Going To Zoo And Making Applesauce

Today we took Will to the Zoo. Our regional Veterinary Association sponsored a family day at the Zoo. Of course the day of the event, the weather stunk. It was rainy and cold. But once we finished lunch and got ready to take a tour, the rain held off so we were able to stay dry (for the most part; Will's pants and shoes and socks got soaked). We had a nice time and Will enjoyed getting up close and personal with a few of the animals.

Will "Quacking" With A Duck

Bush Baby

Zoo Veterinarian Giving A Tour To Local Vets

After the zoo we brought Will home for a nap. After he woke up from his nap, he was ready to play. Grandma Wallace came over to help make applesauce. We made a bushel- full of apples into homemade applesauce; yummy. Will enjoyed helping add the sugar and cinnamon.

Will Taking Elmo For A Spin

Helping Add Sugar

What A Big Helper

DiBattisto Family Reunion

Today was the DiBattisto annual family reunion (Grandma Zink's side of the family). They rent out a lodge at a local park every year and it is a large gathering with lots of food and good company. It was a little chilly, so we had to bundle up, as Will wanted to spend most of the afternoon outside playing. He and his second cousin Claudia had a blast exploring and playing in the dirt with rocks. We had a great time and left full after eating all of the great food.

Will And Claudia

Wilderness Explorers

Will's 1st Time Hitting Pinata

Will Kissing Claudia's Little Sister Natalie

2nd Cousin Kisses

Will's 2nd Cousin Natalie

After we left the family reunion, we headed to the children's museum for their train weekend. Unfortunately all the extra train events ended about 45 minutes before we got there. It was also super busy; going during the week or at 4 pm on Sundays is much less "busy". Will did not seem to mind all the people and had a lot of fun using his imagination and playing.

1st Official Walk Around The Block

Today we decided to try letting Will walk around the block with us and the dogs. Usually we take Will in the wagon, stroller, or his car. But the last few times he has faught us to get him into the "vehicle"; once he is in there and we get going, he has been fine. He did really well on our 45 minute walk around the block. Our chocolate lab Brinley was getting very impatient with how slowly we were going. Will's favorite part of the walk was when we came upon tons of leaves in the ditch from one tree. He just loved walking through them and listening to them crunch. He wanted to keep turning around and going back through them. I think we will probably rarely be able to take him in the wagon or stroller for a walk with the dogs in the future.

About half way through the video, you see Will stop walking and turn around. He was fascinated with the boy skate boarding past us. We passed him a few times during our walk, and Will always had to stop and watch him go by.

Fun Fall Days

Will's new thing is after he goes potty in the morning, he goes to the window to say bye to daddy. Daddy has usually left for work 10-15 minutes before Will goes to the window, but he still goes to look. He is now able to stand up and walk away from the potty by himself, with his onesie "tux tales" following behind him. What a great way to start the morning today...

Bye Bye Daddy

Today we had a great day. Will and I have started water babies again, which we both really enjoy. Then Will and I both went to our doctor's to get our annual flu vaccine. Will was not as brave as I was but he still did really good for his shot. He let out one cry and then he seemed to be over it. He weighed 25 lbs 11.5 oz this morning. Then we ventured home for lunch and nap, but Will had other plans. After talking for 30 minutes and crying for 30 minutes, I decided to omit nap from our plans and head out to a local apple orchard. We were not in the car for 5 minutes and he was asleep. He took a 3o minute cat nap and woke up shortly after arriving at the apple orchard. We spent about 2 hours in the orchard picking apples and wondering around. Will had his first whole apple and he just chowed down on it. It was a gorgeous fall day and Will seemed to really enjoy his first apple picking experience. Now all we have to do is make tons of homemade applesauce, which we plan to do on Sunday.

Will's 1st Whole Apple

Yummy

Weeeee

1st Time On Tire Swing

Over the weekend Bill, Will, Grandma Wallace, and I went to fall festivities at a local farm market. There was an adult corn maze, a children's corn maze, and several other activities that were geared for older children. We decided to do the corn mazes and walk around for awhile. We all had a good time. I love all the different opportunities there are for outdoor activities in the fall.

Adult Corn Maze

Children's Corn Maze

Will Continues To Amaze Us

Every day Will continues to amaze us; whether it is with a new skill or a new word, he is always doing new things. When we went to a local park for a lunch picnic play date today, one of the ladies found a caterpillar and showed all of the kids. I continued to tell Will that he was looking at a caterpillar and all of a sudden he said "Meow". I was a little confused as to why he was saying "Meow" and then it dawned on me; caterpillar starts with the word cat, and whenever you say cat, Will "Meows". He almost had me stumped.

Once we got home from our play date I went to change his diaper before putting him down for a nap. Will said potty, so I asked if he needed to do #2, and he said yes. I put him ont he potty and within 10 seconds he had succeeded at the task. Now if only we could get him to tell us every time he has to go potty, that would be awesome. But we are doing very well with Will using the potty. It is very infrequent that we have a dirty diaper, and several times when we have gone to change him, his diaper has been dry. Hopefully he will continue to make progress towards being potty trained.

