Basketball anyone?

Last night Jana and I ventured to Ashwaubenon to watch the Iola-Scandinavia boys basketball team play Manitowoc Roncalli in a sectional final game. Our boys won an exciting game, which means we're going to state next week, very cool.

We took Will along, and he stayed in our spot for the entire game, a minor upset in itself. He clapped at the right times, shouted "defense" along with the rest of the kids, and even got into the We're Number 1 hand gestures, albeit a bit prematurely.

Afterward, over ice cream (a promise made to pacify him in the game's final minutes), I told Will that my daddy used to take me to high school basketball games when I was a boy, and they were some of my favorite times. He seemed interested.

I also asked him if he thought the game was exciting. "Yeah!" "Do you want to play basketball when you grow up?" "No!"

We have time to work on that.

Recorder it?

Recently we signed up for DirecTV's DVR program, which allows us to record and store shows without a VCR, rewind and pause live action, etc. It's a great birthday present from Jana to me, and we're enjoying it.

Will is enjoying the fact that we can record shows that happen during the times he isn't allowed to watch TV - any time other than weekends and from about 6:30-7:30 a.m. on weekdays. So he has continually asked us to "recorder" shows like the Magic School Bus.

After trying to correct him many times, we gave up, and this morning Jana asked Will if he wanted us to "recorder" Bindi the Jungle Girl.

"It's 'record,' Mommy," Will said sternly.

Thanks for the lesson buddy!

Not always our perfect little angel

Most of the posts in this blog will offer glowing or humorous accounts of our children, but in the interest of using it for catharsis, here are two things that bummed me out briefly this week:

-On Wednesday morning, Jana tried to dress Will in the shirt I brought him back from Germany. It's a cool shirt, a T-shirt jersey of Berlin's big soccer team, Hertha BSC, and I looked all over to get him one. He refused to put the shirt on, saying that he didn't like it and never wanted to wear it. This after declaring it "not a good gift" when I pulled it out of my suitcase upon arriving home.

After working himself up into a fury, he then came down stairs, looked at the TV (which had CNN election coverage on), and wailed "I don't like watching the Badger game, it's boring!"

Great start to my day!

He eventually willingly wore the shirt the next day, and gleefully told his teachers it was his Germany shirt his daddy brought him. And he also wanted to wear his Badgers shirt, so his second comment didn't bother me too much - I think he equates anything that isn't a "kids movie" with "Badger game," including CNN.

-Also this week, Will came home with five Matchbox cars from day care in his pockets. This wasn't the first time something like this has happened - last week he came home with Lincoln Logs. Guess who he blamed both times? That's right, Logan. Sidebar: tonight he suggested Logan as a baby name. We'll probably pass on that one. According to Will, Logan told him to take the things, even if he didn't.

We told our son (over and over) that we don't care what Logan says, we care what Will does. The old "If Logan told you to jump off a bridge" line doesn't really work yet, but that's where we were going. Other measures included: giving toys away every time he brings a toy home; pocketless pants (half-kidding); pat-downs before we leave day care (half-kidding); bare-butt spankings (kidding).

Ironically, the next day he came home singing a song about the Hamburgler - apprently they got some McDonald's-produced videos free or cheap - and about how stealing was bad.

As long as taking Matchbox cars home from school doesn't end up on Will's permanent record, we're OK here, just part of Raising Tappas!

What's that word again?

With our editorial roots, Scott and I might correct Will's language a bit more than your average parents. We don't stand for "broked" toys around here.

Of course, there are a few slight misses that are too cute to correct. My favorite recent example was when we were headed to the water park last weekend and Will called the "hotel" the "show-and-tell." How cute is that?

Will also misses his "L"s on most words. "Legs" become "eggs" and "I love you" comes out "I uv you." When he's counting and hits "eleven," you feel like you just hit a bumpy road in a car without shocks.

Scott and I haven't been too worried about the lack of "L"s. Many of my cousins and my brother had similar speech patterns ... some of which are remembered with great fondness by the adults in my family:

My cousin Rona saying, "There's a cah (car) coming around the cuhve (curve)."

My brother Jim, embarrassed about his inability to say "R's," avoided saying "girls" and instead asked his Kindergarten teacher why the "women" always got dismissed for the bathroom first.

