Rainy Day Play-Doh

1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup water
food coloring

What to do:

Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Heat gently, stirring all the time. When the dough has a good consistency, take it off the heat and allow to cool on wax paper. Store in closed container. Lasts fo-ev-er. Add water if too dry; add flour if too sticky.

Find a cute toddler, confine him/her outside or in the garage and enjoy! Good for hours an hour of fun...well, what did you expect, toddlers do not have long attention spans...an hour is pretty good!

Graduations

It's that time of year again...Graduation season. We're not sure how we'll feel years from now when Will is graduating real school and such, since we get a little sad each time he graduates sizes in clothes. Recently, we had to re-haul his jammie drawer in favor of the next size up. We discovered this one night after putting him a pair of footie jammies and watching him topple over when he couldn't walk because apparently he's too tall for that size. Hmm....when did that happen? Who's been watering this kid? So, now he's sporting new(er) jammies...new to him, that is.

Congrats to all our friends and family who are graduating college, high school, and elementary school (way to go Gram! :) ) Time sure goes by fast after those graduations. This weekend was Megan's 5th reunion at Stonehill and next year will be her 10th high school reunion. Wow.

a is for alligator "a-do"

a is for alligator

Will calls them "a-dos". Although he loves all creatures, great and small, he has a special place in his heart for "a-dos". He happened to be wearing his "a-do" shirt today when a package came from Gram and Gramps...with an "a-do"! He made sure to kiss and hug the "a-do".

b is for blocks and balls


two of Will's favorite things to play with

c is for coloring; something Will [and Dad] sure enjoy these days



d is for dreary and digging; the weather may be dreary, but it doesn't stop a boy's love of digging

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day to all our friends and family, especially those who have served or are serving our country!

The View from Here

I suppose it's no secret that I (Megan) keep up the blog. We always write from the whole family, though, since it is a family blog and Josh is usually right here when I update...unless he's not, that is. Err....anyway...moving on. Will has always had a little hero-worship for Daddy. Recently, though, it's really hit an all time high. Anywhere that Daddy goes, anything that Daddy does, Will wants to be and do. It's a pretty nice view, don't you think?

However, sometimes the little mimic misinterprets Daddy's actions and Mommy is left shaking her head. Take this story from Friday. Mommy asked Dad to bring home some things, which included watermelon for Will. Daddy came home with a HUGE, whole watermelon. Will rolled it into the kitchen where Dad put the cutting board on the floor, placed the watermelon on top and requested his knife. Will and Mom stood back as Daddy prepared to cut the watermelon. Turns out, it was a VERY juicy watermelon and could easily be chopped instead of cut. So began Will's first karate lesson. Daddy called out, "Hey-Yaw!" and sliced into the melon. Will caught on quickly. Melon flew, giggles ensued and when all was said and done, Will was in the tub and Daddy was scrubbing the kitchen floor. Fun times, right?

Until the next day at lunch. Mommy served Will's lunch, set it on the table, put him in his chair and turned to prepare her own lunch. Will began shouting out, "Hey-yaw!" Mommy thought, "oh, that's so cute, he remembers chopping the watermelon..." and continued to make her own lunch. Soon, though, a weird sound came from behind Mommy's back. Turning, Mommy found Will hurling the watermelon at the wall and shouting, "Hey-yaw! Daddy?" Yes, thank you Daddy for teaching us how to use karate on a watermelon. Monkey see, Monkey do. And they are both (lovable) monkeys.

"Potty"

Around here, we have a "word of the day". Today's word: "Potty". You see, Will has been going on the potty for about a month and a half now. We aren't formally potty training or anything, but, he's interested and pretty consistent and he goes whenever he asks to or whenever we are home. Up until recently, it's basically been us asking him if he needs to go and him nodding yes or shaking his head no. Sometimes he would point to the bathroom and point to himself to let us know. Until tonight. Smack dab in the middle of bath time, Will stood up in the tub and said "POTTY!" Mom took him out, put him on and he did his business. Then we called for "Daddy!" to hear the new word of the day.

Happy Birthday to Gramps today!

Also, today marks 4 years in the Marine Corps for Josh (and Megan and Will). 1 more to go. But, really, who's counting?

This Post Brought to you by the Letter "P"

Will has stepped it up a notch when it comes to play time lately. He's really exploring more advanced versions of activities lately. He asks to color every morning, frequently marches around with his new instruments, has mastered his puzzles, and loves to bring all his cars into the kitchen to push across the floor.

