Sigh

The picture is of Will running around in the Great Salt Lake at Antelope Island. He was having a grand time even though the place was swarming with sand flea things. Yuck.

The boys are both asleep at the moment which is wonderful and is becoming a rare event because Sawyer is starting to be awake more and more during the day. Unfortunately this leads to more and more run-ins between Will and Sawyer. When Sawyer was just sleeping all day he really didn't need much attention, which of course means more attention for Will. But now Sawyer wants attention more frequently and Will wants attention all the time leading to some friction. Yesterday I was sitting on the floor and Sawyer was laying in front of me kicking his legs and swinging his arms and just generally being a good baby. Will came over and looked at him for a second and then walked away and then ran back and kicked Sawyer in the head like he was trying to make a field goal. Sigh. Today I put Sawyer in his playpen so I could take a shower, naively thinking Will would watch Cars and leave him alone. Just as I got the shampoo in my hair I heard Sawyer screaming hysterically so I jumped out of the shower and ran into the bedroom only to see Will in the play pen jumping on Sawyer. Double sigh. Some days I think it will be seriously amazing if Sawyer grows up without permanent injury. I really don't know how to impress upon Will that he CANNOT hurt Sawyer. I've tried the time-outs (both in his highchair and his crib), giving Will extra attention, trying to convince Will that he is my special helper, and a whole lot of finger shaking and yelling, but I don't think I'm getting through to him. I gave him a good talking to after the kicking incident and tried to emphasize that Mommy and Daddy love Will AND Mommy and Daddy love Sawyer so that he wouldn't just feel like Mommy only loves Sawyer now and that is why he is always getting in trouble. Later that evening I heard Will talking to himself repeating "Mommy and Daddy love Will." It makes me sad to think that he is feeling insecure and displaced and jealous, but it also makes me really angry to see him kicking, poking, pinching, jumping on, and spitting on (yes spitting!) poor little Sawyer all while laughing hysterically like some little sadistic (yet still adorable) demon-child. Sigh.

Maybe there is hope afterall though...yesterday Will was once again getting right in Sawyer's face and shrieking and laughing and Sawyer looked at him and gave his first all-out smile. Of course, that first cute smile would be bestowed upon the one family member who has repeatedly attempted to accelerate his return trip out of this world.

So someday they'll be friends right?

Will is talking up a storm lately. He repeats everything he hears which makes you suddenly realize that a lot of what you say sounds terrible coming out of a 2 year-old's mouth. For instance I said that something was "stupid" (not even a person, just something!) and now everything is "stupid." Or I told Will his diaper was "nasty" and now everything that's not stupid is "nasty"--including most of what I give him to eat. Sometimes he says things that are pretty amusing. I put him in the shower with me on Monday and when we got out he went strutting out of the bathroom naked and said "Hm. Nice and Clean!" Later that day we went grocery shopping at Macey's and I let Will pick out a treat when we paid. He had eaten the whole thing by the time we got home and as I got him out of the car I said "Will, did you say thank you for your candy?" He looked at me and said "Thank you Wal-Mart!"...I said "Umm..no, that's not what I meant" and he thought for a second and then said "Thank you Macey's!" I asked him where he lived the other day (trying to get him to say Provo, Utah) and he looked over and said "Wal-Mart!" I said "Noooo" and asked again and this time he answered "Church!" So that pretty much sums up our life right now. Wal-Mart and Church.

America's Next Top Models

My brother Michael was in town for our family reunion so I had him take some pictures of the boys. Will was hamming it up, but Sawyer didn't appreciate being woken up and was a little more reluctant to have his picture taken. I told Will to smile for the camera and he leaned against the column and gave his best super model look. When I try to take his picture he always just tries to grab the camera so it was funny to see him posing. I will add more later, but at the moment I'm typing 1-handed while holding Sawyer so it is taking forever.

Just weighing in

Sawyer had his first doctor's appointment today--the big 2 week check-up. The check-up lasted approximately 5 minutes after sitting in the waiting room for 1 hour. Bah. Sawyer did not appreciate having his heel pricked for the PKU test. He also did not like being weighed, or measured, or anything really. He weighed in at 6 pounds 5 ounces (he was 5 lbs 9 oz when we left the hospital) and 19 3/4 inches long. That put him in the 2nd percentile for weight and the 12th for height. He is just a little guy! Of course he wasn't due for another week so I'm sure he'll start making up for it soon.

