Just Dancin' and Splashin' in the Rain

During a much needed rain storm today in Lafayette, I decided to take Will outside for a while so we could sit and listen to the pitter patter. After a few minutes, simply observing the rain was not enough for myself or my little guy, so I had him hold his hand out to get it wet. To test the waters a little more, I carried Will out into the rain to see his reaction, and the grin from ear to ear was a pretty clear sign that he loved it.

Before I knew it I put him down and he walked out into the rain by himself, making sure I was only a few steps behind him of course. The whole experience became even cooler for him once I showed him how to stomp and splash in the puddles. He giggled and smiled his little heart out the entire time we were out there, stopping to dip his hand in deep puddles and reaching for various leaves, rocks, and worms floating about.

The whole time we were out there getting soaked, I just took it all in and loved feeling like a kid again myself. These memories will last a lifetime.

Sitting in the rain.

"I wonder how deep this puddle is..."

We made some big splashes and loved the pitter patter of rain on our heads.

One Year Ago Today...

Our lives became so much richer, because we were blessed with the greatest gift in the world, the birth of our son, William Joseph Pierce. From that day, we experienced a love like no other, and it has grown every day since.

What an amazing 365 days we've had! To just say that our first year with Will has been "great" would drastically understate the incredible time we've shared with our little boy. We've had our joys and struggles, our fun and worries, but most importantly, we've shared our love as a family.

We've witnessed our Little Bean grow into the most amazing and beautiful child. Krissy and I our so proud of the little boy he has become. He's observant and curious, he's playful and active, and he's determined and spoiled (rotten that is). He's a lover and a snuggler, he gives the best kisses and hugs, and when he smiles at you as you enter the room, he melts your heart. He's got the biggest dark brown eyes, and when he laughs, everything stops and the world's attention is focused on him.

We love you Will, and are so happy to be your parents. We look forward to watching you grow and experience the world that we know you'll make an amazing impact on.

Happy first birthday!!!


"I don't know about this shirt, but I sure like the attention I'm getting."

Peter Cottontail

"Why do they keep doing this to me?"

Today I took Will to the Acadiana Mall so he could take a picture with good ole' Peter Cottontail. And, no surprise to me, he was equally scared of the Easter Bunny as he was to Santa Clause. As we stood in line to take our picture, Will kept his eyes on the silly rabbit and clung tightly to my neck. The photographer said I could put Will on his lap when I was ready and I told her that it wouldn't be long until the flood gates would open so she should let me know as soon as she was ready to push the button.

She gave us the go ahead and I threw Will on PC's lap, ran behind the camera, and he just stared at the camera in shock. After the flash, Will looked at me with a terrified face, stiffened his body as if to slide out of the Easter Bunny's arms, and reached out for me as if to say, "Mom please save me!" True to form I rushed to him and I kid you not, as soon as the little booger was "safe" in my arms, he looked back at the Bunny and smirked. As we waited for the pictures, Will stared at the Easter Bunny and kept his eyes on him until we walked away.

All in all the trip was another fun memory to put down in the books. It is surely clear that Will still prefers to look and not touch at almost a year old, but who can blame him. Oh the things we will do to our kids for a simple picture.

Feeding Frenzy

As the days go by (and too quickly might I add), our Little Bean doesn't seem to be so little anymore. He is now growing like a weed as he loves to eat real big boy food. You know, the stuff that actually has taste, doesn't come in a jar, and isn't puree'd.

So far, his all time favorite food is grilled cheese. His second favorite has been spaghetti, and today he has found a new favorite in fruit salad. The fruit salad was so good in fact that my sweet boy started licking the whipped cream off of his high chair tray as if he was a dog. I guess watching Lulu clean up after him has influenced his eating habits.

It seems like only yesterday he was spitting his baby food out at me because he didn't quite like it, and now he is eating like a big boy. I am so enjoying watching our sweet baby grow, but I sure do wish time would slow down. It's all happening so fast!


