Easter, Engagements, and Everything in Between

I thought life would slow down after the Bar Exam, but I think it has sped up instead! March 13 was Bryce's birthday. He celebrated by playing Church basketball (that is becoming a tradition) and then eating cream cheese pie and opening presents at home with us and Mollie and Kyle. I took Will to the store with me that morning to get some things for Bryce's birthday and he insisted upon the birthday hats. The following Saturday we went to Tucano's with a couple of friends and then to a movie. When we scheduled the birthday lunch we had forgotten that we had already arranged for Will to go to an Easter party at my Grandma's assisted living place, so Aunt Mollie played surrogate parent and took him for us. He got to go on an Easter egg hunt and was lucky enough to find one of the golden eggs that he traded in for a dollar. He also got a bunch of Easter erasers...which he misunderstood to be "racers" which led to him running up and down the hall with them in hand. That night Will fell asleep before I had changed him for bed so I changed his diaper and put on his pajamas without him ever even opening his eyes. When I pulled the covers up he rolled over and said "I found a golden egg..." so I guess it made an impression and he had a good time.

The day after Bryce's birthday was Pi Day so I hope you all had a slice of pie at 1:59. Having had pie for Bryce's birthday the night before I refrained. You can see the difference in the boys' complexions in the above picture. Poor Will got my paler than pale skin.

We didn't do anything to celebrate St. Patrick's Day even though it is the only holiday where people put up signs with my name on them. Will and Sawyer looked cute in their green clothes, but I forgot to take a picture of Will before he went to bed. We did go to the Bean Science Museum that night and Will's favorite part was the area where they had displays with buttons he could push. Do all kids love to push buttons? or "buttnits" as Will calls them?

Lately I wish I could just record everything Will says so I could sit and listen to him when I'm old. He talks nonstop in his little high pitched voice and it is funny to get a glimpse into his thought process. The other day he was eating some Ritz crackers in the shape of snowflakes and his running commentary was: "These are snowflake crackers from the store. I like them. They're pretty sweet!" Later that day he ran over and hugged me and said, "I like you! You're a good brother!" A few days later he came downstairs and saw an Easter package which I had assembled for my sister Megan sitting on the kitchen table. He spotted it and said "Oooooo! Oh look at this! This is a very special package!" Another day he told me "I like you! You're the best! And Daddy's the best! And I'm a wonderful guy! Everyone's the best!" He's such a positive kid (not sure where he gets that from!). Of course, sometimes his commentaries aren't so heartwarming - like the other day when he informed me: "I'm stanky, stanky, stanky! I'm covered in poop and pee! I'm disgusting!" or yesterday when I got out of the shower to Sawyer screaming hysterically and asked Will why Sawyer was crying and he responded "Because I kicked him and squeezed him and threw my fishy at him." At least he is honest...and thorough.

Today Will informed me that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up and then he said "Noooo...I want to be a chef. I love food!" I think my brainwashing is sinking in. :-)

Sawyer is getting closer to crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and kind of rocks back and forth, but then he invariably pushes his legs straight back behind him and then falls forward face-plant style and then pushes up on his arms again and repeats the process. He just drags his legs behind him like dead weight. It looks like a painful way to get somewhere, but he doesn't seem to mind.

