Fall Adventures

Most of our November was spent traveling. Luckily, we discovered that the Seattle airport has an awesome children's play area. We spent a lot of time there.

First, Will and I went to visit/babysit for some friends who recently moved to Canada. That meant that we got to see Will's adorable passport picture again!

It was a great week. Will loved having "brothers" to play with all the time. While we were there, it was my birthday (#27!). The boys (who are ages 8 and 12) surprised me with banana pancakes in bed and then made me a carrot cake that afternoon. They were so good to me!

We came home for a few days and then Will and I were off to Morgan Hill, CA to visit our Harthun family. There was lots of playing, lounging, eating, and kissing Will.

Finally, we went to Clovis, CA (where Daniel met us) to spend some time with our Larsen side of the family. We wanted to spend time with Daniel's brother, David, before he left on his mission to Africa for two years. We were also there for the wedding of Daniel's other brother, Eric, to Alivia. Will was so handsome. What a fun and busy week!

Meanwhile, in the days before/in-between/after our trips, we celebrated Halloween (Yo Gabba Gabba!), played in some leaves, and enjoyed the last bits of Seattle sunshine for the year.

Random Notes About Will

Since Will turned 18 months old, a lot of things have changed. He has learned twice as many words in the past month (awesome), and he throws twice as many tantrums that are also twice as difficult to manage (not so awesome).

A few months ago (before the days of daily tantrums), we were at the grocery store. We were waiting in line to check out. I started to put our food on the little conveyor belt. Unfortunately, the woman in front of us had put a package of cookies as her last item. Somehow, even though we have never bought cookies from the grocery store in his life, he recognized them immediately. It became his passionate goal to get out of the cart and get her cookies (while screaming frantically). He could not believe that I was denying him a delicious cookie. Luckily, the grocery store gives out free cookies and an employee went and got him one. It was pretty traumatic (although you wouldn't know it from the pictures). It probably wasn't the best parenting move to give him what he wanted after such a fit, but it was just so sad. He thought I wasn't sharing my cookies with him!

We got a new game: Bears! It consists only of dice. Some dice have bears and tents on them, and others have guns, sleeping bags, and running men. He LOVES them. Today, I got them down for him to play with (closely supervised, of course). While he was playing, he dumped them all out and put them back, telling me that he was cleaning up - "keen, keen." Then he grabbed two dice, held them up and said, "two." He is very good at knowing when he has two of something - two drinks, two binkies, etc. He is pretty good at counting to three. Then he held those dice and shook them and said, "sssssshhhh." I asked, "Are you shaking the dice?" and he grinned. I cannot believe how much he has learned in this 18th month. It is so fun to be able to know what he is thinking and have some real conversations.

He also loves to point out when someone is sad. Anytime he hears a cry or a scream, he immediately stops what he is doing and gets a really sad face and voices as he says "sad" (while also signing it). It is pretty cute. I think it is an emotion that he REALLY (often) identifies with.

He recently got to ride in a car at the grocery store for the very first time! He loved it!! He looks sad in the pictures because he would get really upset whenever I stopped moving for a second (in this case, to pick my apples).

And just so we don't end on a sad picture... Flying!!! (ignore the messy bedroom)