snow angel

it's been an unusually temperate winter here in chicago, but we've taken full advantage of the snow when it's come. here are two photos too cute not to post.


sledding down heritage mountain at grandma and grandpa's house in lake forest.


first snow experience, in front of the condo. less than enthused.

will speak, thirteen month edition

full disclosure: i am totally copying my friend anne's blog in this post, but if you knew anne, you'd want to copy her too. she's that cool.

we have words! lots of them. it's a very exciting time, being thirteen-months-old and walking and exploring and falling and climbing and holding keys and dancing and feeding bean and not sleeping. with all that going on, who would want to sleep, right?

anyway, back to the point. will's words!

kee! - key (as in, i see those keys up there on that hook, give them to me now! give them to me now or i'll scream! wait, i already am screaming!)

shuh - shoe (as in, i'm sitting up here under the keys, and hey, look, there's my shoe)

pak - park (as in, let's go!)

dah! - down. get me down! from my high chair! from the couch! from the bed! from your arms! from... you get the picture.

kiki - kitty (as in, I met a kitty named mint in new hampshire, and i really liked her. now i'm home and my kitty is a puzzle piece. lame, mom and dad! lame!)

cah-do - avocado. as in, one of the only foods will eats any more. thank god for cados.

dah-dee! - i know what you're thinking. daddy, right? nope. diaper. that's right, daddy means diaper. you figure it out.

cah-ka - cracker. currently another big favorite. fortunutely, bean likes cakas too, which is helpful since will likes to leave a trail of his cakas throughout the condo.

and, of course...

dee! - historically, this has meant bean, but it has taken on many variations. we have a big dee, a little dee, a cousin dee, and a white dee that will sleeps with. also, ducks are dees. so are geese. in fact, you just might be a dee, too.

and finally,

dee dah! - meaning and origin unknown, yet still highly significant. to be continued.

he's so dreamy.

holiday photo bomb

at first glance, you might think it looks like we had a pretty happy christmas. but in reality, we all felt more like will in that last picture for most of our trip to new hampshire. an insanely contagious stomach virus leveled each of us so much that we had to push back our flight home, and even then, traveling was quite a risk. we're dehydrated and sleep deprived and disoriented from the whole experience. still, our holiday was spent with the people we love, and we wouldn't have had it any other way. 2011, a most significant year for us, went out with a bang.

2012, here we come!