Hoppy Easter!

Dear William,

You are growing a ton!  You are also forming quite the personality.  You are a ham for the camera, which is hilarious.  Mommy has gotten some pretty cute videos lately of you trying to crawl.  You are VERY close to crawling.  Mommy and Daddy are going to be in trouble once you are on the move!

Here are some of the things you've been up to lately:

1. You shake your head "no."  At first Mommy and Daddy weren't sure you actually meant "no" but you have continued to do it, particularly when you are done eating, so we are pretty sure you understand what you are doing.
2. You have started making a grunting sound.  It is a very deep sound that you just repeat over and over again.
3. You now reach for Mommy and Daddy when  you want to be picked up.  It just melts our hearts.  You usually do the reaching when you are on the floor, or when someone else is holding you, because... 
4. You don't let anyone hold you right now, except Mommy and Daddy.  Sometimes you will let Uncle Dave, Uncle Rett or Papa hold you, but that's about it.  You cry when YaYa or Grandma or anyone else holds you.  Sometimes you won't even let Daddy hold you and you just reach for Mommy. 
5. You have been VERY grumpy the last few days.  You don't seem to want to nap or sleep at all.  You are very tired, and when Mommy and Daddy finally get you to go to sleep, you take LONG naps, but at night, you keep waking up.  We think you are finally teething...for real.  (Mommy and Daddy joke, that you have been teething your life because we always conclude you are teething when you are crabby.  We have decided that even when you are much older, we will still say you are teething when you are crabby, even when you are teenager! Haha.)
6. Because you've been grumpy, you've taken a few naps in Mommy and Daddy's arms lately, just so we can get you to sleep.  Here is a picture of you sleeping in Mommy's arms, one of Mommy's favorite things!

There was a lot of excitement around here on Friday night.  A tornado passed by very close to our house.  Our church even lost its steeple.  Mommy and Daddy took you and Phoebe down to the basement, to keep you safe.  It was pretty scary, but you slept through the whole thing!  Our house lost power, so we went to hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's house all day on Saturday.  You took great naps that day!  There is a lot of storm damage all around us, so Mommy and Daddy feel very lucky that there was no damage to our house. 

For Easter Saturday, Mommy took you to church with Uncle Dave and Aunt Kristen, and we went on an Easter Egg Hunt after church.  YaYa took some great pictures, which are below:

We are headed to Uncle Dave and Aunt Kristen's this evening for another Easter Egg Hunt and to celebrate Easter. 

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

The Growl Grin

Dear William,

Here is a picture of your funny new smile!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

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Breakfast with the Bunny!

Dear William,

You are doing great since getting the tubes in your ears! Mommy and Daddy couldn’t imagine you being happier then you already were, but you are seriously all smiles all the time it seems. You laugh constantly, and babble more and more different sounds every day. You now get up on all fours before you fall into your fish-flapping routine. You can flap or spin over to Mommy or Daddy and then pull up onto us. We are going to be in trouble once you are crawling. We bought all the baby-proofing stuff so we will be ready once you start. Mommy is a little worried that you might actually start crawling while she is in Kansas City for work this week. Mommy will be gone four nights in a row this time. You and Daddy will do just fine hanging out on your own, but Mommy will miss you!

You are becoming a camera ham, and break out into a huge smile for the camera.  You even lean towards it to allow for a better picture.  You have started to do a "growl" smile, for lack of a better thing to call it.  It doesn't really even look like a smile, but more like you are really mad.  But you are actually happy and usually laughing when you do it, so we know you are smiling.  Mommy and Daddy wonder if you are doing it because your teeth are about to come in or something...

You are now exhibiting extreme aversions to anyone but Mommy or Daddy.  You cry when anyone holds you that is not us and reach out for us to take you back.  Hopefully this is just a phase.  It is very cute, but so many people love you, we want them all to be able to hold you and give you hugs! 

Your aversion to other people apparently does not extend to other people dressed in costumes.  Papa and YaYa took our family and Uncle Dave, Aunt Kristen, Cora and Avery to Breakfast with the Easter Bunny yesterday.  You LOVED it!  You really got into the characters that came around.  You did great with the bunny and were very interested in the fish tank.  Mommy and Daddy are going to take you to the aquarium soon, because we think you'll like it.  Here are some pictures from the breakfast:

Here is you being a ham for the camera.

Avery was scared of the characters.



Love,

Mommy and Daddy

Playing Ball - VIDEOS

Dear William,

Here are couple videos of you plaing with your big green ball:

 

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

Getting Ear Tubes

Dear William,

You got tubes in your ears this morning to help cure your ear infections.  Mommy and Daddy couldn't get you in to see an ENT until next week, and you were probably going to have to wait until June to get tubes, but luckily Papa came to the rescue and got us in to see Dr. Gould on Monday.  Papa does surgery with Dr. Gould sometimes and said he was really good.  The only negative is that Dr. Gould's office is in Festus, which is about an hour away.  But Dr. Gould said he could do surgery today, so Mommy and Daddy decided the drive was worth is so you could feel better sooner.  Not to mention that Dr. Gould seemed very nice and was so highly recommended by Papa. 

You handled today like a champ.  Your surgery to get the tubs was scheduled for 8am.  Mommy and Daddy were expecting you to scream from about 6:30 until they gassed you out because you couldn't have breakfast.  Well, you got a tiny bit fussy, but didn't really cry at all, until Mommy handed you over to the nurse for them to take you back.  (You have recently been very clingy to Mommy and Daddy, and don't particularly like being around people you don't know.  You stick your lip out when Mommy or Daddy hand you off to someone else.  It is pretty cute!)  The procedure only took about 10 minutes and went flawlessly.  When Mommy and Daddy went back to meet you in recovery, you were crying, but Daddy gave you a bottle and you calmed down.  You took a nap all the way home!

Now that the tubes are in, you shouldn't get any more ear infections.  Mommy and Daddy, and everyone that loves you, which is A LOT of people, are so happy that your ears will be feeling better.  You are such a happy guy and no one liked to see you in pain.  Plus, Mommy and Daddy are also looking forward to not getting slimed anymore!

Let's see, You have started to LOVE playing with the big plastic ball that Mommy got at the grocery store.  You also like to grab anything that you can get your hands on.  You even tried to help Daddy grab the apples at the grocery store.  That was really funny.  You were leaning as far as you could over the edge of the cart, trying to grab the apples.  It is so cute that you wanted to help Daddy!

Here are some pictures you from the other day, watching the cubs game with Daddy:

Mommy and Daddy love you very much and we are so glad you will be feeling better!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy