Daddy's Sidekick

Yesterday the three of us took a walk to the mailbox and I decided to take pictures because I wanted to practice and because Will is growing up so fast I'm scared I'll miss something. It's not a very long walk but with Will stopping at every plant, inspecting every crack in the sidewalk, trying to eat every rock and wood chip, and trying to climb up every set of stairs we passed it was long enough to get his wiggles out before bed.

Let me tell you something about Will. He sure loves his dad. Even though he spends most of his waking hours with me and we have so much fun and he gives me lots of wet, open-mouthed kisses (not sure where he learned that...), Will is definitely "Daddy's sidekick" like his shirt says. When Taylor is home, Will follows him around the apartment. When Taylor leaves, Will tries to follow him out the door and cries when he can't. When Taylor gets home, Will hyperventilates with excitement. After Taylor takes a shower and Will hears the shower curtain open he runs to the bathroom door and yells "DAA!" Then they have a conversation through the door ("Da da!" "Will Will!" "Da da!" "Will Will!") until Taylor opens the door and Will starts to follow him around again. They are the cutest pair. I hope that Will will always try to be like his daddy. I am so blessed to have both of them in my life and I love them both so much.

Our Little Vacuum Cleaner

A couple weeks ago, I gave Will one of those "no spill" snack cups full of Cheerios and (of course) they all ended up on the floor. I'm used to it though. I feel like there are almost always Cheerios on our carpet these days, or little pieces of bread, or other dried mystery foods from dinner two nights ago that somehow got tossed all the way from his high chair to the other side of the room... you get the picture. I usually don't feed him anything except in his high chair (Cheerios excluded) but in a small apartment where the kitchen is basically in the living room, crumbs are bound to end up everywhere. So as a result, I think I vacuum 3 or 4 times more often than I used to before Will.

So back to my story, there were a bunch of Cheerios on the floor and instead of picking them up to eat them, Will came up with a more efficient way. Luckily the floor was pretty clean besides the Cheerios or I might have stopped him instead of letting Taylor film it. Password: cheerios


Will 2/16/13 from Heather Moss on Vimeo.

Park day with Grandma

Since it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day in southern California, today between naps my mom came over and we walked to the park down the street. We had a great time. Will went backwards down the slide all by himself, tried to walk up the slide (like every kid should), and climbed up and down the playground steps to his heart's content. He also stood by the fence and yelled at the older kids playing on big playground, tried to keep up with a 3 1/2 year old running all over the place, and went swinging on the swings with Grandma. We didn't stay long but he took a great nap afterwards so he must have worn himself out.

*Trying* to climb up the slide (his feet kept slipping).

Going to yell at the big kids.

Climbing up the step that was half his height. I'm pretty amazed by the things he manages to climb onto.

LOVED the swings.

Let him eat cake...

Yesterday we had a party to celebrate Will's first birthday. We held it at my parents' house and it was really fun. We ate pizza and cookies (or "cakies" as Taylor calls them, since they were all made from cake mix), played with Will, opened presents (including a box of Kleenexes from which Will pulled every single tissue--a Hamilton grandbaby tradition), and it wouldn't be a first birthday party without a one-year-old covered in cake and frosting! 

Will's personal cake.

The decorations from Peter and Linda's wedding lunch are back again! :)

Some of Will's friends from church. He is a very loved little boy (and not just by Taylor and me).

Will loved it all. Sometimes he gets shy around a lot of people but he was definitely the life of the party. He played, laughed, and performed most of his "tricks" including clapping and kisses. 

He also played with his favorite toy at grandma's house (a box of mardi gras necklaces) and walked around with all of his birthday "bling" for about a minute until he realized he couldn't get the necklaces off by himself. So we helped him out and he continued to run around and play (minus the 10 necklaces). 

When it came time for cake, this is what happened...

After we sang "Happy Birthday", I blew out the candle for him and put the cake down in front of him. Almost immediately he...

...and then he...

But it wasn't until after Grandma put some in his mouth...

...that he tasted it...

...thought about it...

...and realized he'd been doing it all wrong...

Apparently he's got a sweet tooth like daddy. Happy Birthday again, little boy! We love you so much!