William 4.1

This month William started both his second year of preschool, and swimming lessons. He was excited to start school and see his friends again. The first day went super smoothly. This year instead of doing only two hours a week, he now stays there for lunch and does 4 hours a week. I was worried that he wouldn't eat his lunch in lieu of playing, but that fear was unfounded and hes been doing very well so far. All summer he kept seeing these advertisements for this water park. I told him that once September arrived, we would sign him up for swimming lessons, and he readily agreed. In fact, it was all he could talk about for weeks, he was so excited. The first day of lessons arrived and it could not have gone any worse. He screamed the ENTIRE. TIME. It was awful! I felt like the worlds worst mom, but I told him that he could not get out of the pool, and that he needed to stay in and try to swim. This kid loves water, so I didn't get it. Finally we made it through the lesson and we went out and got a special treat to celebrate afterwards. Fortunately, every other lesson after that has gone totally smoothly and hes been making great progress. I hope to keep him in lessons continuously until next summer!

Speaking of school, Will has been really into doing work books and having me spell words for him. Or when I am reading to him he will ask me where certain words are on the page. We've finally started checking books out from the library and both kids (but especially Will) love it. Hes also figured out that when we spell things in front of him, that we are spelling words, and usually they are words that mean something fun. The other night we were spelling 'I C E  C R E A M' and he instantly said, "what treat am I going to get?" We had to laugh at that one! He was not wrong ;)

Hes totally obsessed with any and all potty humor. Any mention of poop, or innocently passing  a little gas, sends him into a veritable torrent of unstoppable giggles. The other night he laughed so hard for so long (at just the mere memory of someone saying poop earlier in the evening) that he told me that he was having trouble breathing and we had to do deep breathing exercises to calm him down. When we had our family portraits done (or in any picture, any time really), a surefire way to get him to giggle, is to say 'poop' or 'fart.' And hes plenty capable of attaching those words to just about any other word to make a hilarious potty humor mash-up. His laughter is so contagious, that I find myself laughing along, even though the subject of the laughter isn't exactly hilarious to me (maybe it will be once I'm no longer a professional butt wiper). The other night he farted and it was a stinky one. He was SO proud of himself for stinking up the room, that he ran to tell Michael about it. The apply does not fall far from the tree it seems.

He told me the other morning, "you are driving me crazy!" But when I asked him what I had done (we were coming back from a fun morning at the aquarium and had had no complaints thus far), he said, 'nothing.' So who knows. He was probably just repeating me. The other really cute thing he likes to tell me is, "mom, I love you all the time!" Hes also still a great little complimenter and compliments everyone (but especially me) on everything from, hair, nails, clothes or shoes. The other day I overheard him compliment Nora on her shirt. She looked down at her shirt, grabbed her belly and smiled. It was adorable!

This next story requires some explanation. Michael likes to tease and joke a lot. Whenever I do something clumsy (which is a lot), he likes to say either, "have you been drinking?!" or "you are rip-roaring drunk lady!" Apparently Will has been listening to this, because the other day we were eating dinner and I accidentally got food on my chair. As I got up and began cleaning it up, Will says, "mom, you are rip-roaring drunk!" We all had a good laugh about that!

Ever since Nora has started talking more, its clear that Will suddenly respects her more. Hes been playing nicely with her a lot more, and includes her in his games more. I even overheard him complimenting her wardrobe the other day!  He has also been telling me lately that he is Nora and a girl, and that Nora is a boy named Will. He insists on using the pink kid dishes and even tries to talk like her at times. Mostly I just play along with it and call him "Nora," which makes him giggle. Its such a nice change to see them getting along more. Of course they have their spats and he can still be a jerk to her at times, but things have improved dramatically!

Things have been getting so much easier the past few months as Will grows and matures more and understands the world and our house rules better. It sure makes my life easier and being a mom more fun as well!