of a crazy week, but I wanted to make note of an important event- Will's first trip to the dentist! Okay, so I personally hate going to the dentist, but we are trying not to pass that along to Will...at least not until he figures it out for himself. So all week long we talked up how how special it was that Will got to go to the dentist and how he would get a new toothbrush and stuff. [Our appointment was actually the 9th so this is a little overdue.] I had an appointment too so Mollie came with us to keep an eye on Sawyer and to help with Will during my exam. The dentist had Will come back first and Will was pretty interested in the computer and all of the buttons that controlled the chair. He was having fun sitting in the chair until the hygienist tried to recline it and then he started getting nervous. I was surprised that he didn't just start crying and trying to run away, but instead he just sat there looking anxious. The hygienist tried to polish his teeth, but she was unsuccessful since Will clenched his jaw every time she got near him. The office has flat screen tv's mounted on the ceiling above the chairs so the dentist put on "Cars" for Will and gave him headphones for the sound. Will thought it was pretty amazing that he got to watch Cars on the ceiling. The hygienist gave up on the cleaning and the doctor tried to just do a quick exam, but every time he reached near Will's mouth Will would very politely reach up and push his hand away all without taking his eyes off the movie. I think he thought it was some fancy movie theater and couldn't figure out why they kept bothering him when he was trying to watch the movie. I eventually helped pry his mouth open enough that the dentist could quickly look around with his mirror. He gave Will the all clear and Will was very distressed when we tried to get him down from the chair to go back to the waiting room. He wanted to watch the rest of the movie. Luckily, the dentist also has a tv in the waiting room so he put "Cars" on in there and Will agreed to move. Will also got a new Winnie the Pooh toothbrush and a toy car so he thinks the dentist's office is a pretty great place to be. We'll see how long that lasts. I am wishing I had a picture of him lounging in the chair wearing his headphones watching the movie and politely declining the dentist's attempts to examine him. It was pretty funny.


We have been trying to ask Will what he wanted to be for Halloween, but he doesn't understand the concept of dress up or pretend or costumes so it doesn't get very far. The other day I was listing a bunch of options and Will got really excited when I said "cowboy." Which was predictable (see last post). So he is going to be a cowboy which is fine with me since it should be fairly easy. Ever since then, however, Will has been randomly saying "Will be temple for Halloween!" (see here http://www.lds.org/temples/geographical/0,11380,1899-1,00.html for more info on temples) I'm not sure where he got that idea...and regardless of the logistical difficulties of dressing a 2 year-old like a gigantic ornate building...I think it would be just a little too strange...even for Utah County. So he will be a cowboy. Sorry.

Yesterday I was in the car with Bryce, the boys, and Mollie and we were talking about how they took down the playscape at our old elementary school. We were reminiscing about how one of the most popular features at the playground was a bunch of large tires set in the ground so that only the top half sticks out. Everyday at recess it was a race to claim a tire. You'd run to the set of tires and stick your head under in hopes of finding one that was unoccupied, but more likely you'd look up and discover that this one was already taken by another kid who had wedged himself up inside the top of the tire. So you'd go to the next and the next until you either found an empty one and claimed it triumphantly or gave up and found something else to do. For some reason this was a really enjoyable and desirable way to spend recess--wedged in the top of an old tire. I commented "Kids are so weird!" and Will echoed me from the back seat saying "Kids are so cute!" I guess he took it upon himself to correct me.

A few days ago Will woke up saying "Mommy, I want a brownie for breakfast!" Unfortunately, we didn't have any. If we had any, we probably both would have had brownies for breakfast. I think he officially has my sweet tooth!

I love when both of the boys are asleep in the afternoons!

Will is getting excited for Christmas. I'm sure he has no recollection of last Christmas, but lately whenever he sees a man with a beard (such as the wizard on Sesame Street this afternoon) he says "Christmas! Christmas!" And of course Lowe's already has its Christmas decorations on display. We were there last weekend and Will was mesmerized by the lights and the giant inflatable yard displays. It is fun to think that this year he will actually be excited about Christmas. Especially since it will be only the 2nd time in my life that I haven't been home in Connecticut for Christmas. It was just too lame to stay here for Christmas when you just have one kid who is too small to be excited about anything. And I'm the only married child in my family so everyone else still goes home every year. This year Will will be old enough to get in on the action and I think my sister-in-law and her husband will be here from England so it will seem a little more Christmasey than if it were just us.

