A couple of months ago we started a new “good behavior program” at our house. I bought a bag of marbles at the dollar store and cleaned out a cherry jar and let Will know that when he filled the jar with marbles he would earn a reward. This time his reward was a trip to Chuck E. Cheese!

Will earned his last marble at the first of the year. He can earn marbles by obeying without complaining, feeding the dog, putting up his dirty clothes, being nice to his brother, being cooperative at the grocery store and sometimes just for being cute.

Will was SO proud of earning all his marbles! There are 50 marbles in the bag and it took him the better part of 2 months to earn them all. Some days he lost more marbles than he earned!

Typical Will.

PawPaw and Nonny met us at Chuck E. Cheese for the festivities. {And Will somehow convinced them that they should take us to eat at Ichiban!}

This backhoe ride is Will’s absolute favorite thing at Chuck E. Cheese – he probably spend half of his tokens at this ride!

Thomas took a ride on Clifford.

He had this really amused look on his face the entire ride. It was like he was really having a good time but wasn’t quite sure what exactly was going on.

It was a fun morning for all of us! We can’t wait for Will to earn all of his marbles again

Will was not very cooperative at our last photo shoot (Thomas’ 9 month pictures) and I had been  hoping to get a couple of picture of just him to mark his third year. So, after Christmas our friend Ryan came over and took some pictures of Will playing with his favorite things. It was the perfect way to capture who Will is as a 3 year old! If you’re in Chattanooga and looking for a good family photographer give Ryan a try – Ruby Photography: rubyphotos (at) hotmail (dot) com

Last week Will’s friend, Judge, came over to play. Judge is a friend from church and playschool but it’s the first time they’ve been able to play at our house. They had an absolute blast! And they were SO cute and well behaved. I couldn’t help but take their picture all day.

The best conversation of the day went like this:

Judge: That’s baby Thomas.

Will: Thomas is a baby.

Me: Judge doesn’t have a baby at his house. Do you Judge?

Judge: I’m the baby! (Judge has 4 older brothers.)

The first thing Will wanted to do is show Judge his new bed. This is before they also piled all of Will’s animals in with them.

Then lots of playing in the “work” room.

Playing makes boys hungry! Lunch consisted of: PB&J sandwiches, popcorn, raisins, crackers, watermelon, bananas and chocolate milk.

They would put raisins in their mouth and then chomp on them with their faces about 1 inch apart. I hope they don’t do this at playschool

Thomas thought they were crazy boys!

After lunch it was time for more playing.

No play date is complete without racing on the scooter & tricycle.

They took a 15 minute break to watch Boz and eat fruit snacks.

They finished the afternoon playing cars.

It was a great day and we can’t wait for Judge to come back again!

Yesterday was one of those days. There was a lot of crying, disobedience, discipline, whining, you get the picture.

Every night right before bed and after we’ve read a Bible story we ask Will what he wants to pray about. He generally recounts things we did that day and names all his family.

Last night was a little different:
Bill: What do you want to pray about tonight?

Will: Uhhhh, my not know.

Me: I want to pray that Jesus will help Will obey his mommy and daddy and be a good boy tomorrow.

Will: My not! My want to pray to have fun!

Classic.

On our third day of vacation I noticed that Will’s front tooth had turned gray. I initially thought it was from the iron in his vitamins but when I checked his vitamins they didn’t have iron in them! A quick google search and I learned that teeth can “die” if you fall or get hit in the head. Well, Will got bonked in the head several times on vacation. So, I made Will his first dentist appointment.

I was nervous about how he would do! But he could not have been better behaved or more cooperative. The waiting room was full of arcade games, blocks and “quarter” rides. Will really enjoyed riding the whale, “like Jonah.”

When it was Will’s turn they let him pick out a toothbrush and then led us to a room with a padded table and a TV in the ceiling – with Super Why playing. Perfect!!

First he had to have an X-ray so the dentist could look at the tooth’s nerve and he sat so still she only had to do it once.

Then it was time to get his teeth cleaned! He laid on the table and did everything she asked. He didn’t like the flossing so his response was to hit his tennis shoes together. What a goofy kid.

The part I dreaded was when the dentist came in to look at the tooth. Good News: No Cavities! More Good News: As of right now the tooth is not “dead.” But it’s too early to tell if there’s permanent damage.

Best Case Scenario: The nerve is not permanently damaged and the tooth is “bruised.” Color may or may not return to normal.

Mediocre Case Scenario: Nerve is permanently damaged but not severe so they perform a “baby root canal” and remove the nerve.

Worst Case Scenario: Nerve is severely damaged and they have to remove the tooth. This would cause him to have a missing tooth until he’s 7 or 8!

Please be praying for best case scenario. I know in the grand scheme of life a gray or even missing baby tooth is not a big deal but I would still prefer him not to lose it!

Enjoy some phone pictures of our “tooth doctor” adventure. Best part? Will got a lizard tattoo for being good and now he looks ferocious!

Will had a great time at “camp” last week! They went camping at Chester Frost park where they played in the sand, swam in the lake and played on the playground for hours. They went swimming with Didi. And they went to a Lookouts game where they ate hotdogs, pizza, peanuts, popcorn, and ice-cream. Will also made it home with a baseball bat, a foam finger, baseball cards and an autographed baseball. Here’s a few phone pictures from the “awesome” week!

This morning we had a man come out and give us an estimate for a back yard fence. We were standing next to his truck looking at pictures and wood samples when I heard Will say he needed to pee pee. I turn around and there is Will nekkid in the front yard doing his business!

Really?!?!