May 1st-3rd The Rowlands Visit St. Louis

Our good friends the Rowlands visited us in St. Louis this weekend. Since we've been in St. Louis Willem hasn't played with too many kids, so it was exciting for him to have two playmates. He learned a lot that weekend from watching Jonah. Since that time Willem has been signing more and Jason and I have as well as we learned quite a few signs from the Rowlands. Jacob and Willem did the parallel play most of the time but all three boys played very well together. Hopefully they'll get to play together again soon!

On Saturday we went to the Zoo and the boys loved seeing the animals! We had a fun picnic lunch and the kids got a chance to crawl/walk around for a bit. One highlight from the trip was watching fellow guests at the zoo feeding the giraffes. We were so close to the giraffes, we could reach out and touch them.

The trampoline was a favorite with the boys!

One night we threw all 3 boys in for a bath. This was during Willem's phase where he didn't like to sit down in the bath , so Willem just hung out for a few minutes before getting out.

We went to the Arch on Sunday, the kids didn't pay too much attention to the Arch itself but they loved the big grassy area around it where we had a picnic. The kids all did great going up in the Arch, we were quite impressed!! What a fun weekend with great friends!!

April 28th: Willem uses a spoon for 1st time

So we are a bit behind with our blog... It seems like everyday Willem is doing something new so we are going to try and catch up tonight.

Jason took us out to get ice cream on April 28th. Willem doesn't usually have sweets but it's hard to deny him a treat when we are enjoying an ice cream. We didn't offer him any at first so he took it in his own hands to help himself. He grabbed my spoon and took it straight to his mouth! Now he's played with spoons at meal time before but this is the first time he actually fed himself. He must have been motivated, because he ate about half the ice cream and was immensely proud of himself the whole time as were we.

Sarah's 26th Birthday

Last week was Sarah's birthday. Tia Julie surprised Sarah by driving in for dinner and we all went out to PF Changs and to the park afterwards.

Willem preferred to drink from a spoon that night. Grandma ended up pretty wet by the end of dinner.

Willem going after Sarah's dessert when we weren't looking.

This is the first time we've been to the park this Spring and he was far more independent.

The tunnel is still Willem's favorite toy on the playground. We randomly decided to play peek a boo through the holes and Willem couldn't get enough of it. This was the favorite part of my birthday (Sarah).

What's new with Willem?

Okay, so I'm playing catch up with the blog today as you have probably already noticed....

So last week we started giving Willem his own plate and spoon at dinner. He was so excited to have a plate like everyone else. He's very good at scooping the food into the spoon and bringing the spoon to his mouth. It's just a struggle to keep said food on the said spoon the entire route to his mouth. But he doesn't seem to care, he's just excited to be doing it.

One of our nicknames for Willem is monkey because he is quite the climber. Like his father, Willem is extremely patient. We went out to dinner last weekend and ended up having to wait for an hour and a half before getting to the table. Willem was happy as could be as there were so many new people to watch and lots of furniture to climb. You can't tell from the picture, but on the other side of the glass was a table of people eating. Willem found an opening between the glass and the counter and was sticking his hands through trying to get to them. He was definitely entertaining the guests.

Last Monday we took an baby massage and yoga class at Whole Foods. Willem was the youngest in the yoga class but he had a blast. He loved watching the other kids in the class. This was the first play group type of activity we've done and since he's not around a lot of kids we weren't sure what he would do. Well we were all sitting in a circle (including the parents) and the older kids crawled into the middle to be closer to the instructor and Willem crawled right out of my lap to sit right next to the other kids. He looked back occasionally to say hi but was happy as could be. As we were leaving, Willem was standing up against the door and a little girl was on the other side, he was just laughing and laughing about having their hands at the same place on the door. We will definitely be doing more playtime with other kids when we get to Phoenix!

Willem's 12 month check up

On April 15th Willem went in for his 12 month check up.

Jason and I are still in shock that Willem is 1. It seems like just yesterday we were at his first doctor's appointment and he was weighing less than 8 lbs.

He was very happy to sit on the scale and pose for pictures though. Willem is now up to 20 lbs 3 oz and is 30.75" tall. Still a tall, lean, little guy and thriving according to the doctor.

He did well throughout the appointment though he didn't love the cold tools touching him.

He's been such a trooper with the ear infection that we didn't even realize it was still bothering him, but Dr. Arter said they were still infected and gave us a new antibiotic to try. It doesn't taste as good according to Willem but he's taking it like a champ.

Trip to the Zoo

We went to the zoo the day after Willem's birthday. It had been about 6 months since our last trip to the zoo and it was a completely different experience.

He was so curious about the animals and he got a kick out of petting the guinea pig and the goat at the Children's Petting Zoo Area. If Tia Julie wasn't there we may have skipped that part, but thanks to her he may grow up to have a real interest in animals and not have the fear of germs his parents have. The guinea pigs were so calm, they let him pet them and didn't move at all.

Willem was very curious about the goats. They were very patient with us. He started out timid but by the end was pulling on their hair and the goat didn't move an inch.

Playing with the animals is tiring!! Willem fell asleep as we were walking through the zoo and took a good nap while we all walked through more exhibits.

As usual, Willem travels with his entourage. He was in heaven having so many grandparents and his Tia Julie with him.

After Willem woke from his nap we headed to the train. This was the part I was most excited about as it was Willem's first train ride and this was always my favorite part of the zoo. His favorite part was having his family around him. Lita and Opa were sitting in front of us and Grandma and Tia Julie sat behind us. Willem was a total cheeseball the whole ride, posing for pictures and occasionally trying to stick his arms and legs over the railing.

Jason also took Willem on 1st carousel ride. He liked it when Jason was sitting with him but they had a rule of only one person to an animal and he didn't prefer to sit on it by himself. The animals actually moved pretty quickly!!

Willem was in heaven at the zoo. There were so many people to watch and new animals to observe. Overall, it was a wonderful way to celebrate his birthday!

One year old

Willem turned one yesterday. The year went by so fast. The amount of changes Willem has gone through are astounding. Watching his personality emerge has been very entertaining. Willem never ceases to make Sarah and I laugh and smile. Here are some pics from the past year.

Fresh out of the oven

First plane ride

Meeting the ladies

Raiding the fridge for blueberries

Willem is 1!

Willem ravaged his cake