Best Friends! Our visit to Chico.

Shower time!

September 2011

"This is how we brush our teeth, brush our teeth, brush our teeth...
this is how we brush our teeth before we go to bed!"

10 Months Old!

Sept. 20, 2011   10 months old today!

Wow, I am a little behind on this post but we have been busy! William turned 10 months in September and he is a busy boy! Adam and I are loving every minute of watching this boy grow, he is so much fun. He is such a happy and sweet child, we could not have asked for anything more. He is active as ever and loves practicing "walking" while hanging on to anything he can, especially mommy or daddy's hands. When we are hanging out at home he loves heading straight for the stairs and climbing up them over and over again. He still loves his Johnny Jump-up door-way swing, specifically spinning round and round in it, it almost makes us sick to watch it! Some other favorite activities is playing in the Tupperware drawer and bath time. He still doesn't sleep through the night, and napping is not his strong point, but we are working on both! Adam and I just feel blessed to have such a special and wonderful little boy. William, you are the best!

We recently had two visitors up our way; the first was Uncle Alex, or Uncle Al as we like to call him (to distinguish him from his fiance Alix!) William had a really good time hanging out with his uncle, and his daddy really enjoyed spending time with his brother. Al lives in Maine currently so we definitely do not get to see enough of him. We had some great weather while Al was here. Adam even got to teach him the 'ropes' of climbing trees. The two of them thought it was hilarious to make me a nervous wreck, and even "cheersed" on it while Al was still up in the tree. We had a really great time visiting with Uncle Al and hope he makes it out this way again soon.

Then Momma Jo came out to visit when Will turned 10 months. We had a great visit. William loves seeing his Grandma Jo!

William's 9 Months Old and is a Traveling Boy!

 William is 9 months old!

 He had his check up with Dr. El today and he is 19.5 lbs and 28 1/4 inches. He is such a wonderful boy, Adam and I are loving watching him grow. He loves singing songs with his mom and dad, his favorite, by far, is Itsie Bitsie Spider , but we recently have been exposed to a new song that might become a new favorite called I Like Elephants! For the few of you who were present when the song was discovered; I know you will appreciate it being a freqent in our household! :) For those of you not familiar with this wonderful childrens tune please you-tube it, I know you'll love it too. We found it while on a long car ride with Grandma and Grandpa Gonnsen where Diane and I were trying everything during the last "20 minutes" of the car ride to entertain William. I was looking up childrens songs on you-tube to play for him and we came across this "winner". Of course, William was totally into it, to the dismay of everyone else in the car. It turned out to be quite the entertaining experience.

William has become quite mobile! He love practicing walking while holding on to someones hands, and he is pulling himself up on everything and walking around, sometimes with only one hand on! Adam and I are chasing him around these days, he's getting quick! We are enjoying some great weather here in the Northwest and we all love being outside, William gets to go on a lot of walks. He really enjoys visiting with our sweet neighbors, Connie and Dave and their dog Graham, even though he is occassionally assaulted with "kisses" from Graham and Rose while he is crawling around on the grass. William has also been enjoying lots of new finger foods, blueberries and cheese are some favorites right now (his Wisconsin roots coming through!)

Great Grandpa Louis Maday meeting great-grandchild #30!

The meeting of four generations on his Dad's side: Adam, William, Grandma G (Dianne), and his Great Grandpa Maday

Yep, that's right...We had a baby in a bar!



"Pullin' tabs" with Grandpa Bill

  William has been the traveling baby lately. We all just got back from Minnesota where he got to meet his other Great Grandpa and Grandma, and the rest of the Gonnsen and Maday gang! He loved looking out the window during landing on each plane ride (just this trip it was four plane rides with the one-stop both coming and going.) We had a great time in Minnesota. We stayed at Adam's Grandpa's farm for the first few days in southern Minnesota. His Aunt Mary and Uncle Denis threw a big family barbeque one night, it was so much fun to see everyone. Everyone thought that William looked just like his daddy! There was a huge group of little girls there and only two little boys! William had so much fun meeting so many of his Great Aunts and Uncles, and his (second??) cousins. Adam and I enjoyed having so many people around who wanted to hold William for a while :) The next day Grandma Dianne introduced me to "pullin' tabs" and the favorite local pub, which is basically a quick way to lose some money, but it was fun! William even got to pull a few tabs, but he didn't win anything, so much for beginners luck!

