My little Tarzan

When I got Will up from his nap the other day, he had one arm out of the sleeve of his shirt. I put it back in, but then noticed later he'd gotten it back out. After going back and forth with this a few times, I finally just let him be - I think I am going to miss silly little things like this when he is older...

Unbroken

I just finished reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. It is the incredible true story of Lou Zamperini, who ran in the Olympics in Berlin and shook Hitler's hand, and then later joined the air force during WWII. After his plane crashed into the Pacific, he floated on a raft for several weeks. He fought sharks and struggled to survive without food…and when he finally saw a plane, it was the Japanese, who shot at him! But that wasn't the worst of it. After being taken as a prisoner of war by the Japanese, he endured extreme abuse. I thought I knew how it was going to end. I was wrong, but I won't spoil it for you! I can't believe I had never heard of this guy before - what an amazing story! I highly recommend this book!

Fun in the snow

First of all, after heavy persuasion, I am happy to let you know that I sent the video to Ellen! So we'll see if I hear anything back:)

We spent yesterday afternoon watching the Bears/Packers game. We've never been professional football fans - of any team, but it's a BIG deal up here, and we felt like we wouldn't be good Chicagoans if we didn't watch that game! Unfortunately, the Bears are not going to the Super Bowl, but it was a good game!

During half-time, we took Will out for a little sledding on a hill at the end of our street…

Our goofball

I was looking back over some pictures from last year and realized that I never posted a lot of the ones that show what a goofball our son really is.

For some reason, Will went through a (brief!) stage where he really liked apples. He liked them so much that he would have a death grip on them and you couldn't dare take them away, for say, a bath...

And what is this on Will's face?

If you guessed ashes, you are correct.

And this is why the dogs can no longer eat in the kitchen...

On this day Will pushed his Cozy Coupe up to the coffee table, crawled through the car, and up onto the glass coffee table. Lovely.

In December, Matt was working from home one day and happened to see Will out of the corner of his eye. He yelled "Come quick, and bring your camera!" and I ran in the room to see this…

Incidentally, last week I heard glass breaking and a crashing noise. I ran in the room to see Will standing on this same table, throwing those picture frames on the floor. I didn't have my camera this time. I've since moved the table about 2 feet from the sofa, so he can't reach it!

Another funny story (although I don't have a picture!) - last night after dinner Matt and I sat down to watch tv. We couldn't find the remote and I remembered seeing Will with it earlier. We missed our show and spent a good 20 minutes looking for the remote in Will's toys. Where did we end up finding it? In the refrigerator of course!

And, as I mentioned yesterday, Will loves Ellen...

18 months

Will is 18 months today!

I feel like time is flying by, and my "baby" isn't so much of a baby anymore! It makes me sad that his infant stage has gone by so quickly, but he is also more and more fun to play with now!

My sweet Will,

• You've started climbing on furniture - you can climb up onto the sofa now, and you get on and off the sofa all day!
• Balls are your favorite thing to play with right now. You also love legos, your karaoke set, elmo, your pretend cooking set, and your dump truck. And your cozy coupe, of course!
• Your favorite things to eat are oatmeal, grapes, bananas, turkey, and yogurt, but you'll eat just about anything!
• You like to pretend while you are playing now - you got a cookware set for Christmas and you like to stir your pot and pretend like you are eating and say "yum yum!"
• You are still taking a morning and an afternoon nap each day.
• You wear size 18-24 clothes, a size 6 or 7 shoe, and size 4 diapers (size 5 "overnights" for night)
• Whenever you hear music, you automatically dance - you are SO cute! You especially love the opening song to the Ellen show, and you stop whatever you are doing each day to go and dance to this song in front of the tv!
• I am so blessed to spend my days with you and I love you so incredibly much!

Christmas all over again!

Matt was home today for Martin Luther King day, and we had a nice quiet day at home! It snowed pretty hard all day, and Will had fun looking out the window...

We were also looking out the window for another reason - we were waiting for the UPS truck to deliver our Christmas gifts today! Since we flew home for Christmas, we couldn't bring back all of the toys that the grandparents and aunts and uncles gave Will (and Matt and I!), so we packed them all up and shipped them.

Finally, they came!

And so began Will's "second" Christmas!

Babysitting

Last fall we started a "babysitting swap" with our friends. Every other weekend, we watch their 9 month old son in their home on Friday night while they go on a date, and on Saturday night they watch Will at our house so Matt and I can go on a date. It has turned out to be the BEST plan. Will is at a stage that makes it really difficult to go out to eat, so we very rarely eat out. So it is really nice to be able to go out for a meal twice a month - alone! We usually also go to a movie, because this is something else we aren't able to do any other time!

This weekend was one of our weekends, so on Friday we got to watch this little fella…

Is he cute or what??

On Saturday we had Matt's company's holiday party (I'm not sure why its in January?) It was fun to get dressed up and go into the city!

Back home!

Will and I got home Saturday from a fun 2 weeks in St. Simons and Deer Valley. Here's a few more pictures from last week...

We had such a great time out there - my parents kept saying that next year they are going to put Will on skis! Ha! We'll see!

When I got home Matt had already put up our Christmas tree and all our Christmas decorations! Hallelujah! He'd also cleaned, and he even made me this, to hold our Christmas cards (I love having them out all year!)...

I have the best husband ever - he is so incredibly thoughtful!

Will has also been catching up on some quality time with his daddy...

This just melts my heart!

Our week out west

Here are a few pictures of our week so far in Deer Valley.