First haircut!

So after the third or fourth comment on what a cute girl Will is, we decided it was time for a haircut! I know some of our family probably wants to shoot us for cutting his curls, but Will's hair style was, umm...different. You see, his hair hasn't all grown in at the same rate. He doesn't have any hair above his ears where his temples are, and the top of his head hasn't grown much hair at all. But the back has grown like crazy, creating what I call the "Carol Brady" and what Matt refers to as a mullet...

Before the chop

Matt did the cutting so I could take pictures. Because of his "unique" hairstyle, it wasn't hard at all to give him a cut...Matt basically just cut the curls in back, and didn't touch the rest of his head.

Will didn't mind at all, as long as the peaches kept coming!

I think he looks pretty handsome! A little more like a little boy and a little less like MacGyver.

And here he is showing off his new 'do:

And then, minutes later, trying to step into the cabinet...

Our week

We've been busy unpacking this week, and settling into our 'new' home. We'd only been here about 2 weeks when we left for St. Simons this summer, so we had a lot waiting on us to do when we got back! Will has been having a blast though - all of the boxes give him things to play on...

And he loves Matt's tools - he's definitely been daddy's little helper this week...

Helping dad hang blinds

But he's also had a LOT of fun playing outside. The weather has been amazing this week - in fact since we've been here we've left our windows open and haven't turned on the air conditioner at all. And we've eaten every meal in our backyard, which I LOVE!

Homemade peach ice-cream break in the backyard!

Road trip

We've had a crazy last 4 days, but we are finally back home in Illinois! We left St. Simons bright and early Friday morning, pulling behind us a U-haul trailer. When we moved up to Chicago 2 years ago, we anticipated moving back to Atlanta this summer, so we left several pieces of furniture and LOTS of boxes with our family. So, we had to round up our stuff to bring back with us!

We made several stops along the way - the first being at Lane to meet up with the Pearson's for lunch! Their little girl Lucy just turned 2, and she is full of personality and just too cute!

We couldn't leave Lane without peaches, and somehow ended up with 50 pounds of them. I thought it would be nice to bring Georgia peaches to our midwestern friends. But as the guy who worked at Lane was loading them into our car, he told us they probably wouldn't make it until Monday (too ripe) and he said, and I quote, "Don't go into Cracker Barrel and leave the peaches in the car. They'll definitely go bad." Great. So not only are we traveling across the country with a toddler, 2 dogs, and a Uhaul trailer, but now we have a "third" child that we need to take out of the car every time we stop: peaches.

You should have seen us. We got pretty good at it actually. Stopping for meals went like this: Matt went immediately into the restaurant to get water for the dogs while I changed Will's diaper in the back seat. We would find a nice shady tree where we could tie the dogs up and block them from sight with our SUV/Uhaul get-up. Then we'd get the boxes of peaches out and find a shady spot for them as well, but out of reach from the dogs. Then Matt and Will and I would go in and eat and then start the process of getting Will, the dogs, and the peaches back in the car. I have no idea how many hours doing this several times a day added to our already 17-hour trip.

Our next stop was Atlanta, where we stayed with Matt's sister Jessica Friday and Saturday night. We took a break from driving Saturday, and spent most of the day loading the Uhaul with furniture Jessica had been keeping for us...

Watching daddy load the trailer

Showing off his standing skills in Jessica's backyard

He loves his Aunt Lulu (Jessica)

And his Aunt B (she also spent the day with us)

We got up Sunday and drove to Elizabethtown, Kentucky - the halfway point between Atlanta and Chicago. And today we drove the third leg of the trip, making a brief stop at an outlet mall we passed on the interstate (where we repeated all of the step above...peaches and all). But FINALLY, after 4 days on the road and 2 months away from home WE MADE IT! The other good news is the peaches made it too, and will hopefully be successfully turned into peach ice cream tomorrow.

And then we started the process of unloading...

It's hard to make trips to and from the car with a toddler, so we came up with a plan...

He enjoyed a goldfish break in the front yard!

We are SO glad to be home!!!

Will is 13 months!

**Before I had Will I didn't understand why people referred to their child's age in months after about the first year. Now that I have a child, I realize that there is such a HUGE difference month to month and I want to document it to look back later, so bear with me on these monthly posts...they will probably continue for awhile:)

Will is 13 months today!!

