Crab Apples - Yum?

Here are a couple random photos from the last week. We have a crabapple (I just typed that as crapabble - oops!) tree in our backyard that is beautiful in the springtime and slightly messy in the fall. Glenn and Will were out there this weekend and Will sampled a few of the crab apples. You would think that with a face like this -

or this - that he wasn't enjoying the crab apples. You would be wrong! This kid will eat anything. If you have dinner with us at a restaurant anytime soon, remind me to show you the lemon trick.

We had a nice weekend. Still trying to sell our house. Watched a little football and experienced minor cardiac distress when Coach Shanahan and the Broncos went for 2 with 0:24 left in the game. Gulp! This is a great article on the game but my favorite is this one. Now if I could only find a picture of Chargers QB Philip Rivers looking all indignant.

For those of you wondering, we'll (hopefully) find out the gender of Bronco Baby #2 aka Deuce Pauley on October 14. I've been feeling him/her move around quite a bit which is always neat. We've been pointing at my belly and telling Will "baby" but he definitely doesn't get it. He just gives me a zerbet (zerbit?) and laughs. Aw, well it's probably better that he's blissfully unaware at this point. Will has his 18-month check-up on Friday. I'll be back about all of his amazing statistics. By the way, he had his first dentist appointment last week and he's very advanced in the teeth dept. Apparently he only has 2 more molars to come in. The dentist said that he has is about a year ahead of other kids his age. Now we have something to brag about. "So your 18-month old can speak full sentences and count to 10? Well my kid is an advanced carnivore and has the mouth of a 2 1/2 year old!"

Cowboy Fans and Poop Stories

Will attended his first football game of the 2008 season this weekend. We all went to Laramie and watched the Cowboys dominate Ohio University - okay 'dominate' is not the right word with a final score of 21 to 20, but a win is a win! Here are a few random shots from the weekend.

Will and Glenn prior to the game. This is always the one football game of the season that I can get Glenn to go to because there were no hunting seasons open yet. Will sure looks like his dad, huh?

Will and me in the stadium. It was a hot day! Will has a habit of sticking both hands in his mouth when he gets nervous. Apparently, he was only half-nervous at this point. He was quite the trooper at the game - thanks in part to Grandma Pauley who took him on many breaks during the game. Will even learned the W-Y-O FIRST DOWN cheer - he doesn't say the words but the makes the arm movement. (Note to all the 30-yd line fans - Will has learned the regular version of this cheer - not our profane one.)

Will checking out the flowers in our front yard. I was desperate to get a picture of him in his n ew shirt and pants but whenever we bring the camera out - he makes a grab for it so I had to distract with something else. It's been a while since I included a naked baby shot. I'm not sure why he looks so forlorn, he actually loves the bath. Okay, here's where I write about things that will embarass the heck out of Will when he's older. He's started telling us "uh-oh" after he poops. Grandparents and other interested public have said that this means he's getting ready to be potty trained. I'm just not sure how we go from an "uh-oh" after the fact to getting him in the bathroom and all that action before the poop arrives? Any ideas? Finally, I've taken some flack for not having a picture of Canyon on the blog. Here she is, still alive and kicking at 13. She's still going strong and her tolerance for Will has increased a little bit, especially since he loves to feed her. Thanks to all who voted in the baby name poll. Looks like Bronco Baby #2 will be called Shazam. Or Shazam-a? Stay tuned.

17 months old

Today Will is officially 17 months old. He's had a good August so far. This week he mastered the slide at his daycare. He can climb up the steps and go down the slide all by himself. Coincidentally, it has also been a week and a half since our last accident report - so he's figuring that out as well. (We have to sign an accident report every time he gets a noticeable bump, scratch or scarp while at daycare. Last week we signed 3.)

I've been a slacker with the camera lately but here's a picture of Will and his favorite new toy.

This John Deere machine was given to him by the Omaha Pauleys - it was Ben and Alena's but they have grown out of it and they generously gave it to their cousin. The bottom line is that Will absolutely loves this thing. We brought it up to Vedauwoo and he spent the entire afternoon climbing out, climbing back in, sitting down, climbing out . . . etc. He also loved it when Ben would drive him around in it. Right now it's staying with the Pauleys in Colorado until we have more storage space in Cheyenne. I'm rather thankful that it's not at our house, I don't think we would ever get Will to go to bed.

