All about Will

At long last, here is an update on Will: the sweetest, smartest, silliest three-year-old around.

He continues to spend lots of time in his occupational therapy swing. This kid has loads of energy to burn, and the swing helps immensely with that. He also runs or marches around the house (usually in a specific pattern) multiple times each day :).

We try to encourage as much physical activity as possible to offset his new, much more sedentary hobby - computer games. He figured out how to operate the mouse (using both hands) and LOVES to play on the various kiddo websites: PBS, Nick Jr, and Disney Jr. We call it his crack addiction; no one looks forward to prying the mouse from his little hands when his allotted time is up for the day :).

A hilarious benefit of his new fondness for 'gaming' is the new phrases he's been adopting and a new penchant for returning things to their proper place - a lot of the games involve clicking items around to where they belong. One day as he went to put an errant pillow back on the couch, he narrated his action by saying "Click on the pillow!" Oh dear. He's also been encouraging me to 'try again' when he doesn't care for what I say: "Will, it's time for a bath." "No, Mommy, try again!"

Will still loves going to the developmental preschool two mornings a week; here we are waiting for the bus on a recent, chilly morning.

Chuck and I attended our first 'parent-teacher' conference at the end of September and it was so great to hear all of the wonderful things that Will's teacher had to say about him. Checking out the different areas of the classroom and looking at their daily schedule has also helped me ask more specific questions when Will gets home from school since he isn't able to really volunteer information about what he did there.

Will had lots of fun playing 'spectator' at Clyde's soccer games this fall - as long as Daddy, Uncle Cody, or Grandma Pam was in attendance to keep him entertained/unbuckle him from the stroller.

Will is super into helping in the kitchen lately, and he insists on wearing an apron. His favorite aspects of the experience are, not surprisingly, helping to crack the eggs and then licking the beaters afterwards.

Last week we had an appointment with the developmental pediatrician - here's Will playing in the waiting area. We hadn't met with this particular doctor before; it was his colleague who diagnosed the autism and he has since moved. Dr. Leavell walked us through the genetic testing results (the bottom line is that everything came back within normal ranges so no real concerns/answers there) and discussed Will's progression in various areas. Will has come leaps and bounds in his language development - both expressive and receptive - which is really encouraging.

Speaking of doctors, Will came with me to my most recent prenatal checkup earlier this week. I was a little nervous about how he would do, especially his rough morning and refusal to let me out of his sight were what precipitated his tagging along, but he was amazing! Especially since Dr. Klomp was just coming back from a delivery and thus had a slight backlog there at the office. Will happily read books in the waiting room for 45 minutes and then continued to hone his photography skills once we were in the exam room.

The sweetest thing was his concern for me - first when Maria took my blood pressure and then when Dr. Klomp was measuring the baby's heartbeat. Both times Will watched me intently and asked, "Okay, Mommy? Okay?" What a doll!

And now, just for fun, here's a video of Will singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" a couple of weeks ago. He was sooo wound up! My favorite is when he pauses and asks, "Hmm, what comes next?"


We really, really love this goofy, darling kid - which is what gets us through the not-as-darling meltdowns :).

All about Chuck/Jana/new baby

I've come to the conclusion that neither Chuck nor I are exciting enough or photographed enough to warrant our own individual blog update, so here's a combination post :).

Our most recent fun adventure was a road trip to Twin Falls last Saturday. I originally had big plans for a 'babymoon' weekend (preferably somewhere exotic like the Caribbean or Utah) but then I remembered both that we have high-maintenance existing children and also that we are not independently wealthy, so we opted for the day trip to Twin instead.

We were able to attend the Twin Falls temple, which was lovely. We've really missed the Boise temple the last few months.

We also did some shopping, ate lunch at Cafe Rio in an effort to be cool and trendy, had fun randomly making up new rules for the slugbug game (yellow = double hit, silver is some sort of karate chop, etc) and just generally enjoyed hanging out together without changing diapers or small people interrupting us.

Meanwhile, Clyde and Will spent the day with Grandma Pam and Uncle Cody in this lego heaven as evidenced in this cell phone picture my mom sent me halfway through the day - and I think this was before another bucket was dumped out.

Chuck and I have also been staying busy with baby room projects, because cleaning old rooms is not nearly as interesting as decorating and putting together new ones!

Chuck was brave and let the little boys help him put together a bookcase.

All that time watching Handy Manny has paid off for this screwdriver-wielding expert!

The baby's room is going to be blue and orange because, well, why not? Here's the finished bookcase (still adorned with the helpful A/B/C stickers which have since been removed) and the coolest lamp in the world, courtesy of a late night shopping trip to Walmart.

I have not delegated every project to Chuck, just the ones that involve tools and/or heavy lifting. Will and I went outside one afternoon last week where I took it upon myself to repaint the boys' old green nightstand.

