A Day of Loose Ends...

What a day! This morning after we came home I put William down for a nap. He slept well and then woke up and ate lunch. After that I let him down to play and went about my business doing little chores and talking on the phone to my Mom. I thought I smelled something, but I wasn't sure, then I looked over at William and saw it!!! He had a river of greenish brown goo running down his leg and a little trail going across the carpet behind him. I quickly said goodbye to Mom, lifted William gingerly and carried him straight to the tub! I stripped him down and hosed him off and then filled the tub and let him play. While he was busy I used my FANTASTIC Little Green Clean Machine to clean up the trail he left behind. He seemed to be feeling fine after that and we had plans to go over to Solon and Andrea's for a Birthday dinner for her Dad, so I packed a bag and headed off to pick up Jason. We made it to Virginia in record time considering it was during rush hour, and we enjoyed a nice couple of hours of food and chatting. Then, it was time to cut the cake. As Solon set it up I was sitting on the couch feeding Will a bottle, I should have known something was up because he took it out of his mouth and turned around to face me. He then let out a geyser of vomit that Old Faithful itself couldn't rival! I was COVERED! It was warm, sticky and horrible. Will was clean, and so was the couch. He was an expert marksman. It was all on me. I made it to the bathroom and then Jason and I discussed what in the world to do next. Thankfully I had my sweatshirt jacket but I had no idea what to do for pants....no one there was remotely close to my size. Then dear Andrea came through, she had a huge fabric wrap skirt she had brought back from Africa and it fit fine! Thank goodness! At that point I didn't really care how I looked, I just wanted to get home without being arrested for indecent exposure! After that we quickly packed up and got home. Will slept all the way home and I have a feeling we are in for a long day tomorrow, but at least I will have clean clothes to put on this time!

18 Month Update....

Today we brought William into the Doctor for his 18 month well visit. He tolerated the visit and met all the milestones he was supposed to. The only one that we are supposed to work on is throwing things. William as of yet has not thrown anything, but we don't tend to throw things so I don't think he has had any good examples. Today, after his appointment I bought some small foam balls so we can practice. We can't have him not excelling in all areas! He had his Varicella and his 4th DTAP today and now he is DONE with shots until his Kindergarten boosters! He will have to get his flu shots though....so I guess he isn't really done. I will be getting him vaccinated in September for the regular flu, and in October or November for the swine flu, and I urge all my readers to do the same! The CDC is seeing a mutation in the H1N1 virus and there has already been an outbreak in Tennessee with more than 100 children being taken to the hospital. Get yourself and your children vaccinated! Anyway, back to Pudd. He is now 28lbs 2oz, which puts him at the 76% for weight, 34 1/2 inches which is in the 94% for height, and his head is 51 cm which makes him in the 98% for his big head! His weight gain has certainly slowed way down! He has about 75 words, knows 6 shapes, 12 body parts, and about 30 animals. He knows 2 colors, and 4 numbers. He loves books more than anything else, and we read about 30 a day. He LOVES the shape sorters right now, and he has 2 peg boards that he uses a lot as well. He can climb up a ladder now, and is still climbing slides like a mad man! I can't believe how fast the past 18 months has gone by! I wish I could slow it down a little bit...

First Real Haircut!!!

Before we headed out...
Waiting for our turn...

Dodging the scissors!

Post Haircut- Zoning out on Elmo as his reward!

Where did my Baby go?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CONNOR!!!

Happy 5th Birthday to the best Nephew ever!!! We love you so much and we will call you tonight!

Just for fun...

All Done? Already?

Sticky!

William has really changed when it comes to food. I used to put food down and it was gobbled up in minutes! Now it all seems to depend on what mood he's in. Some days he will eat an adult sized portion of food at lunch and then nothing for dinner, other days he will pick at his food all day. I am trying not to worry too much, after all he is still pooping and that has to come from somewhere, right? One thing I do think I should worry about are his snacks. He loves snack foods, gold fish, teddy grahams, etc. and he will refuse lunch and then eat a cup full of those an hour later! So bad! I may start re-offering his meal to him instead of letting him have snacks at all till we get this all worked out. I am still trying to decide how picky to let him be. I always thought if I serve something I expect that he will eat it or go hungry. Lately I have been thinking I could let him have an easy alternate though, such as a yogurt or something like that. If he doesn't like what I made I don't want him to totally go hungry...but lately he is refusing things that he used to LOVE! Who refuses Lasagna?

