A Great Read!

This post has nothing to do with Will except for the fact that his mother is a cry baby when it comes to emotional, mother/daughter books. So Will in the future if you see me reading and crying, just walk away.

The book is The Friday Night Knitters Club by Kate Jacobs. If you want a great book to snuggle and most likely cry to, this is for you.

My mom taught me how to knit when I was a teenager, but I never really kept up with it. I wish she and I had had more time to have this experience together before she passed away. So now I think I am going to take up knitting. No, Will you will not have to knit with me, but maybe I can pass some tradition down if not to my nieces but to a future daughter.

Michael's here I come!

My Trendsetter...

Will is starting the 2010 trends early. He feels that headbands are going to make great belts...

Then they will be worn like Jane Fonda...and

Rosy cheeks, messy hair and long eye lashes are all the rage in 2010!

Christmas, Christmas Party, Ear Infections, and a Haircut

I hope all of our bloggy friends had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was less eventful do to the fact that we were all a bunch of sickos. But we made the best of it. Opening presents, well me opening presents. Then off to my sister's house for brunch and a day of chilling out there. Sorry no pics there as we were all out of sorts.

I had mothers intuition and decided to take Will to the Peds. on Saturday since he was still coughing and sneezing and he ended up having an ear infection. He is such a strong little guy because he really had no fever and no tugging at the ears to let me know. Then when we went to the grocery store to drop off his prescription he had a huge yawn and I saw one 2 year molar coming in. I have such a strong boy on my hands!

Before all this and while he was sick, Daddy wanted him to get a haircut. I was seriously going to just let it grow out because Will hates to get his haircut. But I gave in and let's just say it was not pretty. Once he is feeling better I will have to take some scissors to a couple stray pieces that were missed.

Okay...enough rambling. Here are some pictures....

Will would rather watch Daddy's Dark Knight than continue to open up presents

Tag Junior, What I always wanted! Mommy where is my ball?

I just love this pic! Not sure what he was doing.

He LOVED LOVED his new plasma car! He opened most of his gifts sitting on it.

He jumped on the plasma car as soon as he came downstairs. Notice the nice sleepy look.

More of Daddy's work party where Will was dancing to Lady Gaga's Poker Face

Cheering on Lady Gaga

More Dancing...

I am pooped...Take me home. Chocolate Face and all.

Will's list from Santa...a Three Wheel Scooter, Plasma Car, Lego Duplo Dump Truck, A Thomas the train, Books, and Tag Junior. Now what to get him in 23 days for the Big 2?

A Letter To My Sick Blue Eyed Boy...

My Sweet Willsey Bubsy,

I am so sorry that I have now gotten you horribly sick! Your pale cheeks are now rosy at times and your beautiful blue eyes pop out even more. I don't know why that is but one day I know you will melt a girl's heart with those eyes. Your funny vampire teeth smile fades at times with a blank look of pure sickness. I am sorry.

But you have not lost your sense of humor. When you sneeze, sometimes three times in a row, you say, "Choo" after you are done with each one.

Today we ran out to get a last minute gift and seeing as the plowers only came down our street twice we are left with a bumpy mess. Each time we hit a bump, you say, "WOOOO!" It is so funny. Then I look back at you with snot coming out of your nose and just smile. You and tissues are not friends. Heck I do not blame you. Then when we just stuck at the entrance to our neighborhood and our wheels were spinning you started to laugh hysterically. So my sweet Willsey, you are still there even with the yucky cold in you.

When you woke up from your nap today, you let me snuggle with you. You rested your warm head on my shoulder and watched Little Bear. Your long eye lashes were matted together from a few tears cried out for Mommy.

I loved snuggling with you today, my sick blue eyed boy.

Love Always More Than Air...Mommy

Sick and Snow

Here are few pics from our big winter storm. Will liked to look out the window and watch it fall but he loved to play in it even more.

There was so much snow I had to carry him everywhere!

Next time we will be ready with a proper snow suit and boots.

Sorry this is not much of a post but I am still sick and I think Will might be coming down with something as well. Great! Just in time for Santa.

I'm Sick...Will's Dancing...

I just wanted to leave a quick post. I am sick. Which sucks. Glad it is this week and not next week. I am just hoping that my little bubsy doesn't get sick for Santa.

