Will and Tim at Jo's Wedding

Will's Birthday

One year old today!

Thankyou to all who helped:
My brother Mike looked after William for hours on Wednesday while I cleaned the house.
My sister Steph came on the train a whole day early to help with party preperations and Will.
My sister Jo made lots of food, including the amazing Noah's Ark cake, and came with her husband Dom to help before and during the party, including orchestrating the clean-up (she's a whirlwind that one).
My Nanna cooked desserts and helped before and during the party with my grandpa.

Right, much deserved credits over, here are the pics...
(I put them up fast Mum so you could see them in Holland ASAP. xx)

Steep Learning Curve William

Will seems to be on a steep learning curve this week. So far he's learnt:

- to blow a goodbye kiss
- the Auslan sign for more
- the Auslan sign for enough
- to 'play cars' making vrrrrooom noises
- to rush over and tickle my belly button when I'm getting changed because he gets such a good reaction (This one is followed by his giggles and my 'Will! Stop it!!'.)
- that you put things IN the bin rather than take them out (although the next step is 'only adults put things in the bin', to save his puzzle pieces)
- he's also cut his 5th and 6th teeth

Will's also recently started...

- sitting through quite long board books, sometimes three times over (He loves We're Going On A Bear Hunt)
- trying to impress Olivia with all his might (She's nearly two and I often hear 'Go away Will' because he's trying to join in everything she does and just getting in the way, the poor girl)
- having regular babysitting at Liz's house (Olivia's Mum) as well as Fi's (Amelia's Mum), and a weekly time when Olivia and Amelia come and play at our house
- being awake for four hours between his day time sleeps

Here he is sporting his new dressing gown from Aunty Mim, Uncle Mason, Lily and Bindi

Today's Bike Ride etc.

The house was very peaceful while I cooked, and this was why;
(Will found my special sticky note pen that I use at uni.)
















































































Here is a video of Will going down the slide at Run M Ragged (which is free until he can walk, after which it will cost $8.50!)

New and Exciting

Will took his first three steps on Sunday, launching himself from an armchair to the coffee table. He's certainly not 'walking' yet but he's close.

Will imitates us so much now - we're having to be careful about what we do and say! The first time I noticed this was about a month ago when Will found one of our combs on the floor and despite never having had his hair brushed, promptly started to comb his hair himself. I suppose he watches us comb ours every morning. I had to laugh the next evening when, while having a bath, he picked up the plastic soap holder (which has spiky bits to hold the soap in the air), looked at it carefully, and then started to brush his hair with it.

I sweep the floor most days because we have incredible dirt-collecting floorboards throughout the house on which Will crawls all day. While I was using the broom two days ago, Will decided to 'help' me with the dustpan brush (although he had the brush bristles pointing in the air and the plastic scraping on the ground :-). Sweeping the floor with the dustpan and brush has since become his favourite activity. This morning he was happily sweeping away when he stopped, thought, and started to brush his hair with it. I'm glad he quickly gave up on the idea! Ewww.

Because it was so cold and quite wet the last couple of days, I've taken Will to play in the indoor playground at the shopping centre rather than the park. He absolutely loves the car with a steering wheel, and darts straight for it when put on the ground. I was really proud of him today when, although the youngest of the five kids playing, he coped really well. He moved over and shared his precious steering wheel without being asked when others wanted to join in and still shared happily when shoved roughly across the car seat by one big boy. He smiled at the other kids who joined him and loved their company. I'm sure he'll go through the 'it's mine' phase but at the moment he shares beautifully! (Although sometimes he imitates Tim's game of "You want it? Here you go...No, you can't have it. Giggle. You want it? Here you go... No, not this time.")

Yesterday I was sitting at the desk when Will called to me. I turned towards the (rather tall) kitchen bench to see him peering at me from the other side. I had no idea what he could be standing on to make him so tall! When I went around the other side I found he'd opened the oven door and climbed onto it! Hmmmm. We started oven safety lessons that day. (Now he mostly just touches the handle and says "Uh! Uh!"; our sharp word for no.)

It's now less than a month until his first birthday! Wow. A wondrous thing.

(The wig shot below is from his grandad's 1960's themed 60th birthday party.)

An adventurer at heart

William and I went to the beach yesterday so Cath could study. There was fine late afternoon sunshine, and we had a great time digging a hole together. We took turns to sweep our arms across the bottom of the enlarging hole, removing handfuls of sand. Mine were a little bigger, but he had the idea!

Unfortunately the hole got a bit deep for William to reach the bottom of, and then he tumbled in head first, still trying to dig, and caked his face with sand. This actually didn't perturb him at all, but I was a bit anxious lest the sand get in his eyes. So I filled his bucket with saltwater and splashed his face a few times in an effort to clean it. This didn't really work, and did soak him down the front. I needed a better way to clean his eyes.

Nearby there was a rock breakwater built out into the surf. This was key as it enabled us to get out into the deeped surf without me getting my feet wet (I still had shoes on). I carried William out over the rocks and, waiting for a good moment, dunked him in the breaking waves head first to his neck, rinsing his eyes clean. He looked a bit stunned, but actually didn't cry at all!

We played on the beach a bit more, but he started shivering as the light faded and wind came up, and while he was still engorssed in the sand, I was concerned so I got him back to the car and changed his clothes. Another day in the life of a nine month old adventurer.

Pics and Daddy Issues

I've uploaded a few more pictures from Moruya. The link is to the right.

Will doesn't like Tim going to work each day. He watches vigilantly in the morning when Tim puts his work clothes on, clinging closely to him. He doesn't want to come to me because he knows it means Tim is going, so I hold him on the porch and we wave goodbye, watching the car drive into the distance until it can't be seen any longer. Will's eyes remained glued to it into the distance. Then we play a game and he smiles, relaxing.

As soon as Tim pulls into the drive we go out to see him, and Will is so excited. He wants Tim's hug straight away. It's really special.