Makin' a list...

I sat down today and wrote out all the names that I HAVE to buy presents for at Christmas. Normally I would never worry about it this early, but I am not going to have a lot of work over the next few months and will be off for a whole 6 weeks over the holidays for my Carpal Tunnel surgery, so I am trying to plan ahead! The list keeps getting longer and longer, thus more and more expensive! Everyone needs to either stop having kids, or the older folks may need to call it good and die. Ha! Just kidding. In this economy I really think we need to cut back this season, but even when I trimmed the budget it was still close to 1,000 dollars! Yikes! I have a small family. I have no idea how people with big families do it! How do you all handle it?

Lil' Handyman...

Daddy and William worked hard today repairing one of his favorite toys. William seems so into tools these days! It is very cute to see him wanting to "help" on the projects Jason does around the house. Best of all they were able to fix it!

My Coverage Rocks And So Should Yours...

I didn't have health coverage until I got married. I had a serious health issue when I lived in St Louis and thankfully the good people at Barnes Jewish forgave my 5,000 dollar medical bill. I didn't have it when we lived in Madison for the first year, and I stood outside the free community clinic at 6:30 am to see if I could be one of the lucky 40 to be seen that day. I have had to beg for samples because my Asthma medications cost 3 dollars a day, for ONE pill. And I am a NURSE. My Mother has been without coverage as a nurse, when working agency or private duty and her coverage now is sub-par. My sister Julie is without coverage, 2 of my brother-in laws are without coverage. Molly is covered only because she is in England with the National Health Service, but once she comes HOME to her HOME COUNTRY, she will be without any safety net again! Crazy. When we moved here to Maryland I didn't have any insurance, and I worked at such a small clinic that they had no group plan. I applied for coverage but was denied due to pre-existing conditions. Thankfully Maryland has a plan for "High Risk" patients such as my self. I paid $325 a month for coverage through the state and still had high co-pays, and thank God I got covered because that next month I got pregnant! I don't care what kind of coverage they come up with here in our nations capital, I just want it to be affordable, easy, and open to everyone and anyone who needs it! I am flabbergasted by all these people who are so angry at the idea of having some type of system to cover the uninsured! Small businesses have been saying for years they can't afford to offer coverage, well this will fix that! Do you honestly begrudge your neighbor the right to affordable health care? Now that I have the luxury of Federal Health Insurance, I am more than willing to pay a higher premium or taxes to ensure that the rest of MY family has the option to buy good insurance at a fair price. I pay less now for all of us than I did to insure myself through the state! I am not asking for universal coverage, that is my dream, but I think the system here in America isn't set up for that, but maybe this could be our jumping off point. This isn't socialism, it's giving all Americans the opportunity to protect the little bit of the dream they have carved out for themselves. Medical bills are the NUMBER ONE reason for bankruptcy in America. If I every needed to declare bankruptcy I hope it would be for a much more exciting reason than that!

Name that body part- please excuse the abrupt ending!

So Hot!!

Jason has a conference that just happens to be in DC this year so Will and I decided to tag along today. Big Mistake! I should just stay out of DC from June to September. It is so hot, muggy, and the air quality is terrible, which is terrible for my asthma. I wanted to see the National Geographic Museum which my guidebooks all recommended, it supposedly has the worlds largest globe! William and I made it there, and it was mostly closed for renovations for an upcoming exhibit. So depressing! The worst part was that there was very little to see, and nothing around the same area and Jason wasn't supposed to meet us for an hour and a half! Let's just say we know that place really well now. We had lunch at a cafe and then followed Jason to the convention center for a talk, Will was asleep so he and I hunkered down in the lobby while Jason attended the presentation. Thankfully it was only about an hour, and I was in air conditioning and a comfy chair so quite honestly, I didn't care if it took all day! After Jason returned we went over to the American History Museum and walked around mostly in the train area for William. We also went in to see the original Star Spangled Banner Flag. It was in it's new home and it is really not worth the wait people normally have to see it. After that Will and I called it quits and got on the metro home. Jason followed us a few hours later. Will was very happy to go to bed tonight!

