At Shelburne Orchard

We took a fall foliage drive today and wound up at an apple orchard with a beautiful view of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains. We saw lots of great foliage from the car up in the mountains, but didn't get out to take pictures. We did get some good shots at the orchard (and some yummy cider and donuts)! The fall color hasn't quite reached the areas by the lake yet, but it will soon!

Will is giving a "shout out" to his family and friends!

A very nice lady offered to take a picture of our little family! :-)

Will seemed to love the fall air!

All ready to head home.

Mom and Will at the orchard

Here's a short little video to go with the orchard photos! Note: When I post the videos to the blog, they keep getting cut off at the end. I can't figure out why. Sorry! Justin says something about hoping Michigan will beat Illinois in football at the end of this one.

Talkative Will

OK! I now know how to get those comments pouring in--put cute videos of Will on here! I will keep 'em coming! I captured this latest treasure just a little while ago. Will was in such a great mood! He LOVES "talking" to the video camera. Honestly, it's as if he knows he has an audience out there. He's not even looking at me--he's looking directly into the lens of the camera. He'll make a great anchorman someday! ;-) When I stopped talking/videotaping him, he got very fussy. Seems that Mr. Will loves to be the center of attention! A true Leo baby!

One last thing--Will does not have dark circles under his eyes, but the videos sure make it looks like he does! :-( WEIRD!

Notes from the 2-month check up and a special little mini-video!

So today was a big day for Will (and me too)! He had his two-month check-up, which meant it was time for those dreaded vaccinations. He did pretty well, I must say. Better than me! After the nurse put bandaids over his two bloody wounds (OK, tiny little pin pricks), she looked at my teary eyes and asked if I was OK. I am OK--for the record. But I think I went through another mommy rite of passage--feeling my child's pain and wishing it were my own. Does that sound cheesy? Oh well, I'm very sentimental these days! Anyway, Will seems to be a very healthy and normally developing 2-month-old. He's a whopping 12 pounds! That's almost a pound in just over a week! Crazy healthy weight gain! Go Will! We're so lucky to have such a healthy baby! 

Before we went to the doctor, Will was in a jovial mood. See for yourself in the video below. It's a very short one so don't blink! :-)

Elusive smiles

Will has been smiling up a storm, but they are still very hard to capture on camera. As soon as I whip out the camera, his expression changes! Here are some recent pics of the almost-2-months-old Will (and his doting daddy)!

 

 

 

Go Blue!

The lovely lady who is my long-term substitute at school is also a Michigan fan (like Justin). On a recent trip to Michigan, she picked up a U of M outfit for Will. It's still too big, but I just had to put him in it for today's game. Although from what I can tell right now, they're cheering for the losing team, much to Justin's dismay!

 

 

Will's latest stats

Hi everyone! I've taken a lot of video over the past few days, but no photos. I will remedy that situation today! And, trust me, the latest videos are long and sickeningly sweet. I'll spare you this time! :-) 

I took Will to the doctor last week for a check-up on the thrush. They weighed him--he was 11 lbs, 2 oz! And I'm pretty sure he's gained at least 1/2 lb. since then! But, he's not chunky, just solid. And he can be chunky if he wants! I'll post new pics of the big little guy soon! 

Dad: Master of the Bath

Justin is definitely the master of bathtime in our house, and Will seems to thoroughly enjoy it! He hasn't yet smiled in the bathtub, but we'll give that some time. I am just the photographer during this special daddy-baby time. It's really quite sweet. 

 

SMILE!

This is the big smile captured in the video in the post below. I hope there will be many more smiles like this in the days to come! It took a lot sweet talking to evoke this smile!

A Captured Smile

Armed with the camera and some sweet talkin', Erin captured some pretty endearing looks! 

Brown-eyed boy

Will is smiling these days! I just have to talk in a REALLY sweet voice with LOTS of expression and he smiles these quick, fleeting smiles. It's very cute. I am going to take him outside today and try to record some of these moments on video. For now, here are some near smiles caught on camera today. It's hard to catch them--the camera is too slow (or I am!).

He loves watching mobiles lately.

This is the aftermath of a GLOWING smile!

Ha ha, couldn't quite catch it, could ya, mom?

Will's new ride!

Yes, the stroller is in the house. I recently purchased a lightweight umbrella stroller, because our trusty all-terrain stroller (the infamous BOB) is just too big to haul around everywhere. I had to fit this new stroller with a "snuzzler" so Will's head doesn't topple over! We tried it out in the house this morning--he seems to like it! I included the crying shot (bottom left) because I think he looks like me in that one. But really I think he's going to be a mini Justin. :-)

Family photo

If these photos look weird, there's a reason! Justin, Will, and I were walking past this bank building with the mirrored windows last Saturday. We caught our reflections in the window and commented on how great/crazy/wild/unbelieveable/etc. it is to see ourselves as a little family unit with a stroller! So we decided to take a picture of this scene, without bothering any nearby pedestrians! :-)

They need to wash the windows!

A nap in the crib!

A nap in the crib may not sound exciting, but it was for us! Will took his first nap in the crib on Friday, and it was the longest nap he's ever taken! So, it seems like he's finally ready to make that transition from our room to his. It'll probably be harder on me than Will! 

 

Sleeping handsome.

 

He's just so cuddly!

Daddy is checking on Will. 

Funny face!

Apple picking!

