Big Willie

Big Willie physically, mentally and emotionally exhausts me. The kid is so strong willed. He's so loud.

He's so much of everything he does.

When he's a lover, man, he's a lover. When he's a frustrating 20 month old, man, is he frustrating.

I spend most of my days screaming/yelling at him to stop doing something.  I say things like "keep your hands to yourself", "don't pull her hair", "stop hitting her with that", "don't kick people", "get down from there", "no you can't make her a bottle - formula is expensive for you to waste", "keep the water in the sink", "put her pacifier in her mouth and leave it there", "no, you can't pick her up like that", "give Maddie back her blanket - it's not yours - go find your own".

I love when he goes down for a nap. The world seems calm again.

He wants nothing more than to be with Miss M and do what she does and yet drive her insane.

I think last weekend Andrew had had enough of Big Willie and his tower so he put it away. The tower assisted the kids in seeing what we were doing on the counters. It became a means to climb onto the counters and crawl all over them. He's fallen off the counter before and in the end he's just pissed he's not still on the counter. He's not hurt or upset that he fell rather he's upset he's still not on the counter tops.  He got resourceful. He moved the chairs from the table to the counter and crawled up to play with Miss Cate's formula and bottles.  

Tonight I was putting Miss Cate down for bed when things got really quiet. I was almost finished feeding her so I didn't want to drop everything.  I came downstairs after getting him to bed to find formula spilled all over the floor.  It's just gritty and gross to step on and I am tired of cleaning up messes.  

And while Big Willie was destroying my kitchen one bottle of formula at a time Miss M was asleep in her bed. She tried so hard to wait for me as I told her she could sleep with me tonight but she just couldn't do it. I am secretly jumping up and down in excitement b/c I have been laying in bed under the covers since 8pm! It's really the simple things in life. I predict she ends up in my bed before the nights over. 

Big Willie likes to do crafts with Miss M. 

He wants to feed Miss Cate all the time. You can see how well that usually goes. 

He likes to shove her pacifier in her mouth then take it back. He also gets distracted easily and forgets he's supposed to give it to her. Look at how she looks so longingly at it. She knows what it is.

I asked him to sit in his chair next to Miss M's chair.  He insisted on sitting in her chair with her. Yep. She's in that chair too.

 There. Now isn't that much better.  He still insisted on being in her chair with her. We went all crazy around here and got Netflix (thanks to the encouragement of some Christmas gifts!!!). The kids LOVE Netflix. It rolls from one show right into the other.  I don't think Miss M has found anything greater in her life.  They fight over what to watch now but we can agree on Winny the Pooh. It's from 1977 and the kids love it.  It's also 74 minutes long so I love it even more.

 Look how peaceful and sweet he looks when he sleeps.

We bought a new coffee machine that makes espressos/lattes. It's basically delicious rich heaven being poured into a mug.

He's a sweet kid but I still took the time to re-tape a T.O. square. He's been in it a few times each day. It's probably a little early to start putting him in time out but I have no idea how to get him to stop hitting and pulling hair and sitting on people's head and tackling the innocent.

He's saying so many more words these days. They aren't really words that always help you know what he wants in life but it's good to hear him talking more every day.  I don't even know what to tell you is new with him b/c I am so brain dead at the end of each day.  I will try to pay more attention to his new tricks and not be so distracted by his physical demeanor.