Tasty!

Catch Up!

Sitting in his big boy seat, showing you his pancake!
Picking Flowers at the square...

At Solon and Andrea's Playground...

Painting in the tub again! He looks blue in more ways than one!

The past few days have flown by. I worked this weekend and we went over to Solon and Andrea's on Saturday night. We had a good time, but Will had quite a few injuries by the time the night was over. Jason has a conference this week, so Will and I won't see that much of him and he will be missed terribly! Will is on food jags these days. He is all about grapes these days, and is refusing pretty much all other fruit. I am refusing to specially prepare any meals though, I cook, and if he eats, he eats, if he doesn't, he doesn't! I am not falling into the trap! I am going to put up some movies of Will. Hope you enjoy them!

Comin' Home...

Once I get the ticket dates settled I always get super excited to come home. It is hard for me to not get anxious for all the things I miss. It makes me sad that Will is being raised so far away from what Jason and I still consider home. If we do end up here for good it will be ok. We will buy a house and Will will have a yard to run around in, we can get a second car and he and I won't be stuck in the house so much. But, it won't be the same enviroment we had in Washington. No mountains, and no sound. Very little green in comparison, no seagulls, no good public schools, no fantastic pizza, Chinese, or seafood. I can't wait to take Will back to the Children's Museum in Everett, play at Forest Park, go to Mukilteo, ride a ferry, get Ivar's and feed the seagulls, Mom and I are going to take him to Ocean Shores too, so that will be fun. I also want to take him up to Larrabee State Park and take a picture of him on the cliff we got married on, and he can play on the same beach my Mom played at when she was a baby. There is a history there that we will never have anywhere else. Molly is coming home in September too, and she will be staying with us for 10 days so that will help break up the time. And of course we will see Cookie, we can't forget about her! I hope William will be good and not terrorize her too much!

Art Nouveau...

"Blueberries with Mustard" by William
"Yellow Morn" by William

"Friendly Dinosaur Eating His Veggies" by Mommy

Big Boy Booster!

Will has graduated to the big boy chair and is now sitting at the table like an accepted member of society. He has been very insulted by his high chair for the last couple of months and if we tried to put the tray on he would cry and push it away. Thankfully the travel booster we already had works for our dining room chairs. Other than that, we went to Petsmart this morning to look at fishies, hamsters, birdies, and kitties. Will was so enamoured by the hamsters I had a few seconds of weakness and seriously considered buying him one. Thankfully I came to my senses quickly and reconsidered. We went to Michaels instead and bought fingerpaint to console ourselves. I think it is going to be an outside only activity though, or maybe in the tub. I can't see it going well in the house.
I am seriously considering enrolling William in a toddler class. The Little Gym is literally 3 blocks away and it would give us a chance to meet other people and get out to do something a few times a week. The price is high, but without 2 cars I can't really do much else. William is getting bored with the parks, especially the one closest to our house, and it's too hot to be outside for long right now anyway... I was thinking about trying to organize a storytime at the library...but I am not sure of how to get the word out. I wish I was back in Madison, or Washington right now, there was so much more for kids, and lots more Moms around! Let's just say I am counting down the months till we can hopefully leave here!

The Peace Corp has NOTHING on this job!