We have some exciting news to share (and I apologize for getting the word out in the blog) but we are expecting another Bronco Baby in February. Being pregnant with a toddler is an interesting experiment but I'm feeling better and finally out of the first trimester ickiness. We're all excited - well Will's probably not excited, Canyon's not either, but Glenn and I are! We hope to find out in October if the baby is a girl or boy. In the meantime - check out the survey on the right and help us narrow down names.

One other bit of news - we've grown some giant zucchini! Cheyenne had typhoon-like rains last week and we didn't out to get the garden much. When I checked it on Sunday, I pulled these two out of the garden.

I put the banana in the picture to try to give it some sort of size reference but I'm not even sure that does the zucchinis justice. They are giant! Anyone have any ideas for how to make them edible? Anyone need a canoe?

The importance of dental health

At the Pauley household, we are committed to maintaining excellent dental health. Well, one of us is committed. The other one brushes twice a day but not for the recommended two minutes and flosses only before her next dental appointment. With Will being ahead of the tooth curve (born with two bottom teeth!), we've tried to get him used to brushing teeth in the last few months. All of the credit for Will's dental health lies with Glenn. He even went to Target (by himself!!) and bought him this little electric toothbrush. Usually one of us helps Will but this morning I let him take a turn by himself. We need to work on his form. Lately, one of Will's favorite activities is to put on other people's shoes. He likes dad's tennis shoes, mom's mules and anything else in his path. Here he's modeling cousin Alana's crocs. He was actually able to walk in these and pretty darn proud of himself. Don't worry, Aunt Vicky, I won't be buying him his own pair. For those fellow croc haters - you might enjoy this article.

Everybody loves a parade

Okay, maybe not quite everybody.

It's Frontier Days here in Cheyenne and we're inundated with parades, pancake breakfasts, lots and lots of traffic and monstrous rainstorms in the afternoon. Will came to my office on Tuesday so that I could take him to the parade. With his current interest in all things animal, I thought he'd enjoy the horses and floats in the parade. He enjoyed it for a few minutes and then decided to take a nap.

We've tried to take advantage of some of the more kid-friendly activities going on this week. We stopped by a great petting zoo over the weekend. Will enjoyed being the goat whisperer.

He made a beeline for this pony.

On Sunday, we went to the spray park for a birthday party. For those of you Cheyenne folks, the spray park really is a lot of fun. It was a hot day and the kids enjoyed running around in the sprinklers. This is Will before he got soaking wet. Notice his hip board shorts? This is also a typical Will Pauley expression.

Finally, in other news - we got a new puppy. He's cute but bites and is definitely not housebroken.

Cute boy outfits

So as a mom to a little boy, I often feel a pang when I walk through the kids section at Target and see all the cute sundresses, capri pants, tube tops, etc., that are available for little girls. My options for little boys are shorts and tshirts with an occasional pair of man-capris to throw into the mix. You can imagine my delight when I was shopping a few weeks ago and found this tshirt for Will. Paired with shorts and a kicky firemans hat, he's ready for anything! (The shirts says "preschool").

I'm including this picture to give you an idea of what dinnertime is like. The kid loves food.

Holiday Weekend

It's been another wild week in the Pauley Household. We're still in the midst of trying to sell our house and Glenn's been busy getting the deck painted and making everything look fancy. On Saturday Will and I snuck away to Fort Collins and had a fun day with Aunt Vicky. We took Will to the Budweiser plant so that he could pet a Clydesdale. With Will's weight being in the 90th percentile, my dreams of him being a world famous jockey are probably fading. However, if they ever race Clydesdales, he might be just the right size!

We took Will to the fireworks display on Friday night and needless to say, he wasn't a big fan. He enjoyed running around the park but once the show started, he tried to simultaneously cover his eyes and his ears. When that didn't work, he just fell asleep.

We've all had to pitch in to keep our house in shape for the realtors. Here's our latest attempt to violate child labor laws. As you can see, we also have a strict "No Pants" policy around our house.

As the weekend wound down, we noticed that Will wasn't feeling very well. He had a slight fever and general crankiness. We kept him home on Monday with Grandma Hansen's help. After a particularly rough night that left me wondering if 15 month-olds could get colic, Glenn took him to the doctor on Tuesday. Turns out our little germ magnet has Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease. You can look it up here. Not to be confused with Hoof and Mouth which is this. So far his major symptoms besides the blisters on his hands and feet, seem to be major crankiness and inability to handle things that don't go his way. I know what you are thinking, I've probably had HFMD for the last 20 years.