Walking!!!

Will took his first steps last Thursday. Daniel and I went to pick Will up at day care and they mentioned that he had taken a few steps that morning. One of his teachers held him up to see if he would do it again and he took about 6 steps straight to Daniel!! It was so exciting seeing that up to that point we had not even seen him try to let go and stand on his own. Over the past week we've been encouraging him to take steps and he's getting the hang of it. He's still very unsteady but he can usually get from one person to the other before he falls. We're still trying to capture it on the camera..but it is kind of hard to film it while he's heading your way. Maybe in the next few weeks, when he gets a little more stable, we'll be able to capture his little walk.

Summer here we come...

Not too much is going on this week with Will. The family is just trying to finish up the school year and Will is along for the ride. Will still isn't walking, but he is making huge strides elsewhere. He now has all four molars, which brings his tooth count to 12. He has started to play ball with us, both rolling and "throwing (and by throwing I mean he picks the ball up and holds it over his head and then lets go of it with an attempt at direction..that is a toss to me." He has become very interested in putting things in and out of containers, playing with his cars and role playing with his animals. (Well, as much roll playing as a one year old can accomplish that is... he moves them around and puts them in and out of cars, his airplane and his mailbox.)

He continues to toddle after his race car and is moving very well. It is very funny to watch him walk behind that toy. Once he finds his balance, he'll be walking with no problem.

Other than that, the only other thing to report is that Will was bitten again at day care. This is the second time in three weeks and we're pretty angry about it. To the day care's credit, they are taking the appropriate steps, but I just wish they were doing a little more on the prevention side of things. They refer to this child as the "biter" but at this point there is not a serious effort being made to keep them separated. It is the oldest vs. the youngest..the largest child vs. the smallest and I feel that they could be doing a little more to prevent this from happening. They have put two reprimands in child's file and talked to his parents..again. We have also been told by his teachers that if it happens a third time they parents will be called in and there is a possibility the child will be removed from the day care. I don't wish to necessarily have the child removed, but there needs to be something done to stop this behavior. If the biter is the child I beleive it is, he is almost two. That is developmentally old enough to understand that biting is not an acceptable behavior. Thankfully the skin was not pierced and the tough boy is doing fine.

Now that Summer is basically here, we're should have more things to report..seeing that we'll actually have some time to do some fun activities. Coming up....Will vs. the water table toy.

Gatlinburg

Last weekend, my mom and I took Will up to Gatlinburg, TN. My mom has never really been up to the mountains, so we decided that Gatlinburg would be the place to go for our mini vacation. Will was a very good traveler! It was a short trip, but we packed in the activities. We of course went shopping, at at the Apple Barn (twice), walked the strip, and went to the Mirror Maze. We weren't sure about the Mirror Maze at first. We knew it would be horrible or realy cool! Thankfully it was the latter. We wasn't quite sure what to think of the music and flashing lights at first, but the further we went the more he enjoyed it. By the end he was dancing in his stroller and smiling from ear to ear! He also drank from a straw for the first time on the trip!
Enjoy the pics!

First Word!!

Will said his first word this morning!!! He was sitting in his high chair eating breakfast and when Daniel entered the room, Will looked at him across the room and said "Da Da." He's been saying the syllables for months, but this was the first time he said it with purpose! Exciting times :) He's been working on the mmmm sound so maybe I'm next. :)

Day Two in the New Room

The ladies in the new room at day care were more welcoming and attentive towards William upon our arrival today. I was glad to see that and hope it continues. I still don't feel the same connection with the teachers in this room, but I'm sure it will take some time. I was pleased to read on his daily summary sheet that they are working on baby sign language with him. Daniel and I have been trying to do the signs with Will, but without it being reinforced during the day, we weren't making much progress. I hope to see that change in the next few weeks. In honor of Cinco de Mayo they also read some Spanish books to the kids and sang some Spanish songs...lol. At least they didn't give them their milk in baby margarita glasses.

After day care, we went to visit Daniel at school. He is in the middle of leadership training with the kids this week and isn't getting home until about 10 pm. Will enjoyed seeing his dad, all the kids and being passed around to all the adults. Afterwords we came home, played with some toys, had a bottle and took a bath. Then it was off to bed for Will. He continues to do well with his sleep training and only cried for about two minutes before falling asleep.

New foods for the day: Chicken Salad Sandwich, Cucumbers and tomatoes...yum!

1 Year Appointment

William had his one year appointment with the pediatrician today. According to the doctor he is doing very well. He was 21 lbs (25% percentile) and 29 1/2" (50th percentile). He's been looking a little chubby lately, so I was glad to see that he wasn't overweight:) He's doing great! The doctor said we can go ahead and try the dairy products. He said most babies outgrow the dairy allergy, but we need to watch him carefully over the next few weeks to make sure he's tolerating it. Even if we have to keep him on soy products, I'm just glad to see a end coming to the formula train!

