Missing Daddy!

Will and I decided to stay in Lafayette this week as Ben was busy at work. We missed him terribly and made this picture for him.

Amie and Justin Meet Will

Aunt Amie is such a natural.


Did I say natural?

Recently our good friends from Atlanta, Amie and Justin, came down to Louisiana to visit with us for a couple of days, and of course meet Mr. Will.

Amie taught with Krissy our first year in Asheville, and we absolutely fell in love with her sense of humor, honesty, and excitment for SEC football. Her personality and compassion mimics Krissy's spot on, and because of that, she was amazing with Will! I can't remember him even making a peep when she was holding him. I'm sure he did, but for the sake of being sweet, let's just stick with it. Her husband Justin was great with Will too! Every time we hang out with him, we learn more about what a great guy he is. I can't remember how much experience he has with little babies, but if he's inexperienced, you couldn't tell. They were both so great with him, and will make great parents one day! Hint, hint.

Thanks guys for traveling all the way down to the Dirty South for us, drinking drive-thru daiquiris, eating Cajun food, playing Wii, and just hanging out! We had a blast, and miss you both so much!


Divas with bug glasses.


Trikke dorks

Hands Free!

Well, I have been a big advocate for the saying, "You can't spoil a newborn baby." While I still think that is completely true, I do believe there is a such thing as spoiling a 3 + month old baby. The only reason I say this is because whenever we are out and about shopping or at a restaurant, Little Bean sits in his carseat for a while, but then realizes he is not being held. It is at this very moment that he decides to let out a few whimpers just to remind us he is there. As the whimpers get louder I immediately come to his rescue and release him from the confines of his carseat, and as soon as that little booger starts the escape he stops crying, sits up on my lap, looks around, and smiles as if to say, "Yep...that's all I wanted." He then won't make a peep the rest of the time. It totally cracks us up.

Of course Will is so smart, he has decided to apply this same strategy with me at home. He's fine playing on the ground by himself when he knows I'm in the same room and watching him. However, as soon as I leave to put in a load of laundry or dare attempt to start cleaning something, (which I must admit is not often) he will start the little whimpering thing until I pick him up. So, in my attempt to maintain somewhat of an organized home, I decided to put my Baby Bjorn carrier to work. It is basically a baby back pack that holds him in and allows me to use my hands freely. So, I have found myself many times in the afternoons strapping Will in and going about my daily chores. It is so cute. He looks up at me with those little eyes while I'm folding laundry, and when he gets sleepy, just rests his head on my chest and falls asleep. I think he still enjoys the pitter patter of my heart.

I know some may say I have a spoiled rotten baby on my hands, but as far as I'm concerned, I just have a little bundle of joy that loves to be cuddled and I will never get these moments back, so I am taking full advantage. Before we know it, our Little Bean will be saying things like, "Stop Mom and Dad, you are embarrassing me." and "Can you please stop walking me into the classroom and kissing me goodbye." Okay, so I know that is still a time away, but I also know it will sneak up on us oh so quickly.

I will leave you all with some pics of Will in the best invention known to man.


Those reflectors are blinding.


"I could stay attached to my mom all day long."


I know it's blurry, but it looks like Will was trying to copy his dad, which I thought was too darn cute.

Mmmmm... Bean Burrito

Little Bean with his bean shirt, created by his Aunt Carrie.

I love our little rituals and sayings that we have with Will! They're never well thought out, they just kind of happen, and we continue to say them or act in certain ways like we've been doing them our whole lives. Our parents did it with us, and we're just carrying on the tradition.

Case in point. Every night we give Will a bath, and once he is bathed, I take him from Krissy and wrap him up in a towel. Now for some reason one day I decided to call Will my Little Bean Burrito, seeing that he's our Bean and he looked like a burrito wrapped up in the towel. Makes sense, right? The best part of my Burrito is that he always smells good right after his bath, so when I go to tell him how good he smells, I end up making Cookie Monster sounds on his stomach to get him to laugh. This has become such a traditional for him that he has come to expect to be tickled right after his bath. As soon as he's wrapped up, he kind of looks at me with those eyes that say, "Hey Dad I'm ready to start laughing!" So I over indulge myself in a late night snack of Bean Burrito. Will absolutely loves it! He laughs and laughs, and sticks out his tongue when he smiles. Tonight he screamed (in a good way) so loudly that it left my ear ringing.

