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.

Visiting with Family

Oh... after Christmas meant that there were lots of new toys to play with. Some that make noise too (over and over and over). Will was fascinated with this toy for placing on a tray, so much so that he didn't get let a few hiccups bother him.

After Christmas we got to spend a few days with Michael's Aunt Vicki, Uncle Mike and cousin Jeff. Will enjoyed having even more people to entertain (or more people to entertain him). Will was a very good sport, letting us go out to dinner and not fussing much at all.

Christmas morning

Christmas morning came and it was wonderful to have Will's Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle David with us. The stockings were filled and there were plenty of gifts for Will to open under the tree.

Will liked ripping the paper, although he didn't really get the concept of moving on to more gifts. He liked holding on to the wrapping paper or whatever gift he had.

One of Will's favorite gifts from his stocking was his new raspberry teething pacifier. It must have felt good on his gums since his teeth are coming in, even if Will used it unconventionally. We were hoping he would get his two front teeth for Christmas, but they hadn't come in quite yet.

Catherine and Will got a new BOB stroller for Christmas. It has suspension and everything, so it should make for a nice smooth ride on those walks and and can even be converted into a running stroller with the turn of rod.

While we got our breakfast between opening some gifts, Will took the chance to continue to much on his new pacifier. Properly, this time.

Will helped for a while, until it was his nap time. Of course he did fall into to the classic story of the box being more interesting than the present on a few of his gifts.

Will got some good gifts for everybody too. Grandma got a new sign that says "Grandma's Garden" to put up by her garden.

And Grandpa got a mug that spells out "Grampa" using the amino acid structures.

All together it was a great Christmas time spent together. Michael's attempt at duck turned out pretty good, although it was a learning experience. We got the chance to play several games during the day as well. Looking forward to spending the rest of Christmas break together.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was a very relaxing day hanging out with family, enjoying some snacks until mass. We took a few family pictures in front of the tree with Will after getting home.

Then it was time for Will to open his first present. It's a Schowe tradition to open up pajamas the night before Christmas (in part so there are new PJs for when the pictures are taken Christmas morning). Will did a fine job ripping the paper. Of course after he got it in his hand, he was content with the paper.

Will looked good in his new pajamas.

After putting Will to bed, we had out dinner of Cioppino (and cheese pizza for David), along with some nice Washington wine. Time to hang the stockings then and wait for Santa to come.

Jump Around!!!

As we were getting ready for Christmas with Will's Grandma & Grandpa, Will demostrated some impressive jumping skills on his exersaucer.

He's even doing a much better job of sitting up on his own. He like to reach for his toes or other objects on the floor, which sometimes causes him to lose his balance, but he's getting better.