Here is an extremely cute video of him dancing to his favorite new YouTube star. It's a 2 year old girl singing Taylor Swift, she is so adorable... Will can watch this video over and over. It is so funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mw7L1jJv-M

Player Hater...

Yes. I know. Bad title. But it got your attention right?

Today Will and I ventured to the mall to do some holiday shopping and to kill some time before I had to go and train.

Thanks to my sister Will has officially become addicted to the play area that they have there. Normally I am totally against those places. All germy and snotty. I just do not want a sick kid. Well, today as we were strolling by Will saw it and about jumped out of the stroller. Of course I gave in only because this play area seems to be pretty clean with Lysol sanitizer in ever corner.

Getting to the Player Hater. Will was running around, going down the big boy slide and playing VERY nicely with the other children. When all of sudden this MEAN had to be 3 or 4 year old boy came out and started bossing kids around! Will was trying to go into the tunnel (which he loves) then the Player Hater tells my Will, "NO! This is MY house, NOT YOURS!" Will of course not really understanding what the Player Hater is saying just decided he would go the other way.

Meanwhile his mother, who is completely oblivious in her 4 inch heels and blazer (who goes shopping in that?) is texting on her cell phone. Not even watching her other child who is probably 18 months old.

Then Will decides he is going to go down the little slide and that boy is there again. He is sitting there not letting any kids go down and he says, "NO! This is MY BRIDGE, NOT YOURS!" Me not wanting to start any kind of conflict with a 4 year old Player HATER tells Will to go back to the big boy slide. So he runs around a bit and then comes back to that slide where the boy is and the kid is screaming at him! Since his absent minded 4 inch heel, blazer wearing mother is useless, I go over there so my child can go down the damn slide! I kindly tell the little Player Hater, "Can you please go down and take turns?" "NOOOOOOOOOO!" At this point I can see other parents eyes on me thinking, where is this kid's mother? By this time I really felt like going in front of that lady and snapping my fingers in her face and say get with it! This area is not your FREAKIN' babysitter! Now mind your FREAKIN' kids! But I didn't.

Will and I decided that it is best that we leave, which he was not too happy about but, I had had enough. The lady did not even discipline her child for being rude to other kids and an adult. Then she was praising him and said let's go get a cookie. Is she serious?

I was so disgusted by that play area today and it was not because of the germs. Watch out 4 inch heel, tacky blazer wearin' mom. You too Player Hater!

My Little Frosting Decorator...Oops, I Mean Eater...

Since it is ANOTHER STINKIN' rainy day outside, Will and I decided we would decorate some cookies, or I would. My little Bubsy is definitely a cookie monster when he has them for a special treat. So I thought that he would totally dig helping me decorate. Yeah right!

But he is like any typical boy/man. All he wants to do is eat them and not help. When I tried to show him how to put the frosting on his cookie he said "Num. Num." or Yummy as we would say. It was hilarious to see how big his eyes got when I stuck the frosting in front of him. He put his plastic knife (super safe/toddler friendly) in the frosting and started eating it by itself.

Will's version of decorating. Mom let's get this over with so I can get back to eating my frosting. Then I want to go and play with my cars.

He ended up pouring the whole bottle of red sprinkles everywhere. I guess that is what I get for trying to push frosting cookies on a 23 month old toddler BOY. Maybe next year he will be into it.

Paper Bag Scrapbooking? Oh, Yes!

My sister recently convinced me to start scrap booking again. That is when she bought me a paper bag scrapbook for Bubsy and said, "You can do this, you are crafty!"

She goes to a lot of craft fairs and happen to stop by a booth where a lady had made pre-made scrapbooks out of paper bags. She happen to get one that was all boy. It had the blue paper, stickers and such. REALLY CUTE!

This past weekend my sister brought over at least 100 paper bags from her mother in law and said start crafting! She said you can crank out one a day if you stick to a theme. Well, I am sure that I could but I decided that I would work on a scrapbook for a very special girl. My niece Lilly.

So here are some pictures of my latest project. If you or anyone you know would like a homemade crafty paper bag scrapbook please let me know! I would love to help capture some of your memories.

How do you get rid of the binky?

We still have yet to get the pictures and video from Lew's holiday party so I will have to post on that when we get them.

But today I want to talk about the binky. Or as Will likes to call it his "B".

