party like a rockstar

Wow - what a weekend! I'm pretty sure that Will just had the busiest weekend of his life so far. We had playdates. We had birthday parties. We had a baptism. We had the whole family over for lunch. We went to the arboretum. And of course we had to have some power naps in between all of the action. We certainly took lots of pictures, so you can see how hard we partied. Here goes...

We got the baby bookclub back together on Friday. It was a small group this month, but we had lots of fun playing, eating, decorating pumpkins, and catching up.

Will and Nolan playing (Don't tell Nolan's dad that he most certainly enjoyed playing with a pink purse!)

My favorite - Nolan was sharing his mirror with me. How cute is he?!

Will had lots of fun practicing pulling up on this toy (super serious face here - but I promise he was having fun!)

Next up: My mom's birthday was Friday, so we got to celebrate with Mimi and Duke on Friday night. We had dinner and watched the AWESOME Rangers game. Helllllooooo World Series!

Will had a special note for his Mimi:

I love my parents!

Blowing out the candles

And the birthdays continue - on Saturday we got to celebrate the birthdays of two of Will's friends. Parker turned three and Ben turned one. So grown up! Parker had a gymnastics party, and the big kids had a blast jumping in the foam pit and playing in the huge gym. Will got to meet a new friend, Luke, and they had a great time sharing Cheerios and puffs and crawling around together.

Will and Luke

Next, after one of those previously mentioned power-naps, we headed to Ben's house for a fabulous animal-themed party. It was so much fun, and it made me realize how soon Will is going to be having a first birthday party. Yikes!

The Webster fam

Big cake for a little dude!

Yum!

Will and Ben had to step away from the crowd and play together for a few minutes.

Will finally got to meet Aunt Jessica and Aunt Kim!

And this picture just cracks me up. I believe the goal was to take a picture of Jessica, Kim, and Ben, but Claire sort of stole the show. Side note - Will received his first kiss at this party....from the lovely Claire!

After all that partying, we thought it was time to get this baby to church! Will was baptized today at Highland Park United Methodist Church. I'll be honest - we were slightly concerned about how he would react since we waited till 8 months, plus he has been known to freak out when handed to strangers. He did great! Since the baptisms are at the beginning of the service (smart thinking, HPUMC!), we took Will to the church nursery for the first time during the rest of the service. When I went to pick him up, he wasn't there...uh-oh! Apparently after playing happily for awhile, it got a little too close to naptime and they had to resort to strolling him through the halls. When I found him, his face was splotchy from crying and he burst into tears when he saw me - poor baby!! He pulled it together once I picked him up and fell asleep immediately on the car ride home. Hopefully his next nursery experience will be less traumatic.

Heading out the door - big day ahead!

After the service (and after the meltdown - Will was barely holding it together!)

We had everyone over for lunch after church. It was lots of fun, and we also got to celebrate Uncle Jonathan's birthday. (like I said - LOTS of birthdays this month!)

Post-nap and much happier!

Will + grandparents (hello, Will?!)

With Will's aunt and uncles

After everyone left, we all took a quick nap and then headed to the arboretum to walk around.

My favorite picture - Will is wearing one of Matt's baby outfits that Nana found. (It says "Superbaby" on the front - so cute!)

What a fun weekend!

Also, as I was writing this, I realized that I have been a little bit delinquent on my blogging lately (so busy!!), and I never posted anything after last weekend. Most of last weekend I was in Fort Worth for a work event, but on Sunday we got to hang out with Will's Uncle Brent! (Ok - so he's actually Will's "first cousin once removed" but that is just ridiculous to say, so we're going with Uncle.) Brent lives in DC and we rarely get to see each other, so this was Will's first time to meet him. However, we're hoping for more visits in the future, as Brent and his wife Tilly are expecting a baby boy any day now! (can't WAIT to meet him!)

Brent, Will and Mema

playdates!

Will and his friends have had some very fun playdates this week. Yesterday we went to the arboretum with Holly, Brian, and Ben. We had a great time. It was actually so fun that I joined the arboretum! So stay tuned during the next year for probably about a million and one pictures of Will with flowers, trees, and during the fall - PUMPKINS! Here are some fun pictures from our day. (A couple of these are stolen from Holly's facebook page - she got some that were better than mine. Thanks Holly!)

Ben and Will - friends holding hands!

playing in the pumpkins

baby swap

Will having a blast

lounging in the pumpkins

Will + mommy

sweet Will

they loved the hay

happy boys

Today we had another playdate - this time with Will's girlfriend, Harper, and his friend Parker, who is about to be a big brother! If you scroll through our blog, you will probably find at least one article of Parker's clothing in almost every post. Megan is very generously letting Will borrow many of Parker's baby clothes - what a great friend! We had such fun playing with Harper and Parker (and Jennie and Megan too!), and of course we took some pics:

Will + Harper (who is sporting some fancy new top teeth!)

Isn't Will's girlfriend beautiful?!

We tried to get a good picture of the 3 kids, but most shots came out something like this. Harper wins the "top model" award for smiling at the camera almost every time!

this was the best shot I got - all 3 are facing forward!

so happy to get to play together!

Will was doing this weird tongue thing all day - he's sticking it out in almost all of the pictures!

sharing toys (um...so cute!)

looks like Will is yelling, "I love Harper!"

i love how this looks like they're just chatting it up

It's been such a fun couple of days. Can't wait to see all of Will's friends again very soon!

eight months old

William is 8 months old today! Crazy. I think I make a comment every month about how fast time flies, or how I can't believe that Will is __ months old. But seriously, I think each month goes back faster than the last. And I'm sure it will always be that way, so I am going to continue to enjoy every minute with this precious baby. Will is just absolutely a big bundle of fun at this age. He is very mobile, very curious, and very cute! Here are some pictures of Will at 8 months:

almost as big as the bear!

happy boy

what Will really wanted to be doing during our photo shoot:

Since today was Columbus Day, Mimi and Duke were off work, so we got to spend some time with them and Mema. Will had a blast. I am so glad that he has gotten to spend some time with Mema now that she is living in Dallas.