The other night I put Will to bed but he kept crying and wanting me to go in and lay in his bed with him. After going in there about 5 times I could here him saying "Mommy? Mommy?" over and over, but since he wasn't crying I ignored him. After about 15 minutes he started screaming so I went up there again and when I opened the door I saw that he wasn't in bed. I turned towards the screaming and found him standing in the back corner of his closet, clutching a stuffed monkey, screaming hysterically. I tried to get him to come out, but he would just freak out more. Finally he stopped crying and would just lean forward and peer out of the closet and look around his room, but he wouldn't come out. He told me that he wanted me to sit down and talk to him, so I sat on the floor and was asking him what was the matter. He said that there was a giant in his wall. This is his latest thing. About 10 days ago he started saying there was a giant in his room. And then one night we put him to bed and a short while later the heat came on and he immediately started screaming and when I went up there he was pointing at the heating vent in the floor by his bed and telling me that there was a giant in the wall. I tried to reason with him by saying that "There are no giants except in cartoons" which he seemed to accept for a moment before this sudden look of terror came over his face and he said, "Giants are in cartoons...I HAVE CARTOONS!" So clearly that logic did not work on 2 year-olds. Will eventually came out of the closet after about an hour! Then 2 nights ago Will woke up and I let him come get in my bed because I was too exhausted to do anything else. A short while later Sawyer started screaming so I went and got him and, knowing that my bed couldn't hold all of us, I went and got in Will's empty bed with Sawyer. A little while after that I heard Will start crying and then I heard my bedroom door open and Will walked into his room and straight into his closet. I'm not sure why suddenly he makes a beeline for his closet when he is scared. Needless to say I ended up in Will's bed with both Will and Sawyer and Sawyer got one glimpse of Will and decided it was playtime and kept giggling at Will - which might have been cute if it hadn't been 4:30 in the morning. Will also still has the habit of stuffing his fingers in his mouth when he is scared. He never sucked on his thumb, but when he is scared or anxious he puts all of his fingers in his mouth.

For Easter we went to Church with the boys in their new Easter clothes (well, Sawyer just wore Will's old ones...that's what happens when you're #2!), but I forgot to take a single picture of them together in their Easter clothes. Bryce left Church early because Sawyer wouldn't stop fussing and Sawyer was asleep when Will and I got home so Sawyer missed all the festivities and pictures. I found him like this. We had Kyle, Mollie, and cousin Liz over for dinner and then had an Easter egg hunt and ate carrot cake. We tried to go visit my Grandma afterwards, but found her apartment deserted. I guess she had gone to my aunt and uncle's house for the evening.

I guess that pretty much brings us up to date...since the Bar Exam at the end of February I've had Enrichment Meeting (social activity for women at church), Bryce's birthday, Pi Day, St. Patrick's Day (ok, maybe those last 2 didn't really entail doing anything but still), and Easter (I also taught the Relief Society (women's class) lesson on Sunday). It feels like there has been something major every week. And next Tuesday is Mollie and Megan's birthday.

I also have a new job. Okay, not really. My little sister Megan is engaged! She is getting married at the end of the summer in Rexburg, ID which is how I acquired the title of "wedding planner"! It is much more fun to plan someone else's wedding than your own I've decided. Megan is probably tired of me e-mailing her with all the useful links, info, and pics I find online. I think so far Mollie and I have given Megan's wedding about 200 times more thinking time than she has (no offense Megan).

This is a picture of how Will wrote his name all by himself for the first time. Not too shabby. The next day he got out the Bunco game and scattered it all over the family room. When I was picking up I found a paper that he had written his last name on. He's a smart little bugger. I credit television.


Here's my little Paddington Bear when we got back from our walk today. I love that little rain slicker. I ordered it when I was pregnant with Will because it was just so darn cute. Of course, as Bryce said, "How often are you going to be leaving your 3-6 month old out in the rain?" I will admit it. I don't think Will wore it even once! (SSHHH don't remind Bryce of that fact or I will never live it down!) It is Sawyer's little spring jacket now though.

One more Will story. The other day he kept telling me "I will go on the potty and I will get money to send to the lady!" I had no idea what he was talking about so I asked him what lady he was going to send money to. He runs into my room where he had been watching Dora while I showered. He points at the television which was showing a commercial for Proactive with a picture of Jessica Simpson. He's points at the picture and says "That lady! I will get money and send it to that lady for my birthday!" Now where he came up with that idea I don't know. I found it rather disgusting. He's only 2 and already the typical guy who just wants to throw money at "hot" girls! Eck!

EEEEEEK!

