18 Months of Joy

Will on his Birth Day, if only it wasn't so hard to breathe :(

1 month~ Thank you for this precious blessing. First week at home.

3 Months old & full of smiles

6 Months old~ Happy 1rst Valentine's Day William

9 Months Old~ I already love it outside!

12 Months~ Playing in the water

15 Months~ Loving being outside & fishing by the shore

18 Months Mr Technology


IT'S AMAZING THAT WILLIAM TURNED 18 MONTHS OLD THIS WEEK!! Sometimes it feels like the time has flown by and sometimes it feels as though that just isn't possible. He is being especially grown up this week & spending his first nights away from Mom & Dad. Jeremy is on his yearly fishing trip with the guys on the northern MN border, he left Thursday morning. Of course I didn't quite ask for my time off correctly (first time for everything;) and so I had to work nights Thursday & Friday. Luckily one of my coworkers felt sorry for me and she watched Will for me. So they had a slumber party at our house while I was at work & Jeremy was off fishing. I think that we took it alot harder than he did (once I was gone & out of his mind anyways). She said he was a little snuggler, but did actually play with her this morning. Thanks to my good friend Amy for coming up to spend some time with William so I could work, and Jeremy could fish!! We appreciate you more than you know ;)

William's newest favorite thing to do is climb into chairs by himself. He's been getting himself up on the living room furniture for a few weeks now but he's now mastered the kitchen chairs. So when he's really hungry or thirsty (or thinks he is) he just climbs up into his chair and sits in his booster chair, as if you can't hear him whining. This is really handy except that I've now found him standing on the table or standing on Mom's chair trying to jump the back of the loveseat. His second favorite way to reach new heights is to push his Winnie the Pooh car over to something & then stand on the seat and clear counters he couldn't reach before or try to open the microwave himself. He's such a good boy though, you don't even have to say NO he sees you coming and scrambles to get down. He's a joy in so many ways.

William is also learning lots of new words. He definitely hears "mine" from some of the toddlers at daycare because his version is "ine" while grabbing whatever back from you. He's started saying "eese" for cheese when you want him to smile for the camera and he has a big grin to go with it, it's precious. He says ball & dog, and something sounding like "bow" that means bounce. He also says baby alot, which is pretty funny, because it's usually about kids who are older than him but smaller :) So I keep telling him we need to work on words like: drink, milk, hungry, potty. But no he's so laid back we just know when he's going to want those things, except for the potty. I'm sure it will all come in time :)

There have been a few situations at my job (and with the recent daycare tragedy) that just make me realize how precious life is. I know I say it all the time but I just can't get over how very precious life is, and how quickly it can change in the blink of an eye. We are so very very blessed. Keep your friends and family close & don't forget to tell them how you feel about them! Hope everyone is having a Happy Valentine's Day! William is sending hugs and kisses to all you who check in on us & all his friends.
~XOXOXO~
Annette, Jeremy & William

What we've been up to...

That serious William face :)







We have been keeping busy! It's amazing how fast time flies, I can't believe it's February already! I have worked one week on my own at my new job. I have to admit, I was somewhat stressed but it went very smoothly. It seems silly to be stressed out about it as I've been doing this for more than five years at a different hospital. That's just it though, it was a different hospital, with different doctors and nurses, and Mayo just does alot of things differently. Everyone there is very friendly and really work as a team which makes it alot less intimidating. The girls I started orientating with won't be done for a few more weeks as they had experience that wasn't in the PICU.

We had a good weekend off last weekend. We did some icefishing, or at least tried. We didn't catch anything but we got some nibbles & saw lots of fish under the water but it must not have been feeding time :) William likes to icefish, he likes to scoop the ice out of the holes, play with the lines, pick up minnows and set them free, it never ends. The best was when he got Jeremy's pole too close to the heater so the line melted (NOT the first time he's done that. So Jeremy was improvising and getting the line tied to something & Will was playing with the remaining pole and dropped it into his hole. Lucky for us the line was still in the water and "caught" the falling pole, Jeremy was relieved as it's his best pole of course :). Will likeds to run around on the ice & play in the snow. Saturday was perfect, as it was warm and the snow stuck together. We made our first snowman. He didn't know what to think about that. We also made a trip to House of Bounce which is where parents take their kids to run their energy out of them, it works. Will likes the slides but it's hard to get good photos on them.

Jeremy's doing well too. They had a get together at Pepsi two weeks ago, so I got to meet some of his co-workers. His boss "told on him", and told me Jeremy's hardly wearing a coat this winter. If you know him that's not suprising as he's always so warm blooded :) Not to mention it's way warmer here than back in North Dakota!!

Thanks to everyone for keeping us and Julie in their thoughts, things are going OK and everyone's back at daycare. I think that's the best thing for everyone right now.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, sorry it's been so long. Hugs from Rochester,
~ Annette, Jeremy & Will