The other night Bryce was wrestling with Will and Will rolled over and hugged Bryce and said "I love you Daddy!" It was so cute. This morning when I got him out of bed he said "I love you Mommy!" It "almost" makes up for how much of a pill he was all of last week. :-)

A weekend in the tropics

We spent the weekend in the tropics...well, sort of, we spent the weekend in Tropic, Utah which is by the entrance to Bryce Canyon and the home of Bryce's paternal grandparents and an assortment of aunts, uncles, and cousins. We went down on Thursday night and attended the funeral for Jack Chynoweth (Bryce's aunt's father) on Friday. He wasn't a blood relative, but Bryce was kind of an adopted grandson. We'd been promising Will a ride on a horse and he finally got the chance on Sunday morning before we left to come back home to Provo. I asked Will what he was doing and he said "I'm a cowboy!" Isn't it every kid's dream to have grandparents where you get to sleep in a cabin and ride horses when you visit?

Will had a blast playing with Bryce's cousins' kids over the weekend. On Saturday Bryce went "up on the mountain" to help his grandpa and Will and Sawyer and I tagged along with Bryce's Aunt Randi and Uncle Bob and their family out to the Chynoweth cabin. Will had a little run-in with barbed wire fence when we first got there, but I think he learned his lesson. We brought a picnic lunch, but it turned out to be a little cold for picnic weather! It even snowed pretty heavily for a little while in the afternoon. Will played outside with his cousins for about 6 1/2 hours and didn't want to come inside when it was time to go. Clearly he got his Dad's genes when it comes to temperature control--those two never get cold! Mom hung out inside the cabin with Sawyer and had fun visiting with Bryce's aunt and cousins. Unfortunately Will already had a cold and that night it turned into croup...he sounds like a dog barking. That happens at least 75% of the time when he gets a cold. I can hear the poor kid coughing in his sleep upstairs right now.

Will got a hold of some "Cars" cars (Lightning McQueen etc.) at Aunt Randi's house and didn't put them down for the entire weekend. We tried to consistently remind him that they didn't belong to him and that he would have to give them back to "Grandma Randi" (as Will called her) before we went home. On Saturday night Will woke up twice crying and had to be reassured that the "Dinoco folks" were still under his pillow. I expected lots of crying and hysterical fit-throwing when it came time to leave the cars behind, but Will actually left quite passively after being told that he could ask Santa for some special cars for Christmas. About halfway home Will started asking for the "racecars" though and Bryce tried to distract him by talking to him about our trip. Bryce asked Will "What was your favorite toy at Grandma's house?" and Will said "marbles." (Bryce's grandma has a wooden marble track that Will really enjoyed.) Then Bryce asked "What was your favorite thing to play with at Aunt Randi's house?" I thought for sure Will would say "racecars"...but instead he thought for a second and said "cousins." That little boy loves to play with other kids but, unfortunately, doesn't have any cousins of his own yet!

Bryce's grandparents own some cabins that they rent out inside of Kodachrome Basin state park. Bryce's grandma also runs the Trailhead general store type thing inside the park. Bryce's grandparents are getting ready to move into the new house they are having built so we stayed in one of the cabins out at the park. It is nice to have our own little place to stay when we go down there. Bryce's grandparents are getting ready to retire from the cabin-renting business....so if you're interested in getting into the business let us know! :-)

On our way out to the Chynoweth cabin there were some calves on the side of the road and I told Will "look at the baby cows." Will looked at them and said "those are Sawyer's cows." I guess he thought I said "look at the baby's cows." Will also picked up some phrases from Grandma Ott over the weekend. When we left her house one evening Will announced "Going to the cabin bless your heart!"

Leaves, temperatures, Will, and other things that fall

Pictures as promised: When I originally posted this blog entry I said I would try to add some pictures so I am finally doing it. Both are of Will being silly (not a rare event). For two days Will insisted upon wearing my sweatshirt at all times- including to bed.

It appears from each member's respective blog entry that my family is enamored with fall. I suppose it is impossible to grow up in New England and not pine for pumpkins and crunchy leaves and brightly colored foliage at this time of year. Have you ever noticed that even before the actual daily temperatures start to plunge you can feel something different in the air marking the end of summer? It is the same way in the spring. The high temperature will be 50 degrees for 5 days in a row, but WHAM on one of those days all of the sudden you can just feel that the undercurrent in the air has changed from wintery cold to spring-time warmth (or from summer heat to autumn cool). All without the actual temperature changing at all. Why is that? Maybe it is the way the air smells as much as anything else. The fall always smells like wood smoke and the spring smells like things growing.