We just discovered the presence of a mouse (let's hope it is just one) in our pantry. Gross!!! I am tempted to throw away every food item in there...and I still might...but that is a whole lot of food! Bryce was working on his laptop in the living room and told me to mute the t.v. I did and he was shining a flashlight behind the fridge and all around the kitchen. He pulled out our storage of plastic grocery bags from the pantry floor and we found that a mouse has been making itself at home there for some time now by the looks of things. Gross gross gross. We knew that our neighbors had mice which isn't all that surprising since our property borders a farm, but I was really hoping we would be spared because they changed the house design and so we have stairs leading into our kitchen from the garage instead of just a flat entrance...but I guess mice can climb stairs. Bryce is on his way to buy a mouse trap. Before he left he stuffed a towel in the crack under the pantry door and then just for good measure tipped a bar stool over and pushed it up against the towel. So the mouse is blockaded within the pantry unless it has some secret means of egress. I am trapped at home with the kids and the mouse. This means we have had mice at every home we've ever lived in in Provo. In our first married apartment, a.k.a. "the shack" we were dutifully kneeling by our bed to say prayers and a mouse ran across the room right by our feet. That was the last time we did that! We bleached the entire kitchen about 3 times due to our rodent visitors in that place. Then we had to catch a few in the trailer home we rented as well. And now even our nice, new house has been infiltrated. They might have lived here first, but we bought this property fair and square! Wouldn't they be much happier back on the farm? We are up late every night so I am surprised that we haven't seen any signs of this critter before now. Did I mention Gross!

My little chatterbox

I have a lot of catching up to do on here. We will see how much I can do before the baby starts screaming again. Sawyer (and Will and I) have had a cold for the last 5 days...I'm hoping that is the reason that Sawyer has turned into monster baby because otherwise I have no idea what happened to my calm, sweet baby. Sawyer hasn't napped in days, wakes up multiple times at night and just screams, and won't let me put him down at any point during the day. I think he just isn't feeling well and feels worse if I lay him down to sleep because he gets all stuffed up and can't breathe through his nose. Poor little guy. I hope he gets over it soon because I don't think he or I can take much longer! I finally got him to sleep about 15 minutes ago and since he has been up since 8 a.m. you would think he would conk out until tomorrow morning, but based on his record from the last few nights he will probably be awake and screaming again shortly.

As you can read and see on my friend Joanna's blog, www.joanddoug.blogspot.com, I took Will to Chuck E. Cheese's last Friday. For about 2 months before the Bar Exam I kept bribing Will by saying things like "If you let Mommy study I will take you to Chuck E. Cheese after the Bar Exam in [x] weeks." It got to the point where Will kept saying "In 3 weeks Mommy will take the Bar Exam and then I will go to Chuck E. Cheese's! Where it's cool to be a kid!" Then about 3 weeks before the Exam Will started talking about Sophie all the time. He would be upstairs and I would say "Will, what are you doing?" and he'd say "I'm playing with Sophie!" or he'd get up in the morning and say "Where's Sophie" and I'd say "At her house" and he'd say "No, she's hiding in my house. Let's find her!" and then he would go from room to room looking for her. After several days of this Will ran his toy lawn mower into Sawyer and made him cry. I said, "Will, did you hurt Sawyer?" and Will said "No, Sophie did!" Clearly, Sophie (who is in fact a real little girl) had been elevated to imaginary friend status. I told Will that he could take Sophie on his trip to Chuck E. Cheese...so that he could remember that he used to have real friends in the days before Mommy started studying for the Bar Exam. As Jo mentioned in her post, Sophie was not a huge fan of Chuck E. Cheese. I felt kind of bad because the poor girl was totally freaked out, which was not a possibility I had considered since Will thinks it is heaven on earth (despite the smell). Will really liked this little ride where he sat on a stationary bicycle and then the entire ride rotated in a circle. He rode that one about 40 times. After over 3 hours at Chuck E. Cheese I asked him if we wanted a drink of milk and he went and got in the stroller without any complaints. I stopped in at the Roberts next door and they had a wooden easel/chalkboard/dry-erase board for $15 that Will spotted and wanted and since it was a good deal I bought it. I haven't let him loose with dry-erase markers yet, but he has been drawing with chalk everyday since. He always makes me draw with what he informs me is my favorite color - yellow - and he always draws with his "favorite color" - orange. Will drew his first recognizable picture about a month ago...a smiley face. It is the only thing he draws...big lopsided ovals with 2 dots for eyes and a huge grin. Sometimes he adds circles for ears and once he scribbled above the smile and said "He has fuzz and he is a boy"--- apparently it was a mustache. Every time he draws one he makes the same comment - he draws it and then says "He is not sad!" It cracks me up to find these goofy smiley faces all over Will's magnadoodle and chalkboard and any piece of paper he got his hands on.