Uptown Minneapolis

This is a statue representing Peace at the Civil Justice building in Minneapolis, note Bill in the bottom left corner for an idea of just how huge this marble statue was. Impressive! It was three stories tall!

After visiting the farm we went north to the Twin Cities and had dinner at Adam's Aunt Brenda's house, then spent a few days visiting Adam's sisters and our nephew Owen. William, Adam and Owen got to swim together one night. William didn't know what to think about the big pool! We all spent a day at the Mall of America, where William had a blast watching all the busy commotion. Then a day in Uptown Minneapolis and St. Paul. Unfortunately William started coming down with something during the last day and was not a very happy guy, but overall we had a great time visiting with everyone. It seems to go by in a flash when you are on vacation, but luckily we will be seeing all the Grandma and Grandpa's soon for Williams first birthday! Thank you Bill and Dianne for showing us a great time in the Mid West! We miss you guys!

The weekend before we went to Minnesota we drove down to Bend, Oregon for a night to visit with our good family friends, Clem and Robin, while my parents were there to visit them. We always have a great time seeing them! My mom and I even found matching hat's to get in the sunny weather!

William enjoying being tickled by Grandpa!

Meeting His Great Grandpa

 




Four generations together: William's Grandma Jolene (my mom), his Great Grandpa Wally Tellers, William and Me!



William and I just got back from a trip down to Southern California to visit my mother's side of the family and William got to meet his Great Grandpa for the first time! It was so fun watching the two of them together, and my grandpa was so great with him, even allowing William to pull on his hair then cracking up about it! My mom's family had a little get-together dinner at my Uncle Mark and Aunt Dawn's house and William loved meeting and getting tons of attention from his great aunts and uncles! It was a wonderful time, we definitely don't get to see all of them enough.



Giggles with Great Grandpa!



Kisses from Grandma!

We also got to visit with some of our good family friends, the Quirks! While hanging out at their house William decided he would try his skills on their stairs, and after a few assisted steps he got it down and was able to get up about 8 steps on his own. I could not believe what I was watching, he is just getting so big and strong! It was so nice visiting with everyone, wish it happened more often!

Joey, Lindsay, William and I

William getting some help up the stairs from Jean

A proud grandma met William at the top of the stairs!

William at 8 Months and A Visit From California!

Lounging in the grass, he was so relaxed!

I can't believe it, but William is 8 months old! How time does fly when you are watching a little one grow! He is definitely on the move now, enjoying crawling around the house and loves to crawl around on the grass in the yard. His appetite has been growing too, and he is loving all kinds of yummy foods, I think his favorite right now is bananas and apple sauce! Sleeping has been getting a little easier too. He still doesn't like to go to sleep, but once asleep he is usually down until the early morning hours, giving Adam and I a little down time together at night.  It is amazing watching him grow, and we are loving every minute of it!

William and Jackson after a bath together!

Just before he turned 8 months we had a visit from my best friend and her two beautiful boys. It was so great seeing Ellie, Rhonen (2 yrs) and Jackson (10 mo.), and I appreciate her braving the long drive up here from Chico with two children. She is an amazing mom! The kids had a great time, and although Ellie and I were pretty exhausted by the end of each day we had a great time too. I miss my friend. Rhonen and Jackson are such cute boys, and they sure did show Adam and I that we have some serious baby-proofing to do in our home :) Rhonen really enjoyed chasing Miller (our crazy cat) around, and I think Miller enjoyed the attention too! William had fun watching her two boys and playing with them. I think he picked up a few moves from Jackson, as he is now starting to pull himself up to standing and cruising while holding on, although he is still pretty unsteady.

Rhonen really loved holding William, so cute!

My beautiful best friend and her youngest, Jackson.

Thanks for coming to visit Ellie! We had a great time and hope it won't be too long before we do it again!

First 4th of July

For William's first 4th of July we actually had some great weather and we spent the afternoon at our neighbor's house playing in their son's kiddy pool. It was Will's first experience with "swimming" and he was loving it! William also decided that weekend he was sick of just sitting around or not getting too far with his scooting so he started to crawl! Now he loves crawling all over the place.