Will is starting to struggle a little bit with someone new being around. Yesterday he got in trouble for pinching Sawyer (luckily he just got diaper). While I was chastising him for pinching he leaned over and, very purposefully, spit in Sawyer's face. Sigh. Usually he thinks Sawyer is hilarious and just wants to put his face right next to Sawyer's and squeal and laugh. It is a different story, however, when he is wanting your attention. He has started saying "Grandma take it, Grandma take it" whenever I am holding Sawyer and he wants me to pay attention to him--meaning that he wants Grandma to take Sawyer so that he can have my undivided attention. He loves to give Sawyer kisses, but he gets frustrated when I tell him that he needs to be softer or that it is nice that he wants to share but Sawyer really doesn't want a matchbox car shoved in his hand repeatedly. I'm sure they will be good playmates when Sawyer gets bigger, but Will wants him to play NOW! Will has started waking up during the night again. He was doing really well at going to bed and not making a peep until 9-9:30 in the morning, but lately he keeps waking up around 4-5 and wanting to be in our bed. I think he knows that Sawyer sleeps in our room and thinks he is missing out on the party. Will has been taking nice and long afternoon naps though so it is great to have 2 1/2 - 3 hours of quiet in the afternoons when both the boys are sleeping.

In other news

Sawyer is now over 1 week old. Mom watched the boys so that Bryce and I could go grab some dinner to celebrate Sawyer's 1-week birthday on Thursday. It was nice to get out of the house for a little bit. We have been cooped up all week because it has been ghastly hot outside and Will has been sick. He woke up with a fever on Tuesday and was still not feeling very well when he left for the Ott family reunion with Bryce yesterday. Bryce reports that he seems to be feeling better though so I am hopeful that he will be a new boy when he gets home later today. Will spent the week whining and crying and wanting to be held and snuggled and just generally having melt downs over every little thing. I felt bad for the poor kid. I think he was already feeling kind of insecure since his mommy was paying so much attention to the new baby and it only made things worse when he just wanted to snuggle but mommy kept having to make him get down because of the "big owie" on her stomach. We also were worried about him getting Sawyer sick as he kept wanting to give "baby brother kisses" but we were trying to keep him as far away as possible. He was probably wondering why he wasn't allowed near his mommy or brother any more. This week was kind of stressful so I was very glad to have my mom here to try to distract Will and keep him happy. The fever lasted for about 2 1/2 days and we think he had a sore throat because we couldn't get him to eat anything--not even a milkshake. He found a Hershey's kiss and was excited to eat it but 2 seconds after he put it in his mouth he started screaming "Don't like it!" and putting his hands by his mouth. He also kept saying "Wipe it, Wipe it" and trying to rub his face on me. I think that was the best he could do at explaining that his throat hurt everytime he swallowed. I have my fingers crossed that he is much improved when he gets home this afternoon.


Sawyer, on the other hand, continues to be the world's most content baby. Sometimes he likes to work up an appetite with a good scream for a minute or 2, but even his worst is not that bad. Unlike Will who wanted to eat ALL the time, but refused to nurse, Sawyer nurses but has to be reminded to eat sometimes. He usually wants to eat about every 4 hours, but sometimes if he doesn't wake up we have to remind him that he needs to eat again. He is an awfully cute little guy. Bryce still thinks he looks just like Will, but I think he looks like an entirely different baby all together. But both my boys are awfully cute at any rate (sorry to brag). Sawyer's head full of dark hair hasn't fallen out yet so we shall see if it lasts. (I was born with a head of dark hair, but my mom says it all fell out and grew back in a different color.)

Bryce and Will are still gone at the family reunion in Tropic and my mom went to lunch with her mom so at the moment it is just me and Sawyer at home and it is very quiet. I haven't showered yet today so of course someone just came ringing the doorbell and pounding on the door. I'm not expecting anyone so I was fully prepared to ignore it, but they kept insistently pounding on the door so I got up to see who it was. I tried to peek through the blinds and all I could see was the mail truck parked on the street so I thought "hmm..maybe it is a package I guess I better open the door." Of course, when I opened the door...in my pajamas...with my hair looking lovely...it was a door-to-door salesman. Sawyer chose that moment to start screaming bloody murder (he usually never makes a peep so this was fortuitous), but the guy was just like "Someone sounds unhappy" and kept talking. Sawyer got louder and louder until finally I interrupted the guy and said "Sorry but my baby is totally screaming" to which he replied "You can go get him." I'm thinking "Umm..or you can go away now." So I said "Sorry but he probably wants to eat--thanks though" and went inside. I hate door-to-door salesmen and our neighborhood gets a TON of them in the summer. Unfortunately with the design of our house there is no way to peek and see who is at the front door except by looking out the big picture window in the living room which means the person at the door can see you trying to peek out.