A few weeks ago when I was trying to study for the Bar, Will was sitting on the floor playing with his cars. He picked one of them up and gave it the following lecture: "What are you doing? I asked you not to do that, okay? Listen to me when I'm talking to you. I asked you not to do that. If you do that you will have a big time-out. Okay?" It went on like that for a while.

Will is starting to understand the concept of "favorite" so we like to ask him what his favorites are. According to him, his favorite food is "croutons" or sometimes "Caesar salad" (as if he's ever taken a bite). His favorite show is "Super Readers" (also interesting because lately he only wants to watch Dora). His favorite color is orange. His favorite music is "Linkin Park like Daddy" (way to kiss up to Dad). I asked him a couple days ago what his favorite thing he ever did in his whole life was and he said "Hmmmm hmmmmm hmmmmm...ummmm chicken salad." I'm not sure he understood that question.

Will was demanding Dr. Pepper the other day and I kept telling him that he couldn't have it because it wasn't good for him and it would give his teeth owies. Bryce, however, gave in and poured him a little of his soda. Will took a big gulp and glared at me and declared "Ah! My mouth is happy!"

I was sitting on the couch with Sawyer this morning when Will woke up and came downstairs. He came over to me and said "Mommy! I'm so glad to see you! Is your throat hurting?" and I said "Yeah, it's kind of scratchy." He replied, "Did you have something to eat?" and I said "No" and he said "Do you want some peach juice to make it feel better?" (He calls this flavored water stuff we buy at Wal-mart "peach juice") and I said "No thanks," but he went and got it out of the kitchen anyways and gave it to me saying "Here you go sweet stuff!"

The other day we went to dinner at Chili's with my mom and brother and sister before my mom went home. On the way there Will kept saying that we were going to the cold restaurant. It took us a while to figure out that we were going to the "cold restaurant" because we were going to "Chillys".

Will has added "Oh come on" to his vocabulary. For instance, this morning he wanted me to play blocks with him and I told him that I wouldn't play with him until he got his diaper changed. He turns around and says "Oh come on Mom! Just play with me! Don't be scared!"

A few weekends ago we were returning something to Target and Will saw some hotwheels cars that he has been obsessed with ever since. I told him that we weren't going to buy them because cars cost money and we don't have enough money to buy cars every time we go to the store (thinking it would be better to explain than to just say no). After Target we stopped at Sears to return something else and the kids and I were waiting in the car. Will asked where Bryce was and I said that he had to "give something back to Sears and get some money." Will immediately perked up and said "If Daddy gets money we can go get the Hotwheels!" I guess he has that all figured out. I told him that we still weren't getting Hotwheels which set off another twenty minutes of crying. So on pretty much a daily basis since then Will will bring me some of his toys and say things like "I don't want these. Let's take them back to Target. And then I will get Hotwheels" and he always uses this particular tone of voice that is like "I'm making a huge sacrifice here but I'll do this if I have to." The other morning he was driving me nuts because for about 2 hours all I heard was "I don't like my Valentine's toys. I don't like my Christmas toys. I will take them back to Target and get some Hotwheels." Finally I said "Ok Will, if you don't want your toys I will take them and give them to some other little boy because I'm sure there are lots of boys who would like to have such nice toys." Will said "Ok, we will give them to someone else. I don't want them" so I said "Ok, bring all the toys you don't want in the kitchen and I will give them away and you won't play with them anymore." Of course, I was thinking that if he saw me acting like I was actually going to take his toys away he would flip out and suddenly be overcome with a desire to play happily with his toys. Instead, Will went and got his new Disney cars that I spent $20 on for Valentine's because he had been wanting them for months and put them in the kitchen saying "I don't want these Valentine's cars. We will give them away." Then he went and got his car garage from Christmas, his race car, his Lightning McQueen car and his truck with the other Disney cars inside and put them in the kitchen as well saying "I don't like these Christmas toys." Then he hauled in his basketball hoop and added "I don't like my basketball." I found this kind of hilarious and kind of infuriating at the same time. I picked everything up and took it out in the garage and put it in the back of Bryce's truck thinking surely he would want it back after 30 seconds...but nope, I eventually took it back out of the truck the next day when Bryce had to go somewhere. I was telling Bryce about it when he got home from work and Bryce (always wanting to think the best of his son) asked Will, "Will, why did you want to give away your toys? Did you just want to share them with other kids?" and Will replied "No, I don't like them. I will give them away and then get some Hotwheels." Nice try kid.

