Raising Thuliens

A brief departure from the Charlie and Will show ...

Our good friend Karen lives up the street from us, and Will has long looked up to her two oldest children, Megan and Jared (reading to Will below), who have been great to him. Will, in turn, has been great looking after Ryan at day care, and loves having his friends over to our house.

They stopped by after a T-Bird baseball game last week, and Ryan had a ball knocking over a tower of blocks we built from him over and and over again. It's so much fun having multiple kids in our house, which is why we're so excited about having Charlie around!

No farting dogs allowed

Last weekend Will asked if he could stay at my folks' lake house with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Sara. Sure, we said, and they had a great time.

Sara's dog Dayne was also there, and he laid down in bed with Will for a good night's sleep. Apparently, the scene was very cute ... until Dayne cut the cheese.

"I don't want to sleep with a farting dog!" Will demanded, and that was the end of that.

Pass him a bottle

Great new - Charlie just ate from a bottle for the first time! We were at Grandma's and he slammed four ounces like he's been doing it for ages.

We're at the park now, where Grandma is teaching Will how to spell his name using sign language. Good morning!

The smoke has cleared ...

... on Will's fourth birthday. There wasn't one big celebration like the past few years, but a series of smaller ones. The little bugger still hasn't told us what he wished for here - good for him!

Grandma

Will didn't exactly cooperate for a picture with Grandma on one of her recent visits, but Charlie's a pretty good sport about such things.

Hiding spot

Believe it or not, this is Will's go-to spot for hiding when we play hide-and-seek nowadays.

Touchdown!

Dreaming about the Badgers' opener ...

Presents

Will got around to opening some of his birthday presents today. Included were his very first credit card - for McDonald's purposes - which he will be using to pay bail for his friend the Hamburglar; and a Transformer figure of Slave I, Boba Fett's ship from Star Wars. Don't try to pretend you didn't know what that was ...

Brothers

We'll let this early morning photo speak for itself ...

What a clown

Auntie Sara got Will a clown nose and funny glasses as part of his birthday gift. For some reason, he initially treated them like a request to pick up his toys, but he eventually warmed to the costume and embraced it.