I managed to pick up a cough while I was in the hospital and I keep startling Sawyer who is asleep on me. I hope it goes away soon because it is annoying. Also, coughing (or laughing or especially sneezing) after a c-section is really uncomfortable!

I rented "Cars" to give Will something to do while he wasn't feeling well and I think he has watched it about 8 million times already. Well, I should say that he has made me play it that many times -- he doesn't seem to pay it much attention when it is on, but then he will surprise me by saying lines he memorized and stuff like that. We are getting our $2.99's worth out of that rental for sure. Will woke up crying at 2 in the morning the other night and all he would say was "Racecars....racecars"--fortunately I got him back to sleep because I really didn't want to watch Cars at 2 in the morning!

Happy Birthday Will!

With all the commotion surrounding Sawyer's birth I haven't had a chance to write about Will's 2nd birthday. Will turned 2 on the 17th and celebrated all week long. The night before his birthday I put up some balloons and a happy birthday sign after he went to bed. Bryce also set up the pop-up Thomas the Tank Engine play tent I got for Will using my lexisnexis points. The tent was in the living room right at the bottom of the stairs. When Will woke up in the morning he was standing at the top of the stairs so I told him to come downstairs and see what was here. He started down the stairs and apparently thought I was talking about the pack of swim diapers that was sitting on the bottom step because he stopped to look at those for a while. Then he finished coming down the stairs and spotted Thomas. He got a big smile and said "Thomas!!" and ran over to check it out. I kept telling him "Happy Birthday Will!" but Will kept saying "Happy Birthday Thomas!"...I think he thought we were celebrating Thomas' birthday. He figured it out by the end of the day though.

That evening I ordered some pizza (or "cheapa" as Will calls it) and bought a little cake from Wal-Mart and took Will up to my grandma's house for a little birthday party. My cousin Liz and my brother Kyle came to join in the celebration. Will was a little overwhelmed by all the presents. After he opened the first one he had no interest in opening anything else...he just wanted to play with what he already had. It took about an hour to finally get everything open and I don't know what he liked most. My grandma gave him some toy trains which he was very excited about and his Uncle Kyle gave him a Mr. Potato Head which he is enjoying. He also got a little lawnmower that blows bubbles when you push it (he had been envying the neighbor's for months). He made out pretty well in the present department! His favorite part of the evening, however, was blowing out the candles on his cake. We sang "Happy Birthday" and he blew the candles out all by himself and then was asking "Again? Again?" so we relit the candles and did it over. He wanted to do it again, but we decided twice was enough for one night. That evening when we got home Will was playing with his new toys on the floor in the family room and singing "Happy Birthday to Will" over and over again.

We had already scheduled a birthday party with a few of the neighborhood kids for the Saturday afternoon following Will's birthday, so when Sawyer made his surprise appearance on Thursday morning Bryce decided to just go ahead with the party anyways. I was still in the hospital so I didn't get to see it, but Will got a Thomas the Tank Engine cake and had more pizza and swam in his little kiddy pool and got to open his Thomas themed presents (more things I got for free with my lexisnexis/Westlaw rewards points) from mom and dad. Bryce took care of all the festivities (including getting the house cleaned-up before and after the party) and even made goody bags for the kids. What a good dad.

What Will got for his birthday: (I thought this might be interesting to look back on in 20 years)
* This includes presents from mom and dad, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends.
1. 2 new church outfits
2. bubble-blowing lawnmower
3. Thomas the Tank Engine play tent
4. 3 Thomas the Tank Engine books (Happy Birthday Thomas, Stop Train Stop, Thomas Goes Fishing) --> these are the ones we had taken out of the library that Will was so in love with
5. baseball glove, ball, and tee
6. baseball pitching machine
7. Thomas' Sodor Celebration dvd and Thomas Songs of the Station dvd
8. semi-truck (actually this was a Christmas present but Will had lost interest in opening presents so we just saved it for his birthday)
9. monster truck (broke within 1 week)
10. Mr. Potato Head
11. Set of train cars
12. Train track and another set of cars
13. Floor puzzle
14. $1 (Will loves "monies")
15. Remote-controlled race car (we still need to get batteries for this)
16. Sunglasses/cell phone
17. Coloring book/crayons

It is hard to believe that a year ago Will wasn't quite walking yet and now he runs nonstop, talks up a storm, knows his numbers up to 11, his alphabet, his colors, his shapes, sings songs, and gets into lots of trouble! Happy Birthday Will!!

