Keeping Mommy Running!

William keeps Mommy and Daddy running after him--literally! He gets into everything! When Mommy had to climb up to the attic to get William's bigger clothes down, Daddy had to watch William because William began to climb up the ladder after Mommy. With Daddy prepared to catch him, William climbed up to the fourth rung! William also likes climbing up his high chair. The tray of the high chair fits on pegs on the back so it can be stored on the back while the high chair is used with a little snack try or to make it easier to load and unload the baby. William will go to the back of the chair and lift his legs so high that he climbs up on the tray and is almost able to peak over the back of the chair! At bath time, William doesn't want to wait for Mommy to let the water warm up before lifting him in. Instead, as soon as she turns the water on, he lifts his little leg up so that his foot is on the edge of the tub and he starts to climb in. Mommy is so afraid he is going to flip himself over into the tub.

Mommy took William to Daddy's soccer practice to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and have a picnic snack on the sidelines. William decided he wanted to be a part of the game and ran out onto the field! The boys hollered to each other "Watch the baby!" "Don't run over the baby!" and kept an eye on him, but Mommy ran fast to scoop him back off the field so he wouldn't be trampled by teenage boys or bopped with a flying soccer ball. The boy has no fear!

William does not like our desktop computer--he associates it with separation time from Mommy and Daddy. He pushes in the tray of our computer armoire and closes the front doors to keep us off the computer. It is a different story, though, with the laptop. As soon as it comes out, William is on top of it trying to type. Mommy and Daddy are nervous he will hit the right keys and do something to the computer that they will not be able to figure out how to undo. He pushed keys before and triggered a computer narrator. The computer "spoke" out loud and told every key that Mommy pushed as she typed. It was rather annoying. She was able to figure out how to turn that off again.

Yesterday, Mommy and William were working on the front porch, wiping away spider webs, moving Daddy's dirty sneakers from beside the front door to the garage, and sweeping away dead leaves and dryer lint. William started walking towards the road, so Mommy had to abandon her work to follow him. He is very good about staying on the sidewalk and not trying to walk out into the road (whew! one good thing), but Mommy stays right beside him. He greeted one of our neighbors as he got off the school bus and tried to start a game of chase--didn't take. Then William walked over to our rhododendron bed where we have a bird bath. Since we have had horrible mosquitoes this summer, Mommy turned the bird bath over to empty the water from the last rain. In those two seconds, William picked up a mushroom that also came with the last rain and nibbled the edge. Mommy was able to fuss at him and get it away from him before he got much in his mouth, but once something does make it in there, William does not relinquish it. Mommy picked up the pices of the mushroom and carried William inside so she could call poison control. Since it was a small amount ingested, the woman said there mostlikely would not be a problem, but she had Mommy take a picture of the mushroom from several angles on a gray background and email it to her so she could forward it on to their mushroom expert. She called back a little later and said it was not a toxic mushroom, that it was an offshoot of the rosella species. It would have a very spicy flavor that should be a deterrent, but it could irritate his mouth and give him severe indigestion. The amount William must have eaten was so small that he did not have a reaction--thank goodness! He ate a hearty breakfast dinner of pancakes and sausages and slept through the night--until 4:30.

Is this the life of boys? Eating bugs, mushrooms, acorns, and sticks and climbing everything in sight? And he is only 16 months old!