Will is obsessed with taking pictures lately. One of his favorite pbskids.org games is one where you go around 'clicking' to take pictures and so he now hilariously repeats their catchphrase of "Ooh, that's a keeper!" after every shot.

Here's the nightstand after its second coat (done inside because it was waaaay colder the next day).

Another favorite recent activity for Chuck and myself is complaining about our various aches and pains - ankle for him, back and heartburn for me. My dear husband sprained his ankle on his looong hike back in August and finally went in to the doctor about it at the beginning of October (for the record, I strongly encouraged him to go in sooner, but I think he was a little gun shy after the appendectomy). So he's spent the last month getting x-rays, an MRI, a cortisone shot, and weird ice and electrolyte treatments in physical therapy.

In the meantime, I've spent the last month incubating a little wild child who really, really, really likes to move. It reminds me of the Chuck Norris joke about how he invented the c-section when he decided he was ready to be born and roundhouse-kicked his mom from the inside. I think this baby is trying to do the same thing . . .

Sadly, we still have seven-ish weeks until this baby will make his debut, and just for fun yesterday I got my first "Really? You still have that long?" comment from a random stranger who asked when I was due. Trust me lady, I can and will get much bigger - I have the photographic evidence from two previous pregnancies to prove it :).

Aaaand that's what Chuck and I have been up to lately. Happy Veteran's Day!!

Halloween Wrap-Up

Time for a recap of our Halloween festivities. Sadly, the Izatts did not hit all of the semi-required October activities - there was no pumpkin patch visit this year, and our construction paper decor was pretty lacking. . .

BUT we did find a little bit of Halloween cheer, starting with making sugar cookies with the two cutest little bakers in town. Will wandered away after cookie cutter-ing a couple of pumpkins, but Clyde was in it for the long haul - he loved rolling out the dough and turned out to be very adept (if slightly too generous) at sprinkling the flour onto the counter. The boys were equally committed when it came to eating the cookies, however :).

Another day we stripped the boys down for some pumpkin painting (which I still maintain is less messy and hassle than carving, although Maren disagrees). Chuck favored us with the Star Wars battle scene, I went for simple and just painted 'Go BSU' and Clyde and Will both opted for multi-color masterpieces (Clyde middle left, Will lower left).

And of course we dressed up for our ward's trunk-or-treat:
I was an oven baking a bun, Clyde was Commander Cody from Star Wars: the Clone Wars, Will was Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: the Clone Wars, and Chuck was my Pastry Chef :).

Here's another shot of my apron. I stole the idea from an actual costume set you can buy - although it's a big box for the oven, and the dad's apron says 'Bun Maker'. I opted to just wear an apron for the oven and after Chuck and I created a list of possibilities for his label (some more risque than others) we decided on the fairly family-friendly 'Pastry Chef'.

And I was completely delighted when I won an award! I love the Primary Presidency, aka Awards Committee :).

And I have to include a picture of the Daniels family since they also won an award! Duke was a referee, Nicole was Coach Pete, Brinley was a little BSU cheerleader, and Beckam was the cutest, chunkiest little football player around.

This was my baby bump shot for Sunday the 30th. I bought those awesome tights at Target last year on clearance and I love them, despite their limited window of wearability each year. If only we were ISU fans . . .

Monday night we took the boys out for a quick round of trick-or-treating. It was actually their maiden voyage into the activity; they've never done the whole door-to-door around the neighborhood thing.

Luckily they caught on quickly. Will gleefully shouted at one point, "Let's play trick-or-treat!!" (And eagle-eyed Star Wars fans will note that the boys changed costumes, Clyde is now a clone trooper and Will is a youngling, aka Jedi in training).

Chuck and Will loved the decor at this house; Clyde was terrified. We had to coax him to the doorstep, and after getting his candy, he took off across the lawn yelling "Run! Everybody run for it!" That's kind of like saying 'Thank you', right? Chuck and I chatted with the guy for a minute, and it turns out it took him like two years to make the werewolf. Clyde can attend to its realism!

After about ten houses, we called it a night and came home to pass out candy. Yes, we're lightweights.

Will making sure there aren't any lingering treats in his pumpkin. . . .

Clyde examining his sorted candy, trying to pick which one to eat that night. Decisions, decisions!

Uncle Cody and Grandpa came over that night for a visit, which was very fun.

I decided they were the best trick-or-treaters of the night since my dad came bearing gifts instead of asking for candy. Thanks Dad!!

We celebrated the transition to November by putting up our third annual Izatt Family Thanksgiving Tree on Tuesday:
We're looking forward to focusing on all of the things we're grateful for this month and seeing our bare little tree be overtaken with pretty leaves to join the solitary 'Blue's Clues' leaf that Will put up :). Happy November!