New Blog!

I'm really excited to be starting my New Year's resolution tomorrow, on 1.1.11.

http://365days-365photos.blogspot.com

Of course William will be the subject of many of the pictures, I'm sure... but I hope to keep it interesting with other subjects, too. One of the first will be of the newborn baby girl whose session is on Sunday!

Goodbye, 2010! Hope everyone has a safe New Year's Eve tonight.

Cups and Christmas - XMas Part Two!

What do cups and Christmas have to do with one another?

It's certainly not that William was enjoying a holiday juice from his sippy - he refuses to drink from it.

Christmas morning often begins with a cup of coffee.

After we woke up and celebrated in Clarion, we gave happy thank-you hugs to Gula, PopPop, and Aunt Erika, loaded up the car (in the snow!) and got on the road. Destination: State College. Grandpa and Nanna's house!

William snoozed while Dad navigated the SUV through snowy streets and over white hills. We arrived, bundled the baby in a nice blanket, and ran inside. Nanna's house looked gorgeous as always at the holidays. Greens on every doorframe, wreaths and a candle in each window.

A big red sign was on the closed living room door. It told everyone not to enter until William Wesley had arrived! A note from Santa and a few remaining cookie crumbles let us know that the big man had found his way here, too.


Everyone was waiting for William in the kitchen. He hugged his Grandpa, Nanna, Uncles Andrew and David, and his Nain and Taid. Like in Clarion, he must have been able to tell from everyone else that something was up, and something was special. He was beaming and VERY excited. We all ate Nanna's delicious brunch, enjoyed cups of her spiced tea and Taid's famous bloody maries! Yum.

Finally it was time to go in to the living room... and, oh, my!

An impressive red toy kitchen, built by Grandpa Santa, a huge Radio Flyer wagon, a lifesized stuffed doggie... wow!

Showing Nainy and Taidy the Photo Book he made them.

In true Christmas spirit, William honestly loved and enjoyed everything he tore into. What a good boy. (Next year, surely, he will also be this good when we have our new Elf on the Shelf to watch over him and report back to the North Pole during the countdown to Christmas! Terrible Twos, Schmerrible Twos...)


Trucks and books and play food for his gourmet kitchen. What a very, very, very lucky little boy.

Of course, he is way too young to understand Christmas, but having William for the holidays has been the best thing in the world so far. I can only imagine how much fun it will be when he believes in Santa, and waits at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning, and proudly gives his own gifts.

For now, it was still pretty magical for him. I'm sure he felt all the love in those rooms in Clarion and State College on December 25th.

Personally, my cup runneth over.

Merry and Bright

...and our Christmas was white!

I thought I'd do two separate posts to give homes to all of our holiday photos.

Our first wonderful stop was in Clarion, at Gula and PopPop's house! We were there from Wednesday evening until Christmas morning. They waited to decorate their tree AND their cookies until we arrived, so we got to participate in those traditions, with wine and eggnog, of course!

Two days before Christmas... getting in the spirit!

William was in love with the TWO full-size trees, and all the other beautiful decorations. He also got to play in the snow for the very first time! (See, I KNEW it! As soon as I jumped the gun and took snowsuit pictures without any snow, they had some on the ground in Clarion.)


Gula's special Christmas Eve dinner with friends and family was fabulous as always, with 26 (is that right?) guests. All of her hard work made the meal and the party, as one guest (an Indian student in the U.S. and away from his family) said, "the warmest night." He was very sweet, and very right.


We all went to bed a bit after midnight (W, of course, much earlier at his usual 7:00) and woke up to perfect, huge snowflakes tumbling. From there, it was all coffee, stockings, presents, and smiles.

William was so spoiled by Santa, Aunt Erika, Gula, and PopPop! What a lucky boy. He didn't really understand what was going on, of course, but I'd say that he still looks pretty thrilled, don't you think?

Merry Christmas!

We're leaving this afternoon for Clarion, where we will be until Christmas morning, and then on to State College.

I'm sure our next post will be filled with many, many pictures of a happy little boy and his family!

