Walking William

I finally got a video of William showing off his walking skills (and quite a bit of caveman grunting...not sure what that's all about!). When people ask me how he's doing with the walking, I say "he's going to be the type to not want to give up his training wheels!" He can walk without holding onto something, but he doesn't like doing it :)

My Baby Is One Year Old!!!

I don't know how it happened because it feels like we just brought him home from the hospital a couple of weeks ago. But William is now officially a year old! :) He still feels like a baby to me; maybe that's because Rachel is turning into such a big girl lately. It also may be because he is so darn cuddly! He loves to cuddle, and he's still so pudgy too which i know won't last much longer once his walking picks up speed. I love my little guy so much, and as far as I'm concerned he can stay a baby forever if that's the way he wants it! Here's some pictures from the last few months of my SnuggleBug (I'll have pics of the party soon!).

Enjoying the sippy cup; the child can drink a whole cup of juice in about 45 seconds!

Now that he's walking everywhere, he gets into everything. So we've fashioned this play area to keep him safe; Rachel has figured out how to get in and out on her own.

Look at all those teeth! He has ten right now and is cutting two more molars on top.

Just some random sweet pictures...

William's adventures out the doggy door...

...me? go out Max's door? never!

Well, maybe I'll just stick my hand out and check the weather.

I'm not really going all the way out, i'm just looking Mom...

Yeah, ok...I'm going outside. Come and get me!

He must stick his tongue out a LOT because i have several pictures like this!
I know 16 year olds who wish they looked this good :)
Being more mobile means now he can get into more mischief!

She's a Big Kid Now!

Rachel's been asking for weeks now for her Daddy to take her ice skating (she's asked him because 1) he can actually skate, and 2)I told her Mama is klutzy enough on dry pavement and carpet). So a couple of weeks ago we decided to treat her because we are finally...drum roll please...almost completely potty trained!!!!! (i say almost because we're averaging about one accident a week which is fine by me; she's even dry when she gets up in the morning) We've been working on this for over a year, and in retrospect I think we handled it correctly. So many times we heard "she'll do it when she's ready" and I thought "great...she'll be in pullups when she starts kindergarten" because she showed no interest in initiating anything (though she would often go when we prompted it). Then one day, just out of the blue, she announced to me quite emphatically that she was "a big girl...me no baby" and she's been using the potty ever since. She's also very excited about her big girl panties, something we'd introduced to her before but she showed about as much interest as she would have in quantum physics. In fact, earlier last week she overheard me (though i didn't know she was within earshot) telling Joshua that the next goal should be to transition from the separate port-a-potty type to the kiddie seat that fits over the regular toilet lid, but we agreed not to push too hard since we're so ecstatic that she's not going in her pants anymore. Not an hour later she said she was going to use the "big potty", moved her stepstool from the sink to the toilet, put the kiddie seat on the big seat, and has been using that ever since. I'm guessing that maybe there was some positive peer pressure from preschool at work here since she's the youngest in her class; all I know is that I'm overjoyed! It's true...she didn't do it until she was ready and it was her idea, but i think she wouldn't be doing it now if we hadn't been practicing beforehand either.

So anyway, back to the ice skating! Here are some photos of her big time at the Galleria Mall Ice Rink in Dallas. Our efforts to go on a weekday were thwarted, so it was a little difficult catching everything on camera with such a crowded rink on a Saturday. But she still had a great time and only fell once, and not badly at that. They skated for a good 45 minutes, even letting go of the wall after the first couple of laps around! I am so proud of my big girl! :)

Here's a video of her first moments out on the ice. You have to wait about 24 seconds before you'll see her; when you see the guy in the aqua blue short sleeve polo with the ball cap come onto the ice, then she comes out right after him. Poor thing, you can see her feet just go right out from under her and thank goodness she has her daddy holding onto her! The poor camerawork is due to me laughing at her cartoon-esque movements! I felt so sorry for her because i know the feeling of stepping onto the ice for the first time, but couldn't help but laugh at how funny she looked, like when cartoon characters run in place before they take off.

Lap #1
Holding tight to the wall! Getting more comfortable :) I asked Joshua if he remembered what she was saying here; he couldn't remember exactly but he does remember her saying several times "Hold tight me daddy!"

Ice skating makes for a very peaceful ride home! (and Daddy would have joined them except he was driving the car!).