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.