The Willzer

Things that Will says that I don't want to forget:

When you ask him something that he's done, like go to the bus to pick up Emily, he says "I did!".

When he leaves the room to go do something, he'll say "Back", as in, I'll be right back.

He calls ice cream "cream"

He calls the book Machines at Work, "Guys" because the first page says "Hey Guys!"

He calls Emily "Sister" but doesn't say her name.

"E Go" means "Where did it go?"

Deee is - There it is

Tisses - Kisses

When he's about to jump off of something he says "twooo, freee, wooo, freeee, go!"

He calls eating "bites"

He says "waining" when it's raining and when we go inside, "bye-bye wain"

He calls Violet "Baybee" but not sister, she hasn't earned that title yet, I guess.

Instead of Banana, he calls them "Nanny"

He just recently moved away from saying "mama" and opting for the more mature, "mommy". So already he's losing his baby speech, and I'm so sad to be losing my little guy that was just barely walking a year ago, and my god, Violet's size only two years ago. Today Will was sleeping in his carseat and I looked back at him, this enormous kid, that I never thought he'd be.

But he's also so, so much fun, and I'm reminded how much I loved this age with Emily. Two-year-olds are just so amazed everything. The world is a fresh and new place, and not as scary as it was. He's willing to climb to the top of a ladder and jump down into Ian's arms without hesitation, and hunch over a centipede to examine it without fear.

Sometimes, he pushes me right to the edge with his hitting, spitting, and general grumpiness, but then he does something so sweet, like kissing his Bird-O and the rest of "The Buddies" goodnight, that I never want the terrible twos to end.

Life's a Beach

Violet had her round of heel pricks this week at the lab here in Gig Harbor. You know, the one where they stab your baby in the heel and then squeeze the blood out onto this weird piece of paper with five circles on it.

It was also the first time I ventured out alone with Violet and Will together. Mercifully, Emily was at school, so I didn't have all three of them, we'll save that for another day when I'm feeling much braver.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I heard a horrible gagging sound from the backseat, followed by the unmistakable sound of a baby spitting up. Fantastic. Parking quickly I jumped out to see what had happened. Violet had emptied her stomach all over her clothes, seatbelt, it was even dripping down into the base of the car seat. Wiping her up as well as I could, I found the building, and on my lab orders, it said room 107. I wandered up and down the hall, finding no room 107. It went straight from 106 to 112, like some kind of cruel joke. Finally I thought to look at the directory, and found that the lab had moved upstairs to room 207.

We got to the lab and sat in the waiting room for what seemed like an eternity as they ushered everyone into the lab before us. Will and I talked about the boat picture on the wall, and I asked him to not touch the Christmas lights on the fake tree about a million times before they finally called us back. We got into the room and Will promptly stole a vial of blood off of the tray before I could even put Violet's car seat down. The lab technician was fast, but she kept giving a play-by-play to her partner, lab-technician-in-training. Mostly I was thankful they didn't decide to have the new girl practice on my baby.

After it was over, I took Will to get an enormous brownie from the coffee stand downstairs. He sat nicely for the most part, chomping on his brownie and backwashing into my water bottle as I tried to calm Violet down. But then as we were getting up to leave, and I was getting Violet strapped back into her car seat, Will made his escape. He ran for the stairs as fast as he could go, and there I was lugging Violet, the diaper bag, and myself after him. He stopped as he got to the bottom of the stairs, but not before strangers started looking around to see if his parent was nearby. What do people do with two kids this close together?! I think the answer might be never leave the house.

But the weather has been so nice this week, we're spending a lot of time outside. We even took Will and Violet (poor Emily was in school again) to Owen Beach in Tacoma, one of our favorite spots. Will was able to play in the sand and throw rocks in the water, and actually enjoy himself without hearing the word "No". Well, except when he tried throwing sand at Violet.

Sitting there on the beach, the warm sand, the salty air, and Violet asleep, snug in my arms as Will buries his legs in the sand, it's a feeling I haven't had in a long while. Feeling absolutely and completely content.