Will is developing an overbite from the passy, so we'll be giving that to the passy fairy this week. I'm not sure if we'll go cold turkey or try and ween him. We've already been decreasing his dependence on it, but we'll have to speed up that process. I guess braces are in his future :(

He also has until he is 15 months old to start walking...so we have 3 months to get the boy on his feet. After that, they start testing to see if there is a problem. Personally I just think he prefers to be carried around. He was a late crawler, I would expect that he would also be a late walker.
Someone told me that the earlier they get their teeth the later they walk, so far that is proving itself to be correct.

The shocker of the visit was that he has a double ear infection!!! He's shown no symptoms this time. I was amazed. Given his history with ear infections and antibiotics, the doctor did give us an oral antibiotic but warned me that it may not work and we may have to progress to the antibiotic shot. We'll go by and have his chiropractor give his ears a tug this week and see if that, in tangent with the antibiotics will take care of the problem. I'm really not wanting to give him the shot.

Will did have the Pneumococcal vaccine booster today, but that was it. I did not allow them to give the Chicken Pox or MMR vaccines. I know that we will not give him the Chicken Pox vaccine, but I'm still up in the air about MMR. At the very least, I'll be putting that one off as long as possible....probably until he starts kindergarden. He has his next appointment at 15 months and I believe we are now done with all of the shots that we've agreed to give him with the exception of a few boosters at age 2 and 4. YEAH!

After the appointment, I dropped Will off at daycare. He is now out of the infant room and started in his new room today. I have to say, we absolutely loved the ladies in the infant room and I am going to miss them greatly! I let the new teachers know he would be late today due to his appointment and they said that would be fine. When I entered the new room I was basically ignored. It really ticked me off. I know they were cleaning up from lunch, but when you see me standing by the door with my arms full, obviously not really knowing what I should do with my son in this new room, maybe you should give me some direction! I finally had to say "where should I put him?" before one of them came and got him from me and put him in the bucket seat at the lunch table. After taking him, the lady just went back to what she was doing and didn't really say anything else to me except asking if he could have juice. I again had to ask if there was anything else I needed to for Will before I left. It just wasn't the warm welcoming environment I have been accustomed to in the infant room and for the first time since we began taking Will there, I wanted to cry when I left. The ladies in the infant room were always busy feeding this baby, changing that baby, rocking this one, playing with that one, but every single one always greeted us when we walked in the door and seemed glad to see us. Hopefully it will be better this afternoon when I pick him up. Maybe I just caught them at a bad time. I've heard good things about this new room, but I definately didn't see it today.

What Will's been up to lately....

I never thought that I would have a blog. Some how it just seemed too self involved for me, but then it occurred to me - "What a great way for every one to keep up with what is going on with our lives and little Will. So here we go! At the very least this will be a good way to disseminate pictures to family and friends that are not currently on Facebook. :)

April has been an exciting month for William. On Easter weekend we went to Riverbanks Zoo with my mom, Daniel, Will's godmother Michelle and her daughter Evey. We had a good time together and for the first time since we began going to the zoo months ago, William actually seemed to notice the animals.



The next event in April was Will's Birthday party the Saturday before his actual birthday. We decided to keep the event small being that Will is only 1 and is very unlikely to remember the event. We love William very much, but lets face it, there was no need for a three ring circus..at least not this year. Michelle and I decided to make Will's cake. Lions have become Will's mascot if you will, so we made a Lion cake. It was cute, but the frosting was way too sweet. I experimented with a home made icing recipe so I could control the ingredients. It turns out that this recipe was just way too sweet. We all had the obliquatory bite of cake, then promptly finishing it with large glasses of water. Thankfully Matt, our resident diabetic didn't have any. That really could have ended badly! We'll try again next year. I do have to say William had no interest in the cake (we were secretly very glad to see that. We're hoping to raise a veggie loving boy.)


Then of course, there was Easter.

On his actual birthday, he had a balloon waiting for him at day care and enjoyed some love and attention at church that night. He also was able to open some presents from his great grandfather.


The weekend after Will's birthday, we went with our Sunday school class to Edisto Island. Will had a great time! He didn't quite know what to do with the sand but loved the shells. He wanted to put all of them in his mouth.


As the month went by, Will actually started to learn how to gracefully get off his scooter.
Will got his first official hair cut at Sports Clips on the 26th, but we didn't photograph the event. Daniel was at school so I had to take him alone and I was too busy helping him sit still. Pictures of the new "man" hair cut will be added soon.

And that brings us up to date! Will still isn't walking but is getting very good at moving around tables. He is moving to the transition room next week at day care so hopefully seeing all the other babies walking around will encourage the lad to start taking some steps. We are going to miss the ladies in the infant room, but developmentally it is really time to get him in the older rooms..... the only thing we're a little worried about is the cots. I don't know how they plan to get him sleeping on a cot during nap time...but they say he'll do it. We'll see :)