Tis the Season

The holidays are here and Christmas is just around the corner! It seems like once Thanksgiving is over, the rest of the year just flies by. Lance had the day off Tuesday (Nov. 29th) so we decided it was time to "deck the halls" out with Christmas decorations...or maybe just our living room. I was excited because I knew that Will would be interested in all of the new stuff.

We pulled out all of our decorations and got to work getting everything put up. One of the first things we pulled out was this giant stocking my mom had given me. So naturally, I had to stuff Will in it and take some pictures.

Sometime during the process, I decided that I wanted different decorations for our tree. The past two years, our tree has had blue and white lights, with blue ornaments. I wasn't too thrilled about it because #1, it doesn't match our living room, and #2, it makes it hard to add new ornaments. Yes I am a bit OCD about things matching. It's annoying, I know. I wanted to start a tradition of getting a new ornament every year (with the date), and that's a lot harder to do with a blue themed tree. Plus I think colorful is more kid friendly. Anyways, long story short, we went and got new lights and ornaments.

While we were at Wal Mart, we tried this cute little headband on Will.

Will enjoyed helping Lance set up the tree. I love this picture of them working together.

I like how interested he is.

But he wasn't quite sure what he thought of the tree at first. He was really hesitant to touch it and didn't really like the piece in his lap. He came around quickly and was happy in no time.

Will and I after the tree was finished being set up.

 The end results, minus our star on the tree. (We have to take it back because we got the wrong color.)

We also lined the top of the walls with lights also to make it a little more fun and magical.

And here is a beautiful wreath we got.

And our adorable cookie jar. (Also notice the greenery on the rails behind the tree.)

 We also got our stockings up. I debated whether to make Will one to match ours, or make three completely new ones, but we just decided to go with what we already had. Yes, Will's is twice the size of ours.

I went out and found a star the next day, so here is an updated picture of our tree complete with star and a few additions under the tree.
 
Remember the cute antler headband at Wal Mart? Well I found similar ones at the dollar store and it was two for a dollar. So I decided to just buy it.
 
I hope everyone else is already enjoying the holidays as much as we are. 

7 Months

As tradition goes, here's another long post all about Will. Here are some of the things we've noticed in the past month:

Will likes to put things in his mouth, and then shake his head back and forth. It must feel good on him gums/teeth. One time he had his binky in his mouth and was holding his wipe case in his hand up to his face. Then he would rub the binky across the case and shake is head back and forth.

Here is a video of him shaking his head back and forth.

Will is starting to really enjoy rattles and anything else that makes noise for that matter. When I put him in his high chair, he will grab the rattles and bang them against the tray as hard as he can. The noise it makes is almost deafening, but I allow it because it keeps him happy. Our poor neighbors.

He sure is growing, as evident by this picture. His jackets are usually a bit short on his arms, but I notice this pair of pants are now floods.

Will learned how to click his tongue. He wont usually do it unless someone else does it first. He was doing it a ton for a few days, but now he wont do it. Good thing I got it on camera.

Will loves little kids. He will just watch them play forever. You can tell that he wants to be able to run around and play with them. Soon enough...

Will saw snow for the first time. See this post for pictures.

He gets so upset when he sees you leaving the room. But if he's playing and distracted, he is fine. Sometimes I'll throw a small blanket or burp cloth over his face then hurry out of the room.

One of Will's favorite things is to do Pat-A-Cake. Plus its one of the only ways I can get him to look at me while I am holding him. His favorite part is "roll it:. Makes him smile or laugh every time.

Look! I got two pictures showing his cute little teeth!

I'm not sure what it is about it, but the picture above is such a "Lance" face to me.

Will still has no preference for who holds him. I've been expecting him to start getting more antsy around strangers someday, but so far he is happy no matter who plays with him. I hope it always stays like this.

We've gotten on a pretty good nap schedule. He generally takes a nap 1.5-2 hours after he wakes up. And that nap can last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half. Then he usually takes a long nap in the afternoon sometime, like around 2pm. Then most days he will take a really short (25-45min) nap around 6pm. And he is in bed for the night by 9pm. If he misses his afternoon nap, his evening nap is usually longer. Or if his afternoon nap gets pushed until later, he will skip his evening nap.

Will likes when you throw a blanket over his head. Sometimes he'll pull it off, but other times he'll just sit with it over his head and not make a sound. It's pretty funny. He is also starting to like peek-a-boo. When you play peek-a-boo, he holds really still and waits for you to pull the blanket off. It's almost like he's hiding.

This is what happens when you let Will play with a pen for 2 minutes while talking on the phone: a pen in several pieces, and ink marks on his face.

