When do we stop calling him Baby Will, you ask?
I don't know, but Little Baby Billy in The Righteous Gemstones makes it work into middle-agedhood, so I'm in no hurry to cut it out.
This baby is two. Two!
...Baby Will: 2 years.
Search Results for: will
Baby Will: 12 months.
Beck and I were talking yesterday about how these will be the last cactus blanket pictures, and I was just like WHAT.IS.HAPPENING. He's one. One!
Little Light of Mine just doesn't even begin to describe Will. As I look back on this year I feel a pretty big mix of nostalgia, happiness, regret, and disbelief at the sheer speed of the passage of time. But that's about the year, not about Will. Will is the sweetest little light and has been the most wonderful addition to our family. His curious, vibrant little personality has started to show itself more and more the last several months, and he is just the best tiny person.
...Baby Will: 11 months.
For the last baby, can we keep counting months forever?
Will "turning" 11 months has brought tons of fun growth and development for him, tons of nostalgia for me. It's not sadness, necessarily. I'm very careful to focus on how pleased I am every time one of my kids hits a milestone, and I really am pleased for them. It's just that I like almost all of the stages of babyhood so much, when things turn out to be the last time I feel nostalgic for how quickly things are going.
- The last time Will rode in his infant carrier.
- The last time we gave him a baby food pouch.
- The last time we quartered (yes) blueberries for him.
- The last time we gave him a bath in the sink.
None of it was intentional and we didn't know in the moment that it was the last time, it just was.
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Baby Will: 10 months.
My HEAVENS, this child is so visually appealing I can't even stand it. 
And, if you know me, you know I'm not a big fan AT ALL of only focusing on how kids look, and we know several people (don't get offended, look inward) who literally cannot talk to a child unless they are commenting on their looks. So I go all opposite with how smart they are.
BUT. This child is seriously adorable, and I credit it to the expressions. He's hilarious, knows it, makes it work for him. Tres expressive.
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Baby Will: 9 months.
Nine months in, nine months out! I haven't counted the days or weeks or however people do those things, so we're calling it close enough.
LOOK AT THIS CHUNK! Sitting all by himself for long stretches of time, getting pissy when no one gathers him up fast enough, fixating wildly on toys, and the most pleasant little demeanor all wrapped up in this tiny person.
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Baby Will: 8 months.
Aka my monthly whine-fest about how quickly this wonderful baby of mine is growing up.
8 months! Almost as long out as he was in, and we are enjoying every minute.
...Baby Will: 7 months.
Sweeter and sweeter every month, pretty much.
The last three or four weeks have been very bigly (gross) for Young William. He all of a sudden feels like a big kid, and the predictability and good moods that come with a nicely solidified sleep schedule are just GOLD.
...Baby Will: 6 months.
This wonderful baby of mine is six months old. He is just the most joyous little squish, and we are so glad he's ours.
...Baby Will: 5 months.
Reeeeallly rounding third toward having this little friend for a half a year, something that I'm not comfortable with at all.
This wonderful little friend is five months, and with every month of course I can't believe it. I've been thinking a lot about his birth lately and those first few holy days at home when he was so new and squishy, and it's almost like I can't remember that those moments were with him, he's just so different. I know him so much better now, and his little personality is the most wonderful thing to watch explode.
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Baby Will: 4 months.
It is such a great privilege to watch a tiny human grow.
....until it is 4am, at which point it is the WORST THING EVER AND WHY DID I HAVE KIDS.
I imagine this sort of shift in perception is what it must like to be a baby - everything's great, boob, warm, lights, and then tired or huger strikes and WORST THING EVER. So in that, I feel like Will and I understand each other a whole lot.
...Baby Will: 3 Months.
The good news here is that this is the time when babies start to look a little more commercial-ready, a little less "I'm sorry your baby was born deformed." ~actual comment some troll left on my Insta about Will.~
To be clear, Will is not deformed, nor did the image I shared look like he was, people are monsters.
...Baby Will: 2 months.
I'm just going to make a draft for each of these monthly posts that says "how is it time for this again already why time stop too fast bad don't grow MY BABY."
My sentence structure is fully intact after yet another night of waking up every hour, you'll be happy to notice.
...Baby Will: 1 month.
Aaaand here we go again with the "time is going too fast please stop can't handle it too big." 
This. Little. Squishy. It is the most fun having a new baby, and super extra fun watching Beck learn about him. She gets so excited when they make eye contact, and aggressively worried when Will cries, which luckily isn't too much just yet.
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Will's Birth Story (part 2)
read part 1 of will's birth story here. 
One of the things I was most looking forward to when we had Will was Beck meeting him for the first time. Our night in the birth center was short and sweet-ish but exhausting, so we packed up early and came home. Since Will was born before 10pm we could have stayed all night (usually you stay 6-8 hours after birth as long as everything is OK), but as long as you're in the care of the nurses you have to have vitals done every 2 hours. AND, because vitals take awhile they start them at the 90 minute mark, which means we got about 85-minute stretches of sleep. Jay snored loudly during this time (he is currently shaking his head as if I lie about this all the time), I stared at Will and contemplated things that were achy or burny, and Will snorted as if competing with his father.
Our vitals came back normal each time, so at 4am I got antsy and asked if we could go home since I was hardly sleeping. We put Will in his first-ever little outfit (that I got on my last solo trip to NYC at the Monica and Andy store, and I adore it so much because the trip was so much fun), I slowly got dressed in my super stretchy going-home outfit, and we buckled Will into his car seat, one of the only new things we got for him. We drove home slowly and carefully, chatting about the night and what we wanted to do for our first day as a family of four (I mentioned donuts several times, and no one has procured me a donut at nearly 2 weeks postpartum), and got home around 5:30am.
