Dinner Etiquette

With Christmas just a few days away most of us will be spending time around the dinner table with family and friends. It's time to pull out the fine china and real napkins ... and, of course, your best manners. William has a few pointers on how to impress those who matter to you most during this festive time.

The best compliment to the chef is to hold your fork in your right hand and then shovel your food into your mouth with your left hand as quickly as you possibly can. This makes the statement, "The food is so good that I cannot let a fork slow me down." And thus fills the chef with a true feeling of fulfillment for all the hard work she or he has spent in the kitchen.


Zucchini is not only delicious and healthy, but it also makes a great sticker. So if the conversation slows a bit or gets awkward, feel free to pull of your shirt and stick a few on. Everyone will be amazed at your ingenuity. Note: Zucchini is better than traditional stickers because it is a "green" option considering that it is paperless, takes no chemicals to produce and is completely biodegradable.


Not sure your host knows how you feel about the meal after all that? Make sure he or she sees every morsel that you eat. Being certain that you actually ate it will reassure the host that the food was awesome and that you weren't slipping it to the family dog under the table.
Merry Christmas and bon appetit!

William's Thanksgiving

We got to go and visit family in Little Rock for Thanksgiving. Yes, I know that was weeks ago but as I stated in the last post I am very behind on posting photos. Here are some shots from the vacation.

Nana allowed William to clear off the coffee table so that he could have his own stage to perform on.

Uncle Ryan couldn't resist joining in.

Uncle Keith was very patient with the numerous trips up and down the stairs (it is special when you don't get to at home).


William got to stop in and visit with Great Memaw and Pawpaw.

William had a blast on the trip but seemed pretty excited about being home with all things he is familiar with (including Mia's stinky dog bed).
Note: To anyone who is charge of choosing the candidates for the Gap Casting Call ... you really missed out by not choosing the Woo. Look - he can even make a stinky dog bed look cute.

Finger Painting

Our first try at finger painting didn't go the way we expected. William has loved making lovely pictures on his high chair tray with food and beverages for quite a while. So the paint seemed like something else he would enjoy...
The first thing he did with the paint is put a huge glob into his mouth. Which, of course, elicited screams of "no" and "stop". Which upset/scared him and the rest of the time he was not pleased that his hands were turning colors.

Then he began rubbing his eyes which made us regret choosing blue and green paints.

Then it was off to the bath.
We will revisit finger painting later.

Just some cute photos

Here it is - your fix of wild hair and cute meal times. I have tons more photos to share but have gotten really behind. There is more to come soon!




What happens when William feeds himself yogurt.

Happy Belated Birthday Sarah Lidbom

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Into Everything

William has been into everything these days. He busted his lip three times in two days. The last one was quite a big deal and happened to occur on Daddy's birthday. Despite the large amount of blood (that almost gave mom a heart attack) and a fat lip in three places he is doing quite well and has not slowed down one bit in his non-stop activity.

Just a small peek at the last busted lip. He is pointing to it in a very cute, "more attention please" way.


Helping Daddy with some work around the house. He stood on the ladder holding the level for him the whole time.


Mommy once again tried to let William feed himself. Holding the cup of yogurt right next to his face and letting him work the spoon resulted in this. Yes he did get yogurt in his eye. I am sure that is totally normal and possibly a sign of genius.

More smiles and meals

It is what we do most of the day around here. There are many hours spent eating and being silly. So we must share.

"This one goes out to the cool cat on the carpet over there"


His new favorite thing to laugh incessantly about is his "surprised" expression. He loves to make this face at mealtime, on the changing table, in the car and especially in the mirror.


Sure, many of you have noticed that William's hair doesn't usually appear very tame. And it is true that mom doesn't brush it every time we leave the house or fuss about it too much. But just for the record this is what it looks like when he wakes up. So there is more going on behind the scenes that you would think.



Striking some poses (take note Baby Gap Casting Call). Sure, I can't be too objective being the mom but he sure makes me want to go out and buy cute kids clothes.

Lots of messiness

As William gets more and more active so the mess ensues.

Get over it I told myself. Sure, I have been letting William feed himself cereals and less messy things for a while now. How else will he learn to independently eat unless you allow him to feed himself off the tray? Other parents seem okay with it, you can deal with a little mess. After about ten minutes of this and a mess that took even longer to clean up I couldn't handle it anymore. I think my limit was when he reached over and wiped his hand covered in vegetables on our table. I will try again another day. And with something tastier than steamed veggies.

Even a few goldfish can become a laundry weapon in William's hands.