Will went on his first field trip today! Pretty good for being only six weeks old! I heard that his daycare cronies were going to the orchard, and I wanted to go apple picking anyway, so I tagged along! It was fun for me, and Will had another great nap in his stroller! Check out the slideshow below (to see the captions, click on the bubble icon on the bottom left).

Desperate times call for desperate measures!

Will's been really fussy lately--must be a growth spurt. Anyway, yesterday morning he was screaming and nothing I tried would soothe him. So I grabbed the nearest blanket, bundled him up tight, stuck a pacifier in his mouth, and put a hat on his head (it was chilly!). Then I plopped him in the carseat. Voila! Quiet baby. Didn't even have to get in the car. Thank goodness--it would have been hard to strap in this round little bundle! I kept calling him "Guillame"--french for William (because of the hat!). 

 

I LOVE this thing!

When times aren't so desperate (see the post above), this waterfall soother has been a lifesaver for calming Will. And, just as an update, I'm still waiting for him to smile regularly. Right now we're averaging 2 sorta smiles per day. As soon as it happens, you can be sure I'll post a whole slideshow of shots of Will smiling! :-) I'll probably have to wean him off the pacifier to make that happen!

Preppy Will in action!

Our little prepster is starting to find his voice! I think he looks like such a little man in these clothes. Kinda funny. I am chatting away in this video, but listen carefully and you can hear Will a little bit. I'll try to stop talking as much in future videos! ;-)

Will is six weeks old!

It's such a cliche, but TIME FLIES! I really am amazed at how quickly these first six weeks have gone. And Will has changed SO MUCH! I read today that before six weeks, babies are "newborns" and after six weeks they are "infants". So, Will is now an infant. Before I know it, he'll be in kindergarten! I am experimenting with photo collages on Picasa, so here are a couple for your viewing pleasure!

Five weeks old...some random shots!

I'm working REALLY hard on capturing Will's latest talent on film--smiling! The smiles are still a bit rare (except when he's drifting off to sleep, when smiles are VERY common), but I do think he's a happy baby. He's just learning how to express that to us adult types. The smiles are so rewarding! I can't wait until it becomes a regular expression on his sweet little face. Not much is new here, but I do LOVE being at home with Will right now. The weather has been great and we've been having a grand time getting to know each other! Here are some random photos from the recent days.

Peso often positions himself near Will. One night Will was having a hard time settling down. So I swaddled him in his favorite hospital receiving blanket and plopped him closer to Peso. I think the purring was soothing.

I'm usually the one taking the photos...but here's proof that I do still exist!

Bath time rocks! Will loves warm water and being wrapped up in his new ducky towel!

5 weeks old continued...

A snuggle from Daddy after the bath!

An almost smile!

Will is now reaching for things! Amazing what excites me these days!

Friends and babies

I love that our friends enjoy holding Will so much...regardless of whether he's calm or fussy. It's great! I was not like that before having Will, and neither was Justin. Fussy babies freaked us out! But I'm a new woman now. So is Justin. :-) Hand over those fussy babies and we'll fix 'em! OK, we might not be that great yet, but we're a heckuva lot more confident!

Two of our "baby whisperer" friends, Tracy and Matt

A day in the life...

Hi everyone! Life is grand in the Sorenson household. Will is doing very well, and we're pretty much adjusted to the "schedule" of a newborn. I got a laugh out of the photos below. They were taken within an hour of each other, and it just shows a snippet of a typical day in the life of Will. :-)

So, yes, Will does fuss sometimes. Sometimes A LOT! Funny hand gesture, eh?

The trusty cork--oops, I mean, pacifier--often works very well to calm him down.

Ahh, a new diaper! Thanks, Mom! Time to sleep now...

My little consultant

Look carefully at the computer screen in this picture. Did you know that the content of this blog has to be approved by Will before being posted?! Yes, indeed. He's quite vain. Only flattering pictures are allowed. We won't tell him he's has a double chin in this one! :-)

"Mom, this wrist rattle is blocking my view of the screen!"

One month old!

William is exactly one month old today! We are going to celebrate by having a relaxing day together. Will commemorated his special day a little early last night by hitting the bottle for the first time...a bottle of breastmilk, of course! We'll have a toast later when Daddy gets home.

We went to the doc yesterday and found that Will now weighs 9 pounds, 2 ounces. And he received his first prescription! Very exciting. Don't worry, it's minor--just a little thrush in his mouth! Here are some recent pics:

Will had another hard day at the beach last Sunday!


Take 2, sans pacifier


Can you guess what Will is doing under there?


I promise he's not doing the same thing under the blanket with Justin! :-)

Will's first bottle--Daddy joins the feeding club!

This one's for Ella!

I just found out that my niece, Ella, loves watching the videos of her cousin Will. So, this one's just for her! :-)

A quick update on us...

Hi everyone! Will was three weeks old last Monday! Time is really flying by! I have been so excited to learn that lots of people visit our blog! Thanks for looking! Please leave comments, if you'd like. I love reading them, and it's a way for me to know that people are actually viewing our site! It makes me more motivated to update it frequently!
It's been a good week, but quite different! Justin went back to school on Wednesday. I miss having Justin at home, but Will and I did just fine. I even brought him to my school twice for meetings (and just to show him off a bit!). I love walking into a room with him--it makes me feel like such a celebrity, even when it's Will people are really excited to see! I've posted some pictures below...