The Haps

So, all kinds of things have been going on in our little world lately! Will is growing up so quickly; I just can't believe it. He's been holding up his head more and more. Sometimes I forget he still needs support and his head will come crashing down on my collar bone---ouch! And today he was playing with Mr. Octopus in his play yard and he was reaching up and grabbing a fish that hangs from one of the tentacles and putting it in his mouth, a definite first and a sign that we've entered the stage where EVERYTHING is going to have baby drool on it. Speaking of Mr. Octopus, I'm learning that I'm not nearly as creative as I once fancied myself. Mr. Octopus is called Mr. Octopus because he is an octopus. Mr. Elephant is Mr. Elephant because he is an elephant. Mr. Penguin is Mr. Penguin because he's a penguin. I wish I could say I were filling my child's world with personality and silliness and creativity. I suppose I do in my own way, but it's definitely not coming through in the names of his toys/stuffed animals.

One of Sir William's first attempts at lifting his head during tummy time. You can see Mr. Octopus's blueish tentacles hanging at the top of the picture. That orange fish is what he was grabbing and stuffing in his mouth. He's growing up and developing and I'm so excited for me and him. Too fun! Also, I got my hair cut:

It's about an inch shorter than I'd have liked, but it all fits into a ponytail. And I've decided my ponytail is too short and too cute to be a ponytail. Chris once more appropriately called it my duck tail, so that's what it is! Look at that beautiful boy!

He had a doctor visit where we learned that homeboy had grown 2 1/2 inches and 4 1/2 lbs! He's going to be long and lean like his Tingey relatives. As for his face I can never decide who I think he looks like. Most people seem to say he looks like me (except for Mame, my hairdresser, who swore he looks like Chris), but I don't really think he looks only like one or the other of us. There are times when I see a whole lot of Tingey and other times when I see a whole lot of Higgs. But as his Grandpa Tingey said, "He just looks like Will."

We also had a Higgs family reunion a couple weekends ago, hosted at my grandparents' place in Ogden. Several of his siblings were there with all their kids (and their kids' kids!). Here's Will hanging out with his Great Grandpa Higgs. We hung out at Grandma's and Grandpa's and ate taco salad prepared by the following lovely ladies:

And for all of you who have been admiring my rocking chair and Winnie-the-Pooh nursery decorations, they were made by my sister-in-law Erin, on the far right. She's super crafty!

I just had to post this for obvious reasons.

My nephew Ethan, loved and adored by all. Seriously one of the cutest kids I know. I definitely win the award for cutest nephews (you'll see the Tingey ones below). Ethan has just started this funny thing of wanting to know where everyone is and what everyone is up to. He wanders around visiting everyone asking, "Becca...doing?" "Kiki, are you?" He loves to visit the fish here at Terrace Falls. ("Fishhh. Whay-uhl. SharK!")

Will and his Grandpa Higgs at the Higgs reunion. Two cool dudes just chillin'. We also had Will's blessing that weekend, and I'm sorry to say we didn't get any photos of Will in his blessing outfit, but he'll probably thank us one day when he grows up and sees what we dressed him in. It wasn't so bad once we turned the collar in. Lucky for him his natural studliness overpowered the silliness of the garment. But I guess that's just the nature of blessing outfits for little boys. I looked all over and never found one I was crazy about. In any case, Chris gave a really beautiful blessing and Will was blessed to be surrounded by his male relatives from both Higgs and Tingey sides. He certainly has an amazing legacy of faith and awesome examples of manhood on both sides of his family.

This is what I call Will's Charlie Brown pose. See and compare for yourself.

He does it all the time and I love it. The next weekend was the Tingey reunion (of Chris's immediate family) in Rio Vista. We heard it is super time consuming taking a baby to the airport so we planned some extra time. Then, when we got there, we learned that our flight was delayed an hour, so we had PLENTY of time for Will to check out his new surroundings and for Chris to get some super pics:

The Tingey reunion was crazy and fun. All of Chris's siblings were able to make it to California. I understand this is the first time in several years that all of the family has been in one place at one time. So that's pretty cool. All the nieces and nephews seemed to be having a grand time running around together and playing and stuff. Chris got some excellent shots:

Wesley, Will's oldest cousin, who starts kindergarten in the fall. Yay Wesley! And his sisters Aubrey and Cali, who is about 3 weeks older than Will:

Tiffany and her little boy, Henry. Tiffany, I learned, makes the BEST popsicles. I got the recipe from her and got all the ingredients and was so excited to make them--and then realized I don't have popsicle molds. Whoops. The search is on.

Nathanael and Wesley wrestling.

Chris's good friend Brant came by for a little while to meet Will.

The main event for the Tingey gathering was Nick's graduation. He's wearing a money/candy lei made by his mom, sister and sister-in-law Debbie. He got a scholarship award from a local bank. Way to go, Nick!

The next day Chris and I decided to take some time to drive into San Francisco for the evening. We had a really fun time, hanging around the Embarcadero. We ate dinner at the diner from Axe Murderer ("Being electrocuted. That happened to my friend once; it was really awful...") and walked down to the AT&T stadium to check out the Giants game. We didn't buy tickets; just hung out around the stadium, which was a really cool stadium. There are these cages around back where you're allowed to go in and watch the game from, free of charge, until the third inning or so.

These guys were my favorite part. The stadium is right on the bay and there's this little inlet right behind the stadium and people go back there in their boats and kayaks hoping to catch fly balls. It looks like these guys rigged together some coolers or crates or something and paddled out there. We went to the shop and bought some Giants onesies for Will, which I tolerate only because I know that come August homeboy will be wearing Dodger blue. Go Bums!