In the meantime, here are a few from yesterday. Finally gave in and "tested out" the snowsuit (sans snow). WW was loving it. He could have stayed outside all day, he was so nice and cozy. Mommy, however, does NOT have a fur-lined snowsuit and had to call it quits :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Hmph. No snow! I'll go looking for it.

Any time now! Gee whiz.

Advent

When I was growing up, we started celebrating Christmas on December 1st - with the countdown to the big day. Each night, we three kids took turns receiving an "advent" present, which was something little - an ornament, candy, etc. It was a BIG deal when it was your day! We hung the handmade (by my Great-Aunt Nancy!) advent calendar train and looked at it each morning to see how many days were remaining. This year, William has gotten to enjoy the calendar! How lucky for him that it happened to be a TRAIN, of all things! He loves it, too.

It was so exciting when we were little to be getting closer and closer to Christmas. Even when I was living in NYC, my Mom sent me home from Thanksgiving with a box of my advent presents. 25 little things, each wrapped up just for me to open one per night.

Four years ago this week, Esch, who had sneakily saved some of the wrapping paper from an opened advent present, got down on one knee (see where this is going?) and pretended to look under the couch. It was the night before he was driving me home for Christmas (and looking back, it was the last Christmas that we wouldn't be together to celebrate!). The city was beautiful as it always is at this time of year. I had been packing, and Esch was playing with Georgia in the living room. He leaned down, and "discovered" an advent gift that must have fallen under the sofa. "Hey! Here's one more."

I opened it. It was not from my Mom. It was a gorgeous diamond engagement ring.

Now, starting on Decemeber 1st, I always think of that special (shocking!) little box and how cute Esch was when I opened it and stared. This year for advent, we decided to save some money, and instead of buying eachother little gifts, write down something we were thankful for. We each wrote ours on November 30th, put them in the train calendar's pockets, and have opened one a night for the past few weeks.

Some have been silly "I am thankful for green bean casserole," "I am thankful for the sleep sack, pacifier, and 7:00 bedtime" but of course, many have been more along the lines of, "I am thankful that we're back, and closer to our families" (we both had one of those!) and "I am thankful for little boys who squeal when Daddy gets home from work."

We are so thankful for our friends and families, and for all of our health. We're thankful for the dozens of Christmas cards propped happily on our shelves, that came from all over the country.

This time next week, Christmas will already be over. December is such a fun time of planning and bustling around, wrapping gifts that you can't wait to give, and oohing and aahing at the pretty sparkling tree. William has made it infinitely (if that's even possible! I LOVE Christmas!) more special for us.

What a crazy little face.

It's a wonderful life!

Extra... just because.

It's freezing out. Well, it's below freezing. It's COLD.

I have been itching to bundle William up, venture out and take photos in his new snowsuit. That seems like torture, though, so I'll wait until there's actually some snow for him to explore.

Last night Grandpa was nearby for a work function and got to come spend the night!

I loved these quick snapshots from this morning. William loves his Grandpa so much. He was peeking out the window with him, and watching the sun rise.

Later in the morning after Grandpa had to go home, W was just having his usual playtime. He's becoming such a BOY! He can build small towers with his blocks (but usually has a compulsion to knock them down and say "BOOM!" after 3 or 4 are stacked), pushes his tractor around the living room, pauses to read a book, and every so often stops, looks up to make sure I'm watching him, smiles, and then carries on.

Despite the cold weather, as you can see, I'm still able to fulfill a bit of my photography bug. But, that being said, either LET IT SNOW, or come on, Spring!

(Click the collage to view larger.)

New Videos

William had a wonderful weekend - Esch and I went to NYC (for what he thought was a date night, just us... but was his surprise 30th birthday party! 30 friends waiting in our own room at a bar in the Village totally shocked him!)... and Gula and Grandpa McCombie came to babysit.

We're actually trying out "PopPop" for Grandpa McC, because there has to be a different name for the Grandfathers Grim and McCombie!

