William's Blog

[Tonight we were reading stories before bed and Eliana was roaring like the character in the book. The following are William's words after he finally stopped giggling.]

I'm glad I got that silly sister that God made.

[Now that William is nearly four and a half, he will be dictating his own blog entries.]

Trivia weekend was great watching Michael play funny games on the computer. Pull-start Diesel won fourth place. Warning: Mom and Dad and me and Eliana didn't win a trophy. Eliana played in the baby zoo and me and Michael wanted to play monkey. Eliana was going to be the quiet baby monkey and playful monkey, and Michael was going to be the loud monkey and not-so-playful monkey, and I was going to be the big brother monkey and medium voiced monkey that was quiet and a little bit loud. And we were going to play that after lunch. But I ended up watching tv with Michael.

Today is flower day. The day we make paper flowers and give them to everbody we know. I was supposed to go to school but I didn't because I was too late because I slept for a long time. Mom forgot it was a school day of Sandy's class of four-year-olds. And after Sandy's class [tomorrow] it's Janie's class of four-year-olds and three-year-olds and two-year-youngs.

We have chocolate chip Teddy Grahams at our house. That is true.

Author: William and Typer: Mom

Today at school my class did an impromptu traveling puppet show. My friend Noah and I were the ones who got the whole thing started. Mom and Eliana were watching it all through the observation window. My teacher was reading Old MacDonald had a farm to a group of friends during play time. Then Noah and I got some animal puppets and popped up behind them. We had seen some storytellers at school the day before who had used lots of puppets in their stories, so we were being like them. My teacher then started including our puppets in the story and other kids went to get more animals. Pretty soon we had created a really cool puppet show. We decided to go get enough puppets from the animal barn (aka storage room) for everyone in the class and take our show on the road. We visited the other preschool classes entertaining everyone around the building! We even went into the gym and stood on the stage! Each of our friends had an animal sound solo and if someone was too shy, we all helped him out with his part. I'm lucky to have such a fun teacher! We had to mix up our whole routine today, but what a memorable day it was.

We celebrated the New Year at home this year. Mom said it was because I didn't take a nap. I think it might have had something to do with Eliana having a cold, too. Either way, I didn't mind. We ate pizza, played Uno and set some goals for the new year. Mom says goals are things you want to accomplish. I asked if accomplish was like that fire hose that Wall-E sprayed in the movie. But I guess that's not quite right. But when I heard what it did mean, I decided that one of my goals was to invent a "fire accomplisher." One that kids could use that had a button to make the fire smaller but not one to make it bigger, so it would be more safe. My other goal is to show people how I can hop on one foot and balance on one foot. I think you could probably help me out with that one!

Got it! Lesson One, passed!

For New Year's Day we slept in nice and late. Mom and Dad seemed pretty tired. I found out that they took turns staying up all night with Eliana. I slept just fine! After hanging around at home most of the day, Mom decided that we should get outside in the nice weather and try out the ice skates I got from Grandma and Grandpa Lanz for Christmas - my first real ice skates! I jumped at the idea! We went to the little rink over by Auntie Lynn's house because the one closest to our house was way too busy for my liking. I mastered the first lesson - standing on my own! The next lesson was to actually move. I made it a few inches. We decided that we really should find a chair for me to hold onto to save Mom's back. But it was fun and we stayed out even after some other kids came to the rink. We only went home when our toes got cold. I can't wait to try skating again!

And Mom thought I should tell you, book club cancelled because of the weather and my friend's family isn't coming to stay after all. So this week has been very calm, which is a big change! We've just been hanging out and playing with all our new toys.

William's Christmas "list" for Santa

There have been so many fun things going on lately, I don't know where to begin. How about counting down to Christmas? We've been doing fun things, like watching Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer on tv and doing lots of shopping. Mom and I made a paper chain to keep track of how many days until Christmas. It's still a pretty long chain. I also made a Christmas list for Santa. Mom said that since I only asked for one thing, there's a pretty good chance that I'll get it. I want a new hotwheels motorcycle like the one that I lost. I wrote the letter to Santa all by myself. I sounded out all the words. I ran out of room and had to fit letters in where ever they would go. But I know Santa will know what I meant, just like he'll know who it's from. I didn't think I needed to sign my name.

Then St. Nick came to my house. I put my boot outside and while I was getting my pajamas on after my bath, I heard a loud knock on the door and the doorbell rang. When I came downstairs, there was an apple, some M&Ms, orange tic tacs, and a sucker in my boot! St. Nick is a pretty nice guy, but he likes to be secret and doesn't let us see him.

On Sunday I got to go to a birthday party for my friend from preschool. He's turning five and had an Incredible Hulk party at his house. My favorite parts were the cake and icecream, swinging at the pinata, and the beanbag toss. It was pretty fun! And I got a big goody bag of treats to bring home. Right now I have SIX Hulk tatoos on my arms! We should've taken a picture.

This week will be even more fun! Mom's coming to school with me tomorrow to volunteer. We're making gingerbread houses in ECFE on Wednesday. Thursday is our last day of preschool before vacation and we're making gingerbread men. And hopefully it's not too cold on Friday night for the first ever parade of lights in my town! Let's not forget Cookie Day on Saturday! What a lot of fun!

Bigger than a house!

You should've seen it! Mom had to get out her cell phone and turn on the camera or no one would ever believe it... it was the BIGGEST leaf pile EVER! I'm glad I decided to go with Mom (I call her Mom now) to the post office because she took me to the park afterward. And when we pulled up, there it was, right in the driveway of watertower park. It was so fun to climb and jump in it. I smiled so much I got leaves and dirt in my mouth, but I still couldn't keep it closed.

