William at 24 months

As of this morning, William now weighs 25lbs 15oz (10%), has a head circumference of 19 1/8" (25%) and is 35 1/2" tall (75%). He is wearing size 8 in shoes.

William has just had a developmental explosion this month, with leaps in vocabulary, comprehension and physical ability. He says a new word or phrase every day and just astonishes me with his comprehension. He has this truck book with at least 50 different kinds of trucks, and if you ask him which one is which, he can correctly point out not only the different kinds of trucks (for example, a cement truck vs. a garbage truck or a front loader vs. a back hoe), but the different features of each truck as well (grill, lights, tires, etc). He is absolutely obsessed with cars, trucks and balls right now and carries around these little hot wheels cars, everywhere he goes. Its pretty cute. He is also very into mimicry lately. Especially sounds. Michael likes to do a lot of sound effects when they play together and Will can mimic a lot of them perfectly. There was also an occasion several weeks ago, when I was having a mild contraction and moaning a little bit, and he came up to me and moaned just like I did. It was pretty hilarious! His favorite word right now is 'no' and he walks around all day just repeating it over and over to no one. Every question he is asked is answered with 'no,' even when he means yes. I knew this phase was coming, it was only a matter of time!

Regarding comprehension, I have been surprised several times recently when I have only had to show him how to do something once and he is able do it right off the bat, whereas before, it would take days or weeks of showing him how to do something before he would pick it up. This has also translated into him having a better understanding of consequences, particularly in regards to house rules. One funny thing happened the other day as he was having a tantrum, and was angrily throwing things. We announced that it was time for him to have a time out, so he walked himself to the corner and sat down and started crying this very fake, exaggerated cry. As though the crying was an expected part of time outs. I tried to chuckle as quietly as I could, but that was just too priceless.

Some other examples of William's language skills are as follows: today he brought me a Winnie the Pooh book and asked me to, "read pooh!" Yesterday we were talking a neighborhood walk and I was asking him to point out different things (like trees, cars, rocks, etc), and each time he would say the name of the thing that I asked him to point out, and follow that with "right there!" So if I asked him where the red car was, he would say, "car, right there!" The other day I was asking him if he wanted peanuts and he said, "no, peanut butter!" When we tell him the we are going to take a ride in the car or the truck, he will respond enthusiastically with either "car" or "truck." Another cute exchange happened when Michael was teasing me the other day. He was calling me short and said, "you are short short short!" And then Will chimed in and parroted perfectly, "short short short!" It was hysterical! He is also able to repeat most words that we ask him to try and say. Each of these words and phrases are super clear and easy to understand too. Its like he was just waiting until he knew he could say them perfectly, before attempting to talk. Every day I am excited to hear what he comes up with next! He just astounds me every day! A couple of weeks ago he was still babbling gibberish and now he is saying crystal clear words and phrases. To be sure there is still plenty of gibberish mixed in, but its nice to be able to understand more than 1/3 of it now!

Physically he has been developing more skills as well. At the park he can now climb on and operate a few new pieces of equipment and at home he likes to carry mostly full milk jugs around and put them back into the fridge for me. He is constantly climbing things around the house the moment my back is turned. The other day he climbed onto the top of the couch and did a perfect rolling somersault from the top, to the seat and onto the floor, without getting hurt. Now that may have been an accident or it might have just been indicative of just how physically capable he is. He really is a strong little chap too, just like his dad. Michael has been working on removing the bricks from the patio at the new house (so we can save and reuse them once the new structure is built). The way he has been doing this is to pull up the bricks from the sand bed they are sitting on, load them into 5 gallon buckets, and dump them into a pile, out of the way. Will decided he wanted to help, and started loading some of these bricks into the buckets. These are not normal bricks and are actually oversize pavers and weigh close to 10lbs each. Will, skinny little peanut that he is, will grab one of these bricks, grunt to lift and carry it, and then load it into the bucket. He is so strong for such a little guy!

Will is VERY sweet around Nora and not only tries to share toys and food with her, but every time he sees her, he gives her a gentle pet on the head. Its just so sweet! We have several books about new babies and about being a big brother, and he loves to read those again and again. He is clearly taking his new role very seriously. There has been some minor misbehavior and anger going on, I'm sure related to the fact that I cant spend as much time with him, but so far its all been directed at me. He especially likes to wait until I am nursing Nora, before getting into mischief right in front of me. Little bugger knows I am helpless to stop him. I imagine this is the start of a transition period while he gets used to the idea of having a sibling. All in all though, things have been relatively smooth so I cant really complain. He is very good about being patient regarding something he wants (a snack or for me to read a book to him), while I am tending to Nora. I specifically worked on training him to be more patient while I was pregnant, and made him wait a lot for various things all the time, so I think that worked out nicely for preparing him to be a big brother. Not to mention that patience in general is a good skill to have, for toddlers and adults alike!

I am trying to slowly teach him to be more helpful around the house (like picking up his toys and food that hes dropped) and particularly with things having to do with Nora. For example, I often have him fetch me cloth diapers and he likes to help me pump (I have a manual breast pump and he is fascinated with pushing the handle down, which I find funny). He also loves to throw his own diapers into his diaper pail, so I have him help me throw Nora's diapers away as well. A cute exchange happened today when I asked him to throw several of her diapers away. The back story is that he is just starting to understand and be able to name numbers. But right now, every number is two. So he will count, "two, two, two." So I handed him one diaper to throw away, leaving one of his hands empty. He looked at me and demanded, "two!" So I handed him another diaper (I had a small pile from the night before to throw away) and he eagerly grabbed it, and ran off to throw them into the pail. That made me laugh! He is a riot.

Its so hard for me to believe that my baby is already two! Having Eleanor has made it even more clear, how fast the time has passed. I feel like I JUST gave birth to Will. All of the things I am experiencing as the mom of a newborn right now, feel like deja vu. Wasn't it just yesterday that I swaddled him for the first time, and watched him fall into a milk coma while a little milk dribbled from the corner of his mouth? Wasn't he just holding his head up for the first time, or rolling over and giving me his first smile? God it has all gone by way too quickly and I am tearing up just writing this! No matter how much I try to enjoy every moment I can't make time slow down and I can't escape the feeling that I am forever missing things. I feel like one day I will wake up as a 50 something woman, the kids will be gone and everything I am experiencing now will be but a distant, foggy memory, and that thought absolutely breaks my heart. So I try to record as many moments as I can in both writing and photographs, because at least those will be permanent reminders where as my memory will grow dim and spotty with time. All of this is to say that I am in love with my kids and my life. This is the happiest I have ever been and even though we have our challenging moments, I would never dream of giving any of it up for any reason. I love my sweet, funny, boy beyond measure and I look forward to many more years to come. Can I just ask that the years start to go a little slower from here on out?




***Update***

We celebrated his birthday a week late to accommodate extended families schedules, so here are some cute little things that happened the day of his party:

• He let out audible gasps as he opened his presents and saw what they were (a toy backhoe and toy fire truck with lights and sounds).
• He wanted to sleep with fire truck and we let him. Despite my fears that it would keep him up, he slept fine.
• He wanted to carry all 7 of his matchbox cars around all the time but cant fit them in his hands so he carried one in his mouth.
• Michael showed him how to extend the ladder on his truck and made a swooshing sound effect as he did so. Now Will thinks that that is the sound that ladders make and makes the exact same swooshing sound every time he extends the ladder.
• Ran around excitedly exclaiming "fire truck!" and "Back Hoe!"