Baby Brother

This morning at 2:27am Will's little brother was born. Sawyer James weighed in at 5lbs. 15oz. and is 19.5 in. long. He was a bit early, but mom and baby are doing awesome. Here's a few pics. Check back later for more news.

P.S. For kicks, check out the archive and compare this to Will's newborn pics. They look the same to me, minus the hair color.

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!

If only he weren't so serious all the time...

Will does such random things during the day. He sure knows how to drive me crazy...but then every once in a while he does something so hilarious that it just cracks me up. His favorite form of contraband is Q-tips. Whenever I forget to shut the door he sneaks into my bathroom, finds the box of Q-tips, and takes off to hide. Of course, he hides in the same place every time-- behind the rocking chair in his room.

Will is getting to the point where he has to do everything himself- except for the small problem that he is too small to do most things for himself. All day long I hear "Will do it! Will do it!" He had to pick out his own clothes the other day and out of all the clean clothes I had just folded and put in his laundry basket he chose the wife-beater (I don't know what else to call it...sleeveless tee?) that says "I'm the star" and came free with a pack of onesies that he outgrew a long time ago. He spent about 1/2 an hour trying to put it on before I gave in and helped him and he wore it all day...with no pants. That is high-class right there.

Yesterday I took a quick shower and when I got out I could hear Will coming up the stairs. He walked into my room and I discovered that he had taken it upon himself to get dressed for the day. He managed to get a pair of shorts on...however they were on backward, both legs were through 1 leg hole, and they still had the price tag hanging down. He was obviously very pleased with himself which made it that much more amusing. I told him we were going to take a picture to show Daddy and he said "Smile. Cheese!" and gave this lovely pose.

This morning I put Will in his high chair and gave him some cereal and grapes for breakfast and left the room for a minute or two. When I walked back in Will had his head down and his arms folded and said "Father ... Father...AMEN!!" Apparently I walked in on him in the middle of a little prayer. He says "AMEN" very jubilantly...especially at the end of talks and prayers in Sacrament Meeting at church. He usually turns a few heads.

In other news, we have a yard!! Thanks to the miracle of sod our yard that started out as dirt this morning is now grass! Unfortunately we aren't sure if they didn't deliver enough or if we (well, I had nothing to do with it...but I'm sure I wouldn't have done it better either) just under-estimated how much we needed because we have about two-thirds of a backyard at the moment. A real life reason to pay attention in geometry class kids--it is kind of tricky to figure out the square footage of a yard with a lot of curves and diagonal edges! I took a before picture and tomorrow I'll take an after picture and eventually I'll post them.

Baby #2 is scheduled to arrive 8 weeks from yesterday. It is crazy to think we'll have two little boys around here in 8 weeks or less! And it is frightening to think that the Bar Exam is only about 6 weeks away!!

My birthday was on Friday and we had some friends and neighbors over for cake in the evening. All day long I tried to get Will to tell me "Happy Birthday Mommy!" because he likes to say Happy Birthday...but all he would say was "Happy Birthday Potty!" over and over....not sure what that says about me there. Oh well.

Will's Big Day Out

Will saw an ad in the paper the other day for the Big Day out with Thomas on the Heber Valley Railroad and suddenly he was the world's biggest Thomas fan. He has seen the show on tv a few times and he likes trains in general, but he suddenly decided that he LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine. Sooo we gave in and paid the exorbitant prices for Will to go ride Thomas. Actually we didn't have to pay for Will at all since he is still under 2, but Mom and Day had to pay $20 each for the pleasure of taking him. Even though Mom and Dad felt it was kind of a rip off I think that Will had about as much fun as an almost-2-year-old can have.

We prepared for the excitement by taking some Thomas books out of the library...which Mom is wishing she hadn't done because she has read them each about 50 times and is afraid Will is going to be traumatized when they have to go back to the library.

We spent the morning shopping at the outlets in Park City and Will got a bunch of new clothes thanks to the sales at the Children's Place Outlet. The new baby also benefitted from a few new things to enjoy in addition to Will's hand-me-downs.

