Don't feed the animals

William has gotten very grabby lately. He likes to latch on to whatever is closest and pull it in toward his gaping, eager mouth. He especially likes to grab hair, pillowcases, fingers, cheeks, his stuffed giraffe, and his wooden teething ring from Germany. Of course, two can play at this game--now I'm biting back.

If he reaches toward my face, I start chomping away at his hands and quickly move up his arms to his shoulders, neck, and chest, and he starts squealing and laughing wildly, which of course only encourages me to continue. Sometimes I go for the inner forearm, bypassing the shoulders and neck, and head straight to his stomach. Anything for a laugh.

Ready for takeoff

After church this afternoon we were sitting on the blue couch outside the bishop's office talking with some other people in the ward. William was on the floor, lying on his stomach. For the past week he has been pushing himself up onto his hands to get a better view of things and occasionally he's pulled his knees up under him as well, so that he's kind of been on all fours.

Well today he got up on his hands and knees, and after pulling his knees forward, he sort of pushed his hands backwards and fell onto his chin. Of course we erupted in cheers and wanted to see him do it again, as he looked up at us and laughed right along with all the excitement.

First signs of a tooth

Today we discovered William is growing his first tooth. He's probably been working on it for a while, but we just noticed it today. When he was laughing, I saw his lower gum and thought I saw something white on the right side. I thought, "That couldn't be a tooth already, it's too soon." I felt it and it was definitely the start of something harder than a gum. Later in the day, I was going to ask Mirjam what she thought, but before I could ask her about it, she announced to me that "William is getting his first tooth!" Confirmation. We are both excited about all the new things happening with William. I'm sure he's excited too, but he hasn't told us yet.

Driving Master William

I took William with me to the bank during Mirjam's violin lesson today. His car seat is in the back and faces backwards, so I can't see him when I'm driving. To keep him calm, I made up a song for him about how I like driving with him: "Wenn ich mit dem William fahre, fahr' ich gern, fahr' ich gern...."

On the way back home I noticed that the rustling behind me had diminished as I was singing. I turned around in the middle of the verse to see him staring up at me! He had cocked his head around to the right and tilted it back so that he could look at me from his rear-facing car seat. I felt so proud of him for finding a way to find me in the front seat, I couldn't help laughing, and when I did, so did he. Every time I looked back, he was looking up at me, smiling and listening to me sing to him.

It's fun to travel with a friend.