look what made a comeback!

the surprised face!!

I sure do love this little boy!

17 months!

17 months!

If you notice Will's hand on the back of Mr. Bear's head in the first picture, you might already be guessing his goal.

It was this:

and ultimately, this:

It's almost impossible to get a 17 month old to sit next to a bear, look at the camera, and smile! Letting him eat a book helps...

Uh-oh...learning new moves.

Our sweet boy is 17 months old! He is 100% keeping me on my toes these days. He runs around all day, looking for "no-nos," and picking up toys and household items and moving them into new, usually inappropriate, places. :) However, we are now working on the concept of putting things back into their places, and he loves it! {for a little while} Will really responds well to praise, loves hand clapping {his or ours}, and saying "yay!" He actually woke us up this morning by yelling "YAY! YAY! YAY" from his crib. Not a bad way to wake up! {although I wasn't feeling quite as perky}

Will is quite a little parrot these days. I'd say one of the most notable differences this month is that he will often repeat an unfamiliar word after the first time he hears it instead of needing to hear it several times. He is also getting better at pronouncing things, although he still throws out a lot of gibberish.

After our trip to Miami, we had a few days of what I like to call the "terrible twos preview." I'm not sure if it was because we abandoned him for a few days, or because of the FOUR molars coming in, or just a little fussy phase, but we had quite a handful! This week has been much much better, so I'm hoping it was the teeth. I'm not ready for misbehaving yet!

This month, Will has really developed a love for all of the Sesame Street characters. He isn't all that interested in watching the show {doesn't really get into any tv shows yet}, but he knows all the characters from his books and his diapers. He's actually a little displeased with Pampers right now because in our newest box, the designs have changed, and Ernie is no longer featured. Ernie is his favorite...so he repeats "EEEEhhhh NEEEEEE" over and over as he pulls every diaper out of the diaper caddy in hopes of finding his friend on one.

Peek-a-boo is still probably Will's favorite activity, but now we can make it more of an active game. He loves to run around the house chasing or being chased, and yelling "BOOOOO!" So cute! He also loves playing with daddy after work. They have so much fun together, and since he is in a bit of a mommy phase right now, it gives me a much needed break at the end of the day!

And finally, this month, we have welcomed a new look. It's this one:

Most of you have probably already seen this in person, as he gives it to anyone and everyone these days! Ha!

Thanks for keeping us entertained, Will. We love you!!

welcome to miami!

Matt and I just enjoyed a fabulous long weekend in South Beach, Miami!! {Don't worry, we sang the Will Smith song almost exclusively while we were there. Even debated the authenticity of his lyrics based on our observations...} It was our first vacation since Will arrived, and we spent 100% of our time doing pretty much nothing! We laid on our padded beach chairs, fell asleep on our padded beach chairs, and had a few cocktails on our padded beach chairs. And then we went out to nice dinners at night. Ahhhh...... {honestly, we only had one thing scheduled during the entire 4 days - a pedicure for me! again...ahhhhhh.....}

The only negative thing about going on relaxing, baby-free trip is that you have to leave your baby at home!! Eeekk! We talked about Will a lot and definitely enjoyed getting updates and pictures from the grandparents while we were gone. We are so lucky to have such wonderful families who allowed us to take a trip by ourselves! And Will absolutely had a blast spending time with his Nana, Mimi, and Duke. They had so many fun activities planned for him that he probably hardly had time to miss us! ;)

Matt and I are terrible about taking pictures when just the two of us go somewhere. I guess it's sorta boring to take pictures of each other standing alone...but we did get a few. Here they are!

Will helped me pack up his clothes for the weekend.

First picture of the trip - right after we landed in Fort Lauderdale

Matt loves frolicking in the ocean. LOVES IT.

and who wouldn't? how pretty is this!?

Date night!!

the view from our balcony

my fun vacay hat!

Such a fun trip!!

blog book!!!

I am so excited! Just ordered my blog book for 2010! {Yes, I do realize that we are over half way finished with 2011. Clearly I am behind, but still excited!}

I was originally going to use one of the sites that just pulls your blog and puts it into a ready-made book, which seems super convenient and quick. But then I realized that I am slightly OCD, and it was really bugging me that the automatic formatting wouldn't let me include captions with my photos or make any of the pictures larger than the standard...or really do anything. So I found a cool site {blurb.com} that will import your blog and do the autoformatting, BUT then lets you completely customize it! I got to pick from tons of templates, make my own templates, whatev! It did take me awhile, since I only work in bits and pieces when Will is sleeping, but I am super excited about how it turned out. Since I hardly ever get pictures printed anymore, this is going to take the place of scrapbooking for me. {And that's why you, dear blog reader, get so much detail and so many pictures in my posts!}

On another note, Matt and I just got back from a relaxing long weekend in Miami. More on that later...