Will fell asleep in the car when we drove down to Heber and we woke him up in time to see Thomas pulling back into the station. He was pretty excited when the train got closer and he realized that it was "Thomas!"...he says this in a high-pitched voice that gets even higher on the last syllable. The other activities proved to be on the lame side, but Will still had fun looking at a few animals, playing with a train set (when the bigger kids weren't pushing him out of the way), getting a balloon monkey, and getting temporary tattoos of Harold the Helicopter and Thomas on his arms. He had to sleep with his pajama sleeves rolled up last night so that he could see Thomas and the helicopter...which for some reason he calls "Chuck".

Finally it was time for the big Thomas ride. Will had a pretty serious look on his face the whole time. I think he was having a hard time taking everything in. Thus, the pictures aren't very smiley, but I think he really was having fun because every once in a while he'd laugh and let out a squeal.

After the train ride we drove home and went over to a neighbors for a barbeque and Will had fun playing with the other kids. By the time we got home it was late and I tried to get Will to sleep, but he was way too excited. He wouldn't stop talking about "Thomas--helicopter--monkey--train--conductor--ride." It is funny because he doesn't talk in sentences yet so he just lists off words related to whatever he is thinking about. Thomas combined with the fact that he was wearing new pajamas from the outlets with race cars on them and he had a lot to say! He kept talking for about 45 minutes before finally dozing off . . . only to wake up about an hour later with more to say. Then he woke up about 5 more times during the night talking about Thomas until about 4 a.m. when he woke up screaming for "Milk!!!!" Usually I don't give in to feeding at night, but it occurred to me that with all the excitement he really hadn't eaten much during the day so Dad finally went and got him some milk and then he fell back asleep until 11:30 in the morning. He woke up talking about Thomas and we had to read all of his Thomas books multiple times today and I let him skip his bath because he is so interested in his tattoos and shows them to everyone he sees. So I guess his Big Day Out was a success!

The other pictures are from Will's trip to southern Utah right after my graduation. It just so happened that Bryce's younger sister and her husband and some friends were visiting from London that same weekend so Bryce took Will down to visit family while I stayed up north and visited with my family before they had to go back home to Connecticut. The longest I have ever been away from Will before was 8 hours when I went to an all-day mediation training so 3 days was quite the trip! Will got to ride a pony. The band-aids are because of some nasty mosquito bites he got and kept scratching. In one of the pics Will is clearly hamming it up for someone else's picture.

Freedom!

All I can say is that if I had known how nice it would be to just have to worry about taking care of Will and not having to deal with school at the same time-- I would have stopped going to school a long time ago! Of course, I'm sure after a few months I will be wishing I had a reason to get out of the house on a regular basis, but for now it is summer and the livin' is easy.

Our camera battery is dead and I can't find the charger so I haven't gotten any new pics in a while. I discovered it was dead the other day when Will stole the box of Q-tips from my bathroom and ran off into his room and behind the rocking chair (his never-fail hiding place). I ignored him and after a minute he walked back into my bedroom with a Q-tip sticking out of each ear. He had to check himself out in the mirror for about 10 minutes. He is always up to something.

The last few weeks Will has developed an intense phobia of bugs--which he pronounces more like "boogs". I think the bug fear has led to his obsession with q-tips because he knows that q-tips are for ears and for some reason he thinks there are bugs in his ears. I think he had a cold which made his ears hurt and he determined it was caused by bugs because he kept pulling at his ears and saying "boogs, boogs" and trying to get the q-tips. The cold has mostly gone away, but he is still paranoid about bugs. The other day he walked into the family room and started screaming "Boogs!!" so I went to check on him and sure enough he was keeping track of a spider walking across the carpet. He was convinced that the brown specks on his Doritos were bugs too. (Heh- maybe he was right- we all just like to tell ourselves they are spices.) He saw a freckle on my arm the other day and was very concerned...he kept pointing at it and saying "Bug!" "Bite!".

It is funny to see him figuring out how the world works and seeing his little brain in action. He has also determined lately that certain things are "scary". For instance, in his Richard Scarry word book there is a drawing of a fox driving a truck and he loves to look at the book, but for some reason he always announces that the fox is "scary"--and I have to admit it has kind of a creepy fox grin on its face. We went to a barbeque for a friend's birthday on Sunday and Bryce and the birthday boy got in a water fight which also freaked Will out. He just started bawling and we couldn't figure out what was the matter until he calmed down enough to sob "Daddy. Scary!" I think he thought they were actually fighting and it worried him.

