All in a day's work

Willow was pretty sure we needed to reorganize the pantry cabinet this morning and it's contents were better off in her play room. She was a little girl on a mission!!

After a hard morning's work reorganizing and playing at the church nursery, Willow couldn't quite keep her eyes open until we got to Aunt Kim's house for a nap.

Evening Routine

Now that we're back into the school year routine, one of my favorite times during the week is after dinner is cleaned up and all 3 of us are able to hang out. We don't necessarily "do" anything in particular. Last night we were laying around in the hallway upstairs. Here are a few videos of just regular ol' life...

It's all fun-and-games...until...

Willow kisses (Chris' comment after the kiss: "I just kissed her tongue!")

Willow found her old bath sling in the bathroom. "What's old is new" for her a lot lately. She's taken to sitting in her bouncy seat again these days. We wonder what the weight limit is on these things!!

Bathtime at 1 week old:

Pretending to be a baby at 16 months old:

It's crazy to see how gigantic she looks laying on her bath sling we used when she was a baby!

One of Willow's favorite games in the tub:

Bathtime used to be one of Willow's favorite activities. Being dried off was the best part. She took a fall in the tub while on vacation last April and it's never really been the same ever since. Now she stands or squats the entire time and usually cries and frantically tries to get away when we're drying her off. Another of her least favorite parts of bathtime is getting her hair rinsed out (we're currently trying to either get her to dump it over her own head, or close her eyes - neither of which have worked yet). She does manage to have a good time while playing in the tub, though it never really seems like she relaxes. The last two bathtimes I've asked her to sit down on her bottom and she actually has (why didn't I ask her this before???)!! We had the camera around and actually got evidence of her on her bottom in the tub:

CO Photoshoot

If you'd like to see more of the pictures that my friend from high school took of Willow from July, you can go to her webpage: www.monicahudsonphotography.com then use this log-in information:

Username: Kristy Seth
Password: willowatmhp

Then click on "My Gallery" then "Willow Seth." If you click on the pictures it'll make it bigger.

She definitely didn't "warm up" until the end, but I thought a lot of them turned out great!

Where's the phone?

Willow's new favorite game is "Find the Phone." We hide the phone, then she goes to push the "locate" button on the base, which makes the phone beep. It's a good test of her hearing and she loves it!

This location is "Find the Phone Level 3" but we're not quite ready for that yet. The phone only beeps for so long...

Go Bills!

Willow sporting her new Bills gear:

It'll still fit for the next 5 years =)

"School"

We decided to put Willow into "school" (aka: daycare) for two days a week this school year. She started on Wednesday this week. I intended on getting a picture of her first day, but the morning was a little rushed since I tried to let her sleep as long as I could. Since Chris' job is so flexible with starting time in the mornings, we've always been able to let her sleep as long as she needs. The transition to school hasn't been as hard as we'd feared. We knew she'd be fine adjusting with the other kids, but feared she wouldn't sleep there at all, which hasn't been the case at all. Her teacher even said there were no tears at all on her 2nd day! Willow Libby is already making her parents proud... When I picked her up on Wednesday she was eating snack. I asked her to throw away her napkin and she knew exactly where the trashcan was and promptly went over to throw it away by herself. Her teacher, Ms. Frances, mentioned that she was the only one to stand up from the table after lunch and snacks and push in her chair! =) Her daily note on Thursday said, "Willow is such a sweetie! When one of her friends was crying, she went over and patted him on the back and tried to give him a hug!" Her daily note has a chart showing what and how much she ate during the day. Both days the "All" box has been checked for 90% of the food for the day (otherwise it's the "Most" box). The girl has never had a problem eating! It looks like Willlow is going to love going to school!

Happy 1st Birthday Cadence!

It's hard to believe that Cadence is one already!! I can still clearly remember going to see Morgan and Jason at the hospital ...like it was yesterday!!

Such sweet friends!

Cadence LOVED her cake!

Willow and Cadence had a ball playing peek-a-boo for a little bit. It's so much fun to see them play together. It's a whole new ball game now that Cadence is walking!

Happy 1st birthday, Cadence!

Little Friends, Happy Girl

Willow is such a social little girl and loves being around other kids. She's been delighted to be around so many little friends in the last few days! Our friends' daughter Chloe stayed with Willow and Chris on Friday because her daycare was closed. Chloe was a huge help in watching Willow while Chris worked. Chris said at one point it got eerily quiet in the play room. He looked around the corner to find Chloe and Willow both contently reading books on the couch:

Willow enjoyed more time with Chloe on Saturday at Lewis Ginter. It was a unique visit in that she hardly played in the water since Chloe was more interested in playing with everything else in the children's area.

Chloe is a great helper in watching and entertaining Willow. They spent a good 20 minutes chasing or following each other through this tunnel.

But after 20 minutes of it...listen closely to Chloe...

Friday night Willow's work buddy, Joren came over to our house with his dad for our Fantasy Football draft. She was tickled to see him somewhere besides at the office!
Mckenzie came over for dinner with her parents on Sunday. It's always fun to see Willow play with Mckenzie since she's a little older and quite adventurous. I love the giggles!!

Did you know Mckenzie is the funniest thing in the world??

15th month

Here are a few firsts and new developments from the month of August, Willow's 15th month:

- new words/phrases: hi, here you go, tickle tickle tickle, "noahecahbow" while squatting by Alli's food bowl (translation A: "No Alli cat bowl" as in "No, that's Alli cat's bowl" or translation B: "No eat that bowl" as in "Don't eat out of that bowl"...can you tell what we've said to her repeatedly?)

- began doing the sign for "please"

- able to get onto the couch easily

- able to click her tongue

- putting things in the trash without being asked

- first time playing in the rain

- first trip to the zoo

- started puckering up to give kisses

- started blowing on her hot foods

- beginning to try to blow bubbles herself

- two top molars are 90% through, one bottom molar popped through while the other is on the verge

- favorite books: "Cows in the Corn," "More Spaghetti I Say," "Dream Bed," "Wheels on the Bus" book, "Five Little Ducks" book, "Animals" flapbook

Willow continues to love our Alli cat. Since Alli is an indoor/outdoor cat she often has to be fierce (sarcasm) and guard her property, which often leads to cat fights. Occasionally she'll come home limping, we start to worry about her, she lays around for a day or two, then she's back to normal. The trouble is that now Willow doesn't give her any peace so it's harder for her to rest. A couple weeks ago when she came home limping she wouldn't even come upstairs to bed with us, so she was camping out overnight in her blue cubes downstairs. We'd put her food and water next to them so she wouldn't have to walk far to get them. The next morning, though, we moved the food and water back to the kitchen so Willow wouldn't knock it over on the carpet. Being the sweet little girl that she is though, a few hours later Willow brought Alli's food from the kitchen back over to her in the blue cubes. Later she even thought Alli looked a little bored just laying there and decided to share her toys. She's such a patient little cat!