Will is Going to College

Our little genius baby is going to college. Ok, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, for at least 3 years. In 2024, it will cost more than $160,000 for a public state college.

Now that Will is almost one year old, we have finally set up a savings account for him. As he doesn't fully appreciate the excitement of birthday presents yet, feel free to help him out in the college department. So far we have opened the account with money from his great-grandparents. If any other grandparent-type people or various other people are interested in finding out what this account number is and how to contribute, just drop us a line.

And just so this post isn't boring, here is a cute picture of Will, ready to go to school.

Riding the bus

The Couch Exists!

Back in December, Dan and I bought a couch. Back in January, a couch that was the color, "Baltic Tobacco" was delivered to us. Despite it having an archaic color name, it wasn't a bad couch. It was about the color of smoker's teeth, a nice stained brown color. But it wasn't what we paid for and it really went poorly with our carpet. So we asked that our "Baltic Olive" colored couch be delivered to us instead.

The customer service department at Linder Furniture told us that they would call the manufacturer and have them re-upholster the couch so that it would be done quickly for us, by February 7th. Not in time for the Super Bowl, but it would be done soon. But after speaking with them February 7th, the estimated delivery was February 25th. When I called the week of the 25th, no one could tell me what happened or if my couch existed. The order was basically lost. Finally, on March 8th, I was told that they would call me in a few days with a delivery time for my couch after putting a "rush" on it. The next week I called to find out about my couch. Now the day it would arrive to their store would be March 22nd. And they would get the delivery set up right away so I could have the couch on March 23 or 24. On March 22nd, the couch was still not finished, and not available for delivery. But finally, after waiting for nearly 4 months, without a couch, it arrived today!

Actual Couch... in our Living Room!

No longer will our guests have to sit on the floor! This couch can probably fit 6 people. Well, of course we have to remove the four superfluous throw pillows, but I'm sure Will can come up with a use for them.

No longer will Dan and I have to sit in our two separate chairs to watch TV. Now we can actually sit next to each other, on the couch. And Will can join us. He really likes couches. Shopping for the couch was a lot of fun for him. We just hope he doesn't get lost in the giant cushions.

Our couch is awesome. It is deep and tall. So even though Dan and I are tall, we can sit on it without our knees hanging over the seat. Plus, we can lean back and our heads still touch the back pillows.

Will was 8 months old when we bought the couch and we actually received it before his first birthday. It took nearly a third of his life to get a couch delivered! I hope there isn't anyone else out there who can make such a claim.

Will's First Birthday (observed)


On Saturday, we celebrated Will's birthday. Of course his birthday isn't until April 6, but his due date was March 24 and we will be out of town on his actual birthday, so we celebrated on March 24. Throwing a 1st birthday party is different than throwing a normal party. Here are some things we learned during the experience.

"Goodie Bags" are very important. As Will is only 1 and doesn't know what a goodie bag is, I figured that we didn't need any. I looked at them in the store. They seemed pretty lame. However, lame to me is not the same as lame to a kid. And even though Will is only 1, we had kids at the party who were older. I was properly schooled by a 6-year old who asked me if there were goodie bags and then, when faced with the realization that there were none, asked me why I was not smart enough to get them. I explained that this was my first kid birthday party. His extensive knowledge was the result of 11 different birthday parties. All of which had goodie bags.

Entertainment is very important. As we have a small grill, the main entertainment was watching Dan grill one burger at a time. Ok, maybe there were 5 or so burgers on the grill. They seemed to get done one at a time. Everyone was hanging out in the back yard, watching Dan grill. But he wouldn't create fire and flip the burgers up in the air. It was very sad. Then, after Hillary successfully managed to consume the first burger, people got to eat. Perhaps a bigger grill isn't such a bad idea.

Grilling Dan

The better entertainment came after dinner when it came time for cake. It turns out that even though a 1-year-old doesn't know what a goodie bag is, he can grok cake. We threw caution to the wind and broke Will's no wheat-milk-eggwhites-sugar diet. Will was confused when we first put him in his high chair with everyone sitting around watching, but he got into the cake zone after we put a slice in front of him. I can safely say that most of the crowd found this to be more entertaining than watching Dan grill.