My niece had hers until she was almost 3! I do not want to see Will walking around sucking on a binky at that age for sure! The bottle was easy to get rid of because he liked his sippy cup so much and ditched the bottle at 7 months. I thought then, I will have no problem getting rid of the binky. But now Will is attached to this thing. We have tried a couple things. Only having it at nap and bedtime. We will even hide the binkys but somehow Will will find them!

Enter bad Mommy. I read in a parenting magazine that you can go cold turkey or cut a little hole in the binkys so that he will not want to suck anymore. Well I decided that I would cut holes in the binkys. It started to work and then we went to Chicago and my poor Will's ears hurt so bad because he could not suck on the un-suckable binkys. I felt so bad! So when we got to Chicago I went out and bought him some binkys. Now we are starting over again.

We are down to two binkys and heaven forbid we lose them, I feel like we might have a crisis on our hands. I would rather go cold turkey but I feel horrible doing that to Will knowing it does give him comfort when he goes to bed. What do you think? Do you have any tricks you could share? Thanks!

An EVENTful weekend...

This post might become a a two part post. First we got snow. Yippeee! Will and I got to play in it for a little while.

Then we came in to warm up. Then Will smacked his head running around and got a golf ball size bump on his head. Rushed to Night Time Pediatrics. Thankfully no concussion, no throwing up. Just a good size bump and a few scratches on the side of his face. He hated the doctor and Daddy and I had to hold him down. Poor guy.

Then if the doctor was not bad enough, my sister and I decided that Will and his cousin Lilly needed to see Santa. (pics of Santa to come in another post) We tried to prepare him by watching Santa's Baby Einstein but that did not work. Bubsy had a full on meltdown. Meanwhile Lilly and Santa have the best smiles ever. Good times. Good memories. I know one day Will will ask me why I tortured him at such a young age. I guess I have plenty of time to come up with a good answer.

Later on Sunday we had to go to Daddy's holiday party. (more pics of that to come too) Will was running on pure adrenaline at this point. He had had no nap and been tortured for the past two days. But ever the shining star that he is, he was the first one on the dance floor. He even got to put in a special request for his favorite song, Poker Face by Lady Gaga. Let me tell you it was a sight to see! Will had a circle of people around him watching him dance. It was so cute.

He ended up not going to bed until after 10pm. Our Bubsy slept in tell 8:00 today! I do not think he has done that since he was a wee baby.

Today will be a unEVENTful day as I start on my holiday cards and start some wrapping. THANK GOODNESS....

Will getting ready for Santa...

Bath after being tortured at the doctors...see my goose egg?

Will enjoying the first snowfall of the year...

Will getting his groove on....

We are awaiting pictures from the photographer at the party...so I will have some more of Will dancing and seeing Santa too.

Is it time for potty training yet?

Okay. So I just changed my second horrible, over flowing poopy diaper of the day and it is only 11:00am. I know when Will is pooping, he goes and gets secretive and hides. So he knows when he has to go to the bathroom. He will let me change the poopy diaper without a hassle. God knows I would want that off of me too!

He now grabs his winky and says pee pee. He has even gotten curious and walked in on Daddy and says pee pee.

I am thinking it has got to be time to get a potty and at least attempt some sort of potty training. These poopy diapers are getting worse as he gets older. I love that he eats lots of fruits and veggies but to see them come out is another story that I am ready to see go in the toilet!

Any helpful hints on the potty training? I need it!

A Before I forget Ball Post...

I wanted to write a post about how Will loves the "ball". It does not matter if it is a basketball, football, baseball or a bouncing ball. My dear Will, you are obsessed. I think that Santa is going to have an easy year of gift giving when it comes to you my sweetness.

You love to throw them. You can almost catch them and you have even started to kick them. You do have quite an arm. Sometimes you will throw the ball so hard we wonder if we are looking at the next great pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Daddy and I like to think so.

The reason I wanted to write this post is I am afraid one day I will forget the many memories that you and I are making with playing ball or dunking the ball into the basket. I remember when I would ask my mom what I liked to do she would say dress up, but there was nothing specific about it. I would find myself making up silly stories that went along with dressing up so that I could tell them to anyone who would ask what I liked to do when I was little. Obviously my mom was not blogging when I was 2 so I can see why some memories can slip through.

