Will ~ 2 years old

Back in April, Will turned 2 years old. 2??!!! How is it possible? On one hand, he seems so big. But on the other, he will probably end up being the baby of the family so I'm sure I baby him more than I should. But I am totally OK with that.  :)   I know the days are flying by.

I still can't quite put my finger on just one or two words to describe Will. He is truly a mixture of so many things right now. He can be loud, he can be quiet. He will run all over the place, and then he will sit and look through books forever. He is social and happy and at the same time, he can be sensitive, particular and dramatic.

His most unique (and exhausting) characteristic at the moment is that he is our escape artist. Wherever we are, he is on the run looking for a way out. I'm guessing this is part of his explorer personality. Oh my...it is exhausting, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen anything like it. We have already had a Search Party Rescue at church. I fear "Will the mother of the lost boy, Will, please come to the front of the store?" pages will be in my future.

And part of that explorer personality comes a lot of climbing and getting into things. Some of his favorites to hide are toothbrushes, computer mouse, hairbrushes, and my chapstick. We find all of those items in all kinds of places in our house. 

He continues to be a great eater and current favorites are: milk (top of the list!), strawberries, blackberries, mandarin oranges, turkey dogs with di, di, di (ketchup), chips & salsa (cracks us up), chicken & rice casserole, cheese, cheeseburger (cut up tiny with di, di di), bananas, spaghetti, rice, and bagels with cream cheese spread. He still does not care for yogurt or ice cream.

In a recent post, I mentioned that we have started speech therapy for Will. We had been wondering if he would need it for a few months but just waited to see if his speech picked up on its own. Didn't seem to be happening, so we were off to see some of our favorite people. He is going twice a month to see Ms. Kendra (who we all love), and she works at the clinic managed by the physical therapist that worked with Tate for 2+ years. Like old family! :) He is also seeing an ECI speech therapist twice a month. It can be a tiring process, but I'm incredibly thankful for the help.

With a significant speech delay comes a lot of frustration for Will and for us. It's hard to know what he wants, and because of that, he has definitely perfected the temper tantrum. :) It's a test of patience for all of us. But we are making some progress on adding words and signs to communicate what he wants.  It's slow progress, but it is progress.

One of his more dramatic moves that makes all of us laugh, is when he is mad/frustrated or even if he sees something go wrong on a cartoon. He puts his hand to his head with a very sad "ooooooooo." It is pretty cute...and I'm just glad to see him so empathetic. :) 

Will is still the best cuddler at night. Even at 2 years old, I still rock him in the glider and sing each night before bed. He will put his head on your shoulder and rock. I will be doing that as long as he lets me!

The last few months, Will has become quite attached to his Daddy. If Wade is at home, he usually wants to be right beside him. He screams (loudly) when Wade gets home each day. And they have developed a little ritual of Will feeding Wade M&Ms. Wonder who started that? :) And he continues to LOVE his big brother. He gets so excited to see Tate and thinks going into his bedroom is the most fun thing ever.

In fact most of the time Will sees someone he is excited to see or arrives somewhere he is happy about, he bounds into the room with a scream. A high-pitched scream. I have seen quite a few people get quite startled by it.  :)  When Will is excited or happy, he lets everyone know!  

Will is still our resident TV addict. We have to be pretty careful about how much he watches because he is happy to watch episode after episode of Sesame Street, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Super Why, or Little Einsteins. He loves them all. One of his favorite toys right now is his alphabet puzzle he got for his birthday. And he really knows about half of the letters already. He also loves reading books, playing with the car garage and ramps, the ball popper, playing (or climbing) in the water table outside, any kind of slide, his Cozy Coupe car, or really doing anything outside.

I love this boy with all of his hugs, giggles, smiles, screams, big blue eyes, jibber jabber, and tantrums. All of them together make our Sweet Will. Can't wait to see what year 3 brings!
Here he is stylin on his actual birthday before going to church.  I love the GQ model pose. 

And this is at his family birthday party as we sang Happy Birthday. Will loves a good singalong!