Mad at Napoleon

As I have mentioned before, having one child didn't preclude me from dealing with "sibling" rivalry.  Will picks on Napoleon like a younger brother, and is jealous of him on top of it.  Will loves stealing Napoleon's toys, then gets mad when Napoleon won't bring a toy back to him to play fetch (because Poley has learned that Will won't throw the toy again or won't give him a fair chance to get it). 

So today Napoleon wouldn't give up his bouncy ball and that made Will furious.  He started yelling mean things at the dog so I sent him to his room until he could calm himself.  He ranted up there for at least five minutes before I started this video.  I wish I had started a little sooner because I had to laugh at Will's monologue of listing the reasons he didn't like Poley.  He got up to number five which was disliking the dog because you have to spend your money on him!! 

I'm too "Ruley"

I made this video yesterday after Will calmed down from having a fit.  It rained for a good part of the afternoon so Will was stuck inside and had too much energy.  He started running back and forth in the kitchen and living room.  I asked him not to run so near the dog because Napoleon was very sick yesterday.  That upset him a little but I had dinner ready so he came to the table to eat.  Of course he wanted to start off with a breadstick but I told him to eat some chicken first.  Well, that did it - he went over the deep end at that point, yelling and screaming that I was "too ruley" because I made so many rules all the time.  Then he wished he was a grown up so he could make rules.  Here was his response when I asked him what rule he would make if he was a grown up....

Math and Reading

I've been lax about working with Will on his reading and sight words.  As a result he is forgetting words he already knew!  Here's a video of my new approach to motivating him.  It's definitely a tactic the "me before having Will" would have disapproved of!!  Oh well, whatever works!

Math on the other hand has been a whole different story.  Several months back I tried on many occasions to teach Will how to add numbers higher than the five fingers he could hold up on one hand.  He could easily add 3 + 4 because five fingers were available on each hand.  But each time I demonstrated how to add 6 +7 he just got mad and said he couldn't do it before he even seemed to listen to what I was explaining.  So I just stopped trying.  Then last night he and Nora from next door had been out catching fire flies.  He said he had 10 and she had 4 and he wanted to know how many that was after putting them all in one jar.  I decided to risk making him mad and try again to show him how to add those numbers himself.  And it paid off!!  I explained it one time, he got it instantly and enjoyed it so much he didn't want to stop.  He even let me make a video of him adding!!! 

Updates

You can tell my mind is elsewhere when I wait for weeks then dump everything into one long post!  : )



This baby bird and his momma have been coming to Will's feeder on the deck.  You
can see her feeding the chick in the video below.  While mom was here
recently she saw one of these small birds feeding a larger baby cat bird.  Mother cat birds
lay their eggs in another bird's nest to be hatched and cared for. 
I guess their plan must work but I felt sorry for that tiny bird working
to feed that much larger cat bird baby!

 

Will and I spotted this rabbit while were out walking with Grace and Kristin.  I thought
her stomach was moving oddly then I saw tiny legs poking out all
around her!  She was nursing her babies!

We inadvertently got too close and scared her but it was a treat to
get to see her babies.  After momma left they wiggled themselves
back into their burrow under the flox.

As I'm writing this I realized how many pictures I have of our neighborhood wildlife! 
Will spotted this guy from the deck the other day while Jerry was gone.  Normally I
would haul him away but I didn't feel up to handling him without Jerry here to
help.  I didn't want to let him hang around since he was so big and Will
goes around barefoot so often so I asked Mike next door to
dispose of him.  I felt horrible about it - the snake was at least
six feet long, but he just couldn't hang around the house.

We saw this helicopter in McAlevy's Fort this past Wednesday morning.  He was flying so
low that we could see a guy sitting on the edge with his legs dangling out!!  I guess
he was just out enjoying a morning ride but it did freak me out a little!

We rode over to Wilkes-Barre while Jerry was home on Wednesday and Will
enjoyed the bounce house place we found.  It was similar to the one we
visited with Aunt Andrea in Richmond.

On July 3 we watched fireworks with Lindsay, Natalee, and Brady.  Thankfully Natalee
asked if Will was watching the fireworks which prompted Lindsay to text me and ask. 
Otherwise we would have missed them since I forgot that Huntingdon arbitrarily
changes the date of most holidays!  : )

The kids enjoyed the sparklers that Will Wallen gave Will for his birthday.

 

 

Will's Five and a Half Birthday Party

Will chose to have his birthday party at the Isett Community Pool this year.  It worked out well since it coincided with the end of swim lessons.

We were worried about the weather, especially when dark storm clouds rolled in
at 6:30 right before the party.  Fortunately the storm went around us and we
only got a few sprinkles of rain.  Then we were blessed with a beautiful
full rainbow over the pool as the party was starting.