"This is good, and fun! Why did they wait so long to feed me this delicacy they call spaghetti?"

"Now what? I'm stuffed and covered in sauce."

Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy!

"More please."

Following Lulu's lead. I must admit I encouraged it by laughing and telling him to do it again...Can you see the tongue?

Zoo Trip #3

The courageous lion.


Will was fascinated with the petting zoo animals... which we didn't let him pet.

What can we say about our third trip to the zoo with Will? First of all, it was a wonderful day to visit the Acadiana Zoo. Perfect weather and not too crowded. Unfortunately, the animals must have scheduled their Spring Break during the weekend, because we were surprised to see very few animals moving around in their enclosures. I guess they were all down in Cancun or at Daytona Beach. Even with the many no-shows, Will still loved seeing the animals that were out and about, and probably, and I'm just guessing here, loved even more the time he got to spend with his both loving and good looking parents.

We love taking Will to the zoo, because he really loves animals. Lately, he has begun to make a few animal noises when you ask him. His favorite is to growl like a tiger (something that will come in handy during football season). He likes the growl noise so much and has gotten so good at it that, that if you ask him what sound dogs and ducks make, he growls in response. As we were walking around the zoo, we would test Will's knowledge of the animal sounds, which leads me up to the funniest thing that happened all day.

We were at the black panther exhibit towards the end of the day, and we noticed that the panther was lying up against the fence, close to where we were standing. We kept pointed at the panther trying to show Will what we were looking at and what sound a panther makes... which is oddly the same sound that a tiger makes. Soon after we showed him, Will got very excited and talkative. He started pointing and saying "bar bar." Krissy and I were so proud, because we thought that he had seen the cat and was trying to say its name or make its sound. I mentioned that Will loves animals, but there is one thing that he loves more than animals, and that's his toy balls. As we scanned the cage, low and behold, within the panther cage was a toy ball for it to play with. Will could have cared less about the animal and was more excited that he found a ball.

I guess it's true that we buy all these things for our babies, and all they really care about are empty boxes and toy balls.

"Who cares about the animals, I like that ball!"

Now that he's getting bigger and able to stand, Will enjoys these special trips even more.


Our smiling tortoise.


Being a little cautious with Dadda near the alligator exhibit.

Ayden Comes to Visit

Shrimp (Will) and Chunk (Ayden) playing together.

This weekend we were pleased to have the Byrd family come down from Alexandria to visit and grab some Mexican cuisine at Coyote Blue's. This was the first time we had seen our friends since we moved from Cenla, and we were excited to catch up (both husband's have new jobs) and of course see how each of our little boy's have grown in the past 6 weeks.

While Ben and Lucas acted like little kids playing Nerf guns in the hallway (yes, you heard that right), Will and Ayden got a chance to hangout again. Our babies are so sweet together. They hug/squeeze each other and toss/fling objects back in forth at each other. The best part is listening to them talk. Ayden has the cutest scream, that Lucas likes to refer to as his "whale call" and Will of course is always "ma ma ma-ing" or "ba ba ba-ing." It's been awesome to have friends who we've had a chance to share our first year of parenthood with.

We really miss the Byrds, and am glad that they took time out of their weekend to stop by Lafayette for a visit.


My how big they've gotten.


Somebody's going to sleep well tonight.

Our Little Monster

In just a few short weeks, Will has tripled the number of teeth in his mouth from 2 to 6. Now when Will smiles, his once adorable gummy smiles have now been replaced with a full set of teeth, just like a little monster.

For a while he only had his lower two middle teeth, but just as we were getting used to his "Billy Bob" smile, Will's four top teeth came in. We were afraid that at first, only his upper canine teeth would come in, causing him to look more like a baby vampire than our sweet angel. But, in a turn of events, the middle teeth decided to make a quick break out and caught up to the others, giving him a full and handsome smile.

Will never complained while all his teeth were coming in (at least we didn't notice him complaining), I think mostly because he quickly realized that with more teeth comes better tasting food.