William 4.5

Will has been playing better with Nora lately. I think some of my pep talks are finally sinking in - about how he shouldn't hurt her and that his job as a big brother is to keep her safe, yadda yadda. Recently he came up to me and very seriously told me that he was not ever going to push her again, and that he wanted to keep her safe. This came after weeks and weeks of constant pushing and crying every time they played together. It was driving me insane. After this pronouncement however, things have been a LOT better and while every playing session is not 100% cry-free, they are able to go much longer stretches and the overall frequency of injury is down. Thank GOD is all I can say. I guess I just really need to be on him about it until he fully understands what he needs to do to have a good relationship with her. It is definitely encouraging to see some progress however!

He is such a funny little guy and takes after Michael in so many ways. Hes finally caught on to Michael's love of the ridiculous and will say funny things to make us laugh. The other night Michael (in a joking tone of voice), asked Will what kind of water was in the swimming pool we had been discussing. Will turned to Michael and in a serious tone of voice (perfectly mimicking how Michael does this), and said, "peanut butter!" Just a few months ago he HATED these kinds of jokes, and now hes making them himself! Its just so funny and cute!

Likes to help michael with tools in the garage and will select tools that he thinks Michael should use and is interested in learning how to use them (even though understanding how to use them properly will take some time). He is obsessed with fixing his toys when they break and is actually pretty good at it a lot of the time. I am truly impressed often!

One of his favorite activities is going out the garage with Michael, and tinkering with his tools on various projects that Michael is working one. The other night Michael was changing the transmission fluid on the highlander, and had been using a breaker bar to loosen a stuck bolt. Having loosened the blot, he put the breaker bar down and continued with the fluid change. After he was finished, he went to put away the tools and couldn't find the breaker bar anywhere. He looked and looked and finally in exasperation, asked Will if he knew where it was. Will casually walked up to the Camry, parked next to the highlander, and reached into the Camry's exhaust pipe, and extracted the breaker bar. What a stinker! After that we learned that Will needed a bit more supervision with tools!

In the past few months, we have been encouraged to watch Will slowly becoming a better eater. About a year ago, I implemented the rule that in order to leave the table, he had to finish at least half of his plate, and if he wanted to get dessert, he had to finish all of it. Before this rule, he rarely ate dinner at all and NEVER tried new foods. Afterwards he very slowly and grudgingly began to eat more. But in the past few months he has started voluntarily trying things and finishes most of his dinner each night, even proclaiming "I like this dinner!" once in a while. Its a BIG step up from where he was before. I've even been able to slowly phase out alternative dinners for him (Will getting chicken nuggets while the rest of us ate tacos, for example). Last night he ate soup for the very first time and while he didn't relish it, I assured him that he would come to enjoy it, in time and with practice. One thing he does enjoy however, is our morning ritual of doling out multivatim gummies and probiotic pills. Will demand these vitamins and pills in the morning with a certain level of belligerence and gusto. Its funny to hear him aggressively ask for "his pills" in the morning like a junkie ;)

We had kind of a sweet/bittersweet moment the other night as we were wrapping up bath time. I had gotten him out of the bath, dried him and dressed him, and he threw his arms around me and said, "mom, I love you all the time! I want you to be here FOREVER! Will you be here forever?" I said, "Awww buddy, I love you too. I will be here for a very long time, but not forever. One day I will die. Everyone dies eventually. Thats normal!" And then we had kind of a heart wrenching conversation about death and how long we will live and how he doesn't ever want me to die. I hope I somewhat calmed his fears though and normalized it for him. This was not our first conversation on the matter (hes asked me a lot of questions about death and dying over the years), but definitely the sweetest and most gut wrenching. :\

At bedtime tonight, Will asked me, "Mom, does Nora like me?" And I replied, "yes, she loves you!" And then he said, "I want to keep her forever!"

When I told him there was a baby in my belly, he told me that we should name it, and offered a few choice selections. Among the best were: peanut butter, hot wheels track, and trash bag (he was just looking around his bedroom as he said this). Finally he decided that we should name the baby "Henry Stempski" after his best friend. Oh I had to laugh!