Will's second birthday 12/17/09

We celebrated Will's 2nd birthday party at the Sports Mall this December. We had our friend Emily cater food, and we had a big cookie cake and cupcakes. Because Will's birthday is so close to Christmas, and because he has every toy he could possibly need - we had his guests bring toy donations for Jarrett's Joy Cart.

http://thejoycart.com/

The kids seemed to really appreciate buying a toy for kids in the hospital. It's a great charity, and we received the nicest note from Jarrett's mom, Jennifer, who is friends with Billy's mom.

Will did get a few presents of his own including a big race track with a loop, a stomp rocket and his first cowboy boots! Here Will sits and plays with his new race track while we watch Mark Ingram win the Heisman! Roll Tide!

Thanksgiving in Mississippi

This Thanksgiving it was time to spend time in Jackson with my family. We flew on connecting flights with a restless toddler and had the awful experience of a two hour delay on the runway. Luckily the pilot finally returned to the gate and let us run around a bit. Will was a bit restless, but considering all, he was pretty well behaved thanks to watching movies on mom's computer.

We were reunited with my cousins Bo & Emily and Will's cousin Gibson. We also got to meet my cousin's baby, Burton for the first time.
Thanksgiving day was spent at the BEAUTIFUL home of mom's cousins Tommy & Linda Peaster. It was a gorgeous sunny day spent with my mom's side of the family - our closest 60 cousins, aunts & uncles. No one knew I was very early pregnant, but it was nice to indulge in all the Southern food with no guilt!
Will had a ball playing on all Tommy's John Deer toys.
As soon as Thanksgiving is over, we pretend it's Christmas so my mom and dad can snap a few Christmas Card pictures. Here are all of us together. My sister Jennifer, her husband Matt & their 3 year old daughter Gibson. Susu and Pop-pop and the Hoskins family.

Mother Son Visit to Shaw Farm

I took Will to Shaw Farm today because he was obsessing with horses. Ever since meeting the race horses at Keeneland, every time he sees my computer (where the pictures are) he asks to go see horseys. I took him to the one place I knew there would be a horse that was open after 5:00PM. I showed him the horse, then raised it a chicken or two. He's such a farm boy!
Here is my little pilgrim celebrating Thanksgiving early, making peace with the chief.
Here he met his first burro.

They have all these cut out houses that the kids run through. He had fun. I think this one is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz's house (hence the cracks...tornado damage).Here is Will telling Fred Flinstone to "step on it".

Wiiiiillllmaaaaa!
And finally the horse. There was a yellow rope that we weren't supposed to cross. I had to cross it many times to pull Will back from the poor horse.
For some reason, Shaw Farm put up some shady establishments in the Western area. Perhaps I've seen too much TV, but he's not allowed to visit Miss Kitty's Rooms for Rent.

Will had a great Sunday at Keeneland complete with church with Father Dan and a visit to the stables with the Tourney's (thanks Lisa and Tim!). They brought out their horse, Our Douglas, for Will to see.John got to hold the horse, so now Will forever associates his cousin with horses.

Our Douglas ran a great race at Keeneland yesterday finishing second!! That was the sweetest horse ever!
Will was a little timid to be close to the horses at first, but he warmed up to them eventually.

What has Will been up to?

It's October. I haven't posted in a long time!! Will is almost 2 years old, he's 20 months. He talks all the time and is still running, jumping and climbing on or off of everything. He's a sweet boy still. He cuddles with his mom and dad (mostly mom), and he is starting to love TV and books.

Sue Sue and Pop Pop (my parents) just came to visit us in Cincinnati this past weekend. We had a lot of fun together! Will gets to see his Nana and Dah (Billy's parents) quite often so it was nice to share the love with the Mississippi grandparents.

Here are some of my favorite pics of Will from the summer. He learned to jump in the pool with just swimmies on. He even went off the diving board. We happily celebrated Uncle Kevin's 30th birthday (until snapping the elastic band on his chin). He went gambling with Uncle Kevin at the St. Mary's Festival (so proud!).

Enjoy! I'll post some video's next.

Gibson's new laugh

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Will and Gibson eatin cookies

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Will's hair seemed ready for a new style, so mommy created a little faux hawk. The curls prevailed and it turned into more of a duck tail look. Makes me laugh. Here's crazy man running around close to bed time that night. I'd like to say the mohawk inspired this wild streak, but this is actually pretty normal behavior when he's sleepy. I remember Gibson saying these sweet "hey's", but instead we get a bit louder version from Will. 

Beautiful Spring Pictures

Our neighbor Erin took some great pictures of Will this weekend! It was a beautiful day at Ault Park and Will was ready to be rowdy. He ran all around then would totally pose for the camera. Such a ham!