Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone!  We pray this finds you all well.  As my spring break draws to a close I realized I still hadn't updated my blog.  We sure are keeping busy keeping up with William these days!!  He and I enjoyed the week together and I am already counting the days until I can be home with him for the summer.  He is growing and changing by leaps and bounds right now!  Here's a little glimpse into our ever changing and growing little boy:

William ...

• Will is talking up a storm and amazing all of us with his daily growing vocabulary. His new favorite word right now is "gone".  And he likes to add "yeah" after everything he says.  I think my favorite right now is "faffle yeah".  Faffle in case you don't know is waffle - one of his favorite things to eat!
• He loves to dance and comes up with new moves all the time. 
• He has a papaw bear - a bear with a sweatshirt that has a picture of my dad on it with Mickey Mouse. He would cry to take dad's picture to bed with him at night so now he can and he sleeps with his bear every night.
• Will has a best friend. He loves all the boys at the sitter and talks about Joshua, Beans (Bradley) and Don (Daniel) all the time. Daniel is only there sometimes and Will gets super excited to see his buddy and they have a blast together. They are a month apart in age and play so well together. We are so blessed to have Danielle and the boys in our lives!
• He still adores his dogs - Gaga (Grace) and BoBo. He is finally moving out of the hitting phase and likes to hug and love on them. Grace is still a little leery but big BoBo just soaks up the attention and lets Will waller all over him! He likes to hug the cats too but like Grace they are still leery!
• Will also has another pet - Waldo! Waldo is a fish. He was always saying Uh oh because he couldn't find him in his little tank so Mama named him Waldo (Where's Waldo). :)

Waldo

• He is also into Dinosaurs! He loves to watch Dinosaur Train and has his own Buddy the T-Rex slippers. He stomps like a dinosaur and it's adorable. He also has a pull toy that's a dinosaur and he likes to take him on walks.
  

  

  Buddy slippers

• Will and Steve both got new coats for Christmas.  Check out my handsome boys ...

• Will still loves Mickey Mouse - and all his friends! He eats with Mickey, rides the four wheeler with him and watches TV with him. He's converted his tent to a Mickey tent and his Mickey collection is housed there with the occasional removal to rearrange.  And sometimes to the potty with him too! At the end of January we added Donald to the collection. Later on we added Pluto and Goofy. Right now he's into Pete but the all-time favorite seems to be Goofy and he goes with Will every day to the sitter's.  The whole crew (Donald, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto) all go in the car seat - you can barely find Will.  Only goofy, though, goes with him for the day. 

• Will is also into Scooby Doo right now.  And if you don't know, his Mama loves Scooby and already had a huge collection.  His favorite Scooby are my slippers.  He likes to put them on and walks pretty well in them.  I also have reindeer slippers and he likes to interchange them.

• Will loves to cook and in February got two new kitchens.  I already had the blue and gray one and then saw the Mickey Mouse one and of course had to have it!  Not long after that we were given a diner for the kitchen for him.  Grandma took one kitchen and the Mickey kitchen went to his bedroom.  He likes to ring the bell for service and sits at the booth for anything and everything! 

Service please!

Reading one of Grandpa Larry's Mickey books

Snack time

• At the end of February Will took a nasty fall.  I think the hardwood floor won.  He had his first bloody lips and nose.  Nothing was broken and he was a trooper!

• Will's hair is finally growing and it won't be long before he needs a trim.  His hair is blond but looks a little red in the sun.  He got his mama's hair - curls and all!

• Will had his 18 month check-up at the beginning of March.  He's in the 75th percentile for height and still looking like he's going to be tall!  He came home from his check-up and went right to his stethoscope and put it on just like Dr. H does.  He also saw his ENT that same week and his tubes look great.  He had a double ear infection about two weeks before his appointment but other than that he's been free of ear infections!

Dr. Will

• Will loves the park and his favorite is definitely the slide.  I think he could go down all day and never grow tired!

• We took spring pictures last weekend.  Will is not often still but thankfully the flowers were interesting enough that we were able to snap some great pictures!

All the furry babies are well right now. We thought Bo had torn his ACL again (I believe that would have been the 3rd time) but it appears he just tore through some scar tissue.  He's still fairly restricted but with each day getting more freedom and ability to do things. He and Grace have missed being able to rip and tear through the backyard but I think it'll be quite some time yet before we let them do that!  For now they are enjoying watching Will rip and tear through the backyard.  He loves to get a ball and yell for his Gaga so he can throw it for her to fetch.

Mom is well and enjoying her grandson tremendously.  She keeps busy with shopping, lunch with friends and helping me out with William.  We are blessed to have her, have her well, and have her so close by.

Tomorrow my dad has been gone two years.  It hardly seems possible.  William loves his Papaw and often points out in the yard and says he's there and waves.  For awhile he even cried to go to where he saw him.  I believe dad is with us much of our days and always watching over my son.  I talk of him to William often.  I hope someday to be able to do that without breaking down but if not I pray my son sees in those tears what an amazing man his Papaw was and how much he is missed.

And speaking of family, it's just about time to take the cheesy potatoes out of the oven for Easter dinner with them. Happy Easter to you all.

Thank you for taking the time to check in on the Handy's.  Until we meet again ...

We wish blessings to all.

Alisa

How Time Flies ..

Wow, can it be the middle of March already? 

