The Big Dig

Andrew is constantly excited right now because the county has a big construction site set up next door. All day long he watches big trucks coming up and down the street delivering supplies and construction equipment. Right now we have a huge excavator, the biggest forklift I've ever seen, and multiple Bobcats. He's in heaven.



Literally, the trucks are parked outside our front door.



All the action is driving the earthworms right out of the ground, so Andrew has to rescue them and safely relocate them to our garden. Why he's so comfortable picking up creepy crawlies I'll never know. When he was two, he found an ant hill and decided to roll around in them so they could play on him (luckily no fire ants in Virginia). This spring he hunted caterpillars every time he stepped outside, and would perch them on his shoulders and let them crawl around his arms. Worms, slugs, lizards, frogs, and every other disgusting thing he can find are endless fun. Gross. But oddly, if he gets a tiny bit of jam on his fingers while eating his sandwich he freaks out because his hands are dirty, and a cracker that falls on the ground is so contaminated that he can't even pick it up to throw it away, much less declare the 5 second rule to apply.




Here he is mesmerized by the work.

Willa and Bunny Cute

We've mentioned Willa's best friend, Bunny Cute, but we thought you should meet her. Willa takes this bunny everywhere with her, in the car, to church, sitting at the table with her to eat, and as you can see below to baseball games (think "My Buddy" commercials from the 80's). It can be a very bad thing if we are caught away from the house without this treasured friend. She found Bunny Cute one day in March while rifling through the stuffed animals in Andrew's room, and has not let go since. (Incidentally, most of Willa's friends were originally Andrew's, but I defy anyone to take them from her now.) At some point Andrew noticed that his somewhat neglected stuffed animals were finding new life in Willa's imagination, and tried to stop them from all defecting to her room, but even his will is not stronger than hers.

Happy Birthday Willa!

Willa turned 2 this week. She loved her party and opening presents. Thanks to all her grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles for the great gifts! She can say her ABC's (but we're still working on recognizing the letters), count to 15, count down from 10, knows her colors, and recognizes basic shapes. Oh, and she knows all the Disney princesses (and sings the theme song for Cinderella), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse pals, and Sesame Street characters. She loves nursery, loves to sing songs, and is obsessive about her "friends" (stuffed animals, dolls, My Little Ponies... whatever she gets it into her head to carry around with her). We never leave the house without a "friend" in each of her hands, especially Bunny Cute, and have to strenuously convince her to put them down in order to eat (which means they are usually perched on the table nearby, watching her eat). I'll add pictures of her bed so you can see how that goes. She's a little sweetie, and we are thankful every day she's in our family.

Willa Sings

Although she loves to sing, it's really hard to capture her on video because as soon as she sees the camera she either decides to ham it up with her "cheese smile" or she wants to see herself on the LCD. We managed to capture a couple that show a little of her singing prowess.

Willa's Playground, I mean, Bed

We've told some of you about Willa's affinity for her bed. Generally, she'll sleep 12-13 hours at night, plus take another long nap during the day. And if 13 hours at night isn't quite enough for Mom and Dad, she doesn't mind if you leave her in there for another couple in the morning after she wakes up. Sometimes we'll go in to get her and she'll refuse to get out of bed. One day she put up a fight for Casey, so he closed the door and left her there for 2 more hours, happy as a clam. A couple of times a week she'll skip her nap altogether, but is happy to stay in bed and play until dinner time.

Here's a bird's eye view of her bed before her nap -- she lays down in the tiny little spot of yellow, and has to have a blanket tucked around her, with animals (or ponies, or whatever it is that day) tucked under both arms:



Here's her pillow:



And the foot of her bed:



Here's her bed after her nap (see if you can spot Willa):



You might wonder how her bed gets so crowded. I do periodically take things out when it starts getting out of hand, but she inventories her animals when she gets into bed and demands certain things be put back. And nearly every night she makes new additions, as whatever has caught her fancy that day must go to bed with her. She does have a few favorites that always make it into the bed, and come back out with her in the morning.

Here's an inventory of the contents of her bed today (using the names she has given to her friends):

Mickey Mouse, Purple Baby Pony, Pink Baby Pony, 4 binkies, 1 sippy cup (with water), Big Bear, Doggy, Puppy (not to be confused with the plastic Doggy and Puppy referenced in an earlier entry, although they sometimes make it into the bed as well), Bunny Cute, Pink Bunny, White Baby Bear, Teddy, Baseball Bunny, Piglet, Dalmation (or "Mation"), Kangaroo, Singing Bear, Belle, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Princess blanket, Cinderella blanket, flowers blanket, music box, Cat, Bear.