Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

I graduated from law school today. Yippee! The camera apparently wouldn't take pictures indoors that weren't just all blurry so this is the best shot we got of the action itself. I think it is from when we walked in at the beginning of graduation. Will did pretty well, but after an hour was pretty restless so Uncle Kyle had to take him out. Afterwards we went out to eat and Will made a huge mess as usual. We got lucky and had beautiful weather and all in all everything was very nice. PS: Happy Birthday Cousin Melissa!!

Note to New Viewers

To anyone who clicked on my name on Michael's blog and ended up here allow me to explain the following.
- I made this blog to avoid having to retype identical e-mails to the many friends and family members who are more interested in my child than me. (I don't blame them- he is more entertaining) That is why it is about Will.
- I also made this blog because I have not scrapbooked/babybooked/or any other kind of booked a single page since Will was born--an unpardonable sin I know especially in Utah.
- I specifically try to avoid including much information about myself or family members other than Will because I think it is kind of creepy that someone creepy could be reading all about my life. Posting too much information online is just asking to be the basis for a "ripped from the headlines" episode of Law and Order. Dun dun. Plus I got in trouble when the internet first came to the Dickerson household for telling someone in a chatroom that I was an exchange student living in Paris-- Mom thought that was too much information. Please note: at no time have I ever been an exchange student nor lived in Paris.
- When Baby #2 comes something will indeed have to be done. Possibly we will just name him Will #2 and avoid the whole problem.
- If I were to give into the temptation of writing things not related to Will on this blog I can assure you they would consist of rantings about whoever has annoyed me lately. For instance: I ran into the grocery store to buy birthday candles the other day and was starving so I took a look in the deli counter while I was waiting to pay--which I thought would be faster than going to the registers at the front of the store. They had a bunch of bags which professed to be kids meals but all they had in them was a juice box, bag of chips, and cookies. Now this is exactly the kind of kids meals I would generally have preferred, but I thought to myself "Surely, they must come with a sandwich or something." But there were no sandwiches to be seen anywhere. So I wait in line behind an elderly couple who have both just ordered Kong Kones (which are soft serve icecream cones that contain about 1 gallon of ice cream each--all for the low price of $1.29--hurry down to the Macey's deli counter today!). So instead of making said ice cream cones the cashier girl just stares at the couple and the following conversation ensues:
-Cashier: Are you sure you both want Kong Kones?
- Man: Yes.
- Cashier: Cuz they're really big.
- Man: We know.
- Cashier: So you don't want to share or something?
- Man: No.
- Cashier to other deli worker: They both want Kong Kones.
- Man: What you don't know is there is a whole bus of people waiting outside and we're going to all just take licks off of it.
- Cashier (looking relieved): Oh, then that makes sense.
- Man: If you believe that then I've got a tv set to sell you.
- Cashier (looking contemplative): Hmm...I don't need a tv set right now.
- Man: laughs (clearly an "I can't believe how stupid this girl is" laugh)
- Cashier proceeds to make the two slowest Kong Kones in the history of the country. Meanwhile Erin is getting more than a little impatient. Finally man and woman both get their Kong Kones and leave. The following conversation ensues:
- Erin: Do these kids meals come with a sandwich or something?
- Cashier: Yeah.
- Erin: .........Well are the sandwiches somewhere or do you make them or what?
- Cashier: Oh yeah I'd have to make it.
- Erin: Well what are the options?
- Cashier: You can have peanut butter & jelly, or ham, or turkey, or roast beef.
- Erin: Ok, well then I'll get this and can I have a roast beef sandwich?
- Cashier: (after a 45 second pause in which she just stares at me) Actually, you can only get peanut butter and jelly. Sorry.
- Erin: (tosses kids meal back into deli cooler) Can I just pay for these candles then?
- Cashier: ......So did you want the kids meal?

Buying my birthday candles took like 25 minutes. Veteran readers may recall that I didn't resist writing about the housekeeping and security regulations at The Flamingo during our trip to Vegas last summer. But I try to keep these things to a minimum. If I ever ran for public office the entire Vegas casino industry and the Associated Food Stores network would be lobbying against me.

- Michael will be glad to know that Will's first words upon waking up today were "Church? Aunt Michael? Google."

Nearing the end

I am very pleased to say that I graduate from law school next Friday. I finished my Advanced Negotiation paper today and turned in my Substantial Writing paper last week so the only thing to finish is my take home Alternative Dispute Resolution final which I can hopefully get done by Saturday. I think Will is also pleased that I am almost done. When I am on my laptop he says "All done! Close!" and tries to close my laptop. As we speak he just got in trouble for trying to color on my laptop with a crayon--when I took it away he stuck out his tongue and said "Oh Brother!" --> a new expression he learned from Grandma. He has been kind of a pill all day. I think he has teeth coming in and he has been awfully whiny. He is also suffering from withdrawals since my Mom went down to southern Utah for a few days so he hasn't had a constant audience to dote on him.

Will is very into logos. He picks them out when we drive around town, on junkmail, when I'm online, and on commercials. So far he recognizes: Geico, Comcast, Pizza Hut, Walmart, Macys, Applebees, Best Buy, McDonalds, Arbys, Xbox, Einstein (as in Baby Einstein), Credit Card (which he says whenever he sees a Discover, Visa, Wells Fargo, or Utah Community Credit Union logo), Sprint, Google (which is always followed by "Aunt Michael"-- he doesn't say Uncle), BYU (which is always followed by "Aunt Mollie"), Hurley, Black Hat, Doba (where Daddy works), Borders, AT&T, and that is all I can think of for now. His main source of information is junk mail because he thinks it is very important that he be the one to get the mail everyday and then he studies the junk mail and makes me read it to him. All very important correspondence.

<-- Pic from sometime last summer/fall of Will and Daddy wearing their matching Black Hat t-shirts.

Will is also very into dancing. He has to dance whenever there is music on the radio, on a commercial, in a movie, whatever. He also dances to the sound of the washer and dryer and to our cell phone rings. His dancing is hilarious. He shakes his rear end and bops his head up and down. He especially loves to dance if he has an audience. This child will do anything for an audience. Like wear a bucket on his head. When Will sees a camera he says "Smile! Cheese!" and strikes a pose. Then after you take the picture he immediately runs over to check himself out on the display screen. Usually he then announces "Cute!" which sounds like "Coot!"

This picture is from when Aunt Megan was left in charge of doing Will's hair. Megan was here for a few days after BYU-Idaho finished their semester ridiculously early (before Easter) and before she flew home to Connecticut.

This picture is from when Will and I went home for Mollie and Megan's high school graduation about 1 month before Will's first birthday. He liked to smear his nose down the entire length of the glass door in the front of the house.

As far as Baby #2 goes: I had a check-up yesterday and set my c-section date for August 6th. However, if this one is anything like his older brother he will have other plans and will arrive whenever he pleases.