Mom's attempt at a baseball.

The other fun thing around here is face paint! I was digging through a box of clearance items from Halloween while we were at the grocery store. Mom wouldn't let me get the flashing pumpkin light, but she did agree to the face paints. I couldn't wait to rip them open the second we got home and start painting. Mom thought they were a good buy at 25 cents. Everyone in the house got painted! Except Belle, we decided she was too furry.

Ha ha! She's so hilarious!

Mom also put some great pictures of Eliana online. She showed them to me today. It's a game Eliana plays when I'm asleep, so I never saw it. But the pictures are hilarious! You can play them frontward and it looks like Eliana is falling on her head! And you can play them backward and it looks like she's crawling up backward. Ha ha ha!

William playing band

This week is National Education Week. To celebrate I've been making cards for all my teachers. And they've been doing some exciting things for us. Tuesday Cameron came and played his guitar and sang songs with us. Then today we could bring a special visitor to our parent-child class. Grandpa Ron came to play with me. We had fun playing with the Moon Sand! And then at the end of class we had a parade inside the building! There was a real tuba, drum, trombone, trumpet and clarinet played by big kids from the middle school. They were playing Go, Go, Go Joseph, a song that I've now been listening to nonstop at home on Mommy's computer while I play parade. Using maracas for drumsticks makes a great sound! While I was at school, Eliana was at home playing with Grandma Lanz. It took a lot of grandparents to help make this day work out. Eliana would have loved to hear the marching band. She would have danced and danced. I have really been wanting to bring her to school with me. Today Mommy asked my teacher Janie if we could start bringing her to school after she turns one because my class is for 1-5 year olds. Janie thought that we should try it! So I'll get to bring Eliana for the first time on her birthday because that's the first day back to school after Christmas! I was happy to hear that! Maybe she'll be walking by then. She already likes to walk pushing her toys and holding onto people's hands. We'll see!

William made a helpful sign for Eliana to keep her out of trouble. How thoughtful... if she could read.

Today, after Eliana chewed up one of Mommy's magazines and was going back for more, I taught her an important rule. This is how it goes (just add a few more "nevers" or "evers" for extra emphasis.)

You should learn this rule: Never-dee ever, super-dee dooper-dee ever, never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever get into trouble!

Today was a perfectly beautiful fall day! It was a great day for a field trip to Squirrel City. My preschool class took a walk to the nature trail that my teacher calls Squirrel City. We saw lots of squirrel nests, but zero squirrels. We also saw bat houses, bird houses, and wild berries. It was a long walk and we were all tired when we got back. My legs hurt. My teacher told the parents that the kids would all take naps today, but I didn't!

Finished pumpkins: Scary, Scared, and Silly

After rest time, we carved our Halloween pumpkins that we got yesterday. We were going to get them from a pumpkin patch that Mommy's friend had told her about, but we couldn't find it. I say "we" but really I slept for the whole drive. I woke up in Coborn's parking lot. I wasn't too disappointed even though I had wanted to go to a pumpkin patch. You'll have to see the pictures from carving. Eliana had a lot of fun playing in the slime. I didn't like it, didn't want her to play in it, and REALLY didn't want her to eat it, but Mommy said I should let her. She said I did it when I was a baby, but I can hardly believe that. Eliana got really messy! Once all the slime was emptied out, I helped design the faces and did a little carving. We made one pumpkin silly, one scary, and one scared. I carved a little bit of the scared mouth.

Helping with laundry?

Mommy says to tell you that Eliana is feeling better. She says that the antibiotics kicked in after 4:00am. She could tell because Eliana finally started sleeping well again. She was back to her silly self today. She helped Mommy with the laundry, just like I did when I was a baby. She helped dump the clean laundry all over the floor! It was funny!

This was a great week at our house! Tuesday was Daddy's birthday. Mommy and I made brownies for Daddy and sang happy birthday to him at lunchtime since Mommy had to teach that night. I gave him my present, which was something I knew he'd like because he likes to play with me. I got him a Phlat ball! I didn't really like the gift Mommy got for him. She got him socks.

Thursday was fun because I went over to my friend Noah's house after school. I ate lunch there and we played a lot. We even got to go outside and pound real nails into a log with real hammers!

Saturday I got a new magazine in the mail. It's called Your Big Backyard. I read the joke on the back to Mommy. There was a picture of a squirrel and it said, "Do you love to climb and play? I sure do. I get squirrelly if I don't get my exercise!" Mommy didn't believe that Daddy didn't read it to me first. She had to ask him. But I really did read it all by myself!

For lunch on Saturday, Uncle Joe, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Michael and I all went out for lunch to Space Aliens. It was Joe and Kathy's gift to Michael and me for being good ring bearers at their wedding along with the smooshed pennies and Pearl Harbor airplanes they got us in Hawaii. I came home with a ton of prizes. Mommy made sure to tell me that if I ever get to go to Space Aliens again, it will NOT be like that. Not many people have Uncle Joe's token collection. Thanks, Joe and Kathy!!!

Cool tricks with sticky syrup!

Today I had a nice lazy day. I even took a nap, which I almost never do anymore. I played some computer games and a game of Trouble with Mommy. Then Mommy and I made some pancakes for dinner. We like making breakfast for dinner. My favorite part of pancakes is the syrup. It's really sticky - as you can see in the pictures.