My sweet little boy,

• We have taught you to wave goodbye, and you do it all the time! You will even say "bye!" sometimes! It is neat to be at a stage where we can teach you to do things!
• You are completely on whole milk now! You made the switch like a pro and never skipped a beat. You also made the transition this month off bottles and you only use sippy cups (yay for mommy - these are SO much easier to clean!)
• There is not too much you won't eat, but fruits are most definitely your favorites.
• Your favorite game continues to be peek-a-boo. You get a huge grin on your face when anyone plays with you!
• You get extremely bored sitting in a highchair in a restaurant (you've had 2 separate incidences in the last 2 days that have caused everyone around us to turn around and stare - thankfully they weren't fancy places). The best way to keep you entertained is to give you saltine crackers - you hold on to them for dear life and it takes you forever to eat them.
• We haven't yet been for your 1 year check-up so I don't know how much you weigh, but you wear 12 month or 12-18 month clothes so you seem to be right on track
• You are still a great sleeper (7:30pm - 8am-ish) and still take a good morning and afternoon nap
• You can crawl both up and down stairs pretty fast now
• I love seeing more and more of your personality come out - I love you little fella!

"Pumpkin Pie"

I know we aren't even close to the holiday season yet, but I have to share this recipe I tried this week. Matt's mom had us over for lunch and made an amazing gluten free meal of tomato/mozzarella salad, a potato/leek au gratin, and cornbread made without flour. And then for dessert she made this:

It is called a "high protein torte" according to the recipe, but don't let that fool you - it tastes JUST LIKE pumpkin pie (and has the exact same consistency) with a cream cheese frosting. It was DELICIOUS.

I will most definitely be making this for Thanksgiving this year.

The secret ingredient? Garbanzo beans. I know, it sounds weird, but you would never know they are in there - it is just to give it the perfect consistency (and provide protein!).

Here is the recipe...

1 19-oz can of garbanzo beans, rinsed

4 eggs

1 15-oz can of pumpkin

1 cup splenda or sugar (we used sugar)

2 T maple syrup

1/2 t baking powder

2 t pumpkin pie spice

6 oz whipped cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

(optional - 11-oz can of mandarin oranges drained and 1/4 cup of walnut halves for decoration)

Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor or blender combine beans and eggs until smooth. Add pumpkin, sugar, syrup, baking powder, and spice and blend until smooth. Fill a round cake pan (that's been sprayed) with batter and bake until a knife comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool completely before removing from pan. Combine cream cheese and powdered sugar and spread over cake and decorate with oranges and walnuts.

New tricks

Will learned 2 new tricks today! We went to the park and he started crawling like this...

I guess he doesn't like crawling on the grass!

And then all of a sudden, he stood up all by himself!!

It was the first, and only time he's done it, so I'm glad I had my camera ready!

And then later he was playing with a cup and realized his voice echoed in the glass. I think it is so neat to watch him discover little things like this!

Happy early birthday!

We celebrated my mother-in-law's 60th birthday this week. Her actual birthday isn't until next month, but all of the kids and grandchildren are in town right now, so we decided to go ahead and celebrate! We ate at the Georgia Sea Grill - one of my favorite restaurants. Before dinner I took some pictures...

Cousins!

The soon-to-be-married happy couple!

Beau took this...pretty talented huh?

All of us (taken on a tripod)

My parents watched Will and Matt's dad and Shelia watched Otto, so our dinner was baby-free...and we had a GREAT time! We forgot what it was like to enjoy dinner without having our constant attention on Will (not that we don't love it, but a change was nice!). A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mrs. Dart! We love you!

Gluten free on tv

I happened to have the Today Show on this week when they did a segment on gluten free diets. You may have heard that Chelsea Clinton's wedding cake was gluten free, and I think that may have sparked a lot of hype. The doctor in this segment explained things very well, and I hope it raises more awareness for celiac and gluten free diets so that more restaurants will start offering gluten free options...

And speaking of gluten free food, here is my favorite snack/meal lately. I love love love Fellini's salads (they're located in Atlanta, and I miss them!) and I tried to make one at home that was as close as possible to theirs. It is VERY simple...but delicious!

lots of fresh tomatoes, loads of freshly grated mozzerella, and a creamy italian dressing

Yum!! I think I'll have one now...

Will's first year

I started making a video of Will right after he was born and I've been adding to it ever since. I finally finished it up in time for his first birthday, and I showed it on a projector at his birthday party. I cannot believe how much he has grown this past year!

I tried posting it on the blog a few days later, but had trouble doing it through Youtube. I've figured out another way and did it through Vimeo, so hopefully it works this time! Better late than never...

Summer school

So we haven't been completely useless this summer - Matt has been taking art classes. Painting, specifically, and he has really enjoyed it! He has always loved art, and earlier this year he read this essay by Winston Churchill that inspired him. With his job being so analytical, he likes to have a creative outlet (this is also the reason he loves cooking)!

He was painting the picture I took at Kohler a few months ago

And I have been taking photography classes! And I LOVE it! Sorry for the onslaught of pictures of Will - I pretty much grab him every free second I get so that I can practice, and I can't narrow down what to post on here! I'm lucky to have such a cute subject!

I was specifically trying to achieve "bokeh" - a term for the blurry circular lights behind him:

Coco will pose for me too!

Tonight we walked to the marsh so I could practice backlighting