In the Cake Zone

Will was also entertained by all of the people hanging out at his house. He was walking everywhere, mostly near the guests outside in the back. People were arriving and Will was out back, we thought. It seems I failed to replace the baby gate on the front door in between guests arriving. I realized this when Mindy walked in with Will. He had decided to wander out front! Lesson here: We will always leave the front door closed or baby-gated.

Will has had a pretty good year. His first year number of states visited will be 13: AZ, CA, CO (airport only), DC, IL (airport many times), MD, MI, NC, NV (airport only, but got to gamble), NY, OR, TX, VA. He has only been to 2 countries: Japan and US. He got to go on 31 plane flights, counting connections. He can't talk yet, but he tries to say, or he responds to: apple, ball, banana, bath, block, brrr (when cold), bird, caw (sound of bird), box, bye-bye (with waving), dad, dog, drawer, door, duckie, lama, mom, more (pointing), no (with shaking head), outside, splash, up. He learned to sit on his own at 4 months, crawl at 7 months, and walk at 10 1/2 months. His favorite TV show is "Handy Manny" about a repairman with talking, singing tools. He likes sports, watching the Tour de France, the World Cup, and lots of American Football on TV. He likes songs about satellites. Beep-Beep-There-Goes-A-Satellite!

What are Will's goals for before he turns 2? I hope that he starts talking so he can tell us why he is cranky (probably because we are hanging out at home and he is bored). We hope to take him to see some new places, maybe visit part of the Tour de France. Perhaps expose him to Mayan culture. He is already starting in the toddler class at his pre-pre-school. And what of his 2nd birthday? Definitely Goodie Bags!

Take Me Out to the Warm Sunny Ballgames!

Arizona is a warm, sunny, location. Dan, Will, and I just spent a long weekend hanging out with Kevin and Sara at Baseball Spring Training. Since it was sunny, we wore a lot of sunscreen and protected Will from the sun with a hat and a little tent.

Will in Tent

Since it was very warm, we all made sure to drink enough water.

Sippy cup? Who needs a sippy cup?

Will's cute hat helped him meet girls when I wasn't paying attention.

How you doing?

During one of the games, Will decided to try to sell beer, pushing the bucket around.

Future Beer Vendor

We even took a break from baseball and went to play mini-golf.

Could I get a shorter club, please?

And what is a visit to Phoenix without going over to Taliesin West and taking a picture with a cactus?

So this is the dessert?

We had a great trip, Will even survived the 6-hour drive from California to Arizona. We think that his nifty new car seat helped. Where to next? Somewhere just as hot - Houston, TX in a couple of weeks. But this time, we are flying. It will be Will's 29th flight. Maybe we will see you there!

I Am Such A Yuppie

A while back Dan and I realized that we did indeed fall into the category of yuppie. But it was simply a general category, not really based on any one specific thing we do. However, I can now, without a doubt say that I am a yuppie.

You see, I had a shopping problem. Not your typical shopping problem where you go and buy too many things. Rather, I was unable to shop with Will as he grabs at the clothes, tries to remove their price tags, and generally disapproves of boring fitting rooms. This wouldn't be such a big deal except for the fact that none of my old clothes fit anymore.

So I asked myself.. What Would Ben Do?

So, I met with a personal shopper. And I liked it! I think it is even better than having a home grocery delivery service. (Home grocery delivery services such as Pea Pod are awesome. You can search on-line for items instead of aimlessly wandering around the store. You can sort by unit price to get the best deal. The only problem with me using them these days is that taking Will to the store to wander around aimlessly is one of the methods of entertaining him that we use.)

Back to personal shoppers. This is basically how it works: I call my personal shopper, Cheryl, and tell her what I am looking for. "I need something to wear to a wedding that is casual." Then I tell her when I would like to come in to the store. She has a large fitting room reserved for me with a rack of clothes in my size. Will hangs out with Cheryl while I am trying stuff on. I let her know if I need any other sizes or colors. She tells me if things fit properly or not. Then I buy what I need. If it is going on sale in the near future, she lets me know. It is awesome.

So, as I sit here in my Ralph Lauren jeans, I feel bad about buying expensive clothes (although I got a really good deal), but I am soo happy that my clothes actually fit well. You can call me snobby or a yuppie or whatever, but it is such a relief to wake up in the morning and grab something out of my closet that fits!