This is indeed "The Toughest Job You'll Ever Love". William is testing with a passion I only recognize as my coming from my 23 chromosomes. He is hitting, and almost hitting. He is pushing. He is flinging himself to the ground and screaming. He is refusing to comply with the simplest requests, and pushing my buttons like crazy! He knows he is not supposed to touch electrical cords and so he will look at them, say "No,No!", look at you and then touch them! It's like we are starting all over again when it comes to discipline. We were in a nice honeymoon phase and now it's like we are going through a rocky divorce! I think he is old enough for real time outs now, if they only last a minute. We figured out a spot to do it in finally after much debate. We didn't want to use his crib, since it is such a nice place for him right now and he loves it. We have a little chair and put it in the corner of our entryway. There is nothing he can hurt or play with there so I think it will work.... We shall see.

Friday...

Pool Party with Maya...
Maya was less thrilled...

We skipped our nap...then slept through dinnertime!

Since Will slept at such an odd time we ate dinner late and then went to the park and got ice cream. I hope this doesn't reinforce the idea that skipping nap equals ice cream and late night park visits!

Yes, It will be called "The Summer of Farms".

I have this weekend off so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to visit ANOTHER historical farm! This one was called "Kidwell Farm at Frying Pan Park" and it is in rural Virginia. It is based in the 1930's and was very nice. Best of all, it was FREE! Love that! It wasn't very big, which was nice for William, but they packed a lot of animal fun into one small area. It wasn't very crowded, but I don't think it would have been as nice if it had been. William enjoyed the pigs and chickens, but largely ignored the horses and cows this time. His favorite was the tractors! He is developing into a boy in the truest sense and is captivated by all things mechanical. He would have climbed on the tractors all day if we would have let him. We had a picnic lunch by the horse ring, they were having an English Riding competition today, so it was nice to have some built in entertainment. After that we stopped at a mall that we never had been to, and we will probably never will again! It was huge and really crowded, but it had every store you could ever wish for. I got Will some stuff at Old Navy and Pottery Barn Kids, but nothing for Jason and I. We mainly went to cool off and go to the playground which we had heard was wonderful. It was nice, but so crowded and some little hellion was in a tunnel attacking children as they went through it. Will came out crying and then a few seconds later a little girl came out with scratches on her face and was bleeding! Her older sister said there was a mean kid in there! Crazy! If I could have figured out who it was I would have told them what's what!

This week...

Scary Shark!
Baby Gym

William is 17 months old as of yesterday. Time has FLOWN by. I can't believe that in just one month he will be a year and a half. He is becoming such a little person now, very opinionated, and passionate about how the world should work. We are having more tantrums, and more defiance, which I am working hard to nip in the bud. Jason and I struggle at times to decide how we want to approach a situation, so that makes it hard to deal with something immediately. He isn't hitting anymore, but he will put up his hand in the air and wave it at you and say "hit, hit, hit!" We are trying to ignore it, or just look at him sternly when he does it, when we gave it too much attention it became more frequent. I am taking Will home to Washington in September, so I need to start putting him to bed again occasionally, normally Jason does it so Will always finds it a little weird when it's Mommy doing it. Development wise he is right on track... he can say over 50 words, he can do a 6 piece shape sorter and name 4 shapes, he can scribble and paint ( and eat 2 crayons in one week!). He insists now on drinking from a cup with no lid, so I only put in a little bit at a time. He is getting better and better at his little kiddie car and is very good at dinging the bell! He still sleeps great, and loves to stay in his crib a while and show you all the animals he has in there. He is eating very strangely these days, sometimes gorging himself all day and then not touching his food the next. His favorite foods right now are: Naan(Indian Bread) with Raita (cucumber and yogurt sauce), Mac and Cheese, Pancakes, Peas, Greek Yogurt, Chili, Spaghetti, Edemame, Raisins, and Chicken Nuggets. He still loves to take baths, and will stay in as long as you let him. He is a good little man, but not a snuggler and that breaks my heart from time to time. I still give him 3 bottles a day so I can hold him, otherwise he is on the go all day non-stop! He will deal with me grabbing him a few times a day for a big snuggle but quickly wiggles away. I try and not let it bother me though. I am amazed how much he has changed in 17 months! I don't miss the baby stage that much though, I love seeing the person he is becoming!