Pictures for Jamie

Dear friend and former roommate, I got a phone message from you today and it made me refocus and post some pictures for you... and who ever else looks at the blog. I realized how long it has been since I've done any pictures so I decided to put up a few. They are in chronological order and the first one is from Will's three month birthday to the other day near his 10 month birthday. I can't believe that next month my baby will be one year old! That is so exciting and just too fast. I'm loving every moment of being a mom. Will is now 10 and a half months. We went swimming for the first time today and Will had the time of his life! He kicked and splashed around when I swooshed him through the water. He had a big smile on his face nearly the whole time we were in the pool. I think Will's love of the water comes from his daddy. He enjoys tubby time every night and cries and cries when he has to come out. Whether it is because of his love of the water or his extreme fatigue I may never know; none the less he cries when he has to be parted from the water. Other big news is that Will took two consecutive steps yesterday on the 10th of June. Wow! I can't believe that he is almost walking. He also says dada and the other day I think he said nana while drooling over some apple pie I was eating. Every time I feed him bananas I say nana and I think he might be catching on... We'll see! That's about all for now. On to the pictures! This is Will's three month birthday picture. We had our friend take a few pictures for us and they turned out great! I can't remember if I put this picture up but I figure that it's so cute twice wont hurt. :) This is a picture taken from my visit to my brother's house in April. Will was having quite the time with Kate and Robby, his cousins! We especially enjoyed playing Gummy Bears. This is William rocking out at Courtney Rae's Wedding reception. She looked beautiful and it was a lovely event! We had so much fun with our friends and family. Congrats to the happy couple! We got our family pictures taken as close to Will's 9 month birthday as we could. We had fun taking pictures in a park near our house in Buffalo. Will even managed to get a few bark chips in his mouth before his mom and dad could stop him. Erik's new news is that he has started his second year of dental school. This semester he started to drill. In celebration we made some dental treats! Apples, marshmallows and peanut butter. it was actually pretty tasty too! The last picture is the result of a nice summer's walk. Now that the cold is gone (and the humidity and heat are here...) we can venture outside for walks. Will loves to be outside. He sometimes stands by the back door looking out with his nose pressed up against the window until we take him out. We sure do have fun with this little man! Well, there you have it! I've gotten caught up for now. Hope you enjoyed the update from our family! Love, Kait Smith and Family

January

I'm playing catch up here. January has proven to be quite the fun month. I'm happy to be back to my life in Buffalo. IVe been keeping busy with card club, book club, play group and, of course, playing with my little angel. Will turned six months old this month and what a month it has been! Since his five month birthday he has learned to sit up, he's started to babble (ba ba), he faught a double ear infection, can roll over on both sides, and... Drumroll... Is really really close to crawling. Part of me is excited about the crawling while another part of me dreads the exhaustion to come. I do enjoy the lack of mobility that Will has had up until now.
The latest news in our family is that Will is headed to a photoshoot with FisherPrice tomorrow. We sure are excited to have some new frontier to explore. Will actually had to get a child's work permit in order to go. I just love getting pictures of my baby taken! Erik is in the throws of his second semester of dental school. Tests are flying at him as fast as the snow is falling here in Buffalo. I'm constantly impressed wth his ability to focus on school and keep plugging along. He's doing great! Well, that's about all for us this month. We're all just living the dream!

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

Will's first Christmas turned out to be really fun and special... Just like every Christmas! Ha ha! This one was really special because it was so fun to actually have a tiny baby with me through all of the festivities. Here at home we decorated the house with gingerbread. We made gingerbread Dinos and a very labor intensive ginger house. We didn't end up having any gingerbread cookie cutters (must have been lost in the move) so we had to go with Dinos.
The week before Christmas, Erik was finishing up finals while Will was cutting his first tooth. As good timing would have it, Will got his second tooth the day that we traveled to Oregon for our visit... What a plane ride... Will was such a trooper and Erik and I lived to tell the tale.
Had a lovely trip to Portland and got to do so many fun things. We went to Oaks Park to skate, I had a day out to make cards, we enjoyed quinoa twice, went to a Blazer game, and got to meet Cami and Courtney's boyfriends. What an eventful trip! I would have to say that my favorite part of Christmas at home is being around family. I am so lucky to have family that I love to be around. Living so far away has helped me to realize just how lucky I am in the family and in law department.
I'd say that Christmas was a success this year! I can't wait for next year!