William 3.10

Yesterday we were at Home Depot and a nice lady gave each of the kids free star balloons (like the one Nora is holding). They played happily with them all day until Will accidentally popped his balloon. He was heartbroken and I told him that if he wanted to earn another balloon, we could go to the store in the morning to buy another. First thing the next morning he asked me for some chores he could do. Without complaint or any prompting from me, he helped me put away his laundry in the correct drawers, he put away all of the silverware from the dishwasher, he picked up his scattered toys around the house, and he cleaned up his train room. Then we went to the dollar store where he gleefully got to pick out a new balloon. Afterwards he told me, "mom, I am SO happy!" My little boy is growing up!

Will has a new, sudden fascination with drawing on his magnadoodle, especially when we are in the car. His favorite things to draw are penises! He is such a boy haha! Luckily for him he is also very sweet lately. He will come up to me unprompted, and proclaim, "I like you!" and give me a big hug. Or after nap or first thing in the morning he will tell me, " I missed you mom!" Its pretty cute. 

Every night the kids like to run naked down the upstairs hallway, right before bed. They run up and down a few times, screaming loudly, and then, once their burst of energy is expended, they acquiesce to putting their pajamas on and going to bed. I am always a little nervous to let Nora partake in these naked runs, as she is not potty trained and is liable to pee (or worse!) at any moment, so usually I watch her like a hawk. Last night however, I had to go to the bathroom right in the middle of this naked run. Here I am, sitting on the pot, when I hear Will yell, "mom, come here! Nora has poop coming out!!!" I couldn't come running immediately, so I yelled for Michael to come help. By the time I got to the scene, I didn't see any poop. I made a thorough search and still saw no poop. THANK GOD! Will sometimes has an active imagination.

Speaking of the kids running around before bed time, a different night I was trying to occupy the kids for a little bit, until it was bedtime. So we started watching Olympic gymnast floor routines. Both kids were fascinated and once the routine was over, both kids (but especially Will) were convinced that they too were gymnasts. They spent the next half hour, doing running somersaults and flopping around on the floor, utterly convinced of their aptitude. It was hilarious.



He is starting to become more proficient at letters and is interested in learning how to write more of them as well as identifying certain, common words. So far he can read and write 'mom', 'dad' and 'Will.' As he continues to show interest we will work on more of them over the summer. Some letters like 'z' and 's' are really challenging for a little hand to write!

I have to remind Will about the rules of our house all day long . . . until Nora breaks one of those rules. Suddenly he remembers all of the rules and is not shy about making sure she follows the letter of the law. He is such a helpful guy.


We had a funny little exchange the other day and it went like this:

Will: "We sang a new song at preschool today!"
me: "oh, yeah? How does it go?"
Will: *sigh* "Next time you can come to preschool and listen to my friends sing it."
me: "so you're not going to sing it for me?"
Will: "no, I'm not going to sing it."

Will is growing up before my eyes. Hes put on a couple of pounds and inches since the beginning of the school year, and has made leaps and bounds socially. He is now a lot more comfortable interacting with other kids and learning what he needs to say to solve conflicts and make his desires known. We've been working on word and phrase usage a LOT lately so its good to see it paying off during his play dates. He is way less likely to throw things in frustration lately, which is another HUGE win! I am able to explain more advance concepts (like how babies are born or the our life cycles) and he seems to be interested and understand them fairly well. More and more I am getting glimpses of the sweet kid that he is, and less of the frustrated toddler that we have been dealing with for the last two years. Thank goodness for that! I am looking forward to all the fun we will have this summer, and the fun memories we will make!