Impending doom

I am starting to really dread the Bar Exam which is in 18 days. Two days of 10 hour testing. Not enjoyable. Especially since just having to sit in a chair for that long sounds really dreadful even without the pleasure of taking a test at the same time. And oh yeah the baby is due in 31 days...if he decides to wait for his scheduled date. (The baby isn't a cause of impending doom...but the poor guy is kind of playing second fiddle to the bar exam at the moment.)

Bryce and I went to a bed and breakfast (which we won't name because we wouldn't recommend it) for a night to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. Will spent the day with Uncle Kyle and then came up at night to sleep with us. We didn't think we could impose a whole night on a free babysitter. He enjoyed the rock waterfall shower even though it wasn't quite what the website made it out to be! In the future we will go ahead and impose on some unsuspecting family member to keep him overnight, however, because in the morning he was a total pill leading us to get out of there as soon as possible. We still had 45 minutes of our expensive room left to enjoy when we left!

We took Will to an Orem Owlz game and he seemed to have a grand time although I'm not sure he ever even saw that there was a baseball game going on. He was way too busy looking at all the other kids and we ended up sitting next to some friends from church so he was occupied playing with them. There were some fireworks after the game, but he spent most of the time telling the people next to us "Fireworks! Fireworks!" instead of actually watching them. He kept talking about them for days afterwards though so I guess he was impressed. And he got a temporary tattoo which he was pretty excited about.

On the 4th we got up early to take Will to see the hot air balloons. He heard me mention them on the phone with Bryce the day before and ran over to the drawer in the kitchen, rummaged around, and pulled out a hot air balloon-shaped cookie cutter which I would not even have remembered that we owned. But apparently he did. He carried it around all day and had to take it with him the next morning. In the picture you can see him holding it up and saying "Balloons! Up High!" while he looks at the balloons. Silly kid. After looking at the balloons for a couple minutes we found a place to sit and watch the parade. We sat for an hour before it even started and then we were at the very beginning in the "staging area" so even after the parade started there were long pauses between everything. It got really hot and sitting on the curb was getting really uncomfortable so Mom and Dad would have left except that Will was having such a good time. He didn't fuss at all even though we made him stay strapped in his stroller the whole time. He got a balloon animal which lasted under 2 minutes before he dropped it and it popped on the grass. He also got an American flag which he enjoyed waving everytime there was music. We didn't take him to the parade last year so it was his first time and he got a kick out of it. Afterwards we went to IHOP for breakfast along with everyone else in the world and it took us almost 2 hours to get in and out. By that time Will was ready to go back to bed and when we got home he slept for 4 1/2 hours. Then we went to a neighbor's for dinner and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks from far enough away that we didn't have to deal with traffic. Will was really good all day...but made up for it the next day...and today.

Will has gone to sleep in his crib by himself for 4 days in a row. He has been getting pretty good about going along with our bedtime routine which is 1. use the potty 2. get a clean diaper on 3. put on pjs 4. take flouride drops 5. brush teeth 6. read Goodnight Elmo 7. Say prayers 8. Go to bed. Usually I rock him for a little bit until he gets restless and starts asking for his crib. So then I lay him down and in the past he has always required that I stand right next to the crib until he falls asleep. And considering that he usually won't stop talking it can take a long time. If I say "good night" and leave he freaks out and then it takes even longer. It was driving me crazy so I started saying "Will, Mommy needs to go potty and then I'll come right back." I tried it a few times and he didn't cry when I left the room as long as I returned at some point. But then, miracle of miracles, several nights ago I told him I had to go potty and I just went and laid on my bed because I was exhausted and never heard from Will again! So our new routine is that I lay him in his crib, say "Mommy has to go potty" and he says "Ok Mommy" and then I leave and he goes to sleep...with no crying! He is such a funny kid-- he is pretty agreeable as long as you find the appropriate explanation for everything. For example, he will drink out of sippy cups as long as you tell him that Daddy drinks out of a big cup. And he will drink water as long as you tell him it is just like snack time in nursery. But if you try to get him to do any of these things without the appropriate explanation you are in for a temper tantrum.

Lately Will has been announcing that things are "Delicious!!" At snack time in nursery last Sunday they gave him a pretzel and he took a bite and announced "Delicious!" At the bed and breakfast he wouldn't eat anything they gave us for breakfast, but we found some butter crackers by the tea and coffee and he thought they were "Delicious!" as well. Twizzlers are also "Delicious!"

Will's birthday is on the 17th. I can't believe he will be 2 already!