9 Months: Sooooo Big!

Yes, another William update. Again, I know that these aren't too exciting but I like to record them for both ancestors' and descendants' sake.

Yup, he's nine months and he is getting soooooooo big! This stage is my FAVORITE--I'm loving it. I always think the current stage he's in is the best (well, maybe not that newborn stage, with all that crying and lack of sleeping). He really is so much fun!

His stats (50% for both):
20 lbs. 4 oz.
28.5 inches long

Fun things the peanut has been up to:

• crawling EVERYWHERE--his favorite place to crawl is up the stairs (he is obsessed with those darn stairs)
• making it known what he wants: when he wants anything he crawls up to your legs, stands up and whines.
• eating EVERYTHING in sight except baby food. He will literally push baby food away. One of his favorite treats right now is toast with homemade raspberry jam. Yum, yum! Plus, when you are eating, WATCH out because he is right there in two seconds, begging for food.
• feeding himself while eating. Boy, does this make like easier. I just sit him in his highchair, give him some food and voila: two free hands for me.
• wrestling his stuffed bear. He will just try to eat his nose and tail and roll around on the floor with that bear. It is so darn cute.
• teething. Finally. He is getting his two bottom teeth as we speak, but they are taking their sweet time.
• sleeping through the night. Finally. As in 12 hours--7 to 7. None of this getting up to nurse at 5:30 stuff. I am in heaven. I get 8 hours of sleep IN A ROW every night.
• saying sooooooo big when we ask how big he is (lifting up his arms to the sky. See all pictures).
• furniture cruising, though I don't encourage this because I don't want him to walk. Ever.
• sneaking into small spaces. He loves to crawl under his crib. Sometimes he can't get out, though and that makes him mad.
• laughing and giggling at his dad.
• never sitting still. Constantly moving. I told Josh the other day I was worried he might have ADHD because even when he is nursing he is moving (sort of makes it difficult, but that makes life interesting).
  

Saying soooo big with Dada.

Posing with Mama.

Eating, eating, eating!

Making his little "piggy" noises.

How to have a FABULOUS Halloween:

Exhibit A: (not pictured)
Acquire a free clown costume from some family friends.

Exhibit B:
Locate an adorable, squishy little baby boy. (This may be the trickiest part. It took us four years, an entire team of doctors and--well, let's face it--generations of good genes).

Exhibit C:
Dress said darling baby in acquired clown costume and add some lipstick for rosy cheeks. (Good luck getting baby to smile for the camera, though).

Exhibit D:

Scrounge some not-so-clever costumes for parents of darling little boy.

Exhibit E:

Attend a fun Ward party and a nice neighborhood block party, eat all the candy given to small baby (hey--he couldn't eat it anyway), watch a classic scary thriller (Wait Until Dark) while snuggling by the fire and VOILA: a fabulous Halloween.

Ward Party fun!

If I let go of my dad's hair, I just may fall.

He was pretty confused the whole time we were at the Ward shin-dig. Usually he is in bed at this hour, so he wasn't sure what to make of the fact that not only was he awake and out of the house, he was surrounded by strange looking people in strange looking outfits.

And some more photos for your viewing pleasure:

Oh, Happy, Happy Halloween!

When Did I Become THAT Mom??

Since it took a while for our little boy to join our family, I had a lot of time to determine what kind of parent I wanted to become. Of course, I had much inspiration from moms surrounding me, helping me decide how I would raise my future children (or sometimes, how NOT to raise them). As the years passed and still no baby came, the list only grew longer and longer.

Well, here I am now: a full-fledged mom. And suddenly I've realized that I've become that mom, the mom I swore I'd never become, the mom who is violating those rules she'd made on her precious "list". Yes, I'm the mom who lets her child wear their pajamas all day long (sometimes it's just easier) and I'm the mom who just wears her own pajamas all day long (most days it's just necessary). I'm the mom who doesn't wear make-up, whose house is a mess, whose child has a constant runny nose, whose child screams uncontrollably and for no reason at times. Yes, I've become that mom and for the most part, I've, welcomed her, loved her, even embraced her. However, there is one thing that I swore whole-heartedly I would never become: the flaky mom. But alas, I've found that I am even her in all her constantly-running-late, full-fledged glory. As the months have passed since Will's birth, I've gotten better at gauging my time and arriving at appointments on time (two weeks in a row I was even EARLY for church and since I'm always flying solo and we have 9:00 church, that is no small feat). But today was just one of those days where I was at my worst.

I had a function at 10:00 that I'd already promised to attend and I REALLY wanted to go. Yet this is how the morning went:

• 5:50--Will wakes up. Not unusual b/c sometimes he will wake up early, nurse and go back to sleep for an hour or two. I thought for sure he would go back to bed since he was up late the night before for the Ward Trunk-or-Treat (pictures to come on that).


• 6:50--Will still not asleep, just playing in his crib. I finally drag myself out of bed and then get him out of his crib.


• 7:30--Will tired and whiny. Put him to sleep even though he hadn't eaten breakfast yet.


• 7:35--I'm tired and whiny. Put me back to sleep even though I hadn't eaten breakfast yet AND I had tons to do.


• 9:10--Woke up in a shock that I slept so long.


• 9:35--Showered, hair done, make-up on.


• 9:45--Salad made, dressing made (from scratch, mind you), thumb sliced real good when slicing apples for said salad, kitchen a mess, but can clean that up later. Salad in car along with Will's diaper bag full of toys and the breakfast he will for sure want to eat.


• 9:50--Woke Will up from nap, changed his messy diaper and his clothes, put his coat on, strapped him in car.


• 9:51--Look up address of house on mapquest, shriek in horror when realize it's so FAR (as in I should have left a good half an hour ago far) and try to print off directions.


• 9:52--Printer out of paper.


• 9:53--Put paper in printer. Printer still won't print, Will screaming in car b/c he is HUNGRY (and b/c he hates the car).


• 9:54--Printer still won't print and I can't find my keys.


• 9:55--No keys, no printing, lots of crying coming from the direction of the garage.


• 10:00--Still no keys.


• 10:10--Get Will OUT of the car, look for Ward directory to call the hostess, find it and learn that Will has eaten half the directory, including the page with the phone number I need.


• 10:15--Finally find hostess' number, call her with the lame but true excuse that I cannot find my car keys and apologize profusely for my flakiness all the while Will screaming in the background because at this point he is starving.


• 10:20--Printer prints.


• 10:21--Retrieve food out of diaper bag to feed my crying baby and locate my keys: hidden in a crevice in the deep recesses of my diaper bag. Argh.


• 10:30--Will fed and calmed.


• 10:31--Realized I have become that mom. Eat some Halloween candy, go on a walk with Will and get over it. We all have our days.
• 12:30--Can't find my keys. Again.

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!