William had his first birthday on January 29th. Omi joined us for a small celebration. We had a great time singing "Happy Birthday!" and eating cake. We found out that Will has a ferocious sweet tooth and he consumed the adult-sized piece of cake we put on his tray with a concentration and deliberateness that Dave and I had never witnessed before.
Omi and Will had a great time playing together and they even completed their first artistic collaboration. They worked together to create a very nice piece that explores the states of form and plasticity with cool, organic colors dichotomously paired with abstract expressionist techniques. The green paint tasted kinda gross though.
At the beginning of February we took William in for his ear-tube surgery. We all got up at the crack of dawn and waited far too long for the surgeon to arrive at the Surgery Center. She finally did and Will was whisked away briefly for his procedure. He was a little disoriented after, but calmed down as soon as we got him home. He slept like a champ and recovered nicely.
He hasn't recited Shakespeare yet, nor has he completed his marathon, but he's taken a few more independent steps and stands unaided for longer periods of time now. He's much more agile at getting on and off of his sit-upon toys and he just seems more actively engaged and responsive to us.
Will is almost completely off of formula now and we're working with a sippy-cup now. He gets incredibly excited to see the cup. So excited, in fact, that we can't give him his drink until he's finished eating.
Additionally, Omi bought him a ball. He loves the thing. He rolls it around, bounces it up and down and most of the time can roll the ball back if you roll it towards him. We have a jillion light-up, rolly-squeaky and talking toys but Will, in addition to pushing a bowl around on the floor, opening and closing doors and playing with spoons and his tambourine, has added bouncing the ball to his repetoire.
We are looking forward to him walking and soon saying his very first words. In the meantime, he's been healthy and joyous and delights us every day.
