9 Months Old - November 5, 2011

Weight - About 19 lbs

Likes: FOOD!!! and lots of it (pasta, cheese, yogurt, any fruit or veggie, really anything I put infront of him), playing with the little animals from his new Little People Farm, Sesame Street, crawling up and down the hallway, sleeping through the night (thank goodness), swings (still), when Daddy gets home from anywhere, helium balloons, racing toward the fireplace

Dislikes: when I put him down on the floor to crawl with bigs groups of people - wants his mommy or daddy to hold him which I think is pretty sweet

A very Ducky Halloween

First Celebration of Halloween was at Wiggleworms

For Will's first Halloween he went as a cute little Ducky!! The costume for being $10 dollars from Carters got tons of use and worked great. I must say Will really pulled off the yellow and orange stripped tights and the zip up duck body was so easy to get on and off. Total success. On the Saturday before Halloween we had 13 of Will's buds over (and their mom's and dad's). At first I was a little worried how we would fit everyone but after clearing almost everything out of the back room into the second bedroom we had this huge open space for all the babies to crawl around in. It was such a fun party!!

Couple buds playing on the matt

"Hey Matthew what's in that snack trap"

Half of the fury friends at the party

A Dad and his Ducky

We also dressed up and went to Evanston to visit a Lion and Elmo on Halloween! So fun to have The Harvey's just a short drive away.

Mom's and their babes

Silly Elmo with her ducky friend

Crawling around the Lakeview, IL

Here are some pictures from just every day life. Will being silly will and Jason and I following him everywhere just amazed at all the new things he learns everyday. The other day Jason said, "Could you imagine what we would do without Will" - and we both agreed what the heck did we every do before our sweet boy came into our life!

One rainy morning we went to the grocery store to try out Will in the big boy seat! Lots of fun while we picked up butter, sprinkles and vanilla to make our Halloween cookies

Crawling at the park on Southport - its a "clean" floor and has all these climbing areas. Will just waits for big kids to come over so he can follow them

Have a snack in his jammies. He thinks its pretty cool when I put cereal in the plastic bowl and give him full control. Of course it gets dumped out in 30 seconds but it keeps him very busy for a good 10 minutes :)

Poor Buddy's first fever :( It was so sad he slept on me from noon - 4pm one day. Although I LOVED holding my little boy it was so sad to see him without his sparkle. All better now!

Where's Will? Ready for a run on a cold morning

The opening song at WiggleWorms on Halloween Party Day. Think they like the music :)

On the MOVE!!! I am so glad we got a one floor apartment because when we close all the doors in the hallway he crawl for a while on his own.

(Movies were not working - will try later)

Beautiful Fall afternoon with Grandpa Jim

One of the best parts of home is getting to spend time with my Grandpa. He is the most amazing man and is always filled with fun little projects. He came over in the afternoon one day with a airplane in tow ready for some flights!

Handcrafted by Grandpa Jim - to scale to the actual airplane. It is amazing!!!

Swimming at the Y

Will and I were at my parents house for 7 days and we probably swam 6 times :) - ok not that many but when Will woke up every morning at 5am - by 7:30am when the doors at the Y opened we were ready to go!!! We had the whole pool to ourselves every day and it was so much fun!! I wish we had a warm pool like that near us in the city - we would be there every day. Not to mention the amazing 2.5 hour naps Will would take after his swim workouts.

Checking it all out!

Crawling up the ramp - I think he did this for 30 minutes

Learning to jump in with Grandma

Pure Bliss!

Two little buds

Will had the best time watching his crazy cousin Jamesy run all over at my parents house. It was so cute to watch how excited Will was every time he caught a glimpse of James. Here are a couple pictures of the two buds together. Can't wait to see you soon Jamesy so you can baby sit Will again for me.

"Hey James we are best friends right?"

"You bet buddy - get right up here on my lap!"

Rubba dub dub two dudes in a tub

To cute if I do say so myself!! (Just missing our third little bud Deccie)

"Jamesy what ya doing...I am coming over to play!"

Sharing a hotdog at Shady Glen - well at least Jamesy was trying to share with Baby Will

Facing backwards is the cool thing to do

Fall Days at Johnny Appleseed

It has been the most beautiful fall in Chicago - the day before we left for Ellington we went for a run and I just loved running over the fallen orange leaves:

But we packed our bags and headed to Ellington for the best week ever filled with fun fall activities. First up was apple picking with Em, Jamesy and my mom.

One apple for Mommy, one leaf for Will

Jamesy picking the perfect apple

Best view in Ellington

Will's first trip to the orchard