Crawling can be...

... difficult, especially if you are blowing raspberries at the same time.

or if you are chasing after rolling toys.

Will the Crawler

Daddy was away at a conference and called to talk to Will and Mommy on Sunday the 6th. Mommy said that will was doing better at getting up on his knees, but she though he still wasn't close to crawling and that it wouldn't happen until after Daddy got back on Wednesday. Well, the very next day she went to pick up Will from the nanny who said Will was crawling all over the place. Maybe it was spending the day at the zoo with his friend Hank the day before that inspired him to take the final steps. Whatever it was, we definitely have a mobile child now.




There still is a bit of the backward slide going on as Will figures it out, but it make chasing cups, caps, and balls a lot more interesting now.




And now that Will is mobile, it makes taking apart the playmat so much easier.

Will the Dancer

We're so happy that Will enjoys his music. He has his own swaying dance he'll do, whether it be music from the radio or stuff that he plays on his piano.

Trying to crawl can be frustrating

I have no explanation as to what Will is attempting to do here, but he seems to be enjoying himself.



Whenever he isn't head banging on the couch, he'll try getting around on all fours. Unfortunately, moving forward isn't working out so well.




One skill Will has mastered though is making a mess. Well, at least taking all of the toys out of the boxes. If it keeps him happy and entertained by himself, we're all for it... for now.




And just in time for Spring Training, Go Cubs!!!

Helping out around the house

Even with the nice foam mat to play on, Will seems more interested in trying get to the other parts of the room. Right now that is by a backward scooting action. He can't really control where he is going, but at least it's moving. He hasn't figured out that he can go backward to get what he wants. Rather, he'll see something and instead end up going the wrong way and watch it get farther and farther away.

Whenever Will isn't trying to work on crawling, he doesn't mind watching us in the kitchen. He's got his own bowl and spoons he can use to whip up something delicious.

While Daddy was away with the boys in Las Vegas, Will and Mommy got to spend some quality time together. From the pictures, it looks like they had fun. They were glad to have Daddy home though.

Will the Musician

Will is attempting to become more mobile, and hardwood floor with blankets don't make the easiest surface for a new baby trying to learn to crawl. So, we got a foam play mat for Will to play on. He took a little time checking it out, but he seems to like it. It doesn't slide about like the blankets, and is softer than hitting the floor if he should fall.

Old plastic cups are another of Will's favorite toys. We had some music on and Will added his own accompaniment. Not too bad for a seven month old.

Eggs

Before we get to Will's experience with eggs, we had a wine club event at Red Sky Winery. Will seemed to have a good time as well. We even brought his plastic wineglass for him to play with (no wine for him of course though).




We did keep him out past his bed time though. By the time we got back home, we had one tuckered out baby. He was asleep about a minute into our half-an-hour drive home.




The next morning Will got to try eggs. We scrambled them as that gave him a chance to have some finger food. He did fairly well with the large pieces, but I think he still liked being fed.

Certainly a while before Will is playing catch with us, but he does like rolling balls back and forth with us. (Apologies for the shaky camera work, but I was rolling the balls and operating the camera.)

A box is worth a few "words"

There is a reason that the box is in the Toy Hall of Fame. It can give a kid endless entertainment. After we received an order from Amazon, Will took a liking to the box, even though it looked way too big for him to move around. Will doesn't always need people to entertain him and will play by himself for some pretty good stretches or time. At least for now we've been cycling toys so they seem "new" to him. Lately he's been playing his little piano a lot. Who knows, maybe we have a little Schroeder on our hands.

Will has also started doing a some constant sounds and the latest is "mah" or "muh". Although he hasn't associated them with Catherine yet, it's still pretty cool.

Will claps!!!

We had been working on it, but up until this point Will would only clap other people's hands. Today he decided that it was time he slapped his own hands together. OK, it still might be more fun sometimes to clap Mommy and Daddy's hands because they make more noise, but it's a start.



Earlier in the week we had a get together with the other parents and kids who were part of our Centering Group at Swedish Hospital. It was great to see everybody again and see how much the kids have grown. Even though they are all about the same age, it was neat to see how each had grown and developed thus far. Some had teeth, some were crawling, etc.



Will was checking out some of the kids crawling and clearly taking notes.



Will took to the stage at the Sunset Tavern (where we had the event). Clearly he liked being center stage.