Not only is the world more scary these days, it is a lot more dangerous. This is my own fault because I tell him constantly that most of his favorite activities are dangerous. "No Will! Licking the end of that electrical cord and then trying to stick it in an outlet is DANGEROUS!" or "No Will! Opening the oven while mommy is baking something is DANGEROUS!" or "No Will! Running away from mommy and into the street is DANGEROUS!" or "No Will! Climbing on top of the stool and then trying to stand up and reach for something 3 feet away is DANGEROUS!"-- and those were all just from yesterday. Of course, knowing that something is dangerous doesn't actually prevent him from doing it. For example, everytime he tries to climb on our kitchen stools he says to himself the whole time "No, no, no, dangerous, hurt!" I did have a rather proud moment the other day, however, when he was playing in the driveway and his ball rolled into the street and instead of chasing it he started yelling "Street! Dangerous!!" and then ran over to me. Maybe he will survive toddlerhood after all. I think he invents 8 new possible ways of killing himself every day.

The other day I was in the bathroom and I could hear some muffled screaming so I went looking for Will and quickly discovered that he was in his closet with the door closed. I opened the door to rescue him, but he just stopped crying, looked at me for a second, stood up and said "Close this!" and then pulled the door closed again...and started screaming again. We repeated this strange game about 10 times in a row before I went and got the video camera which then proved much more interesting than his weird game. I guess he was just having fun pretending to be terrified, but he had real tears rolling down his face!

Speaking of bathrooms--Will has gone on his potty 6 times! Wowsers. He is so proud of himself everytime. He is motivated by toilet paper. I tell him he can only use toilet paper if he goes potty--so he does and then is so pleased when I give him a square of toilet paper. You're living the high life now kid! The potty usage is only about once a day, but it has gone smoothly so far except for an incident the other night that involved a huge mess of bodily fluids and waste products all over the bathroom. Eeeewwww. If only my law school peers could see me now. I filled out a survey on Westlaw today about my post-graduation plans...only problem was that there was no option that really applied. My choices were: I have a law-related job; I have a non-law related job; I don't have a job yet, but am looking for a law-related job; or I don't have a job yet, but am looking for a non-law-related job. I thought to myself "Hmm....where is the option for "I don't have a job, I'm not looking for a job, but I would like to know the best method for convincing my child that it is not funny to run away from the potty and then pee in mommy's shoe." (Part of what occurred during the above mentioned incident).

Since I don't have any pictures that actually relate to this post I will try to find something to put on here anyways just to add some visual interest. Pics: #1 Will wearing Easter bunny ears--he wasn't into posing for a picture. #2 Will's birth announcement. He used to be so small...and uncrazy!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

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

Note to New Viewers

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

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

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

Nearing the end

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's a ......

So we had our ultrasound today....and we are pleased to announce that we will be having.... (can you stand the suspense)....another little guy around our house. Yup, it's a boy. We should have known it would be a boy because we agree on a girl name, but not a boy name. So now we get to debate names for the next four months. We got to see his cute fingers and toes and made sure that everything looks healthy. He was a little shy when the ultrasound technician was trying to show us his profile. He kept turning away from the "camera" and putting his hands up over his face. We got a few pictures, however, which I will try to get on here eventually. We've asked Will a few times what he thinks we should name his little brother and the first time he said "Butt" (I think he was trying to say brother)...but now he keeps saying Bryce. I guess he wants him to be named after his dad.

Will learned a new trick this week...when asked "How old are you Will?" he will reply "One!" and hold up one finger. It is awfully cute. He also learned the word "Alright." I woke him up this morning and told him we had to get ready to go to the doctor and he said "Alllllright." He is a little chatterbox.

Time flies

<--This was Will's first picture taken by the hospital photographer lady. They come take a picture in your hospital room and then want to charge you like $50 for a single copy...so I just have this preview thumbnail version. He looks like a grumpy old man.

So not only is my first semester week off over like I mentioned in my last post...my second semester week off is also over! What has happened since my last post? Hmmm...Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day....

Halloween: Will went trick-or-treating as a monkey and was adorable. Last year I ran out of candy by about 6 o'clock and spent the rest of the night ignoring the kids knocking on the door. This year we bought about three times as much candy so we would be prepared and ended up seeing about 12 trick-or-treaters. Maybe it was because Halloween night was freezing this year! We stuck around until about 7:30 and then decided to take Will out to a few houses. We realized another reason why our street might not be getting much traffic when we went outside and saw that there were only 2 other houses with their lights on in our neighborhood. Will was more interested in people's front steps than in getting candy. We took him to about 5 houses total, but he was content once he had a piece of candy for each hand. He wasn't willing to let go of his candy long enough to put it in his bucket and get more so we decided five pieces of candy was plenty.