I sure do love our new little rituals, and I sure do love my Bean Burrito!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... Handsome Pants!

As Ben mentioned in the previous post, our Little Bean is growing up so fast. It's crazy because as soon as he got close to the 3 month mark, he started learning how to do so much more and does something new every single day. I have been told that once babies hit 3 months, they take off and grow up so fast. This has held true for Little Bean so far.

Tummy time has drastically improved for Will. He used to require the assistance of his boppy pillow to hold his head up during tummy time, but now lays flat on the ground and manages to lift both his head and feet up at the same time. It's almost as if he's flying. He also enjoys turning over from his tummy to his back during this time. It is so cute. I don't want to sound bias, but he must be advanced. (I know...every mom on the planet thinks their kid is way advanced :)

Speaking of turning over, Handsome Pants has also learned how to roll over from his back to his tummy. In fact, his first official turn over on his own from back to front was on the 4th of July. While he can roll over by himself most of the time, he sometimes needs a little help as he gets his left arm jammed under his body, and gets stuck.

Will also sat in his Exersaucer for the first time over the 4th of July weekend. He's not quite ready for it yet, but I had an itch to put it together (which took us quite a bit of time even with directions) and had to get a few pics of him in it.

Lastly, Ben's and my new favorite thing that Will does, is grabbing and holding on to things. It takes a little encouragement to get his fist open sometimes, but for the most part Bean loves to grab hold of his toy rings.


Can we say overstimulated?


Check out these guns.


"Holding on to these things is exhausting."
(Grandpa had put Will's hand on the ring, and he held it the entire car ride to my house, falling asleep in the process.)

All Grown Up at 3 Months Old

Chubby cheeks at 3 months old

With Will turning 3 months old today (it's amazing how fast time has flown by), we wanted to share some of the more recent little achievements that are making him look and act less and less like our Little Bean and more and more like our Little Man.

For starters, Will is starting to fatten up. Goodbye infant wrinkles and hello baby rolls! Though he's basically still a long and skinny kid, it's easy to see that his cheeks are getting larger, and his legs are filling out. I guess that's what happens when you double your birth weight. Maybe the comments about him being "so tiny" are finally done.

Another accomplishment that Will has started performing lately is holding his head up. Though still needing a little work on his control, holding his head up is a BIG accomplishment! He's gotten so much easier to hold and care for now, and best of all, he's a better model for his Daddy. The best is when we go to pick him up when he's lying flat on his back, and he lifts his head up to help us out. Almost as if he's trying to do a sit-up. More and more he is throwing us hints that he would rather sit up in our arms than be held like a newborn. These hints include the obvious fussing and frantic movements, but also the emergence of the dreaded "lower lip". It breaks our hearts when Will decides to give us the pitiful lower lip routine. Thank goodness we didn't have a girl the first go around, because she would have had me wrapped around her finger if she showed me such a sad face. With that said, Krissy started crying the other day when her baby boy made the lower lip face at her. Where did our baby go, and how did he get so cute?!?

Lastly, another thing that has made us so proud of our little guy is his recent adoption of a bedtime schedule. Though not a hard schedule by any means, Will's six hours of sleep a night has made life in the Pierce household much more rested and energetic!

As I was writing this entry, Will made a huge leap forward, or should I say, a small lunge forward. We set Will down on the bed before bath time, rolled him over on his belly, and before we knew it, Will was digging his feet into the bed, and moving forward! Is he supposed to be doing this already?!? Either way, he moved himself a good 6" to 8" before I decided he had worn himself out. I can already tell that he's going to make us lots of money in sports. Cha-ching!

As much as we want him to stay our Little Bean, we know he has to grow up, and we're looking forward to the next three months of accomplishments! Happy three month birthday big guy!


Popped collared Bean