Will has become quite the traveler. He still loves to sleep in the car, but he will no longer sleep anywhere else. He wants to be part of what's going on, checking everything out, wherever we are. This means that on a long day of shopping, he gets overstimulated and cranky. You'd think he'd just go to sleep and solve the problem, but he doesn't want to miss anything and will fight falling asleep. He's actually kind of funny, but dealing with the cranky part isn't. At least it makes him sleep well at night. He routinely sleeps 6-8 hours a night.

  We took him to Babys'R'Us today to have his pictures taken in a sailor outfit Tami bought for him. It's a tradition on Steve's side of the family to have baby pictures in sailor outfits, so away we went. They are very cute, and we have lots, not to mention a cd with them all on it. So we can print out more if we need them. If anybody would like a copy, please let me know. I'm going to post them all on here when I get them next week. 

   This is the third time I've sat down to write a blog, and so far it looks like it'll be successful. Hooray! :D Of course, as I write this, the beet is stirring from a well deserved nap. It's like meal times; whenever food is cooking or on the table, he gets fussy and wants to be held or eat too. Without fail. It's like he smells the food and decides he wants a piece of the action. It's become the norm for me to have to nurse him in restaurants while I'm waiting for my food. That's a very interesting experience, let me tell you. I always make sure I have a blanket to cover us up so we don't offend anyone's delicate sensibilities. :P

     He's starting to be very generous with his smiles. It's so wonderful! I was actually surprised we couldn't get him to smile for his photos today, although they still turned out well.  It makes me feel so important and loved to have him smile at me when he sees me coming or when I'm talking to him while I'm holding him. If someone had told me even five years ago how much I would love being a mother, I would not have believed them. By that time I had decided I did want to have kids (that was not always the case), but I pictured my life very differently than it is. But the reality of my life is so much better than anything I could have imagined. I always thought it would be really boring and tedious to be a homemaker, but I actually find that out of every job I've ever had, I like it the best. I like answering only to myself, being able to set my own goals and be my own task master, having a lot of flexibility to my days. Knowing that a lot of things on my to-do list could be postponed if something else more important comes up. But most importantly, I'm always there for my family, meeting their needs. It's very important to both Steve and I that we don't have strangers raising our kids. Watching what's happening in today's society, especially with the way we treat our children, makes me realize I'm rather old fashioned. I don't want Will to have a cell phone by the time he's eight, a laptop at ten, and God knows what other gizmos before and after. I want to actually know what my children are like, and be sure that they are capable of reading an entire book or have real conversations with people. Too many kids don't really read anything other than short blogs on the internet or texting or what-have-you. It's sad. We, as a society, are sacrificing our human interaction to technology. We stop meeting in person and talking on the phone, and hand written letters are a relic of the past. It's all about instant messaging, bloging, texting, e-mailing, even sending videos to others. And the younger generation will not want to be outdone by their predecessors. One day we're going to wake up and realize that our children don't know how to hand write anything other than their name, they are so used to keyboards. You'll have to go to their Facebook page to find out how their day was, and check their Flickr page to see what they look like these days. You'll have to call their cells to tell them that dinners ready, and try and understand their text speak anograms. And no, the irony that I'm putting all this into a blog of my own is not lost on me. I'm don't mind my children being able to function in the technological world, but I also want them to be a part of the physical one.