We are living the fun-filled, fast paced life of parents of a toddler these days.  And loving every minute of it!  I will be on spring break soon and will update the blog then.  I hope this finds everyone well and enjoying the beautiful spring days.  As soon as Will wakes up we are headed outside to do just that!

I commented to someone just yesterday that we hardly ever take pictures of William right now because he is never still! I will have a few from my cell phone hopefully to share though.



Blessings to all.
Alisa

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!  We pray you enjoyed the holiday season and are looking forward to the start of a New Year.
December was busy at the Handy house.  Keeping up with William alone is a full-time job. He's full of energy and curiosity and a complete joy to watch and be with.  Santa was good to him this year.  Although if he'd seen Santa with his toys I'm not sure he would have liked them as much!!  We went to the Bass Pro Shop in Cincinnati to see Santa (I highly recommend that over the mall!).  He liked Santa from a distance but once I sat him down the uncertainty began.  And when I walked away panic set it!  We did get some pictures with Santa that are the typical 1st picture with Santa.  And we got a pretty good one with Mama in the picture too.

Help!

Decorating the house was fun this year.  William loved Mama's Scooby Doo stocking. It sings and the mouth moves.  I think we must have pushed that button 1000 times this month!  He did great with the Christmas tree and loved that it was full of balls.  When I took the tree down he said "ball" for a half an hour, mourning that they were gone.  There was one ball on the tree we let him have and he reached for it anytime he was close to the tree.  It was a Mickey Mouse ball that was dad's.  I added something to our decorations this year. Dad always had a snowman in the backyard on Greene Hills. Casey had mom save it for her and when mom downsized recently Casey said she'd be willing to let it go.  So, of course, I took it!  He is proudly displayed in the backyard of our house and it brings a smile to my face every time I see it! 

Will with Scooby Doo

 

The week of Christmas was tough at our house.  Tuesday night William came down with the stomach flu.  Two days later Steve came down with it.  I was the queen of Clorox and cleaned behind them both like a madwoman for the entire week.  A hungry madwoman, that is. I went on a small hunger strike that week in fear of the inevitable and trying to keep my stomach with just enough food (bland food at that) in it to keep from feeling starved! I held onto hope that I'd at least make it through Christmas. On Christmas Eve I was brave enough to invite Casey to bake cookies with William.  We had a blast and made a huge batch of cookies, and a huge mess! Will got his own little baking set for Christmas with a spoon, rolling pin and cookie cutters.  We made cookies for everyone. 

Ready to get started!

Adding the flour ...

and wearing a little too!

Covered head to toe ...

and front to back!

That was hard work!

We went to the Christmas Eve service at church and that's when things started to look dim for Mama.  Lo and behold I didn't end up making it through Christmas and spent Christmas Eve sleeping on the bathroom floor. Bless Steve's heart our son must have known something wasn't right because for a couple hours while I was in the bathroom he was awake and crying and wouldn't let daddy put him down.  I'm not sure how Steve managed to take care of us both as well as he did!  Once Will went to sleep Steve camped on the couch until I was well enough to go to bed. 

We slept pretty late Christmas morning but woke to a Toys R Us explosion in the living room.  Santa brought Will a ball pit, a tunnel and tent, a recliner and some other smaller toys.  The ball pit was the hit of the morning.  And the chair too.  He loves to climb in and out of it like a big boy.  He and BJ love the tunnel and on a few rare occasions have been in together.  Right now his favorite is his tent.  BJ loves that too but he's a pretty smart cat and takes off as soon as Will joins him!  He also got a Mickey Mouse pillow pet.  He LOVES Mickey and calls him "ts". We aren't sure where that came from but it's definitely his name for Mickey. 

Ball pit!

In his tunnel

Checking out his stocking

Calling Santa to say thank you!

Loves his new boots!

Sitting in his new recliner opening a present from Mama and Daddy.  He can see the balls!

Checking out Mickey Mouse

We made it to my mom's sometime that afternoon.  As I was lying on the bathroom floor on Christmas Eve I was in tears thinking I wouldn't get to see Nat and Adam.  It'd been 7 months since I'd seen Nat and our visits with Adam are few and far between as well. I was devastated I wouldn't get to put my arms around them and hug them. Thankfully the bug came and went quickly for me (my husband and son were not that lucky) and I was able to hug them both!  That just might have been my best gift that day.

Adam, Nat and William

Will with cousin Nat.  Boy we miss him!

Will and Mama

Shoes from Casey.  He loves them!

Tractor from Uncle John and Aunt Darlene

Pooped ...

Will and cousin Casey

Uncle John and Aunt Darlene helping Will unwrap his Critter Clinic from Uncle Jamie

The grandkids got flags, framed and engraved, that were Grandpa's.  A very special gift.

Grandma with the kids: Allison, Adam, Grandma, Will, Nat, Casey and Beau.

Cousins: Adam, Nat, Will and Casey

Uncle John putting together a basketball hoop from Grandma

We had to miss brunch with Steve's family Christmas morning but did make it that evening and spent some time with them.

Will's car!

I love it!!

This is super cool!!

Uh oh!

Riding in the trailer.

You may be wondering about those cookies we baked just hours before I got sick.  Well, sadly they got pitched and the family got pictures of them instead!

As we say good-bye to 2011, we are thankful for the many blessings God has given us and pray for a 2012 filled with blessings beyond words for our family and yours. 

God bless,
Alisa