It's been a looong time...

For those of you who keep up with Will remotely through this blog, I apologize. It just never seems that we have the time or energy to post. We've also fought off sinus infections, stomach bugs, and long standing sore throat accompanied by laryngitis in the past two weeks.

Over the past few weeks, Will has made huge strides in his speech and cognitive development. He has started speaking in rudimentary sentences. His most common:

• "I sorry"
• "I dropped it"
• "I broke it" (usually he didn't)
  
• "Love you"
• "Where go?"
• "Night-night"
• "Thow it" (throw it)
• "Get the ball"
• "Kick it"

He still says "please" and "thank you," which are becoming clearer every day.

He also knows his primary colors, pink, purple, green, orange (most of the time), black, and white.

He can count to three, sometimes. It usually sounds like, "one, two, one - yay!" More and more often, three gets stuck in the right place though. About half the time he gets to three, he continues to five.

He says his ABC's much the same way. "A, C, C, I, P, S, B, A - yay!"

He knows the sounds and names of the following animals: cow, horse, sheep, dog, cat, pig, elephant (although that one's hard to say), owl, lion, and tiger.

He will sing bits and pieces of songs, including "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," "Little Bunny Foo-Foo," and others he sings at school I don't know.

The other night, he told me a long story about what happened at school that day. I will attempt to transcribe it:

"Gabe, Carsen, bite [pointing to his wrist]. Gabe bite. No! No! Carsen *garbled* bite Gabe." Repeat ad nauseum.

When I asked his teacher about it, she verified that Gabe did indeed bite Carsen on the wrist. Gabe had bitten Will on the butt that same day (through his diaper, so it didn't hurt him), and he yelled out, "No! Gabe bite bottom!" He also told the kids in his class to "go play" because he wanted the teacher to hold him and not them.

In terms of potty-training, it, too, is a bit sporadic. Some of that is my fault. I don't always remember to ask him. He's getting better about telling us when he goes, and he actually tells us before he pees sometimes.

Will still loves to help me cook. He will gladly salt water for pasta, pour in any ingredient I need in any dish, and watch me do the rest. He will say, "See? See?" and drag a chair over to the counter. We always talk about how the stove is hot and he shouldn't touch it. Sunday night, he was watching me scramble him an egg for dinner. I forgot to remind him how hot the stove was. Rolf was right behind him, washing dishes. I grabbed the eggshell and took it to the trash. Rolf grabbed the skillet and began to wash it. Our eyes were off Will for two seconds, which was long enough for him to stick his thumb on the hot burner. Poor baby. It blistered immediately, and once he realized what had happened, he screamed long and loud. We ran it under a cold tap, then iced it. Once he calmed down, we were able to give him a bath and get him to sleep pretty well. Monday, he kept offering his thumb for kisses. The redness was all gone, save one thin line, but the blister was still there. It was tough to see him hurt, although I know this was a lesson he needed to learn the hard way. He's too curious. I have a feeling we're in for a long line of ouchies because he'll have to find out a lot of things for himself.

I will post some pictures later this evening. I swear, he's grown three inches since Christmas.