But I will remember the ball playing and hitting Daddy's big screen TV. It's okay. That is something we can keep to ourselves, that is unless we do put a giant whole in it one day. But hey, that would be a very good memory for us!

I love my little ball player. You are too cute for words and I just love the way you say, "Baaaaaaalllllllllllllll"!

A quiet Thanksgiving...

This year it was the 3 of us for Thanksgiving and Miss Ella our Rotty. The rest of the family was off at in laws or just a state away, so we did not feel like traveling.

We watched the parade, well I watched the parade. Will got interested in it when he saw the Yo Gabba Gabba float. What is it with those characters that hypnotize my child?

I cooked the whole Thanksgiving feast, which was a bit challenging. Now I know why families and friends all go to one house. So others can help you cook. It was at times stressful but I did it. Will banged pots and pans while I made our dinner. I did not really time it right and we ended up eating at 1:30 but when I grew up we always ate around that time. Then later in the evening we would have a turkey sandwich.

Here is the real kicker, listen up Will because I want you to look back on this when you are older. Will decided he was going to only eat the cranberry sauce and that was it, he was done as he likes to say. No yummy turkey and delicious stuffy. No whipped to perfection mashed potatoes, no yummy veggies. He just was not feeling it. I was surprised he did not eat the veggies because that is normally what he will eat first. Sometimes I feel like I have a mini vegetarian on my hands. He doesn't even like chicken fingers! What kid doesn't? So what did Will have for Thanksgiving dinner? Cereal and a slice of chocolate mousse pie. One day I know he will eat me out of house and home but I wish he would have at least tried the turkey.

Will with a little cranberry sauce on his face...and yes he is still in his pj's. It was a pj kind of day for us all.

Not much to post...but lots of pics from Chicago...

Some fall pictures have been mixed in with the Chicago pics, I just hadn't posted them yet. Will did great on the plane ride, I was one happy mommy! He mastered stairs while we were gone and had a tumble at the same time. No worries he came away with a scratch. But scared me to death!

We went to Navy Pier, got to spend time with Nana, Aunt Franki, Uncle Nick and Uncle Rob. We got to see many sights and had a wonderful time. Chicago is really a wonderful city. I think I could definitely live in the city and walk to restaurants for brunch on the weekeneds, take Will to the park. Chicago just has that great urban vibe. Maybe Uncle Rob will find us a place!

I hope all our bloggy readers and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving! It's good to be home.

Windy City Here We Come...

This Saturday Will will be taking his first plane trip to Illinois. We are tagging along for Daddy's business trip. I am a bit nervous on how this trip will go. We are leaving early in the morning, hoping that Will might pass out on the plane. My sister said just give him a little Tylenol to mellow him out. Will quite frankly cannot sit still, lately he has tried to climb out of his car seat while we are driving. Sit on Mommy's lap for more than 5 minutes is a challenge to this little guy, let alone 2 and half hours.

We plan on bringing his video player, thinking maybe Yo Gabba Gabba will keep him stationary. Guess we will have to wait and see. But believe me I will be breaking out the camera for a play by play of this trip!

Here is pretend me wishing that Will is peacefully sitting on my lap looking out the window like this little precious girl is doing.


Then again this could be me half way through the flight!


I always think back to the plane trip that I took with my nephew when he was about Will's age and even the flight attendants were calling him a little devil, he was that bad.

Does anyone have any ideas on plane travel with a little one? Thanks!

A all in one kinda post...

As promised here are lots more pictures from the last couple of months. I have to get them all out of our system and catch up before the holidays get here!

Will catching a wave...

Digging in the sand...oh joy!

Windswept and Sandy hair...gotta love it!

Our sandy, teething boy...

A nice scenic pic by the ocean...

My cheesey boy...

Will's fav thing to do...take a bath and splash

Will in cousin Lilly's cow boy boots...more boot pics to come!

My favorite smile bubsy!

"Mom, do you really have to do my hair that way?"

Fourth of July by the water...what a wonderful day...

Will dressed and ready for a little fourth of July fun...

Will loves sunglasses but will only wear mommy's...

"Higher Daddy!"

We had a great spring and summer with so many memories captured. With so many more to come! One problem that I had which I am wondering what other mom's do is, how do you change a poopy diaper at the beach?? Even washing the sand off, it is still always there.