Priorities

Mom never buys Cheetos, but, today we got a little bag at the grocery store just before lunch. Pregnant = excuse to impulse buy. Over lunch, Will quickly learned that sweetly saying, "More peesss" would get him a few more Cheetos on his plate. However, soon the boy had to pee. He said, "Mommy, pee!" So Mommy jumped up and said, "Quick, let's go to the potty!" Will's response? He immediately grabbed the remaining Cheetos on his plate like we were evacuating the building. We got to the bathroom and he shoved them in his mouth for safe keeping while he did his business.

I suppose a boy has to have his priorities.

Oh, Will

You can just call Will, "Mr. Personality" from now on. He has been quite the character the last few days. His potty training is going swimmingly well. He really seems to grasp the concept, and has managed several outings in underwear. He also likes to run out the front door, gleefully giggling as he runs down the sidewalk in just his underwear and Mommy catches him. Never fear, this only happens when someone comes to the door or we are headed out anyway.

He has decided on a new tactic to get Daddy to come back. Mommy doesn't like this method, but it sure is clever. You see, when Will does something bad and Daddy is home, Daddy tells him that whatever he did (throw food, dump out clothes, whatever) was naughty. Ooooo. Mommy doesn't like that word, but it's a Daddy word. Anyway, Will decided to try dumping water out of the tub and then calling out, "Daaaaaddy?!!! Naughty!!" just to see if Daddy would appear to tell him that was, in fact, naughty. He seemed confused when Daddy did not come and Mommy was there, instead, to say, "Will, that's NOT NICE". To which Will responded, "Will nice!"

Another thing we have been working on is the concept of "Mine!" vs. "Share". Many of Will's friends have grown into the "Mine!" stage at the park. This involves grabbing a toy out of someone's hands and shouting, "Mine!" Will was a bit confused when this happened a few weeks ago to him, so Mommy discussed how Will should say, "Share" to a friend who might try to take something. Last week, a friend did try to take something, yelling "MINE!" Will stood back, hands on hips and yelled, "SHARE!" Good. Lesson learned. Wait. This weekend, Will wanted to play with Mommy's computer. Mommy said, "No, Will, that's Mommy's computer." Will said, "Mommy. SHARE!" Sigh. He got me.

He's fallen asleep for two nap times now chanting, "Bye poop." in a sing-song voice. He is looking forward to Mommy's doctor's appointment tomorrow because he wants to hear the baby's heart go "beep bump". Mr. Personality.

A video

A Train Robbery and a Potty Training Uniform

If you ask Will about his recent trip to the Poway-Midland Railway to celebrate Ben's birthday, this is the run-down you will get: "Choo-choo. Guy. sheet. boots. hat. Gunnnn. Bang! Down. Booo. No-no guy."

You see, Ben invited Will to celebrate his 2nd birthday by having a picnic in the park and riding the steam train. What we didn't know, was that there was going to be a "period celebration" that Saturday at the park. While it was pretty neat to see all the people in Civil-War era costumes acting out the Wild West and demonstrating tomahawk throwing, gold panning, and various other history oriented things, the train robbery was NOT something Ben and Will signed up for. You see, we managed to be in line for the very first ride of the day on the steam train. The boys were so excited as the train filled up and got ready to chug-chug and choo-choo. We went around the track once. Fun! We went around a 2nd time. Not so fun. About 3/4 of the way through, the train stopped. A "bad guy" climbed aboard and announced he was robbing the train. The "bad guy" had a big cowboy hat and a bandana over his face. Every toddler on the train LOST IT. The actors played out a train robbery with a sheriff arriving and a GUN FIGHT along side the train. Oh, yes, they fired rifles. About 8 times. More crying. Will became a barnacle attached to Mom's cheek as his little lip quivered and he tried to decide if he was interested enough to look out the window or scared enough to climb back into Mom.

Afterwards, though, he seemed to have taken it all in as he still runs the play-by-play. He never fails to mention it was "roar" (his word for scary).

We headed back over to our picnic area for some lunch and cake with the birthday boy, and finished off the afternoon with a great celebration for Ben's birthday. Thanks to Amy, Jeff, and Ben for inviting us!

Meanwhile, back at home, Will has been adjusting to "Daddy to wook, boat". By adjusting, I mean, he's decided diapers are not really his cup of tea anymore, and is getting pretty consisitent about using the potty and wearing underwear. Of course, his clothing choices might need some tweaking for public appearances, but for now, we stick close to home when wearing [Elmo] underwear...and train pants and bucket hats.

Farewell, Daddy

It's pretty hard to write this post, but I'll give it my best. Good-byes stink. They don't get easier and the 3rd time is NOT a charm. Plain and simple. Luckily, anything with Will usually makes us smile, even through our tears. Today was a long day. We brought Daddy to Camp Pendleton by 7:30 am. He had to gather some classified stuff and bring it down to the good 'ole dirt lot where the Marines meet. We hung out in the dirt lot until about 10am. Will played his own version of "Where's Waldo?" by pointing to all the Marines and saying, "Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy...two two two frreee!" (he only counts 2 and 3). He collected rocks and passed them out to all the Daddy look-alikes. He played with his cars in the dirt and shoved some rocks into Daddy's bag for added weight. He had a snack. We said "see ya later" to Daddy when the Marines had a formation and then marched up the hill.