We took Will to a puppet show at the library last night. The group has supposedly been performing for 10 years...but I'm quite confident that if handed a puppet I could have ad-libbed a more entertaining show. It was..well...boring. And not just to parents. Will was bored after 30 seconds. I do appreciate the performers' willingness to come put on a show most likely for free on a Monday night after spending all day at what I imagine are probably boring run-of-the-mill jobs...but...well...it was boring. There was a group of mentally challenged adults there and we should have given them our seats because they were seated off to the side and we (thanks to arriving 40 minutes early and waiting in line) were front and center. They found the show HI-larious. Which just makes you wonder about what in our brains tells us what is funny and what isn't and why would something like Downs Syndrome have such a profound effect on that?

Yesterday Will was looking through the junk mail with me. First he saw an ad with a photograph of a house on it. He pointed at it and said "That's TLC." (I have a weakness for the design and home improvement shows on that channel). Then he saw an ad with a photograph of a woman on it. She was a realtor, but Will decided she was a doctor and kept pointing at her and saying "Doctor" followed by something longer over and over. Finally he said it clear enough for me to understand and here is what he was saying: "Ask your doctor if it is right for you!" Hmmm...I didn't think he really paid attention when I had the tv on in the afternoons...but apparently he picks up on more than I thought! Besides his "Cars" movie, Will really doesn't watch a ton of tv, but I will admit that I frequently have it on in the afternoon for something to listen to while I pick up all of the junk that Will spent the morning getting out.

Will has a new technique for trying to get out of trouble. Every time I reprimand him he gives me a huge grin and says "Smile! Smile Mommy!" over and over.

Will is currently playing under his Thomas the Tank Engine tent. He has it folded over into a little pup tent shape and is playing with cars. Whenever he wants something from a different part of the family room he crawls over to it bringing the tent with him. It looks like a giant Thomas colored hermit crab or something.

A few days ago it was kind of stormy out and at about 2 in the afternoon Will came over to me and put his arms around my neck and said "Kind of dark out Mommy." I said "Yep, it's kind of cloudy" and he responded "Night-night..time for a nap!" This was surprising since Will usually tries to get out of naps so I asked "Are you ready for a nap?" Will yelled "No! Mommy take a nap!" He was trying to put me down for a nap. I would have gladly taken one too, but I didn't think it was a good idea to leave Will in charge of Sawyer! :-)

I asked Will if he wanted to go for a walk yesterday morning and he said "No. Too many mosquitoes!" I blame the mosquitoes (which really are terrible) whenever I don't want him to go outside and now he is using it on me to.

Will calls the electric can-opener the "can-open-it" which seems accurate enough.

Here is a catalog of Will's current injuries:
- series of bruises on his lower back: He was trying to climb up the shelves in the closet to get something I didn't want him to have and fell off and landed on a metal popcorn tin that I keep toys in
- scratch across his stomach: unknown origin
- huge goose-egg on the side of his head: Will was running around one of the classrooms after church and stepped on the picture he had drawn in nursery that was on the floor. He fell and conked his head really hard. He started crying, but it was a weird noise that didn't really sound like him. Bryce picked him up and all of the sudden he stopped making noise and his eyes rolled back into his head. After about 5 seconds he started crying again. I ran into the hall and was lucky enough to immediately come across the nurse practitioner in our ward who told us to test his pupils with a flashlight, not let him fall asleep for a long time, and keep a good eye on him--he appears to be fine.
- bruise under his left eye: fell and hit the arm of the couch
- bruise on his right cheek: Sawyer was asleep in the swing this morning and Will couldn't handle the fact that he was sleeping and went over to try to wake him up. He was yelling "Wake up, wake up!" and grabbed the side of the swing knocking it over onto himself and throwing baby Sawyer face first on the floor.

Will also fell off a kitchen chair this morning and landed in Sawyer's car seat (after I told him that he needed to get down before he got hurt a million times), but I don't think that one left any marks.

I will have to find a picture to add to this, but Sawyer woke up so I will just post this sans photos for now.