Warning:Posts may be sporadic!

We are off to Washington for 2 weeks starting tomorrow 2/22. We will be celebrating William's first birthday while there! Crazy how fast my little baby has changed. I will be posting as technology allows. My mom's house has really bad dial up, so Internet is sketchy at best. We will back on 3/6, hopefully all in one piece!

Cousin Day!

Today Gabi and Alessandra came over for a visit. Here is a picture of all 3 babies enjoying thier "Babas". They played pretty well together, Gabi has figured out though that William is smaller than her so he is at the bottom of the pecking order. Poor William! The girls were very cute as always and they had a great time! Tomorrow we are off to Washington for 2 weeks so wish us luck!

Zoo Day

Will is checking out the Pandas. Check out all those teeth in the bottom picture!

Gorilla Mama and her baby- the reflections are always bad, but you can kinda see the baby's head under her boob to the left.

The elephant was on the scale- Check it out that's over 5,000 pounds!

William and I took off to the zoo today. The national zoo is very fun, it has Pandas and most importantly a newborn baby Gorilla! I wanted to see this baby very badly, as I seem to have a magnetic attraction to baby primates. I envied Michael Jackson terribly when he had Bubbles the Chimp. Anyway, we had a fun time, it was cold but there were lots of animals out and it was sunny. Will liked seeing the Elephant up close(Check out the weight on the scale!) and was very interested in the Gorillas and the Orangutans. The mommy Gorilla was so sweet with her baby, she had her about 4 weeks ago, and actually gave birth during the day, and some people actually got to see it live! That would have been so cool! We also saw the cows at the petting farm and he tried to climb over the fence. We ate at the cafe there and had a lunch of a small cheeseburger,small fry and hotdog and one drink for 19.55! Yikes! I keep reminding myself that the admission is free...

The Black Hole...

There seems to be a black hole somewhere in my dryer. I have purchased dozens of pairs of socks for William and yet somehow when I go look for a matching pair I always end up opening an new pair once again! Any ideas on how to keep them together in the wash? I have tried the lingerie bag, but they don't seem to get clean enough in there.

Presidents Day at the Baby Gym

Jason had today off work so he got to join us at the Baby Gym! It was hoppin and there were lots of other daddies there which was really unusual. You can really tell when there is a government holiday around here. Will had a great time with Daddy there but was a little overwhelmed by all the kids.

Baby Kelly or William in a dress?

I Love You Nordstrom!

Today we were going to get Pudd his first real pair of shoes. We were quite excited over this and we decided to go to Nordstrom because they sell quality shoes and have a great selection. I underestimated the value of customer service however. We got there and picked out 2 pair of shoes that looked promising, good flexibility, nice ankle support, all the stuff they tell you to look for. The salesman came up and checked out Pudd's "walking" and told us that there was no reason to buy him shoes yet. He said that putting a shoe on him now would make crawling more difficult for him and wouldn't help him walk faster. He said that the Pediped booties we had on him were completely fine for now and that when Will is walking more than 60-70 percent of the time we should come back and get shoes for him. I was shocked that this salesman was so wonderfully honest! He refused to make an unnecessary sale. What a wonderful and refreshing thing! Well, they have just made me a life long devoted customer!

Wobbly William

Ride Em' Cowboy!

Saturday...

Concentrating on his drumming with his new Birthday Drum from Grandma.

Helping Daddy with the Laundry.

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope everyone has a nice Valentines Day! I will be at work spreading "Love" in my own special way! Jason and I will hopefully go out on our second date since Will was born when we get home to Washington. That will be in honor of valentines, our anniversary, my birthday, etc. All of the holidays we have missed as new parents! Speaking of being a new parent, I just ordered my "Mom" necklace. I think it is very nice, and not of the tacky, gold and rhinestone variety. On the front mine has William Olen Simmons and the back says 3.5.08 and Mommy's Little Puddin. The great thing is that as you add kids you can add a ring to the necklace. So cute!

Miserable Baby

William has a bad cold. He had the sniffles on Sunday and then Monday I decided to go ahead and give him the second flu shot. It seems to have made him sicker, a lot sicker! I decided to go ahead though since he will be flying next week and the planes are always so germy. He has tons of snot, a goopey eye, and is extremely fussy. He is watching Teletubbies right now and that seems to be helping at the moment. He spent much of the last 2 hours screaming on the floor or screaming in my arms. I wish we could still give babies cold medicine, but for now the humidifier and TV will have to do. I have to work both days this weekend so hopefully he will get a little better before Saturday.

Actual Communication!

Tonight as I was leaving for Weight Watchers I stopped to tell Will goodbye. I bent down and said "Mommy's going bye-bye Pudd!" and HE WAVED! I was stunned! We have been waving and waving at this kid since his 9 month well baby check, and tonight was the first time he actually did it, and in the correct context too! I will get a movie of it soon.

Will's favorite activities these days...

Will still loves the playground, but his latest thrill is the bathroom sink. He will spend as much time as you let him splashing in the sink. I put a large rubbermaid bin in front of the sink so he can stand at the right level.

A Tradition Continues...

Saturday I made Solon's Birthday cake, so Will got to lick his first beater!

Pictures from this week...

Trying desperately to lift a non-existent flap...

Cause and Effect...

Literally surrounded by fun!

Will pays more attention to the armoire when the doors are closed and locked than when it is opened and the TV is on! I think the lock intrigues him.

Fear Not, I Am With You....

Will is terrified of the vacuum. I have tried everything I can think of to calm his fears, but nothing has really worked. So I have 2 choices, I either hold him while cleaning, which is getting more difficult, or I only clean when Jason is home and he can take Will outside. Any thoughts on how to fix it? Is it better to keep exposing him to it? Or, is it better to stop forcing it on him?

It's Ours!

Today, we officially own our car. After 4 years of payments it is ours. Now lets hope it can keep running for a few more years so we don't have to buy another one! It feels great to have that done, and it also means that we have 300 bucks a month to go towards paying off other debt! Hurray!

He met his match...

Today was baby gym day. Will met a little girl there named Addie, who was the same age as him. She was also the same size! She was also the same grabby, pushy kid he is! She followed him, pulled his clothes, and tried to hug him over and over. It was pretty interesting to see him react to it. Let's just say he didn't enjoy it. A taste of his own medicine. Other than that we had a great time, and it really wears him out. He had a big dinner, and nice bath, and fell asleep almost immediately. I wish we could go every day!