At this point we dropped Will in the Uppababy Vista bassinet we had carefully set up by our bed, slept for three straight hours, just the three of us, and it was the last time I slept for three hours straight. No joke.
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Will's Birth Story (part 1)
Today is my due date. This feels so similar to three years ago when I wrote about Beck barging out of my body and into the world. It's all the same and all different, all the feelings, none of the sleep or time to process them, big life changes, all of it. 
So. Last week. On Wednesday we had our 39 week appointment and the midwife we saw didn't have a ton to say besides that everything looked fine and she didn't think she'd see us for our 40 week appointment. She had no reason to say this since there weren't any actual signs that I'd go into labor and our providers don't do cervical checks (since dilating or not isn't an indication of when you'll actually go into labor), so I was half encouraged/half "you don't know anything," which is my preferred feeling around the end of pregnancy. No one knows when it'll happen or how it'll go and this makes things very hard for me on an emotional level.
Spoiler alert, Will was born at 39 weeks and one day exactly like his sister, so ... I kind of knew what was going on. ...
Will Hunt for Food
For as long as I can remember I’ve never been what you’d call a “sportsman.” Sure, I played little league and I enjoy whitewater kayaking, but I’ve never worn camouflage or had the desire to drive a truck. Those are the things best left to the right wing, conservative, country Christians that I grew up with. I would only want to be caught wearing a pair of cowboy boots if it was considered ironic. The closest I ever got to being a “sportsman” was when my father took me dove hunting when I was a child. It was a horrific event. I shot 9 birds dead, but the tenth one did not go gentle into that good night. It flopped and fought for its life, which I removed along with its head when my father made me ring its neck. I screamed like a little girl as I held that bird’s head in my hand and had a bunch of grown rednecks laugh at me. That being said…I’d rather hunt dove, deer, and kittens than Job Hunt.
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Creamy Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Bacon
A 10-ingredient pasta dinner that is done in about 30 minutes! This DELICIOUS creamy bacon pasta is so simple to make and has delicious seared mushrooms in a creamy bacon-laced tomato sauce. Delicious for a weeknight, weekend entertaining, or an easy holiday meal! I like this with an easy green salad and focaccia for dipping in extra sauce.
You know how bacon is good on, like, everything?
It's true. Adding even just a little salty, crispy bacon to spaghetti with mushrooms is juuuuust the little nudge into winter dinners we need to get us through the next few cold weeks (or months depending on where you live!)
I love this spaghetti, and I make it all the time. It's a really simple base of seared bacon bits (buy the thick cut kind if you can!), mushrooms browned in the bacon fat (hello), and a creamy tomato sauce that comes together really quickly. The sauce itself is done in just about the time it takes to boil water for pasta, giving us a 30-45 minutes to dinnertime situation.
...Chocolate Chess Pie
Delicious, super easy creamy chocolate chess pie in under an hour! This recipe has just 7 ingredients and is so simple to make with the help of a storebought crust! PS, if you have extra evaporated milk, it can be used in slow cooker butter chicken or other creamy savory recipes!
Tis the season to make a pie so delicious you may or may not consume 2 pieces in twelve hours just to be sure it was that good.
It was, promise.
Ok so this pie. Vague origin story. I actually didn't know what a chocolate chess pie WAS, but this local grocery/bakery that we frequent makes them around the holidays and they always looked really enticing in pretty bakery boxes. Then I ended up with a few extra pie crusts after Thanksgiving (my apple pies didn't require a top crust because I didn't have as many apples as I thought, long story), and I knew I needed a new Christmas pie. Enter: Chocolate Chess.
...Jalapeno Corn Dip with Cream Cheese
Delicious, easy hot corn dip with cream cheese and jalapenos with just 7 ingredients. Vegetarian, gluten free, and PERFECT for any party or appetizer need! I serve this with Fritos scoops because FRITOS SCOOPS, but it's also really delicious scooped onto tortilla chips or no-knead bread if you're feeling fancy.
...with only 7 ingredients! A few basic things, mix, bake, scoop into your open trap.
This corn dip is one of those creamy, super simple classic hot dips that is so perfect for almost any occasion.
I've made this twice in the past 2 weeks, for different crowds, and both times it's been met with massive acclaim and very few leftovers, which is my main measure for success. It's a little sweet, a little spicy, a lot creamy, and the easiest of all the easy dips.
I use frozen corn and jarred jalapenos, BUT I've also added a chopped fresh jalapeno on instances where I wanted more spice. So, feel free to upgrade your ingredients if that sounds fun to you!
...Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes with Roasted Garlic
Creamy, luscious 5-ingredient Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes! These come together in under an hour, but the roasted garlic can be made in advance for even more hurried nights. These are very delicious with a cast iron skillet steak and some 5 Minute Asparagus, just saying.
Oh, hello 5 ingredient steakhouse-worthy side dish that is the absolute love of my life.
It's the best ever mashed potatoes (with skins!), it's roasted garlic, it's buttery, creamy, comforting goodness.
There are a gazillion ways to make mashed potatoes, and IMO almost all of them are great. I love a super silky mashed potato (why does it remind of me of kind of a janky cruise?), but I also love a little bit of texture from potato skin and potato chunks.
Mashed potatoes are wonderful because gluten free potato recipes are easy to come by and almost universally adored, which means that lots of eaters can enjoy mashed potatoes. Also they're just supremely yummy, so there's that.
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