William at age 3

William, at 3 you are still my wild card.  I don't think I can ever really predict what you will do.

You love to read books.  You can sit for an hour reading book after book sitting in my lap.  You also love reading books to yourself.  I often find you in Jack's room curled up on his blue chair with books scattered all over the room that you have carelessly discarded after you finished reading them.

You love bugs but you are deathly afraid of snails.

You are happy playing just about any game your brother comes up for.  As long as he's paying attention to you, you are in heaven.

You love outer space.  Jack has some space flash cards and you ask me to read them to you over and over again.  You also love playing astronauts with your brother.

Playing rocketship to Mars with Jack

You love the Green Bay Packers.  Your brother and father are not amused by this betrayal but I told you I would be a Green Bay Packers fan too.  You told me I had to keep being a Patriots fan, and that you were the only Green Bay Packers fan in our family.

You still love playing baseball.   I really think it will be a lifetime love.  You have a really strong swing and most of the time people aren't expecting it.  You can hit most balls pitched to you, and when you miss you yell and tell me you don't want to miss.    You will use just about anything and pretend it's a bat.

If I ask you what your favorite color is, you look down at your shirt and tell me the color you have on.  I have tried explaining what "favorite" means, but you still check your shirt before answering.  I think you are just a changeable happy go lucky guy.  You might as well like the color of your shirt the best that day.

You love it when I sing songs to you and change the words to include your name.  You will ask me to sing them over and over again. 

You love watching Sesame Street, but you are terrified of Abby's Flying Fairy School.  Really??!

You love animals.  You really want a white puppy.  I told you you can get a white puppy when Jack goes to college.  You ask almost every day if Jack's going to college yet.

Kissing a rabbit.  Gross.

You really loved that hamster.

Baba's neighbors dog.   You were in heaven every time that dog licked you.  Double gross.

You love being alive and a part of this world so much that the only thing threat that ever gets your attention is the threat of having to go to bed.   Heaven help me when you are already in bed and I need to convince you to do something.

You still love having something small in your hand.  A marble, dice, a lego.  It doesn't much matter what it is as long as it fits tightly in the palm of your hand.

You love sparkling water.  Flavored (but not sweetened is your favorite).  Any time I open some, you come running and tell me it's your water.

If anyone asks you a question, your most common response is "What?"  Really short and pointed. Like you are wondering what the heck we are bothering you with now.  Your father and I both now say "what" like that.

You call M&Ms, lemon lems.

You have called your sister Noelle, Noelle -E since she was born.  I tried to tell you her name doesn't have the E at the end and you refuse to accept that.  If I call her Noelle, you correct me and tell me its Noelle-E.

You say the color orange, "or-genge."

We learned from our experience with your brother and his blankee to buy duplicates early and exchange them regularly.  You made sure we didnt feel too proud of how smart we are and will only go to sleep with two blankees in your crib.  Yes, at 3 you are still in a crib.  You don't attempt to climb out and you sleep really well in it and I never wonder if you are still in your room in the morning.

You ask me to measure you all day long with different objects.  You want to know how many pencils, books, toothbrushes tall you are.

Palm Springs

When Noelle was about 5 months old we decided to go out of town to Palm Springs for a quick getaway before Zack started his new job.  Because of the 6 year difference between Jack and William I often feel like we are living in two completely different worlds.  There's the world of school, homework, playdates, video games, and friends and there's the world of singing songs, playing with toys, practicing sitting, standing, walking.  I feel like this trip highlighted this difference.  Noelle slept horribly and I ended up nursing through the entire night to keep her quiet enough that the boys could sleep.  The resort had a water slide, which Jack loved, and William was too short for.  Noelle hated the water, so the whole trip was about being divided into groups.  The Jack group and the littles' group.  I will admit the Jack group was way more fun to be apart of then the littles' group.

Will playing in the sand at the hotel

Mom gets to ride the lazy river with Jack

Too small to ride the water slide

Me and my boys in the hot tub.  It was a gajillion degrees in Palm Springs so this didnt last long 

William and Jack enjoying the spray playground

William decided he hated the spray playground and only Jack remains

Jack loves water slides

I really love water slides too.  It was just about the only reason I put on a bathing suit.