So PopPop and Gula played with WWM (and apparently he didn't even know we were gone; they had a ball - yay!) while we ran around the city for 24 hours. It was only my 2nd night ever away from William, and it went as well as it could have. So worth it to surprise Esch for his 30th - he had no clue!

I uploaded a bunch of recent (October on) videos to our YouTube page. Be sure to click "See All" to see them. A few of him on his first birthday and at his party, walking, one from our Halloween hayride, etc. We need to take some new ones, he is even better at toddling around now. He really improves every day. Pretty sure he will be walking from room to room by Christmas. Videos.

In fact, just this weekend he started to take steps on his own - not prompted by a parent tempting him with a toy or a hug. The first time we saw it, he walked from the coffee table to the loveseat, and now he's doing it more and more. Esch calls it "scampering" - ha!

Our little scamperer.

Here are a few photos of 13 month old William. Such a character.

Attempting to show me his nose.

Where is William's head?

8 Teef.


Ok, I'll take that as a sign that we're done here.

13 Months

William Wesley is 13 months old today, and our biggest news is, of course, that he's started walking!


His record so far is 11 steps, but normally he is taking more like 6-7 before toppling over. He starts working up too much speed, and/or sees something and gets VERY excited and loses his balance (Georgia, Daddy, a truck, the Christmas tree).

I don't think I've ever seen such pure joy on his face - it is pretty cute, and endlessly entertaining for us to watch. He can tell he's doing something exciting, and his little pride shows. Baby is really on his way to being a toddler (sobs)!

I recently joined a play group / Mommy group which meets for fun little activities. Today we went to the library for a reading hour. Poor William was the youngest one there and was not entertained by the nice librarian asking all the kids to give their best bear growl as they were reading a book. It scared W to death... think this means we need to get out more, and have him spend more time with other kids! He's not really used to noise or commotion. I'm sure he'll soon start to love playing with the other little ones.

Milestones: Walking, pointing (started closer to 12 months - he will point at objects when we ask, "Where is the _____?")

Starting to: Tries to stand on his own in "open ground" - for now he can only stand by pulling up on objects. He's begun to attempt the next step!

Words: "Ba" for ball, "Buh" for book, "Ga-Ga" for Georgia (and all dogs), "Guck" for duck, "Mom Mom Mom" and sometimes "Dada" - but the D sound is somehow a combination of the letters D and G. And as we all know, he has been saying "Gula" perfectly for a few months - so funny!

Favorite Foods: Lately he's on a pears and lima bean kick. He also goes nuts for bread (white is his favorite, bad boy!) and will eat it no matter how full he is. We were shocked to find that he LOVES spinach ravioli! He's now trying almost all things that we eat; it's fun.

Favorite Toys: Books, balls, trucks, trains, tractor (seeing a common thread?) and his stuffed Georgia. His favorite things in the world right now (though we try to reinforce that it is NOT a toy!) are his Christmas tree, all of its ornaments, and the Christmas lights on our deck.

Dislikes: Doesn't seem to love bananas as much as he used to... absolutely hates having his face washed after mealtime.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things

We try not to let W watch TV, but of course on occasion there is a football game on in the background, etc. Generally he doesn't pay attention to the screen at all. Recently, though, he's become obsessed with music - any and all types. Catchy tunes in commercials, the Christmas music and "Baby Genius" classical CD that I play for him during the day.

To change it up (and it's Christmas, after all!) I've been putting one musical on per day. Daddy, bless his heart, would not want to watch these with us, so we do it during the day as a special treat. Camelot, Les Parapluies de Cherbourg, West Side Story (he LOVES that one!) and my very favorite, The Sound of Music.

The latter made me start making mental lists of my own favorite things, and - surprise, surprise - they're almost all about William.

One of them is the morning time. PJ time. He wakes up smiling and silly (sometimes shrieking) and I pick him up. He still smells yummy from the previous night's bath. We come out into the living room, and he sees the Christmas tree. EVERY morning it's as if it's the first time he's seeing it. It is the cutest thing. He points frantically and says "Ooh! Oooooooh!"