When Mom and Will went to CVS the other day, they bought some paint. Yesterday, when Mommy was making dinner, Will was happily painting away at the table.

As you saw in our last post, Will has also been leaving his toys in various locations around the house. Most recently, we have found Snuggles propped up reading a book in Will's chair. He was not forgotten, though, as Will would come running in and turn the page every so often. Will also likes to put his creepy, abnormally large adorable baby in his booster seat when he is not using it. Daddy did not find it funny when he looked up to see the baby wearing sunglasses and watching him do his homework.

Teeth, Tantrums, and Twenty-One

Don't worry your pretty little blog reading heads, we're still here. Will has been giving us a run for our money this week with his new tantruming ability (he's going for an Emmy). His two year molars have been giving him a bit of trouble lately, too. He's able to stick his entire fist back into his mouth which is really quite something since he won't even let us stick a toothbrush in there without a fight. It seems he's fast approaching two. Yes, that's where the twenty-one comes in. He'll be 21 months on Thursday. 21 on the 21st. 3 months left until the big 2. He's been adding new words to his vocabulary daily. New additions include "dirty", "Mommy", "tuck (truck)", "happy", "bubble", "door", "down", "up up" and "cat".

And, just when Mommy thought she had a moment to herself in the bathroom the other day...she looked up to realize she really wasn't alone. We now have a farm in the master bathroom. The tractor was parked on the floor below. The farmer is no where to be found.

The Best Medicine

Guarenteed to cure even the worst days.


Love, Will (and Daddy-sorting laundry in a creative way)

Mother's Day with Shamu

One of Mommy's favorite places to visit is Sea World, so, for Mother's Day, Daddy and Will took Mom to see Shamu. We get to go for free once a year because military families get a free trip once a year. We went last year for Will's 1st birthday, but this time was a whole different experience. Will was really into seeing the animals and running from exhibit to exhibit. He really liked the Shamu show and especially enjoyed feeding the seals some fish (more on that later). You see, some of Will's new favorite words are "yay!", "wow", and "woah!". What better place than Sea World to yell these new words? We're pretty sure he was the loudest member of the crowd during the killer whale show.

Will is also old enough to enjoy some of the rides in the new Sesame Street Bay of Play area of Sea World. Although we didn't find the real Elmo, we did ride his flying fish ride. Mom is pretty convinced that, upon giving birth, all courage for rides was also removed. Will, on the other hand threw a major tantrum when the ride stopped and kept asking for "again" the rest of the day.

Daddy bought a batch of fresh dead fish to toss to the nice greedy seals. Feeding the seals was very tricky, though, because the seagulls and other weird white birds have already cased the joint and swoop in to steal the fish. They are NOT shy. One buzzed Mommy's hair while she was taking a picture and then stole the fish right out of Will's hand. Have we ever mentioned that Mom is NOT a fan of birds? NOT. AT. ALL.

We would like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to Gram and Grammie and all the other Moms out there! Also, happy Baptism to Zack, we wish we could have been there with you!

A Musical Day

Will has had a mostly musical day today. Normally, Will knows it's Thursday because Mom doesn't put on workout clothes and instead showers and dresses in normal clothes, but, Will's been sleeping in lately so Mom did all her showering and dressing before he was even awake! It seemed Will thought it was another normal day until we pulled into the parking lot where music class is held and he started clapping out a rhythm (clap, pat, clap, pat) and grinning ear-to-ear. He ran up the sidewalk, so excited to go to music class.

After music class, we headed over to Walnut Grove Park where Stroller Strides takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays because Erica arranged for Hullabaloo to perform a concert for us. There was quite a turnout for the concert and everyone enjoyed the songs and picnic lunch, despite the heat (sorry, New England!). If you want to hear some of their songs, check them out on YouTube! (Just click that link to hear "Sippy Cup" and more)

Hau`oli la hanau, Grammie!

What's that? You have no idea what that means? Oh, well, it's Happy Birthday! of course, in Hawaiian. Happy Birthday, Grammie and Happy Cinco de Mayo as well. Will was sporting his Hawaiian shirt yesterday and looking mighty handsome, so we decided to use this handsome boy to wish Grammie a Happy Birthday, Hawaiian style. Hau`oli la hanau! or, Feliz Cumpleanos, if you would rather the Cinco de Mayo version.