The other day Will kept telling me that he wanted "'Baby Bach on." We don't have anything that fits that description so I said "What is Baby Bach? Is it a show" and he turned around and looked at me and said "No, it's a commercial honey!"

Apparently, Sawyer really enjoys watching our Baby Beethoven dvd lately...at least according to Will he does. About once a day Will tells me that "Sawyer wants to watch Baby Beethoven" and then makes me put it on. I'm pretty sure it isn't Sawyer who wants to watch it though.

Will has also added the phrase "or something" to his repertoire. So a normal request from him these days goes like this "Mom! You want to play baseball or something?" or "I want to have some fruit snacks or something." We went on a walk today and we saw a house for sale and he told me "Some people will move in there maybe or something"...I thought "Wow, you sound about as decisive as your mother!"

Yesterday it was about noon when I told Will that it was time to get dressed and got some clothes out for him. He looked at the clothes and said "Who's coming to see me?" I guess he's figured that we pretty much only bother to get dressed if someone is coming over!

Sawyer rolls around like crazy these days, but doesn't do much in the way of crawling. He has started to communicate by making these little "uh uh" noises. If he wants me to pick him up he looks at me and says "uh uh!" or if Will has something he wants he will stare at it and say "uh!"
That's about all he is up to these days...oh, and eating. He has suddenly decided to be a little chow hound. He goes through 6-8 jars of baby food a day and still nurses 4 times a day. He is a little sweetheart and already has such a different personality from Will. He seems to be a lot more sensitive about things in general. He will only sleep in his own bed. If Will gets too crazy and shrieks or yells too close to Sawyer he will burst out in tears. He doesn't laugh spontaneously very often, but he cracks up when Will talks silly to him. He tends to get a little hyper when he is tired and will kick his legs and pump his arms up and down crazily.

I will have to get the camera out and add some pictures to this the next time both my boys are asleep while I'm still awake....that could be a while! Update: there I added some pics that don't have anything to do with this post, but are at least fairly recent.

Will modeling a majority of the clothes I bought him for next fall at the same time.

What I've read

I'm moving this into a post so I can replace the information in the sidebar... Also, I meant to post something yesterday since I won't have another chance to date an entry February 29 for 4 more years...but I didn't get to it.

• 1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina: My Dad bought this from the author while in New Orleans recently. The author is a columnist for a paper down there and the book is a compilation of his articles in the aftermath of Katrina. I think it is hard to imagine the level of destruction that is STILL part of the status quo down there. The author talks about going to play basketball and walking by a dead guy out of the porch of a house for 3 weeks before someone took him away. Now, dear reader, sit and close your eyes and imagine your current neighborhood totally empty, think of the closest stores to you- they are all abandoned, think of the next closest stores/businesses to you - sorry, they are abandoned too, some of your neighbors have been dead and rotting for almost a month in their houses or on the sidewalks...sounds like some armageddon hollywood film right? Nope, New Orleans after Katrina.
• Watership Down: I read this many years ago and asked for it for Christmas. Santa delivered and I enjoyed it again. It is about rabbits...and interestingly, the author would like to make clear that it is NOT an allegory or parable of any kind. Just a good story about rabbits I guess.
• We Are All Welcome Here: The idea for a book about a woman who contracted polio and gave birth in an iron lung apparently came from an actual person...but the plot is entirely made up. I wish I had read something about the woman who actually did this and then lived another 30 something years inside an iron lung instead.
• My Soul to Keep: I didn't notice until after I got home that this had a dove sticker on the binding = the Provo library has tagged it as "Christian literature" = it reads like a proselytizing pamphlet that someone decided to add a plot to after the fact. Enough said.
• The Last Voice They Hear: A murder mystery story...although not very mysterious. Described as a psychological thriller so I kept expecting some big shocking plot twist or revelation, but, alas, there was none.
• Madeleine is Sleeping: This was extremely odd...like a very odd Japanimation type dream. Extremely bizarre. I won't even bother to describe the plot because you will think I'm kidding. On a side note, I do like the name Madeleine.