Everybody had a great time and we'll see how much the little ones have grown the next time we get together.

Little man in motion (or at least trying to be)

I think that we've already established that Will loves to to bounce whenever he gets the chance. He also enjoys being turned upside down, so much so that if you turn him upside-down once, he'll want to go upside-down again and again and again. He'll let you know by throwing his head back and trying to go upside-down himself.





Will hasn't started crawling yet, but he's working his way up to it. Still working on getting his knee completely beneath himself, but he'll rock back and forth while on the floor. I'm sure our hardwood floor isn't making things easier for him, but he keeps trying.

He has a little more success moving all over Daddy on the couch. This actually is a good video of many of his favorite things to do from bouncing to trying to crawl to making Wookiee sounds (like Chewbacca).



So much to do and try...

Will the Magician?

It's hard to believe that Will is seven months old now. Where did the time go? To update from the last blog entry, Will still hasn't started clapping his own hands, although he does have "High Five" down pretty well. The second bottom tooth came in about a week ago and we suspect there is more movement somewhere given the amount of drool and chewing.

Will is a bouncing machine. Whether it's in his exersaucer or while you hold him on your lap, it's pretty likely that he'll want to bounce. He's better about being on his stomach, which used to be something he disliked very much. Now the frustration is that he can't go anywhere. He's certainly trying though. The knees are more underneath him than ever before and he tried rocking back and forth. We know that we may have a crawler on our hand soon, so the final babyproof considerations are being made.

An empty Kleenex box is possibly Will's favorite toy. Sometimes it's a drum, sometimes it's good for dumping stuff out of...




Eventually he'll dump or take everything out of the box. He hasn't quite gotten putting things into the box, so that normally falls to Mommy or Daddy to take care of.





Occasionally he'll get lucky dropping items in the hole, although the real trick comes when he pulls a rabbit out of the box...

All that magic work can be exhausting. Sometimes kicking back and grabbing wineglass is exactly what you need.

Before anybody asks, that's spilt water from the sipping cup and drool down the front of his shirt. :)

Will's New Tricks

We've been very busy lately, and Will has been growing so much. We are also up to two solid food meals a day. Thus far he's had rice cereal, oatmeal, multigrain cereal, banana, avocado, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, butternut squash, carrots, peas, pears, mango and prunes. About the only thing he hasn't cared for is the mango, although avocado isn't as enjoyable now. He had his 6 month appointment earlier in the month and the measurements were 18 lb 9 oz (65 percentile) and 28 inches (90th percentile). Reality hit us in that Will was getting close to the maximum size for his car seat and we needed to get a bigger one. He seems to like the new one now as he is more upright and doesn't seem as boxed in.

Catherine likes to joke that she can tell Will is a Konopka boy since he's always reaching for the remote. Grandma send him one of her old remotes so that he could have one of his own to play with, which Will really appreciated.

Will has started trying to mimic some of the things we do. He already loves playing with water bottles, whether grabbing/rolling them or using them as a chew toy. Catherine worked out this shake and "drink" game with Will that he did a pretty good job with.

One unfortunate side effect though was that once we started trying to introduce water to Will in a sippie cup (without the "stopper" so he got some flow to help learn), he started replicating this game. It send water flying out of the little opening and all over Michael. Oh well...

Paddy cake is one of Will's favorite games. Recently Michael has been trying to teach Will to clap his hands. It sort of works. Will is far more interested in grabbing your hands and clapping them. It's a start.

Sitting and Jumping Around

2011 brought Will several new things. First, he is doing a much better job of sitting up on his own. We were wondering if he would ever get to that stage since when we first started trying to get him to sit, he would reach for everything and promptly fall over. Now his balance is much better.



The other bit of news is that his first tooth came in just before the new year. No pictures of it yet. Heck, he'll barely let us see it. Anytime you pull down on his lower lip he sticks his tongue out. Instead, here is a picture of Will sporting his Penn State shirt from Uncle David ahead of the Outback Bowl.



We did change Will into his Wisconsin gear ahead of the Rose Bowl We felt the "Jump Around" shirt was appropriate considering how much Will enjoys bouncing up and down.






We had some fellow Wisconsin alums over to watch the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately we didn't get the result that we wanted. Oh well. Will did enjoy some jumping around though.