Never thought I'd see the day...

News flash from State College, PA! Preliminary reports are coming in that my Dad (a.k.a. Grandpa, and affectionately called "Pa" by William) was spotted at the Grange Fair Tractor Pull this past weekend.

If you know him, you know that a tractor pull is not... well, not exactly his usual choice of entertainment or sport.

But here's the catch - his 21 month old grandson loves nothing in the world more than tractors.

And Grandpa loves nothing more than his 21 month old grandson.

Result:

The binoculars kill me! William kept saying "Tractors - in?" and looking at them through the binocs.

We were in State College overnight just Friday to Saturday - I had 2 shoots on Friday and W got to play with Nanna - they even went to her school! He came home, very proud, with a special book he made. He's starting to consistently speak in little "sentences" of 3 or 4 words. It's so neat, (and sometimes so cute/funny!) but is happening so fast! Just this morning at breakfast (several days after we returned from visiting Nanna), Esch was asking him about what he did at her school. W told us "Nanna pour water in" - who knows if she really did pour water - but those types of phrases are becoming common and it amazes me.

Friday when I was leaving my first photo session, I called Mom's cell phone to tell her I was on my way home. She didn't answer the phone (well, I'm assuming she hit "answer" and handed it to William), and the only person I talked to was the little man. It was like he was 5 years old. He said "Hi, Mama," and when I asked what he was doing, he replied, "Eating." Nonchalant. Oh, you know, eating. In the correct form and tense. WHEN did this happen?!

He's very into helping, and being involved in every little thing we do. Luckily the novelty is still there for William, so even a chore can be fun for him. When I'm folding laundry, he will always ask "Help me? Me too?" ("Help me?" cracks us up - he's asking if he can help... he has that one a bit reversed for now, it's funny!) and is contented to carry a shirt or sock around the house for a bit.

Let's see... other examples of his vocabulary explosion...

- There is a dove who lives on the ledge above our front door. She's always been there, which we thought was a little strange, but the previous owners and mentioned it to us, so we never wanted to remove her. We see the bird every day, and when Esch once asked William what her name was, he said, without hesitation, "Water." Really? Water? Ok, buddy! We laughed, but he didn't say it just in passing. He remembers, and always calls her Water (to add to this, he pronounces his "W" sounds like he is German - as a "V." So our lovely pet bird is therefore "Va-tah."

This weekend while we were in State College, Daddy called us to tell us that Vatah had babies! There are now three little bobbing baby bird heads in the nest, and William asks daily to "Me see? See me? Vatah - babies? Yeah?"

This is reminding me to be sure we get the video camera out more often to capture this cute stage of W's speech. He is, as they say, literally growing and changing before our eyes.

A few pictures of playtime on Nanna and Grandpa's porch this weekend...

Good old Tyson. Best doggie in the world.

And the last one for today - taken by Daddy last night, just playing in the backyard:

Happy Monday, everyone.

Less than a week until college football!