Thanksgiving 2011

We started off Thanksgiving celebrating with Wayne's mom's side of the family at his aunt's house.  That morning before we left, Will decided to suddenly start crawling on all fours!  He was excited to show off his new trick to his Bebe, 2nd cousins, great-grandparents and great-aunts and uncles.  After we ate, everyone gathered in the kitchen and watched Will crawl around on the floor.  He was playing fetch with himself - throwing his paci and then crawling to go get it.  It's one of his favorite games.

Will and Bebe

That afternoon, my parents and brother came over to our house, and my mom and I prepared the feast.  Uncle Russell had a blast with Will!  He had changed so much since the last time he saw him, so it was fun to watch them interact with each other. 

I love this picture.  It captures the most common face Will shows us.  A BIG open mouth.  It's sometimes a laugh, sometimes a kiss, and sometimes just a smile.  I love it. :)

And this is where's he's going in for the kiss.  Or to eat Russell's nose.  He does both.

While we were eating and Will was napping in his crib, we saw on the monitor his second new trick of the day... he sat up on his own in his crib!  Then later, when Russell was playing with him, he showed us his third new trick of the day: walking while holding on to Russell's hands!  It was a big day for the little guy.  The next day, he cut his 5th tooth.

Playing with Granddaddy.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to Macon to see my grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins and have another celebration with them.  Will loved spending time with Uncle Mark, although it took him a few minutes to understand that the monkey wasn't really attacking him.

 His face kills me in this one.  He is SO not sure of the man who kind of looks like his Granddaddy and is being attacked by his favorite monkey.

He finally warmed up to him!

(See?  BIG open mouth.)

My grandmother (who turns 91 on Christmas Eve!) adores Will.  It fills my heart with so much joy to see her with him and hear her go on and on about what a sweet and handsome baby he is.  Keep it coming, Grandmother!   (Will is named partly after my grandfather, James William.  Will wore his firetruck shirt to honor his great-Granddaddy he never got to meet.)

 Will also loved seeing his second cousins Molly and Monica again and loved meeting Whitney.  (Check out Molly and Whitney's band Stevens Layne.  They are making their dreams come true in Nashville!) 

 Whitney introducing Will to Marley (who was very jealous of the creepy, crawly little person).

 

 Molly and Grandmother with Will

 Aunt Deborah gave Will his first Christmas present.  Like his bib?

This picture shows how Will likes to look at people.  This is what he did to Santa Claus the first time he met him.  He's so observant... he likes to study whoever is holding him.

 Showing off his new trick  - crawling on all fours.

 Enjoying his sweet potatoes.  I love how he opens his mouth of food before you even get the spoon close to his mouth.

I went outside to talk to Molly and Whitney for a while and catch up with them.  When I came back in, this is what I saw.  melt. my. heart.  (seriously, it kills me even now just looking at the picture!)

 

Girl cousin shot with Monica and Molly.  We used to write out entire plays and make our parents and grandparents sit and watch us perform.  Oh, the memories with these two.

(Monica paints beautiful abstracts.  Check out her Etsy site!)

Cousins

Will is a face snuggler.

We had a great day spending so much time with family we don't see as often as we'd like.  

We are so thankful for our happy, curious, observant, fun, laid back little man!!  You are such a blessing to us! (even when you cry instead of sleep.)  We love you!