Thanksgiving: We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. In attendance were: Megan and her roommate who came down from BYU-I, Kyle and 2 of his roommates, Mollie, Becky (Bryce's older sister) and her boyfriend John who came down from Oregon, Bryce, Will, and I. Megan and Mollie brought pies and appetizer, Kyle brought rolls and fruit salad, Bryce made the turkey, and I (with M&M's help) made corn, peas, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, pumpkin pies, and I don't remember what all else. You can see pictures of the spread on Mollie's blog. Considering I've never hosted a Thanksgiving dinner before I thought it went well. I decided against getting out the china since we didn't have enough for everyone anyways, but we did use our fancy (which isn't that fancy) silverware. The silverware is, however, still stuck in its box waiting to be put back into the individual plastic bags on my kitchen counter. The day after Thanksgiving (or sometime that weekend) we drove up to Salt Lake to ride the free train (Bryce thought Will would like it). So ride the free train we did...it is only free for about a 5 block distance so we went 5 blocks one way and 5 blocks back and that was about it. The Christmas lights were on at Temple Square but there wasn't a lot of interest in the group so we didn't go see them. We also ate at The Pie...which is a pizza place across from the U that puts ridiculous amounts of toppings on their pizzas. Just what everyone needs right after Thanksgiving dinner.

Christmas: Pic. 1: This is as close as Will would get to the very frightening Santa at our church Christmas party--note Santa was a 14 year-old 90-lb boy...it actually was kind of frightening. We were planning on staying in UT for Christmas because plane tickets were so expensive, but after Michael and Mom offered us enough money to pay for all but $30 of our costs we decided to go back to CT. Plus Bryce got tired of me saying it was all I wanted for Christmas. I was more than excited because I had not been looking forward to Christmas in UT. Will is not old enough to care about Christmas and I could picture Bryce and I just sleeping in and then opening a few presents and then having Christmas be just a boring, lonely day around the house. We flew in on Christmas Eve and flew out on New Years Day so it was a quick trip. I do not do well on planes in the first place and Will does not do well with sitting still for longer than 1 1/2 seconds so the plane rides felt like eternity and I don't think I'll be eager to travel long distances with him again anytime soon. I spent my entire week in Connecticut laying on my parents' couch because I felt so sick---which leads to some news of general interest: We are expecting another baby at the beginning of August! It was nice to be home because Will had a grandma and 2 aunts to take care of him so I was free to do nothing. Will seemed to enjoy Christmas. He was nervous about the dog, but mostly got over it after the first few days. On Christmas Day we were all sitting in the family room opening presents and one of the twins took a bow and stuck it on Will's shirt. He thought this was a great idea and went around the room ripping bows off of all the presents and sticking them on his shirt and looking very pleased with himself. I'm not sure if someone got a picture, but it was awfully funny. Will figured out how to open presents and had a great time ripping the paper off of everything. Will also enjoyed having Grandma give him sugar cookies for breakfast or any other meal of the day. Will got to go bowling for the first time, but I didn't get to see it because I was home on the couch. I wasn't sure if I was going to survive the plane ride home, but thanks to the generosity of a Target pharmacy (long story) and some very powerful anti-nausea drugs I made it back to Utah in one piece.

Valentine's Day: Valentine's Day was not terribly exciting since I didn't get out of class until 6 and Bryce had to work and then go to Mutual (weekly activity for teens at church) at 7. I dropped off some Valentine's treats to Grandma Hurst, Mollie, and Kyle and made a Valentine's dinner, but Bryce and I postponed our celebration to the following weekend. At least that was the plan...I ended up having to work Friday night so we went out for a Valentine's lunch on Friday instead. Will got a Valentine from his friend Sophia which he figured out how to open by himself and enjoyed in the car on the way home from Soph's house.