At this rate, Will is never going to crawl. He wont spend more than 5 seconds on his stomach, and he freaks out if I try to make him stay. He probably wont learn how to crawl from his stomach. It'll probably happen when he's sitting up and trying to reach for something far away. As of now, he'll slowly reach but eventually just fall over on his face. But then he'll immediately rolls back onto his back.

When I try to get Will to hold his own bottle, he always turns it upside down and starts chewing on the bottom. Such a strange little boy.

One of Will's new favorite places is under the table.

Will can inch his way across the floor. But not on his stomach. One time I put him next to my feet on the ground. And a while later he was about 6 feet away. While laying on his back, he will arch his back and push with his feet, moving him backwards a little bit.

Will anticipates being tickled and he'll start laughing way before I even tickle him. Once I grab his arms and hold them out away from his body he'll start to giggle.

His volume range is increasing greatly, to the dismay of our neighbors, I'm sure. When he gets upset, he will let you know it.

As of three nights ago, Will no longer sleeps on his pillow or swaddled. Yay! And he's been sleeping better since I decided to make the change!

I fed Will some Little Puffs. They are like cereal, but dissolve fast. He liked to grab a few in his hands and crush them. Or smash them by banging his fist on them. I think the texture was different for him so he made a few faces, but overall I think he liked them.

And check out those eyes! Wow!

When he gets excited or angry or sometimes for no apparent reason, he will tense up his arms and shake a little bit.

And one last video. Lance had Will cracking up while we were eating at the Pita Pit. Sorry about the poor video quality and sound; it was taken with my phone.

Will also does his best to make some silly faces for the camera. Here are just a few:

And the thing people comment most about....his cheeks!

How could you not fall in love with those cheeks!

Black Friday

I wasn't planning on doing any shopping what-so-ever this weekend. Then I started looking at the ads. BIG MISTAKE! I saw tons of things I wanted and suddenly I decided I was going.

There weren't any "big ticket" items I was after so I didn't feel the need to go wait in line for 5 hours. (Plus Lance was at work, and there was absolutely NO WAY I was going to take Will with me. So really, I didn't have a choice.) And I wanted to avoid lines like these.

I decided that I would go after I fed Will during the middle of the night, whenever that was. I fed him around 5am and was out shopping by 5:30am. I came home at 8:30am to find Lance and Will still sleeping so I went back out.

I got just a little carried away. Ok, I got REALLY carried away. I would find something I'd like and buy it. Then the next store, I would find something even better, so I would buy that. And on and on. I bought a pair of boots, then found a similar pair at another store for $15 cheaper so I bought those too.

By the time I got home, I had way more than I needed. So I went through everything, decided what I definitely wanted to keep, then I returned the rest. That may sound strange, I know. But while at the stores, I didn't want to think about it and then go back and have it gone. Plus a lot of the sales ended early, so I wanted to get them while it was still cheap. Usually I think about things for days before buying them, but I decided to "buy now, think later". This only works if you have enough self-control to honestly think about it and return things. Fortunately, I wasn't super attached to everything and didn't have any problem returning half the stuff I bought.

I only got one picture of this madness. Believe me, your better off. Let's just say I was too excited to be out shopping that I pretty much rolled out of bed and went. Not cute.

I decided to walk to most of the stores today, since we live so close. This is how I found him when we got home. That's pretty much exactly how I felt after all that shopping too.

It was a VERY successful day, in my opinion. There were a ton of things that I wanted to get, and I simply had to tell myself I didn't need it and walk (nay, run) away to keep from buying it. Overall, I thought I had a lot of restraint. Plus, I got 90% of my Christmas shopping done. Woot woot!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was pretty chill this year. Lance woke up to go play some football, then we went over to Lance's parents and had a delicious meal. Everything was way good! Thank you Sharon.

 

Will and uncle David.

 Hanging out in the kitchen while waiting for the turkey to finish cooking.

  Will likes their saucer a ton more than he likes our jumper.

The gathering was a bit smaller than usual. None of the siblings outside of Logan were able to make it.

 

 

Yes, this was caught on camera. David threatened to put it up on the engineering website.

I had to do something fun and cute for Will so I made him this hat.

Poor kid. He'll prob be so embarrassed of the things I put him in when he gets older. Too bad!

While the rest of us feasted on turkey, potatoes, salads, and rolls, Will ate carrots.

Though from the look on his face, I'd say he wasn't too disappointed in his meal.

Lance was suppossed to work from 5pm-2:30am so he took a nap after our meal to get rested before his shift. Luckily, they closed up the deli early so he was home a little after midnight. While he worked, I was home  planning my route for Black Friday.