After some playtime, lunch time and nap time, Mommy and Will made the looonnggg drive to Naval Base San Diego for dinner on the pier with Daddy. We had some pizza and got to tour the big boat (we will be referring to it as a boat as the word "ship" plus a toddler don't mix well). Will shouted "How cool!" and "To wook?" "Daddy to woork...boap?" a lot. (even boat becomes something else on the end) We saw where Daddy wooks and sleeps (insert snoring sounds). We walked on the flight deck and watched Mommy grow many gray hairs as Will got close to the edge a few too many times.

We met up with the Dominy family and swapped cameras for some sunset family shots.

The sun set. It was time for the worst part. Hopefully the last time.

Will picked this exact moment to learn something we've been trying to teach him for a while. He looked up at Josh and said, "Daddy? Muv ooo" Translation: Daddy love you. Off to get my tissues now. He said it the whole way home too. "Daddy, to wook? Boap? Muv!" Accompanied with "Jooosshhh....Honnnneeyyyy" and smiles through sniffles from Mom.

Well, Will, Mommy Muvs you for making her smile everyday.

before 3 become 4

It's our last week as a family of 3. A very strange thought to wrap your brain around. In case you forgot, or haven't been paying attention, Josh leaves this Thursday for his 7 month deployment. By the time he gets back (or within days of his return), we'll be welcoming a new baby to our family. Therefore, this was our final weekend with the 3 of us.

We decided to head over to Julian, CA for some old fashioned fall fun since everyone in San Diego makes a big deal out of how beautiful it is there and how nice the apple picking is, blah, blah blah. We were not impressed. You see, we have much higher expectations for apple orchards. As in, the trees should be higher than our heads. And the apples bigger than our son's fist. Maybe we are apple orchard snobs. Who knows? So, we didn't pick apples. We walked down Main Street three times, looking at the neat old fashioned signs and stores, hung out on the porch of the town hall where Will shouted, "HI!" to everyone passing by, causing one lady to "get her grandma fix" (she thanked us). We wanted to go on a train ride through an old mine, but that didn't start until 1pm. We called the horse and carriage people (don't even get me started on THIS), but the guy didn't bring the horses out until noon. So, we grabbed some lunch to go and drove the 15 minutes to Lake Cuyamaca. We ate lunch by the lake, walked around a bit, and drove home. Overall, we don't really recommend Julian as a family destination. But at least we went as a family.

Sunday was spent closer to home because everyone needed good naps and Daddy had some homework to do for his online class. We went to the park by the lake and Will insisted on bringing his T-ball set and his bike and his sand toys. It's no wonder that today, the nice Japanese playgroup that meets at the park confessed to calling Will the "toy master" among themselves. He always shares nicely, something that is easily done when you bring so many toys to the park.

Will was quite a character today, using new phrases like, "go away", "aww nuts", and "bye, Will to work". He plopped himself on the couch sprawled out on the couch after a morning at the park and informed Mommy that he was Daddy and he had to watch a "show". There were no boys to play with after Stroller Strides today, and Will noticed that all his friends seemed to have the same hair-do. He requested that he, also, be given the same "do". Let it be known that he asked for this. Did you hear that, Will? When you are 12 and you see this, just remember, you asked for hair like your friends.

Later on, after dinner, he gathered his friends for some more couch time. To the left there, is our latest addition to the family. Meet Scruffy. Snuggles' brother/sister. Snuggles was born at Build-a-Bear when Mom was pregnant with Will, before Dad deployed in 2007. Dad and Will made Scruffy for the baby last weekend at Build-a-Bear.

more on big bear + tonight's sunset

As we mentioned before, the road to Big Bear was really very trying on our tummies. Josh was able to get a Google Earth image of the road over the mountain to give you a better idea of exactly what the "Rim of the World Highway" looks like from above. The elevation reaches up to 7,220ft as the roads twist and turn. Oh, and there are no real guardrails...only big rocks.

Here are a few more photos from our day at Big Bear. Josh and Will played a little hide-and-seek among the tall grasses near the marsh.

Tonight, we noticed the buildings outside our patio looked like they were weird colors. Upon further investigation, we found that the sky opposite the buildings (behind our place) had quite a show during sunset. We ventured outside to admire the sky before bedtime.

Big Bear

Phew! It's going to take a couple of days for us to recover from our big family adventure yesterday. Josh has always wanted to go back to Big Bear Lake for a hike since we went there with Fenway almost 3 years ago.

We haven't been ready to brave the 2.5 hour drive with Will just for a day adventure until now. The car ride was actually the hardest part, but really there were only minor tears (the boy), minor grumbling/swearing at traffic (Daddy), and minor car sickness on the side of the road (Mommy + baby). In Mommy and Will's defense, the road to Big Bear is called "Rim of the World" because, well, basically it circle and circles and circles and circles as you climb up really high. Anyone not driving feels like they've been on the teacups ride at the carnival for 6 years. The day at the lake, however, was worth the troubles.

We were surprised at Will's endurance (but we shouldn't have been), as he wanted to walk on all the trails and paths himself. Daddy spent most of the time carrying Snuggles in the hiking backpack instead of Will.

Will loved being called "Explorer Will!" by Mom and Dad and collected rocks and sticks while kicking pine cones and literally frolicking through the forest. The boy walked nearly as much as Mom and Dad and then didn't nap on the way home! We explored some trails...and some off trail areas, had a picnic by the lake while watching a Chesapeake Bay Retriever swim and play, walked the boardwalk on the marsh, and took in as much peaceful, fresh air as possible. Will learned that sometimes we call Daddy "honey", and proceeded to holler, "Hooonneeey!!??" when trekking through the woods looking for Daddy hiding behind trees and tall grass.

Needless to say, bed time in this house was very early last night...for everyone.