Other happenings:
- I have 6 weeks of law school classes left! I am very ready to be done with school...and not looking forward to the Bar exam.
- Baby #2 is due 2 weeks after the Bar exam. We will see what happens. I sent in my application anyways so I will just plan on taking it and if the baby comes early we will deal with that then! We find out on Mar. 22 whether it is a boy or girl.
- Today I put Will in the shower with me and then ran him some bath water and let him play while I got dressed. Will loves to take baths and will ask for them saying "Baaaaaath? baaaaath?" Lately he likes to stretch out on his stomach with his arms and legs fully extended and then wiggle his butt around like a fish. He loves to splash like a madman so I usually vacate the bathroom while he is in the tub. I went downstairs to move some laundry from the washer to the dryer and heard footsteps upstairs. I figured Will had escaped from the tub, but a second later I heard splashing again. I went back upstairs and found Will sitting in the tub with my toothbrush! Apparently he got out of the tub, went and found my toothbrush, and then got back in the tub.
- The other day I sat down to eat lunch and Will took off upstairs. I was pretty sure all the doors were closed except for his room so I didn't care. Just to be sure I looked up the stairs and saw that the bathroom door and the door to my bedroom were closed so I figured he was just playing in his room. I finished eating and went up to find Will. He wasn't in his room and then I heard noise coming from behind the closed bathroom door. I opened the door and found Will standing in the middle of an entire unrolled roll of toilet paper and an empty box of 300 q-tips. Will saw me and dove behind the toilet to hide. I went downstairs to get the camera and when I came back up Will hid again (see picture). I guess he knew I wouldn't be too happy about the mess.
- Will's vocabulary these days: Milk, bath, banana, block, Caillou, tv, go, one, two, three, yellow, dvd, xbox, dance, Doba (where Bryce works), Joanna (my friend who watches him), Grandma, snack, trash, cup, bottle, cookie, Momma, Dadda, yes, no, truck, car, bus, horse, meow, snow, Bryce, credit card (the child is obsessed with them- he recognizes all the logos on our junk mail), mail, church, uh oh, whoa, please, Roomba (I got one for Christmas from Bryce), baby, basketball, football, ball, hello, byebye, Einstein (as in Baby Einstein), up, down, mess (one of his favorites), trash, Mollie, Donalds (as in McDonalds, he loves the play area), yuck, fish, keys, shoe, sock, duck, stuck. That is all I can think of at the moment. Of course if you try to get him to say any of these things he refuses to talk. The one word I would eliminate from his vocabulary is "x-box"...I get very tired of hearing "XXXXX----boooooxxxx" all day long while he pulls on my leg and tries to get me to turn it on.
- Will loves to dance...anytime music comes on the radio or on a commercial he stops what he is doing and does this little side to side dance.
- Will has learned how to throw an all-out temper tantrum. When he gets angry he screams, throws himself on the floor and rolls around or bangs his head, and then growls and tries to bite something. He doesn't bite people thankfully, usually it is the carpet or the couch or the handlebar of the grocery cart or something like that. If you ignore him and go in the other room he will stop crying, stand up and walk to wherever you are, and then throw himself on the floor and start over.
- Will is into kissing. And he charms his way out of trouble. When he knows he is in trouble he runs over with lips pursed and a big grin to give smooches. This is also how he gets out of time out. If he gets in trouble and I pick him up and sit him on the couch he usually last about 2 seconds and then starts kissing and I'll admit it works pretty much every time. It is hard to punish a kid who responds to reprimands and time outs with huge smiles and kisses. He thinks he is hilarious, especially when he's causing trouble.
- Will loves Church. Ever since he started going to nursery where he gets to color, do puzzles, sing songs, have a snack, and play with toys he thinks Church is the best place in the world. Almost every morning he gets up and says "Church? Church?". Last Sunday morning we told him it was finally the day for Church. I put him in his high chair for breakfast and he threw his food all over the kitchen. I took his tray away and made him sit in his chair in time out for throwing food. After about 30 seconds he started howling "Chuuuurrrrrccchhh? Churrrrrrccchhh?" I think he was afraid we wouldn't let him go because he was being punished. I guess I'd be pretty excited about Church too if I got to play with friends and have a snack! :-) We went for a walk the other week...meaning Will walked and I followed him and he headed straight for Church. Once he got to the parking lot he said "Go, go, go!" and ran across the whole lot to the doors. He was very disappointed to find the doors locked. The picture is of a different day when Will was purposely trying to gag himself by sticking his hand in his mouth. This is one of his favorite tricks. Once he was doing it repeatedly so I held his hands down and he looked at me defiantly and gagged anyways. He was very pleased with himself.
- The other night we could not get Will to go to sleep. It was about 11:30 and he was still going strong even though Bryce and I were in bed with the lights off. Will was between us and finally started to calm down. He was laying down with his eyes closed and I thought he had drifted off because he had been quiet for several minutes. Then we heard him whine "coooooooookie". Bryce and I both started laughing. Apparently that is what Will thinks about when falling asleep.

<-- Will sitting in a bucket reading a book....followed by Will sitting in a basket playing with toys.

- That is all I can think of for now. Hopefully it makes up for my lack of posts in the last 4 months! I am currently at school, but I will add the pictures to this post at some point.