Of course, Scott and I will never forget the time little Chad thought my mom had gone completely crazy at a McDonald's when she repeatedly asked him what he had for lunch:

Mom: "Chad, tell Jana and Scott what you had for lunch."
Chad: "A hambuhguh"
Mom: giggle "Was it a hamburger or a chicken nuggets?"
Chad: "A hambuhguh"
Mom: giggle giggle "Was it a hamburger or a cheesburger?"
Chad: "A hambuhguh!!!" (insert irritated look at crazy Aunt Clary here)

Baby talk is cute but my stance has always been that babies and children learn language so fast, we shouldn't dumb it down for them. I'm fairly proud of the fact that Will uses words like "actually" and "incredible" — even if they come out a little funny.

Of course, that doesn't stop Scott and I from taking on Will's speech impediment when it suits us. Scott, after a particularly grueling game of basketball, will tell me how much his "eggs" hurt. When I have something shocking to tell Scott, I'll say, "You won't ba-eeve what happened to me!"

No, we're not in any hurry to rid Will of this last evidence of babyhood ... except perhaps when we're at the Pizza Hut where they have a giant "Pizza Time" clock on the wall.

We pretty much want to drop into a hole in the floor every time Will yells, "Wow! Look at that HUMONGOUS CLOCK!"

Menomonee Falcon?

Will really likes Star Wars - the movies, the books, beating me up with his light sabers (thanks Uncle Andy). I've done nothing to discourage this.

The last couple nights we've read a long book about the different starships seen in the movies. Both nights, we got to the page describing the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo's ship.

"What's this ship called Will?"

"Ummm ..."

"M, Muh ..."

"Ummm ... Menomonee Falls?"

Which is, of course, where Will's Aunt Sara and Uncle Nick live, not the ship that made the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs and is co-piloted by the Wookie Chewbacca.

Energy

At the dinner table tonight Will was giving Jana and me a spelling lesson.

"Mommy Daddy, guess what? Energy is two words: energ, and y!"

So I asked him if he knew how to spell energy.

"Four, two, three!"

He's got more energy than the two of us combined, so I'm not going to argue with him, he's the expert.

This is entrapment

While visiting my mom, Will found a box of Jelly Bellies — those jelly beans with all the distinct flavors. So, he puts them all in matched sets and gives me the ones that don't have matches to eat.
Twenty minutes later he says, "Grandma Clary, you know what? When Mommy eats, that's when the baby eats."
"That's right," she answered.
"Well, Mommy ate candy so now the baby is unhealthy."

Wow. The pressure. I'd better not tell Will about all the times I put him on the changing table and didn't buckle him in.

First photo

We took over 10,000 photos before Will turned one, but today we got our first amazing photo of Will's brother. Here he is:


How amazing is this shot? The tech said he wanted to keep it for his portfolio! After a nightmare last ulra-sound, we were absolutely thrilled to get a tech who took the time to make sure we had a quality take-away. Of course, it's hard to explain this sort of technology to Will and he was a little less thrilled. His response: "Our baby is black?"

Feeling "Low"

I'm The Brave One ... took Will on a five-hour road trip to Upper Michigan last weekend all by myself. Oddly enough, he proved to be a pretty good companion and it was a great chance to witness the interest in music Will has developed.

One of the highlights came when the Buckcherry song "Sorry" came on the air and Will said, "Wow. Mommy! I can't believe it. This sounds exactly like Uncle Andy." Really? Huh. We'll have to have Andy put on a concert next time we see him.

The other highlight (aside from the WMQT's Tom Petty marathon in honor of the Super Bowl) was when Will first heard Flo Rida's "Low." I've never seen anything like his reaction outside of a charismatic church service — he sort of became overcome by the spirit. We were stopped at a gas station and he ripped off his seat beat and started getting down ... I know that moment will never be recreated, but I tried to get a short clip of it tonight:

Brain drain

In the past we have told Will that we don't want him watching too much television because if he does, his brain will turn to mush. This evening on our drive home from school, during a debate on whether or not he should be allowed to watch TV tonight (the answer was no), he commented "Daddy, my brain is half gone." Good to know.