Dramatic reading of Byron Barton's "Machines at work." By William Vickery.

William has always enjoyed reading and demands I read to him an hour a day, usually more. Once Matt comes home, he pretends that I've neglected this need and uses his powers of persuasion on Matt. He has recently been calling the books by their titles and requires a particular order in which they should be read. Note: you can not under any circumstances deviate from this order! It's simply not tolerated and usually ends up with the book forcefully removed from your grasp and the new one inserted into your lap.

I've always enjoyed reading to William but now that I'm pregnant and my feet swell I really love it. William does get frustrated by my growing belly and will sometimes look back at it as if to say, "You're taking my spot and I don't appreciate it."  After a few tries we usually find a way for him to squish that is mostly comfortable for us both.

Yesterday William surprised us both when he busted this out. 

It's times like this where I just sort of stare at him and see the "big kid" he's turing into.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I'm usually the one bugging Matt to put up the Christmas tree as soon as Halloween is over but for some reason I just wasn't as anxious this year.  I think part of it has to do with the fact that I don't even have our pictures up on the wall (since moving back at the end of August!) I keep waiting for "nesting" to start but so far I'm too exhausted to care. Having said all this, we put the tree up December first (which is still respectable) but it was due to Matt's excitement and not my own.

This is William's third Christmas but the tree will forever remind me of that first one. I was up until the wee hours with him, nursing by the lights, and remember how much he loved staring at them.

This is the first Christmas that he was able to help decorate the tree.

actually putting them on a branch proved to be harder for his dexterity than he'd planned, so he soon found a branch that could work as a sort of ledge. He placed as many orniments as he could there.

We went with it.

Nothing has changed- he still loves the tree. 

The first morning he woke up and ran out to turn the lights on and said, "Kiss-mass tree!" he then kissed the tree and turned to me and said "Kiss the tree?"

William has been enjoying the seasons traditions and asks to watch the "gernch" (Grinch cartoon) almost everyday and will sing Jingle Bells every chance he gets.

"jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell, fun, hey!"

Adding to the Christmas feel, we woke up to snow this morning!

We wanted to surprise William so we left all the blinds closed until we were all bundled up and ready. We opened the door and William exclaimed, "ooooh!"

The snow was even more magical with the campus closed and Matt's client meeting cancelled. 

Once William discovered that you could mold the snow into balls, it was even more impressive.

The snow was pretty flakey in the morning but we managed to create a few respectable snowballs.

I didn't know how William would do having to wear a hat and mittens- he's not an accessory man. He did rip of his mittens and dive his fingers into the snow once. He quickly learned of their usefulness and kept them on the rest of the time. I would also like to document that the hat he is wearing was given to us as a gift for our current unborn child. It's labeled 6-12 months and was a little big for him. His head is in the 12th percentile ahah. 

William and Matt made snow angles too, although William was less impressed with that snow activity.

Because it defiantly wasn't packing snow at 1030 this morning, this little snow man was quite the engineering miracle. The hat I actually made at a knitting class last month and we decided it was a perfect  fit. William mostly wanted to knock it down but was moderately impressed with the finished product.

After that we went straight inside for some hot cocoa and watched The Grinch. 

Snow is so much more fun when it's a novelty and the whole city shuts down after 5 inches fall. 

Pregnancy #2

Today marks 31 weeks of pregnancy and starts a single digit (week) countdown. Only 9 more to go! 

Anyone in their third trimester probably wont be "up beat" about their current situation. If you ever meet someone who is- don't trust them, they're bat crazy! There's a huge difference between feeling crapy but having a positive attitude about the blessing of a baby.  BUT lets not go over board and say you love it. Because you don't. You just don't.  

"Oh yeah I just love having heartburn when I drink water. Okay great I'll stay away from spicy food. Thanks for your expertise"

"Excuse me, I can't read out loud and breath at the same time, hold on."

"Nah, I love getting my husband to take on and off my boots. Independence is over rated"

"Yes. I would love your input on my pregnancy stranger... tell me more"

During my first pregnancy, it took a long time for me to start "showing." Sure, I looked bigger than usual but for the most part I was in an awkward "is she just fat?" stage.  It was terrible. I would get comments from people like, "Is everything okay with the baby?" Here's a tip- never say that to an overly hormonal pregnant woman. Ever. 

This pregnancy that is not so much of an issue, as I am clearly showing a lot sooner. Here I am at 19 weeks and after our ultrasound.

It's a BOY. 

I was completely convinced otherwise. It was a total shock for both Matt and I when the ultra sound tech said boy. Clearly I have zero motherly intuition when it comes to that sort of thing. Everyone told me that pregnancies of boys feel so different from that of girls. Since day one this has been entirely different so there blows that theory. 

Here's 21 weeks.

Still feeling pretty good and can comfortably bend to put on shoes.

Here's a comparasen of 22 weeks. Although, to be truthful I think the one on the left is actually 23 weeks. If you can pick a favourite child based on pregnancy then William's the golden child so far.

Here's a 26 week update.

Status: completely uncomfortable

Either I'm carrying this child significantly higher or he's significantly bigger because everyday is a fight against my rib cage. William never once came in contact with my ribs. He preferred soccer punching my bladder. I haven't decided which one I prefer.

Baby #2's preference of ribs has enabled me to keep up my running.  When I say that please know that my time per mile has increased by at least 2-3 minutes and I never run over 4 miles. I figured I would run until it got uncomfortable and that hasn't happened yet so I continue. 

