Happy First Birthday, William!

We can't believe that our baby Will is one!! He is such a precious, sweet little boy and we love watching him discover new things about his world everyday. He is truly a joy. Occasionally, when I'm rocking him to sleep at night, I get teary-eyed thinking about how much I love him!

Here are just some of the things that Will is doing these days:
1. Will has started saying some words! He has the sweetest little voice. So far, his words are: Mama, Dada, Dog, and Baby.
2. He only says a couple of words, but he knows many more. For example, we can ask him, "Where is the balloon?" and he'll point to the balloon. He'll also respond to commands like, "Clap your hands." and "Roll 'em Over." (Roll 'em over refers to the nursery rhyme, Patty Cake.)
3. Will can tell us the sounds that cows and chickens make. He really loves to eat his chicken and when I bring out chicken or turkey, he says, "Bock, bock". So hilarious.
4. Will is not walking yet, but can get around super fast by crawling and "cruising" around the furniture. We have been thinking he's about to walk for the past several months!
5. He loves books. Will is content to sit for a long time by himself looking at his books, turning the pages and pointing to the pictures. Of course, he loves to sit in our laps and listen to the story too!

Will also likes sitting and reading in the dog bed!

6. Will makes lots of friends wherever we go. He waves at most people and many times they will walk up to us and talk to Will. Sometimes Will is okay with this, sometimes he acts really shy.
7. Will loves music and dances every time he hears it.
8. He loves his dogs and most of the time, they love him. He shows his love by throwing the ball to them, "petting" (more like hitting!) them and yanking on their collars.
9. He is starting to enjoy playing little "games" with Mommy and Daddy, and is initiating them more lately too. He likes to crawl over to a ball, turn around and grin at Daddy, and then throw it, hoping to start a game of catch. He knows how to play the "gonna get you" game and the "thank you" game. They each are silly but fun.


We celebrated Will's birthday twice this week. On his actual birthday, we had a birthday breakfast at The Original Pancake House. Grammie and Grandpa Fowler flew in from Michigan and Grandmommy Roop was able to drive in from College Station. Here are a few pictures of Will opening a present and enjoying his cake:

Our party on Saturday was a big hit. We had a nice family gathering at our house and served Austin's Pizza (yum!) and delicious cake. Will had his own cake made from applesauce and carrots. He was a little timid at first with so many people watching and talking to him, but before long, he had icing in his hair!

Big Birthday Cake

I'll stop bragging about my little sweetie now, but I want to leave you with one more story. We took Will to our new pediatrician for his 1 year-old well visit yesterday. After taking his height and weight measurements, the doc said that Will was "a little guy" coming in at the 10th percentile for height. I commented that this was strange because he has always been in the 45th to 50th percentile. After looking at our charts, he confirmed that our pediatrician's nurse back in Ohio had been plotting Will's stats on the little girl's chart and that Will has been around the 10th percentile the whole time!! Crazy, huh? We love our "little guy"! :)