Since I already showed off the recent "William and the tree" photos, here are a few of Morning Time William. Playing in his PJs happily, before I left on Sunday for a photo shoot in Easton.

Do you think he likes his rocking horse?

Thankful

It's been awhile - we were on the road last Monday (literally - driving from Clarion to West Virginia to Joel & Renee's family's lodge) and yesterday we were getting settled back in at home.

We had a perfect Thanksgiving - and part of what made it perfect was the fact that it was over a week long! We left last Friday and spent 3 nights in Clarion. William had a great time cruising around Gula & Grandpa's house, playing with all of his toys, and spending time with his grandparents and Aunt Erika. He even got to ride on his Daddy's special rocking horse from when he was little, AND learned to play the harmonica. (No joke! Remember that Fisher Price drum set from the 80s/90s with the cymbals, maracas, etc.? His grandparents taught him how to blow into the harmonica and he was so tickled that he was making music. It was pretty cute).



We ate lots of good food, went on walks, helped Grandpa and Gula set up their Christmas decorations, relaxed and watched the PSU and Steelers games. Had a great time, and couldn't believe it was already time to leave when Monday rolled around.

From Clarion we drove (I believe it was between 3-4 hours) to the Riffee's gorgeous lodge in the mountains of WV. Their entire family was there (the place was huge as well as beautiful!) - 5 kids including William, 2 dogs, and Joel's siblings and parents. We were bursting to see Joel and Renee, especially pregnant Renee! They're both doing well and are expecting their little girl, Marley, in February. We felt like part of the family and even got to participate in a little surprise baby shower for them. Thank you so much to the Riffees!


From WV we had another 4 hour drive to State College, to the Grim's for Thanksgiving. We were so excited to arrive and see everyone, including Gran, who came all the way from Florida, and who we hadn't seen since April! Of course Nanna's house was beautiful and her meal was perfect.

We were happy to see Aunt Amy, Uncle Dan, and cousins Luke and Morgan. William loved them! He spent his days playing with everyone - Nain, Taid, Uncle Tib and Aunt Mary. We even got to see cousin Taylor who came for the weekend for the last PSU home game. It was special to see so many family members all together at the same time. William was quite a ham and was eating up all of the attention.

In fact, he decided on the day after Thanksgiving as the day that he'd take his first steps! I'm so glad I was in the room to see it amongst all the happy visiting and commotion - he took 3 steps from his Aunt Mary to his Daddy, and was SO proud. We have been pestering the poor guy ever since, having him walk from person to person. So far he's really not that interested, and his record is 4 steps. He'd much rather crawl; it's faster at this point and he is a pro. He wrestled and lounged with Uncle David and Uncle Andrew, laughed at the doggies, watched football, and sampled some of the Thanksgiving feast. (Results: he loves turkey but was not a fan of real sweet potatoes.)

Click the collage to enlarge!

To say we are thankful is an understatement. We have the most loving families in the world. We have a happy, healthy, hilarious little boy. We have a roof over our heads and a bright future to look forward to.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone, and here's to the beginning of the holiday season!

My First Birthday Party!

I say "my" for William, but it was also special to Esch and I as our first baby's first birthday!

I had so much fun with the preparations, and of course even more fun having our families here to share in the special day for our W.

We watched a movie of his first year (I tried to keep it watchably short! It was only 12 minutes! ;) and it seemed to be a hit. We opened presents, ate lunch, and then sang Happy Birthday to the guest of honor! He wasn't especially thrilled with his "smash cake" and we didn't get the huge mess we were hoping for (honestly, little one! The ONE time I encourage you to throw your food and rub it all over your face!) but he liked his "William" candles.

He LOVES his gifts and loved playing with his grandparents, great-grandparents and uncles! We are now counting down until Thanksgiving when William gets to see his Great-Gran and Aunt Erika!

12 month photos

Had to do the last in his 12 month series to complete the year!

He looks like such a little boy to me in these - where is our baby?

Yay for me!