Weekend With Grandma and Grandpa Wallace

Last weekend Will and I stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Wallace. Bill was in Atlantic City for a Bachelor Party, so we packed up and headed to their house. I had to go back and forth to our house to feed and walk the dogs, but we spent the majority of our time at their house. On Saturday afternoon, Grandma Wallace and I took Will to Kreag Road Park to play on the playground.

While we were there we hoped to feed the ducks at the canal, but there were no ducks to be seen. And Will seemed more interested in throwing rocks into the canal anyway so I guess it all worked out okay.

Will continues to be obsessed with the phone. When he had the chance to talk to his cousins Rylie and Avery, he began pacing around the room as he talked. It was so adorable.

We had a great weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Wallace's; our own little "staycation".

Will's Progress

Will has hit some very exciting milestones over the last few weeks, and I have videos to show each step of the way. From January until July Will's only mode of transportation was butt scooting. He became so efficient at doing it that he had no interest in learning to crawl or walk. If there was a butt scooting category in the Olympics, I think he would bring home the gold medal. And the minute he sees a camera or a video camera, he continually says cheese; it is so cute.

Towards the end of July Will's PT recommended that we start working with him on the stairs. This would be great exercise, would make Will work hard, and he would enjoy doing it. We began having Will climb the stairs as often as we could, and he would huff and puff the whole way up, and usually giggle along the way.

Shortly after Will started climbing the stairs he began to crawl very sporadically. It was so intermittently done that we have never been able to get video footage of him doing it. We also made him walk as much as we could. We started off holding both of his hands while he walked, and as the month of July came to an end, he started to only need one of our hands to walk. We often encouraged him to use his walking toys to improve his confidence and strength.

At the beginning of August, Will began getting up from sitting on his own. It took him a few weeks to master this skill, but once he got the hang of it, he loved to show off in front of a crowd.

Will Getting Cheered On By His Cousins

August 16 was the day we had all been waiting for; Will took his first steps. Since then, Will has become more confident with his walking each day. Here are a few clips of Will walking...

August 21

August 23

September 6

Will's current favorite walking activity is to walk in circles and get himself dizzy, and giggle and laugh until he falls down. Then he gets back up and does it again and again.

September 8

Happy Labor Day

We had an excellent Labor Day weekend. We began the holiday weekend with a trip to Dansville on Friday afternoon for the Dansville Festival of Balloons. We took Will last year and he seemed to really enjoy it. This year we met Grandma and Grandpa Wallace and Grandma and Grandpa Zink and Great- Grandpa Povio there. The experience was a little different this year. Last year we were able to sit and watch all the balloons take off. This year Will wanted to walk all over the place. We all had a great time. We will make sure to keep that on our list of things to do every Labor Day weekend.

Grandma Wallace and Will

Bucky The Beaver

Will Playing With Papa's Walking Stick

Will and Papa

Will's Hot Air Balloon Souvenir

On Saturday we headed over to Great- Aunt Kathy and Great- Uncle John's house for Great- Grandpa Zink's birthday party. We were not there for 5 minutes and Will was ready to go swimming. After swimming Will entertained himself by playing with rocks and water. It was great to see everyone and we hope Great- Grandpa had a great time at his birthday party.

Will Loves Balloons

Will And Great- Grandpa Zink

Sunday morning we decided to check out Corbett's Glenn. Bill and I both grew up here and had never been to this scenic place. We sure are glad we checked it out, as it was fun for all of us. It is like a miniature version of Stoneybrook, and only takes a 20 minute drive to get there. We could not keep Will out of the very frigid water. He enjoyed throwing rocks and splashing in the water. We will need to make sure to go there again next summer.

Doesn't Care That Water Is Freezing

After nap time on Sunday we decided to continue to take advantage of the gorgeous weather. We filled Will's pool and let him splash the afternoon away. We tried out a new sprinkler that we had bought for him, but he really was not into that. We then put his slide into the pool and he loved sliding into the water, along with throwing pebbles from the top of the slide into the water. After splashing in the pool, we let him try out his bike that his cousins from VA gave him since they have "big kid" bikes now.

Daddy Sprinkling Will With Hose

Not Too Sure About Sprinkler

Liked Sprinkler Around Pool Better

Monday morning we decided to walk to Martin Road Park. Grandma and Grandpa Zink and Great- Grandpa Povio met us there. Grandpa Zink brought his fishing pole and he and Will caught and released approximately 10 fish. We were surprised how patient Will was for fishing, and we were glad he was not trying to constantly get into the pond. After fishing Will played on the playground before we headed home for lunch and nap.

Will and His Papa Fishing

Playing With His Fish

Getting Ready To Release His Fish

Bye Bye Fish

We had a great holiday weekend with lots of memories created. Will also cut two teeth this weekend. On Friday tooth #13 arrived, his upper right canine. On Sunday tooth #14 arrived, his upper left canine. Now he only has 6 teeth left to come in, and they all are molars; hope they don't all pop out at once.