The Last Days of Fall...

Well, it's heading nigh unto winter here in upstate NY. The forecast for next week: yuck, yucky and yuckier (that IS the official forecast, I'm sure). So, since today was Josh's Friday off, we had to take advantage of one of our truly last great days of fall. It was perfect: cool, crisp air, clear blue skies and fantastic fall foliage. Love it. And we had the perfect day: a little yard work (raking up the piles of leaves), a picturesque hike, and a trip to Target followed by dinner at Panera (how is this not a good day?). Oh, fall--please don't leave us!

Will in the pile of leaves (of course he's trying to eat the leaves).

Here he's thinking, "Now, why did my parents think it would be fun to be thrown into a pile of leaves?"

He was truly fascinated by Josh's fine ability to rake up those leaves.

Crawling toward his mama.

With Dada on the hike.

Now with Mama. Boy Ma, you look hot!

The trees in our yard.

Will enjoying his last few days of the swing (he DOES enjoy it--I swear; I just can never capture his smile on camera).

Playing in the leaves with his ma. Who is having more fun?

Another Month & Another Hat

For his eighth month b-day, Willy was so very lucky to get another darling hat (I couldn't help myself--the hats are TOO cute on him). I am sure he was thrilled. At least I was. Who wouldn't be? Look how precious he is:

This is his latest smile--all scrunchy faced.

This is not the hat-boy; this is the trouble-maker boy. Yes, he is into everything and when he does something he KNOWS he is not supposed to do, he just looks at me and smiles. And heaven help me, all I can do is smile back. We are in trouble, people. Serious trouble, especially since he has discovered the toilet AND toilet paper. Yummy.
His new favorite spot: Dada's shoulders. And how does he hang on, you may wonder? Why, by grabbing Dada's hair and hanging on for dear life. What a grip!
Look, I can touch my toes! (Like our make-shift couches we used to watch conference on in our computer room?)
I can't believe how big he looks all standing up like this. I am in denial that he is growing older. I really want him to stay this age forever.
Checkin' out that grass. Man, is it fascinating! Why is his little pot-belly oh-so-cute?

Apple Picking with a Snot-nosed Boy

Ahhh, finally: no rain and a beautiful sunshiny day, if a tad chilly--time to go apple picking. Such a quaint, charming fall activity and we've been dying for all this rain to stop so we could head out for our annual apple picking. And I'm not really sure what we love more, hunting for the perfect apple (every year we forget which ones we liked best) or munching on the apple cider donuts and sipping the fresh apple cider at the end. This year, I think my favorite moment was Will with the perfectly clean farm animals (I need to believe that they are clean, especially since I, too, was licked by those pristine animals). Love, love, love it. I think I am going to have to go back during the week so Will can play with the animals again. Plus, we have enough apples to last us 'til spring. Yum, yum, yummy!

He loves riding in the backpack. It lulls him to sleep, so in most of these pictures it took great effort for him to keep his eyes open. And can anyone please tell me how I can get rid of this poor kid's runny nose??? He got sick like a month ago, but the runny nose never left. Will my child just have a perpetual runny nose? Lovely.
Will and Dada trying oh so hard to get that perfect apple. Such hard work, right?
Chillin'.
Yes, I was there, too, and I got to get on the ladder to get the picked-over McIntoshes.

Oh, we convinced the peanut to smile a little (don't you love his little hat? It has a bill that I had to flip back so we could see his face, but it really is quite a precious hat).
Look it's a goat and a sheep. Will isn't so sure, though.
Here he is as an apple!
Petting the animals.
Okay, so feeding goats is so very ticklish! I couldn't stop laughing when that little ol' billy goat licked the food out of my hand.

P.S. For the record, and so I can remember for next year, my favorite apples are Honeycrisp. The name says it all: sweet like honey and nice and crispy.

Family Fotos!

While in Spokane, my friend Taraka took these cute family photos--some of the whole Spear clan and some of just our family. They turned out darling and since Taraka is an up and coming photographer in Spokane, I thought I'd give her a plug on my blog!!

Mama and her baby boy. Oh, I love this kid!
Dada and his little guy. What a handsome duo, no?
Mad Family!
More Mad family...

The entire Spear clan. Boy, was that fun trying to get us all to fit!
Grammy and Pompa and their 8 grandkids (and they say they want 25...I think this trip quickly changed their mind). I am loving Will's face in these pictures--like get me out of here!
More of the grandkids. My parents are just eating it up.
The "original" Spear clan.
Oh, and we CAN be serious at times!

Great job, Taraka. If ever you are in need of a great photographer and happen to be in the greater Spokane area, look her up....Not only is she a great photographer, but a wonderful friend, wife, mother, driver, runner, talker (boy, can she talk), sleeper (except when you have to wake her up EARLY), and, perhaps most important of all, she is a SUPERB eater! Ha, ha!

Baby Kisses

What's better than getting smothered with kisses from this little guy?

He woke up from his nap and slobbered me with kisses and zerberts....LOVE baby kisses, their open-mouthed, wet, messiness. I was born to be kissed by babies.
Just standing at the window, waiting for Daddy to get home from work.

My Little Puppy

What is cute, cuddly, furry all over (well, sort-of) and follows you wherever you go, constantly underfoot and ALWAYS begging for food? No, it's not a puppy, as one might think, but it IS my baby boy, Will. He just HAS to be where I am. If I'm in the kitchen, then he's in the kitchen. If I'm in the bathroom, then HE'S in the bathroom (lucky him). But his F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E place to be is at my feet while I am on the computer. He grabs the chair, trying to pull himself up (which is difficult since it's a swivel chair), he sucks on my toes, he scratches the chair, he eats the chair, he crawls under the desk and then gets stuck, he tries to open the desk drawers, etc., etc., etc. So, since he clearly is fascinated with my chair, I decided to let him go for a ride one day. I put him in it, then pushed him around in circles. He just LOVED it. So, I snapped some photos. Funny little boy.

This is the ONLY way I can get him to stay still when I take his picture (he's stuck in between my legs so he would hold still). As SOON as I get out the camera, he goes crawling toward it, trying to grab it. He won't STAY still so that I can snap a clear, not fuzzy, photo! (It seems that Will is in his jammies in most of these photos. That's b/c he's just too darn cute in the mornings when he wakes up that I can't resist taking a picture. I DO get him dressed, I swear!)

The Eyes of a Crawler...

I tried to post this last week (on September 18), but my camera was being funky and I couldn't download any pictures. So, here it is now...

Lo and behold: you are looking into the eyes of an official crawler. No longer is the "worm crawl" the preferable choice of movement around here. It's been brewing for days, but finally our little guy is ready to move on to bigger and better things. Goodbye worm crawl--you have served us well and we will miss you.

Favorite worm crawl moment: we were in Boston last weekend (Josh's dad came out for a conference so Will finally got to meet him, though we have no photos to document it, surprise). We were at church, sitting in the foyer at a singles' ward in Harvard territory. Will was sitting with Josh on the couch across from me. When I dropped a jar of Will's baby food out of his diaper bag, Will spied it from across the room and sped-worm-crawled faster than the speed of light to the food, grabbed it in his hand and whined, whined, whined until he got to eat. Silly Willy, who loves food.