William today

I miss William's monthly updates. It was a lot of fun his first year to document each changing month from his personality to abilities to growth. In addition to the blog, I had a calendar from his first year that I filled in pretty much every single day with very brief happenings from that specific day... I know the day of his first smile, his first laugh, his first time sleeping longer than 3 hours, first time napping in the crib, first solid, how many bottles a day, etc. I know the next baby will be different, but I think it will be very helpful to have an idea when we reached milestones with the first -- plus a fun memento for William to see what he did the first year of his life!

So we don't have monthly updates and we don't have a calendar anymore, and I thought it would be nice to share a handful of William today updates...

Catch me if you can!

• Gives kisses when you ask for one and hugs too (a kiss is usually a big sloppy open mouth though!)
• Points at everything
• Crawling off of furniture by himself, but crawling up onto furniture without a small step is still difficult (not complaining about that one because he likes to lean over the back of the couch to check out things...)
• Can find his belly button and likes to find my belly button too!
• At the park he went down the slide by himself for the first time last week - he's very cautious. I was worried he'd fly down and hit the back of his head, but he holds the sides and knows to slowly loosen his grip to slide down
• Naps twice a day still - occasionally he's not in the mood to nap during one nap or the other, but he sits in his crib and plays for most of the nap time. He loves his green blanket too and as soon as he spots the green blanket he knows it's time to sleep. Pops his thumb into his mouth and snuggles up to the blanket.
• Climbing the stairs (up and down) is a favorite activity. He reaches his hand out because he wants you to hold his hand as he climbs. Again - he's pretty cautious! If I want to carry him upstairs, he fights to get down so he can climb himself - with assistance, of course.
• Speaking of being a strong little guy climbing he is actually a really strong walker too! We walked from our townhouse to Matt's office the other day - there AND back - and he walked by himself the entire way. For an adult this is not that long of a walk (maybe 1/2 a mile?), but for a baby it had to be a marathon! He was determined to walk alone and did it. He napped for nearly three hours after the marathon walk :)
• Balloons and balls are still very much loved. God forbid we are at the grocery store and he spots the balloons at checkout and there is a line to checkout... He has his own version of saying "ball" and "Balloon" -- recently I think I figured out he's saying Maggie's name, but he says "Ge! Ge!" As in "Mag-gie."
• Dancing all the time. As soon as he hears a song he stops what he's doing to feel the rhythm. The radio will be on in the car and when I look in my rear view I can see his two hands bopping up and down over the top of my headrest!
• Cars and carseats are still not a favorite... don't drive for too long or go on too many errands with William or you will have one unhappy little boy... 
• Sweets, sweets, sweets... just like his Daddy! I made a big mistake of ordering chocolate munchkins on a couple different occasions from the drive-thru and now when I go to Dunkin Donuts for a coffee he gets upset immediately if he doesn't see a munchkin... He's too young to reason that munchkins are only available on the weekends... ha!
• Still "Oooh" and "Ahhh"s over new discoveries.

Skinny, but strong!

Utensil practice... gotta start somewhere!

Green blanket

Sitting forward in the car

Bouncing with Lucy and Brooks at open gym

Total guy

He cracks me up every day with something new. He's being picky some days about eating and others he can't eat enough. William starts swim class next week, so that will be interesting! I bring him to the pool every so often to sit on the steps and splash, which he loves. I save him from drowning every few minutes because he tries to dunk his head into the water - the concept of not being able to breathe under water isn't there yet :) We have so much fun with the little guy and we have so many new adventures planned. Will keep you updated on the little man as time goes by - goes by quickly, that's for sure.

A second from running






I love apples!