That's Will at the top center swimming along without assistance!  : )

The pool was a little chilly but the kids didn't seem to care at all!

 

Colby, Logan's little brother enjoyed the watermelon and the Perry Platypus plates!  : )

Will picked out his cake at Giant but didn't want any writing on it.  He also didn't
want us to sing Happy Birthday to him.  Then he ended up with about
seven candles on his cake since everyone gathered around wanted to
help put candles on!  So much for birthday traditions!

I loved present opening time.  All the kids were so excited for Will to open their presents.
I love the fact that the joy of giving comes naturally at that age.  I hope I can
raise Will to retain that quality from childhood!



I have to brag on Will because he remembered to say "thank you" to each
person as he opened his gifts.  : )

The pool noodles we bought as party favors made great swords!

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons have been going great this year!  It's been HOT the past two days which has helped since last year he was cold. 

It's also nice because several good friends are in his group too,
Natalee, Logan, Brady, and McKenzie.

He's getting good at jumping in and going under without covering his face.

And he can actually swim without assistance!!

He didn't even get this far onto the diving board last year before he turned around.

You can do it, Will!!

He did it!!  And wanted to go again but lessons were over!
I'm so proud of him!!

Catching Up

Our summer is going by way too quickly!  Will and I have been staying busy with friends and Vacation Bible School during the week and then our weekends pass by all too quickly while Jerry is home. 

June 11, 2013
Will invited Grace over for a picnic.  It ended up raining so the
picnic moved inside to the basement, which was still fun
since it was something different to do!

June 14, 2012
Will went to Vacation Bible School at Hesston Community Chapel with Natalee
and Brady this week.  Will was very proud of this bird feeder they made.  You can't see it well
here, but the perch and food outlet is a plastic spoon.
The kids also enjoyed carpooling!

Surprisingly even Fat Squirrel hasn't been able to steal the food from Will's new feeder.
So of course I had to hang "his" feeder on another post so he wouldn't go hungry!
(Who ever heard of a spoiled squirrel?!?)

June 16, 3013
Will was sick on Saturday so we didn't get to enjoy the beautiful weather.  Thankfully he felt
better Sunday so we rode out to the lake before Jerry had to leave.

Will built an awesome sand castle pool though he didn't have much success
in filling it up!

June 20, 2013
 Will has been going to Vacation Bible School at our church this week and today was Crazy Hair Day.
It surprised me that he was so excited to sport this "mocock" as he called it.  He's
normally anxious about doing anything that draws attention to himself.
 

June 22, 3013
Today we invited Grace to go to DelGrosso's with us for the day.  We went to the water park for
a couple of hours then rode a few rides.  Afterward we took them out to Marzonni's for
dinner and ice cream in Altoona.  It was quite a full day but we all had a
great time together!

Our New House (Finally!!)

Our exciting news for the morning:  We bought a house in Troutville, Virginia!  After tons of looking, debating, and praying we made an offer on a house this morning, and they accepted!!  I guess that means we finally found the right house since our last two offers weren't successful.  : )

I still get that sick feeling in my stomach when I think about leaving Pennsylvania, but I am so excited to be closer to our family. 

Our new house at 4435 Country Club Lane.

I hope everyone will come visit and enjoy the view from the front porch - Jerry negotiated
for them to leave the rocking chairs there.  : )
 

Also, we half jokingly suggested they leave the very loving cat living on the back porch.  As it turned out they are downsizing and were going to have to find a home for the cat so he now comes along with the house.  Will is very excited to be adopting Skippy!

Will's Tea Party at Preschool

Will's class at Two by Two preschool had a tea party in the castle room today.  It was a formal affair with princesses, knights, and kings (plus servants in the form of myself and Logan's mom). 

Will chose to dress up as a king.  I sewed him a cape with jewels, he wore his crown
from the Christmas play, and we recycled a broom handle and Styrofoam ball into a scepter.

King William and the brave Sir Logan.

A regal afternoon tea

Ants & Updates

Will shared a goldfish cracker with a line of ants he found on mom's sidewalk.  To Will's delight, the cracker was soon covered with ants.  He decided to make a sign to invite people in to see the ants on the cracker.  He wrote the sign then used some yard stakes and posted it by the road. 

In the background you can see Will showing the ants to the new kitten at mom's.

Will wanted his picture taken with Biscuit, the best, most tolerant
cat in the world.

And here is the most beautiful kitten in the world!

And as a side note - we still haven't made any other offers on a house yet.  We did spent all day Saturday looking (thanks to our very patient real estate agent) and I think we have narrowed it down to two (maybe three) houses.  I'll keep you posted!  : )