I saw teething biscuits at the store. Great idea I thought, since the boy has been cutting molars for a while and pretty much eats constantly all day long. What I didn't realize is that these rock hard cookies just release a brown ooze for however long the boy has patience for. Mia tried her hardest to curtail the damage by following him around and licking up every drop but the shirt couldn't be saved. I will be doing an oxyclean demonstration later today for those interested. I hope that getting excited and yelling about the power of oxyclean will ensure that the shirt emerges spotless.


Some new dance moves (and yes he is dancing on window treatments).

William tempts Daddy to stop napping with all sorts of fun toys.

This is what it looks like right before you are whacked in the face with a plastic cup. Note that Mia is just recovering from it.

Beach Vacation

So, it has been a while since I posted. A wonderful vacation and some newly arriving molars for the boy have held me up. William loves the sand and birds at the beach but is still not too sure about the water. He is cautious but getting more comfortable. I am sure that by next summer we won't be able to hold him back.
Some vacation photos...



Does that look like the belly of a child that needs to gain weight?



Mia is excellent to have on hand for reviewing documents. She does slow down typing though but everyone types slower when someone else is watching.

The Chicago Cubs

I am taking a break. I don't want to think about, talk about, hear about, dream about, or see anything about the Chicago Cubs for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time. What an agonizing, embarrassing, humiliating, utterly depressing post-season. Almost ruined my vacation. So, I need a break. From the Cubs, from baseball, for a while. I'm not going to watch ESPN. I'm not going to look at the amazingly beautiful, framed homage to Ryne Sandberg that's currently on the wall of my office (and may be taken down for a while). I'm not going to go to any zoos because I might see baby bears. I don't want to come to your world series party, and I don't want to hear about who the Cubs are rumored to pick up, will pick up, or did pick up on the free agent market during the off-season. I'll just be surprised in April. I can't handle it. I'm not done for good, but I can't bear to think about this even for a second. For a while. So please, if you see me or talk to me on the phone, please talk to me about something else. Anything else. Seriously. I'd rather talk about knitting or quilting (no offense Allison or mom - I know those two things are very exciting). Thanks. Now, what am I going to do with all this free time that just opened up in my life...?

Untitled

What do you think the caption to this photo should be?

I didn't know you could buy that anyway

We are currently shopping around for office furniture since almost everything is sitting in boxes on the floor right now. While perusing the offerings at Ikea we came across this.



Ikea sells a vast selection of goods but if you want lightning you will have to buy it separately. I think that is a smart move by the retail giant since lightning has been known to be destructive and dangerous.

A Long, Good Day

I just wanted to put up a quick post saying that we got great news today from the doctors. All the different parts of William's blood that we were watching have improved and they are certain that he is recovering. We are ecstatic and so grateful to God for His provision in our lives. We truly believe that this good news is a result of much prayer and a merciful God. Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying and supporting us. We love you all.

Thank You

I just wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone who has been praying for William. As you may already know he has been very sick and right now the doctors aren't sure what is going on. What we do know is that there are abnormal things going on in his white blood cells. From that there are several scenarios (which I don't want to put into writing) and we are waiting to find out more. In the meantime we are so thankful for your prayers. We are feeling a peace that surpasses all understanding right now that could only come from a saving faith in Christ. William isn't his full self but doesn't appear to be in any pain at all - God is so good! We know that we can trust God no matter what, that He loves William even more than we do and has a plan for his life. Please continue to pray for him that he will have a supernatural recovery and that his blood test on Thursday will have great results. And also that he will be protected from sickness since his immune system is so depressed right now. Thank you again. Here are a few shots from times this weekend when he was feeling better.



His Ooloo and Poppie tend to put their hands on their hips when they walk around. William mimicked this in a most hilarious way. He did it for one day and we haven't seen it since. Good thing Mom takes so many photos.

Our Week

It has been busy around here. We celebrated our 7th anniversary with a leaky roof and a sick child. But it has been fun nonethelss. William is keeping us on our toes as usual...


He loves to crawl in Mia's house. It drives Mia crazy.



His new thing is putting his fingers in his ears (like "I'm not listening to you"). He and Daddy are having fun with it.


This is for Gloria. Neifi is posing next to the lush avocado plant that has not died!

Who Dressed You?

Sometimes when William and Dad emerge from a diaper change there will be some interesting wardrobe changes - a shirt will be on backwards, pants on backwards and you get the idea. In his defense designers aren't consistent with putting the snaps on the front of the shirt or pockets on the back of pants. (I usually take my cues from the ubiquitous tag.)
I never imagined that it would happen with a one-piece outfit.

Note the backwards pants. For the record William is constantly in motion on the changing table so we are often putting diapers on and dressing him in the midst of serious contortions.


This isn't cruel. Mia really likes accessories. In fact, she begged April to put this on her and then pranced around most of the day very pleased with herself.


William loves to grab a book and plop down in Dad's lap.