Me and my Wills

Despite my best efforts to keep everyone asleep, William only had energy to make it out of our hotel room before he needed to lay down in the morning.

This pretty much sums up Elle's feelings about Palm Springs.  She was hot, her mom didn't bring a good enough swim coverup to keep her from burning, no hat either, she didn't sleep well and she cried a lot.  Good thing we love her soooo much.

Size

As much as William likes to say he's a big boy, he still likes to wedge himself into all of Noelle's toys and equipment.   He makes me chuckle because it just shows how HUGE he is. 

 

This last one takes the cake.

Hair Babies

I don't know if it's all babies or just mine, but all three of my children have loved hair as babies.   Jack, being the awesome big brother that he is, has willingly offered his hair up to his younger brother and sister in order to bring big smiles to their faces and plenty of giggles.

My favorite thing about this picture is how totally entitled Noelle seems in having her hands clenched around Jack's hair and how Jack is just continuing to read his book.

Mornings

When William was born Jack loved to be the first one into William's room.  He learned how to pick him up in his crib and bring him to us.  There were lots of mornings that I wished he didn't have this skill since the fun of it was just to be the first one William smiled at before dumping him on one of us and happily running off to play.

Fast forward two years later and William wants to be the first one in to get Noelle after every nap.   She, however, wakes up like her mom and tends to be a grump until she is fed.  Dear sweet William is never deterred by her moods and still charges in after each and every naptime and rubs her head through the crib bars and tries to kiss her.  He tells me all of the time how much he loves her.

Biter

Noelle is my first baby that is a biter.   William and Jack each bit me once and the shocked look on my face and firm "no" was all it took to put an end to that forever.  Elle however thought my firm look was funny and my "no" was a fun game we were playing.  This went on for about a week, and Zack decided our 9 month old would sit in a time out each time she bit me.

As you can see, she thought time outs were just about the best thing ever.

She ended up laughing so hard at this forced exile that she toppled herself right over.

Elle-Belle

One of Elle-Belles favorite things to do when Zack is wearing a tie is to gnaw on it.

He's such a great dad.

She looks so much like William here to me

Build a Bear, William Style

I have been hanging on to a few build a bear gift certificates for the last year.  Jack has now officially hit the stage where he feels awkward building a bear for himself in the store surrounded by little girls, but he still is secretly interested in doing it.  So I figured we would take William for a special Build a Bear trip and Jack could "help" him make and clothe a bear.

When we got in the store and told him he could pick out any animal and make a special friend and then chose any clothes for him to wear, he flat out refused to make one.  He found a hockey puck and hockey stick and said it was for him, not the bear and that he wanted to buy it and go home.   Jack said it was the worst day of his life.   William was pretty satisfied with himself.  That's what most of our days are like at this stage.  One child is stoked, one child is sad, and one is just happy to be along for the ride.

William -1 Build A Bear -0

William

William has been insisting that he is not a baby, not a little boy or a big boy but a "big dude."  Now that he is potty training and wearing underwear (which is still hit or miss if they stay clean) he says he is no longer a big dude.  Now he is a big boy like Jack.

As we start sleep training

I found this post that I never published from two years ago.  Funny timing because I am staring sleep training in the face with Noelle and was just saying I never had to sleep train Will because he never cried when I put him down.  Time blurs the bad.  Today William you are my best champion sleeper.  Maybe two years from now I'll be sure Noelle never screamed during sleep training too.
Dear Will,

I wonder if you know while you stare up at me crying because I have put you down in your crib to fall asleep yet again that I hate it, if possible, even more then you do. I wonder if you know how much I used to know about babies but six years have erased. I wonder if you hear when I call your aunt and ask for advice because I seem to have forgotten that some days parenting means saying no, and dealing with the tears, not only from your brother but from you too sweet boy. I wonder if you know how hard that is after waiting for you for so long. I wonder if you know that all I want to say is yes, always, but I want more for you to be the strong baby, boy, man you need to be even if that means today is miserable. Dearest baby I wonder if you know ever how many prayers were offered to being you here.  I wonder if you know how much you were needed in our family.

I wonder if you will ever have even the slightest idea of how much I love you.
Love, Mom