FUN

is what we are having lately. A whole lot of it!! Will has become so entertaining. He is learning new things each day and you can tell his mind is just turning as he explores new things. He obviously watches every move we are making. On Sunday I had lit a candle with one of those lighter wand things. I left it laying on the table. An hour or so later Will went over and picked up the lighter and held it over the candle like he was going to light it. We were amazed that he knew what to do with it! He still only says Dada. He will say Mama but usually it is only if he is sad or ready to eat! He is pointing at everything. And can point to things when you say it (dog, water, nose, etc.) He also just started throwing his hands up when you yell "Touchdown!" Better late than never. He is almost walking. He can take 5 steps or so before falling forward or sitting down. We think in his mind he sees no need to walk-he can crawl extremely fast and it gets him where he wants to go. He is a WILD man at night. He has a new way of going down his slide which is hysterical. He loves going down after his bath when he is in his pajamas-he flies down! His new way of sliding is on one knee. And if John or I sit on the slide and wait, he cracks up, crawls around and pushes on our back, like we used to do for him to go down!! His other favorite toy is the Bat and Wobble Penguin that Aunt Steph gave him for his birthday. When he first got it and it moved and made noise he was scared and would crawl away. Now as you will see below, there is NO fear! Here are a few very short videos I captured of him playing the other night.

And I have a confession....we cancelled our trip. This trip. I still can't believe it. John and I were so excited last July when we booked it. Little did we both know that BOTH of us were having some reservations about it around Christmas time. I asked the pediatrician at Will's one year check up about leaving him for that long-she of course told us to go and have a great time, but that we would pay for it for about 3 weeks when we returned. She also said that it would probably be best for him to stay in the same place for all 12 days instead of going back and forth between the grandparents, which was our plan. John and I talked and talked about it and finally decided this probably wasn't the best time for us to go. When will be a good time...probably not for at least 10 years, but we promised ourselves that someday we would go on this trip. I think John put it best when he said that Will was just a baby when we planned that trip-now he is a precious person to us with personality that would be extremely hard to leave. We just felt kind of selfish leaving him for that long. So I guess parenthood is a trade off-you may have to cancel extravagant trips that you looked forward to, and for that matter may not travel nearly as much as you'd like, but you get to have Mickey Mouse shaped cheese in your fridge...you get to have the biggest bear hugs in the morning...you get to play with Mega Blocks every day...and you get to have this little person so very dependent on you. We are blessed by this stage of life and wouldn't have it any other way!