Frog Wrestling

Mr. Will has been quite the busy boy!  He is officially crawling now, and gets faster and faster every day (it's a little scary).  He loves to head to the door in his efforts to get outside to see the birds, as well as to look at himself in the reflective door guard.  His next favorite target is Worden's water dish and/or the dishwasher, depending on what we've barred off.  He talks like crazy - ba-ba-ba-ba and da-da-da-da and na-nee-na-na are the "words" we hear most.  His nanny is teaching him some sign language, including "more," "bird," "dog," and "milk" - so far, he's really good at "milk," but is still working on the others.  As for the Frog Wrestling - we've found that his waking up no longer involves lying on his back and calling for us.  Instead, we hear grunts and hoots through the monitor, and come in to find him wrestling the stuffed frog that shares his crib.  He is always delighted to have us find him in mid-wrestle.  It's pretty darn cute, but there are some night-wakings during which it's been hard to convince him that it's sleepy time and not wrestling time.

A couple videos of recent events at our house (please forgive my goofy voice in any and all videos posted).  First, Will's first real crawling!

 Next, Will and Worden greet JT:

Next, some clapping and crawling for Worden:

And finally, some gooey teething biscuit smiles: 

Love to all!

Weekend Activities

Had to post just a couple cute pics from last weekend's activities.  Will's pseudo enthusiasm for the Badgers didn't do them much good, but we'll keep trying.  He also wasn't entirely sure about his brand new helmet, but willingly wore it for our first West Seattle bike jaunt.  Gotta keep that sweet noggin safe!

Hoot hoot!

 Will's Aunt Rachel visited last weekend, and bought him a very cute owl outfit, which he modeled earlier this week:

In my new owl outfit from Auntie Rachel!

In other news from my working mama world - I packed a baby spoon in my lunchbag today.

That's it for now!

Seven Months Old!

I decided I miss blogging, and that it's high time to provide a few more pics and insights into life with Mr. Will. It's only taken me 7 months to get here. :)

First, a pic or two of recent times:

This was actually taken around 6 months, when Auntie Amanda gave him this dashing, very Seattle-appropriate shirt.

Our little elf, relaxing on a very cool elfin bench on Whidbey Island.

Happy dance in the kitchen!

Speaking of happy dances, we did quite a few this weekend to various African tunes to get Auntie Amanda psyched up for her big adventure to Cape Town. We miss her oodles and oodles, and can't wait to hear all about her adventures!

Will is on the brink of crawling, which we will try to post via video. He's also doing a lot of hand-clapping, baa-ba-baaing, and hooting and hollering at Worden, his favorite member of our household (as his mama, that's hard to admit, but it's true).

Keep your eyes out for future posts, hopefully more often than every seven months. To come: Lucky and the Fat Lady, and The Case of the Missing B.O.B.

Love to all!

Alyssa

Did This Blogger Have a Baby or What?

Indeed, she did! William John Moir was born on February 15, 2010, weighing in at 8 pounds, 6.7 ounces and measuring 21.5 inches. We are overjoyed to have him with us in the world! He's a sweet little man, already almost 6 weeks (!!) old, and entertaining us every day with his bright eyes, his funny noises, and his cuddling. Obviously, he doesn't leave much time for blogging, but we'll do our best to provide updates, some pics, and the occasional video. Speaking of which ... here's one of his first grins!

"I predict 12 pounds"

We took a long walking excursion around West Seattle last Sunday to see if gravity would work its magic on Radish. Here's a video from some beach time with Worden, which wraps up with a couple seconds of belly time and Dave's prediction.

And a couple more belly shots ...

The bare belly! A perfect shade of Seattle pale.

My last visit to Dr. Block was last Friday, February 5th. She said I remain about 1 cm dilated but have progressed to about 80% effacement. Her prediction was that I would see her for another exam this Friday, February 12th, i.e. Radish likely won't make his debut before then. However, now that I'm officially on maternity leave, I've been taking long walks every day in hopes that perhaps he'll decide to arrive a little early. My Braxton Hicks contractions have increased in number and intensity at night (last night's was a bit of a doozy), so we'll see what that means. In the interim, I've been lightly "nesting." Haven't had the irresistable urge to scrub every last surface, but certainly feel compelled to run errands, finish off paperwork, cook up some meals for the freezer, and make that last run to Babies R Us. I suppose you're never fully "ready," but it's nice to have the time for a bit more preparation.

Love to all,

Alyssa, Dave, Radish and Worden

P.S. Worden is 100% fully recovered and back to his old self (as evidenced by his beach behavior). He's had to put up with his bed shifting to the other side of our bed to make room for the bassinet. While we occasionally hear a disgruntled sigh as he settles in, he seems to be accepting it (for now).

Movin'

My 37.5 week appointment with Dr. Block provided more indications that Radish is prepping for his debut! She estimated that I am 1 cm dilated and 70% effaced -- not necessarily indications that I'll go into labor soon, but evidence that my body is getting ready. She did not change his estimated due date (2/14 - so soon!), but I'm OK with that. I wouldn't mind a little more time to prepare!

Speaking of prepping - Dave and I took a newborn care class this morning, which was, as we've found with all classes so far, very helpful. Turns out that Dave is a pro at swaddling, but it looks like I may be better off taking over the bathing duties. We have yet to determine who has more talent when it comes to diaper changing.

I'm looking forward to my last week of work this week - February 5th will be my last day until my anticipated return in June. Originally I had thought that I would work up until February 12th, but due to some of the more arcane rules of my short-term disability plan, I'm better off taking more time off. I have NO problem with that, especially as it gets harder to sleep with this basketball on my belly.

Here's a pic taken about a week ago (so yes, I'm a bit bigger now!):
And here's a pic of Dave and Worden, worn out from all of the baby prep:

Love and hugs to all,
Alyssa, Dave, Radish, and Worden