And Now Vee Vait!

Soooo the Bar Exam is over. It was pretty much miserable. I don't know why they have to go out of their way to confuse you and make you think that you don't know anything, but that seems to be the goal. The first day we had to register at 8 and got out at about 5:30. The second day we registered at 8 but got out at about 4:30. All together we had 13 hours of actual test time. I have no idea how I did. There were several things I didn't have a clue about, but neither did anyone else I talked to afterwards. We won't get the results for 8-10 weeks. How I hate you Bar Exam!

"We'll Praise Him By Day and By Night"

Gordon Bitner Hinckley
June 23, 1910 - January 27, 2008

So I know this blog is usually restricted to the antics of the two boys in the house...but I thought I'd add a note to say farewell to President Hinckley. If you want to know who he is you can read about him here: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/

I've never heard of a busier 97-year-old and I'm sure he is glad for a rest from the physical strain--but I suspect he will still be just as busy as ever! Twelve years ago or so I sang a duet at a church meeting that then Elder Hinckley presided at. He was in town on some church business and decided he wanted to have a meeting with the youth...even though it was Halloween night. I happened to be friends with the lady in charge of music for the meeting which is how her daughter and I ended up singing a duet--and I learned the song in the car on the way there. When we finished we went back to our seats which were behind President Hinckley and he leaned over and said "You girls sing well." So that is my one communication with President Hinckley. You never saw him when he wasn't smiling and to quote the hymn: "When dark clouds of trouble hang o'er us And threaten our peace to destroy, There is hope smiling brightly before us"...

Back into Oblivion

So after our holiday guests left I once again started studying (or started re-studying) for the Bar Exam. I have been averaging between 2 and 3 hours a day, but this is just warm-up mode before my mom gets here and I have to really start studying. I really think my JD ought to count for something on its own! I have concluded that it is not humanly possible to memorize everything in my BarBri study books so I am just hoping that I'll get lucky and the few things I actually know will be on the exam. The point is that there hasn't been, and won't be, much blog activity until after February 27th, but I wanted to add a few things before I forget.

Last Monday night Sawyer was playing on the floor babbling and started saying "mamamamamamama"--now I know this doesn't seem like much, but vocalizing a consonant sound is actually a developmental milestone. As Bryce said, it is fitting that Sawyer started with the "mama" sound because Will started with "dada". Another thing about Sawyer, God bless that child--when he gets fussy I wrap him in a blanket, put a pacifier in his mouth, and lay him in his play pen and he...goes...to...sleep! Usually I don't hear another peep, occasionally if he loses the pacifier he will let me know and I'll return it for him. In the wake of his older brother, this child is nothing short of a miracle.