Will and Mimi

Silly Duke

Will loves Mema!

Now it's time for my monthly list of William updates. I write most of this so Matt and I can look back and remember everything, so I apologize for writing a book every month!

• I didn't do a weigh-in or length measurement today, but I can assure you that Will is a growing boy! One of the most common comments I get, after someone asks how old he is, is "Wow. He sure doesn't miss any meals, huh?" And the answer is a resounding no...he truly does not miss meals! Will is and has always been a great eater.
• Speaking of eating, these days Will is eating lots of yummy solids. I haven't found much that he refuses to eat. I think his least favorite food is probably broccoli, which I must admit, isn't very appetizing in puree form. He ate it a few times, but the most recent attempt ended with every last bit of broccoli being pushed out of Will's mouth by his tongue. And during the entire experience, he was staring me down with a "WHAT are you doing, lady?" expression. So I don't think he loves broccoli yet. His favorites continue to be avocado and squash, plus this month we added Gerber Puffs, which are a huge hit. I absolutely loved watching him learn to feed himself the puffs. We started with me putting them on his tongue, and he quickly began to reach for them on the tray. However, at first he would grab the puff in his little hands, close his fist around it, and then shove his entire fist into his mouth. Not the most efficient way to eat. But he has now perfected the skill of picking up one puff with his thumb and forefinger and putting it into his mouth. I love it.
• As I mentioned last month, William is constantly in motion. I have heard of babies who sit and play with a toy contentedly. William is not one of these babies. Don't get me wrong, he loves to play with his toys. He just never sits still while doing it! His favorite playtime items are currently his chaos machine (ball popper), the stacking ring toy that all babies seem to have, the bowls he eats from or any gladware containers, the fake CDs from his little music box toy (he chews them), and he still loves the Baby Einstein take along tunes player.
• In addition to toys, Will loves to play with dangerous and/or dirty non-toys. I can't turn my back for a second, or I will find him chewing one of my shoes (ew), a power cable (most likely the laptop charger), or possibly some mail or magazines. He also has started making a beeline for outlets, but only if something is plugged in. Neat. My child is literally the poster child for baby-proofing. We've already installed some outlet protectors and furniture corner covers, but we need to go ahead and put in the furniture anchors and cabinet latches asap.
• Will wants nothing more than to be besties with our cat, Ally. Unfortunately for Will, she is not interested. At all. But anytime she enters the room, Will's eyes light up and he immediately starts smiling and giggling. It's super cute, but usually ends with Will speed-crawling toward the cat, and the cat leaping out of his range and running to hide in another room.
• Will still loves to be outside, so the cooler weather is awesome. He really loves the swing we put up in our backyard. One of my favorite things to do with him is to play peek-a-boo when he's on the swing. I'm not sure if it's because he is already having so much fun swinging or what, but he cracks up like crazy. I don't even have to hide. I just say "peek-a-boo" when he swings toward me, and he laughs and fist-pumps like a maniac. :)
• Sleeping and nursing are still going very well. Will nurses 4 times a day (and eats solids at mealtimes), and is still sleeping about 12 hours at night. He is down to 2 naps (usually), and lately he's been making one of them short and one long, but I just never know which one is going to be the long one! He likes to keep me on my toes.
• Will and I usually take 1-2 walks a day. We almost always go around the block a couple of times in the morning and usually again after his bath at night. I really love our walks. We're still using the baby bjorn for these short walks so Will can see everything (and stay awake to enjoy the scenery). I use the stroller for longer walks and the few jogs we have gone on, and Will usually falls asleep on those.
• Will and Matt are so cute together. Matt brings such a fun playfulness, especially when he does things like setting Will on top of the fridge (while holding him, of course) and taking him outside to feed the koi fish. Will loves his daddy.
• Did I mention that Will is a SUPER fast crawler when he wants something? He can be across the room in a second. Another thing that cracks me up - when he sees something he wants he starts laughing/panting as he launches his body towards it. It's pretty entertaining.
• Speaking of things Will wants (and then I'm going to stop writing this loooong post) - Will is developing a little temper now that I have to tell him "no" all of the time. Usually he takes it in stride when I move him away from something dangerous, but sometimes he just immediately bursts into tears. And he now recognizes "no," but perhaps not in the way I'd like him to. For example, he loves to crawl over to the fireplace and use it to pull up onto his knees. For many obvious reasons, I don't want him to play on the granite fireplace. So every time he goes over there, I say "no, Will" and move him away. So now when he starts crawling over to it, and I tell him no, he turns around and grins at me, but doesn't always stop what he's doing. And it's sooo hard not to giggle back at him! That cute little smile gets me every time...

I love you, Will!

pumpkins pumpkins pumpkins!

I love weekends. And I love fall. It is so much fun to have Matt home all day on the weekends, and we always find fun activities to do and field trips to take. Today we visited a neighborhood pumpkin patch to pick out a few pumpkins and take some pictures. Here are some highlights from the day:

Ready to go!

It was super bright and sunny, so we had some shadow issues with our pumpkin patch pictures, but we got a couple of good ones.

Will was very interested in the hay.

my favorite

Will + Daddy

Since we didn't get many great pictures at the pumpkin patch, we took the pumpkins we bought and set up our own mini patch in our backyard after the sun went down a little bit. I love these.

what Will really wanted to do all afternoon:

did you know...

...that Will is a huge Rangers fan?

So excited that they're in the playoffs! Go Rangers!