William 6.9

Every morning I walk Will and our neighbor's boy, Alfred, to school, and every afternoon Nora, Daniel and I walk to pick him up. Since the fall, Will has been wanting to know when he can walk to school or ride his bike to school himself. Unfortunately I witness Will crossing the streets or riding his bike, rather unsafely on a regular basis still, so I have to remind him of this fact, and I tell him that I will continue to walk them until such time as I feel comfortable that they can do so without getting hit by a car or bus! I can tell that he doesn't like this response, but life is tough, as they say!

As much as Will craves independence in getting to school, he has been experimenting with independence in other areas, like wardrobe selection. Usually I tell him that he needs to wear a coat or boots, or whatever is weather appropriate gear for that day. Most times he complies without a fuss, but sometimes he resists, and lately I have not challenged him on it, in an attempt to have him learn the hard way that he should listen. Its been more than once recently, that hes refused to wear a coat because hes "sweaty," and then is cold and begging for a coat not 10 minutes later and there is no coat to be had. A few times of that happening has taught him to always bring one if the weather is borderline!

Will is starting to grow up, and I can tell that he sometimes misses being little, and being able to do some of the things he did then. Things like being carried, or me swinging him around, or riding in carts at the grocery store or sitting in baby swings. Every now and again he will ask to do these things and I have to remind him that he is sadly, just too big! Then I remind him of all the things that he CAN do because he is bigger. Sometimes he even thinks hes more independent than he really is. For example, if we say we are going to the store, and he doesn't want to go, he will say that he is just going to stay home alone then. We tell him that thats not going to happen any time soon. Nice try bucko! One way though that he is really showing that he is responsible, is during the morning, pre-school routine. He is now mostly responsible for his own morning routine, as I am often busy with Daniel, for half of time we have to get ready. He gets up, gets himself dressed, makes and eats his own breakfast, and then brushes his teeth after eating. The only thing I do is come down and make and pack his lunch and snack for him. Though I am betting that in the next year or two, he can take over that task as well! Woo hoo! Michael gets up about 30 minutes before we all do, and its been more than one occasion that Will gets up early on purpose, so that he can hang out with Michael by himself, first thing in the morning, man to man. Hes told me how much he likes this time. Its very sweet, but sometimes he gets up so early that hes not had enough sleep and then is a mess by the late afternoon. So I've mostly put the kibosh on his getting up that early, as I need him to make it through dinner in one piece! Every now and again he still does it however. I love that he loves to spend time with Michael!

Just like his dad, Will is still an avid tree and jungle gym climber, and really anything he is able to scale, he does. His favorite thing to climb is the huge laurel behind our house. He likes to say that he can see the space needle from the top (which I do not believe - if we lived closer to the top of Wedgwood hill, closer to the school maybe). He just makes it look easy. I have parents all the time ask me if I am nervous to let him climb like that, and I guess I am just used to it, because I am not nervous. Will is a cautious guy and generally makes good choices when climbing things. I've seen him many times, choose not to go any higher, or any further out onto a branch, because it feels too flimsy. In that same vein, he has been enjoying tumbling class for the past couple of months. Parents are not allowed to be present in the classroom, but he always comes out sweating and smiling. If nothing else, he is having tons of fun.

Two cute stories from this month are: Will and a classmate were in school, studying a globe during geography. One of his friends asked him where his mom was born. Will responded, "Indonesia!" and pointed to the globe. His friend responded, "where's 'Donesia'?" His teacher thought this was so cute, she pulled me aside at pick up, to share it with me. The other cute thing, is that Michael does this thing where he pretends to ingest a toy, and then pretends to cough it back up again. He sells it pretty good and all of the kids believe thoroughly that he can actually do this thing. Will, for the most part, does not fall for many of Michael's jokes anymore, so the fact that he still buys this one, hook, line and sinker, is pretty cute. Anyway, the other night in Will's room, Daniel handed Michael a toy, and 'asked' that Michael perform this amazing trick. Michael pretended to swallow a small, stuffed penguin, with some difficulty. At this point Will runs into Nora's room (where she and I were reading a bedtime story), and says, "Nora! Dad just swallowed my penguin and is going to unswallow it back up again! Do you want to see?!" Nora jumped up like a rocket and said, "I wanna see! I don't know how he does that!?" And Will responded, "I don't know either!" Then they ran back into Will's room to be amazed at Michael's trick, all over again. It was a very cute, magical moment.