Bryce had to work late last week and the worst night was Wednesday when he didn't get home until sometime around 2 in the morning. Of course Will decided that he was not going to go to bed that night. I put him in bed at about 9, but he wouldn't stay there. (On a side note it is rather infuriating that there is really no feasible way to MAKE him stay in bed except to physically hold him down which defeats the point of him being in bed so I can do other things.) I put him in bed, walked downstairs, and heard him jump out of bed and run across the room, open his door, and slam his door. I went to look for him and he was standing in the hall leaning against his closed door. I said "What's the matter, Will?" and he replied "I'm scared. There's something in there." Now, he said this perfectly calmly so I wasn't too worried about his anxiety levels. I said "No there isn't, see here is your bed, and your dresser and your rocking horse and there is nothing else in here." Then he said "Momma, you want to snuggle me just for a minute." (He is into telling people what they want to do lately.) I laid down with him for a minute and he just kept staring around the room. After a few seconds he pointed at the smoke detector on the ceiling which has a little green light and said "See. There is something up there!" I said "That is the smoke detector. The green light means you are safe." Will kept staring at it and saying "The green light means I'm safe." After a few minutes the light blinked red (it does this like every 5 minutes), but of course that set Will off again: "There IS something up there!" I thought he had finally calmed down so I left, but about 15 minutes later he was out of his room again. Sometime around 1 a.m. I didn't have the energy to take him back up so I told him he could snuggle with me on the couch for a minute hoping he would just fall asleep. He kept wanting to get up and play, however. I told him "Will here are your choices. You can either go up and get in your bed or you can snuggle with Mommy- which are you going to do?" and he said "I'm going to snuggle Mommy and pick my boogers." Which he did. Gross.

Speaking of gross, yesterday before church Will kept insisting that he had to get in the shower with me. He took off all his clothes and his diaper and climbed in. After a few minutes he was kind of crouching on the shower floor and I thought he was just looking at the bubbles, but all of the sudden he stood up and yelled, "Back away from the pee-pees!" I look down and sure enough he has peed in the shower, but then he takes a step away and I see that he has, in fact, done much worse than pee. Disgusting.

Last Sunday I was talking to my mom via the webcams my brother gave us for Christmas. Will apparently wanted to look at something else on the computer and kept coming over and saying "Let's turn off Grandma- okay?"

Will somehow picked up a new trick where he gives a thumbs up, a big cheesy grin, and says "It's easy!" Probably from a commercial, but I don't know when or where he saw it. The first time I saw him do it he had to use his other hand in order to shape his fingers into a thumbs up.

I was taking down the last of the Christmas garlands from the tops of the kitchen cabinets last week and Will kept yelling at me "Get down. Now!" Hmm, I wonder if he has ever heard that before.

Will keeps grabbing at my hands as I type and yelling "No...no! This is Daddy's computer. It is for working. You go make dinner." (It is not even noon.)

The other night I put Will to bed and he was totally asleep when I left his room. I walked out into the hall and into the bathroom ( = about 4 seconds) and then I hear Will running across his room. He comes out his door looking panicked and holding a stuffed lamb, his stuffed giraffe, a baby rattle, and a washcloth. I don't know what woke him up, but he must have been startled because he bolted out of there and apparently grabbed everything between him and his door on the way!

On Friday Will got into the pantry and found a cookie mix and said "I want to bake these!" I didn't think I could turn him down because he was so excited so I put the ingredients in a bowl and he did all of the mixing and then scooped it into a dish. He kept saying "Mmmmm...these are gonna be great!" and "I'm a chef!" Here is a picture of him stirring and one of him enjoying his handiwork (chocolate peanut butter bars).

We took Will sledding for the first time. By the time we got our act together and found a store that still had a sled available for purchase it was pretty much dark. Unfortunately, Will got snow in his face on one of his first runs and was reluctant to go again. Then we switched spots on the hill and avoided the trees and after that he had a great time.
Sawyer tried green beans for the first time last night. He didn't seem to enjoy them much, but he was a good sport. He just kept looking at me like "Why are you giving me this awful stuff Mom?" but he didn't start screaming or anything. Will was watching and decided that he wanted to try. He took a spoonful and his face immediately sank into this perfect "Mom, I thought you liked me?" disappointed-you-tricked-me kind of face. Then he kept gagging until Mollie got him a drink. I wish I had his reaction on camera because it was much more entertaining than Sawyer's.

Sounds like Sawyer is up from his nap. He has his 6 month check-up tomorrow.