It's hard to not want to run being in Eugene.  It's always such a beautiful cool morning and when you have a sweet running partner, why not. 

29 Weeks. Large and in charge 

Over thanksgiving weekend we ran the Turkey Trot 5k (30 weeks pregnant)

Let's be honest, running while pregnant makes me feel hardcore.  I don't have many opportunities to feel hardcore as a mother of a two year old so I take it. 

In other pregnancy news I have been wanting to consume an entire dove chocolate bar a day. The other night I told Matt that I was having a pregnancy craving and was in need of chocolate immediately. I then said that this baby better come sooner than later because of all the chocolate I was eating. My loving husband looked at me square in the face and said, "Emma, it's not the baby." 

Although I can not confirm or deny his claim, I laughed hysterically and still asked for the chocolate.

I am growing more and more impatient every day. I think because I had William in October I felt as though this baby should have been here by then to. Obviously that would have been terrible and I want him to stay in until he's healthy and strong blah blah blah. I want this baby in my arms. Like, now!

October

October was the month that our sweet infant turned 2. What the heck!!

Basically this,

has turned into this,

and I think I'm okay with it.

Firstly his stats:

Height 34 1/2"       54th percentile
Weight 28.2 lbs     53rd percentile
Head 18 1/2"         12th percentile


William has turned into a full fledge 2 year old complete with meltdowns over sharing toys and brushing his teeth. I've heard lots about terrible twos and would say that so far they are much better than his mood swings at 18 months. William seems to have learned enough vocabulary to get his points mostly across and that has helped SO MUCH.

When we were at the Dr's office she said, "He's supposed to have a vocabulary of 20-25 words but I think he's said 50 since I've entered the room five minutes ago." This little boy is a talker. He has a voice and wants it to be heard! He is also stringing words together into sentences which is really making me laugh because sometimes they don't entirely make sense or apply to the situation. Others I question his comprehension and attribute it to just having heard it before.

He is very social and waves to say hello/good morning/goodbye  to almost everyone in every store we go to. He's become pretty possessive of toys and will say, "No, won't take it" ALL the time whenever a child so much as looks at what he's playing with. He actually is pretty good at sharing once he establishes the personality of the child he is playing with. A certain level of trust must be established before sharing takes place.

His favourite things are his train set, anything with wheels, and his duplo blocks (larger lego). He's started to create things with his blocks and have an imagination about what they are. I could watch him play with them all day. He most frequently builds a "tall tower" "air plane" "tractor" and "under" (bridge)

He's gotten better at eating different foods but his favourites are butter chicken, curry and chocolate. I didn't know anyone who loved chocolate more than me but I think he just might have me beat. William is also obsessed with shoes. He will try to wear anyones shoes once they have come in and left them by the door. Big, small, high heels, slippers it doesn't seem to matter. I've taken him to the new Nordstrom Rack a few times and when we walk down the isle of shoes he'll squeal with delight, "oooh shoes!" and then want to hold them all. I see many shoe and chocolate shopping trips in our future together. I should note that his shoe of choice in any weather or wardrobe are his batman rain boots.

As his phrases and vocabulary have increased it has become more and more fun playing and interacting with him. It's also been interesting to see the things that he notices. I am always notified when there is a "big truck" "city school bus" or any form of construction equipment. He names each truck individually and correctly. I just take his world for it when he says, "skid steer" because I don't actually know which one that is.

I didn't actually get to throwing a party for William due to Matt's insane schedule but Nanny and Grandad paid a visit the week before.

We went to the pumpkin patch

Fed goats

Checked out tractors 

Ran threw corn mazes

and even rode on a "cow train" with Nanny

Thanks Nanny for being such a good sport... and for being the only one under the weight restriction with William included ahah. 

It was just a quick trip but we sure crammed in a day of fun together.

We miss you!

October is one of my favourite months. I love fall and all it's activities. This October also re-kindled my love of Halloween. It's just so much better with kids. 

carving a pumpkin seemed like too much of a hazard and to be honest neither Matt or I even enjoy it... William LOVED painting his "bunkin" instead and no fingers were cut off. 

He was also a very enthusiastic Spider Man.

We did a few dry runs on the whole trick-or-treat business. He got good at the knocking, picking out the candy and saying thank you but never actually said trick or treat to anyone. 

We went out kinda early to just a few of our friends apartments. William picked out one candy when he got home and ate it. After that we just pored his candy into ours that we handed out. He woke up the next morning and said, "all gone chocolate." Pretty sure it's not going to be that easy next year. 

Last night as a one year old.

Auntie Lindsay went a little crazy and bought William enough train tracks and accessories to cover our entire apartment. 

He was pretty overwhelmed

Breakfast of a 2 year old champion

I wanted to get a picture of the "2" before he started eating but he was so impatient and cried when he couldn't lift it up in perfectly bite sized pieces.

Thankfully most things are forgotten quickly

William and I had a great day filled with all of his favourite food and activities. Matt was busy at school but that weekend we took him to the science factory as a family. 

Even though it was pretty low key I know he had a blast and so did I. I love spending my days with this sweet boy. Happy 2 years, Son. We love you!

October also held Canadian Thanksgiving. It was delicious and we had a party with great friends but I'm too tired writing about October so you'll just have to take my word on it and salivate over the picture of our turkey. 

It was hands down the BEST turkey I've ever had and that is saying something because my mom makes a mean bird! Matthew, I would have married you for your poultry expertise alone.