Baby (and Parent) Milestones

Here is one more picture from Christmas. Aunt Michelle and Uncle Anthony brought Will this neat plate that you can write on with a wipe-off marker and leave out for Santa. Bryce helped Will fill it out. Of course all Will wanted for Christmas was "cars" and he definitely did not want elephant poop...please see a previous post for how that conversation came up. Bryce kept teasing him by saying he was going to get some elephantine manure for Christmas so it ended up being written on the plate as well.
In other news: Sawyer had his first taste of solid food on Wednesday, January 2nd. I gave him some single grain oatmeal mixed with a little warm water. The pictures of that event came out blurry so this was actually taken during Meal #2 the following day. As expected, every spoonful came back out as quickly as it went in, but he was quite interested in it. Both times he threw up the entire amount that he had managed to take in immediately after I took him out of the high chair.

We had another first a few weeks ago. A very important milestone in any parent's life---our first call to poison control. It was Friday, December 21st (I think) when Will came down the stairs with an open bottle of rolaids and proclaimed "MMM- I like these!" I said, "Did you eat some of those?" and he said "Yes! I did eat some of these!" I said, "How many?" and he said his usual answer to any 'how many' question: "One...Two...Three...Four...FIVE!" I looked at the package and it didn't say anything about what to do if recommended dosage is exceeded or anything like that, but it did say "Keep away from children" so I figured I better call the doctor. So I called the doctor's office and asked to speak to a nurse...who turned out to be the girl who lives down the street from us and knew it was me from caller ID. She said I needed to call Poison Control and gave me the number. I called the very helpful gentleman at Poison Control and he told me "It is no big deal...at worst he might have a bit of an upset stomach." From eating Rolaids...how ironic.

To be filed under Erin's black list (it appears each of my family member's has one): Ikea. Although I can't write them off completely. Because I still want their stuff. But I'd like to! What a dilemma. Let's just say that even after speaking with a manager and spending 1/2 hour debating the question we still did not succeed in getting a knob for my new bookshelf. Even though Ikea failed to include the knob in the package in the first place, they WILL NOT give you a knob without a receipt...which obviously shows nothing other than that you at one time did buy a bookcase. Clearly they must prevent all those would-be scammers who would lie about having purchased a bookcase, load two unwilling children in a car, drive a half hour, spend another $120 on more merchandise that may or may not have all the parts in the box, spend another half hour waiting in the customer service line, another half hour dealing with a useless customer service representative and waiting to speak to a manager, and then make up a story about not having received a knob for the bookshelf that they didn't purchase in the first place--all in an attempt to scam Ikea out of a pathetic 10 cent wooden knob. Never fear oh weary consumer! Ikea will not allow such deception! They will keep their knobs close to their hearts at all costs.

Following the afore-mentioned Ikea incident we stopped at Lowe's to buy some paint. Sawyer was hungry and fussing in his car seat and some helpful lady came over and told us "In my country--Sweden--they say not to leave babies in those seats for longer than 2 hours because they will get a back ache. That is why he is crying. It amazes me that America is so big and beautiful, but they know nothing about childcare! I just thought it might help." And then she walked away.

As Bryce said "I'm done with Sweden."

We drove down to southern Utah to visit Bryce's grandparents last weekend. On the way down Will was screaming because he wanted some licorice. I offered him some licorice, but that was not sufficient because he wanted the entire bag. He was throwing a major temper tantrum and I was trying to appease him by saying "Look Will! You can have 5 whole pieces of licorice!" and he just kept screaming and I kept offering the licorice until Will yelled "NO....THANKS!" and instantly stopped his tantrum. It was pretty funny. I wonder where that came from.

This morning Will walked over to me and said "Hi Stupid!" Well hello yourself.

A few weeks ago I was sweeping the kitchen floor and had accumulated a pile of dirt and the majority of a box of Nerds that Will had dumped on the floor. As I was trying to sweep it into the dustpan Will came over and was trying to pick out the candy and eat it. I said "Will, that's disgusting...this is garbage." Will looked up at me and yelled "No, this is not garbage! This is what we eat!"

Will woke up crying the night before last and when I went to see what his problem was I discovered that he was totally soaked from a wet diaper. I was in the middle of changing his diaper and getting him in new pajamas and Will was about half awake and started saying "Mommy, I'm so proud of you!" over and over. I'm pretty good at changing diapers if I do say so myself.

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.