It was his great misfortune to still be on the light when I was leaving for lunch. A co-worker volunteered to help me catch the wee beastie and between the two of, with no squealing I might add, we got him in a box for me to take home to show the kiddies. Needless to say, Greg was thrilled. “You have what?” “No you cannot keep it.”

He was too big for the kids bug boxes as he was between 4 and 5 inches long, as long or bigger than Greg’s hand so I used a clear plastic pitcher to keep him in overnight. MaryVic was awed and drew pictures of him for school. William didn’t notice it at all. Yeah, yeah, I’m coloring here.

We took him to ‘school’ the next morning and all the kids were thrilled with one Dad making a “Fearsome Five!” comment. The three year old class was called over to look at it. William noticed it then and began excitedly pointed and waving “HI!” to it. He was even jockeying for a place to see it as the other children crowded around Ms. Nita’s desk to see it. It was decided he could see it best by scaling Momma.

After the excitement of the daycare and car ride, he was quite happy to rest on the reference desk for a while. I released him into a nearby flower garden onto some day lilies where he blended in very well.

Climbing the daylily.

Cleaning up.

Looks like his ready to catch his next meal.

Definitely giving me the evil eye. Go away crazy woman so I can catch some food after you have starved me 24 hrs!

He was really cool to catch and see. I wish the pitcher shots had come out better because he was huge! Hopefully he survives and maybe I’ll see him again around the library.

Mary in motion..

And William in motion, but not as fast!

We hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday!  God Bless America!

There were no problems on Wednesday. The family had breakfast at Shoney’s before Greg headed to Bardstown, KY for work and I took the children to visit the Nicholsons. The kids loved playing all around their grandparents house. Grandmomma had new toys so they were happy. We had lunch at El Rancho and dinner at Cherokee Ridge.

Dot and Max ate with us at both places. William sat with Dot during lunch and ate up all the attention. MaryVic talked with everyone and had 2 pieces of chocolate cake. We got to see Rhonda for the first time in forever. Justin and the Brannons were there.

MaryVic had to go say hello to Ms. Lavelle at Cherokee Ridge and then insisted on asking Grandmomma repeatedly to go back to talk to Ms. Lavelle. She refused to go on her own. MaryVic then ‘entertained’ everyone by running back and forth across the front of the room. Dinner was a long time coming so it was hard to keep her sitting at the table.

I was amused by all the comments from Dot and Max about how quiet and good William was. He really was being good until we left. Momma and Grandmomma had issues with him scooting across the parking lot on his bottom in the dark. He let everyone know how unreasonable this was when Grandmomma picked him up. I guess he was feeling shy up till then as he didn’t say anything to anyone but was smiles and friendly.

He crawled, scooted, pushed his shopping cart and played hard all afternoon. Unfortunately the end result of all the activity despite a long car ride, was a fit at bedtime. He cried and fussed for a while until he fell asleep. He would semi-wake and cry out during the night. I gave him some tylenol which did help him fall asleep.

Amazingly, William was up and going the next morning. Mostly crawling but getting around. We thought it would be good to take the kids to the park before lunch. Everyone was having a good time. William wanted to try out a different playground unit. I should have known better as MaryAlice pointed out, it was painted orange and blue in Auburn colors (joke!). There was an opening between the top landing and the one with a tunnel to the slide. William fell in-between and down to the ground, about a 3 foot fall. I jumped down to grab him but he was already on the ground, screaming.

He cried for a good bit scaring Mom and Grandmomma. Grandmomma had been checking on her garden club’s plants across the park and came running back. He wouldn’t go to Grandmomma and wouldn’t let go of Momma. Gradually he calmed down and got tired of Mom moving his legs and feeling them. He started playing again, standing while holding on to the bars and crawling through the tunnels.

We went back to the El Rancho for lunch where he got sympathetic loving from Dot and ate lunch in Momma’s lap before deciding to get in his high chair. After lunch, he wanted to go see Dot again so I held his hand and we walked to the other end of the table. His effort resulted in lots of cheers and he was so pleased with himself that we walked out to the crosswalk, across the street and past the van. Once he realized he passed the van, we walked back, around the van and he climbed in himself. He can’t quite get into his car seat on his own yet.

You would have thought that was enough excitement but MaryVic didn’t have any souvenirs of the trip yet. She fell while playing on the driveway and scrapped her knee. Fortunately that was alleviated with leftover chocolate cake from Wednesday’s lunch. It wasn’t enough though. Add a busted lip to the equation. Apparently she was so busy looking at how big things are with her magnifying glass that she didn’t realize the huge countertop was so close. She bumped off of it and busted her lip on the magnifying glass.

Needless to say Grandmomma and I were more than ready for a glass of wine with dinner. Thankfully William didn’t have any problems falling asleep at bedtime. Hopefully Grandmomma’s birthday will be less exciting.

William is doing well progress wise. He will walk independently for a short distance, like 2-3 feet or less, a couple times a day. His long walk yesterday was while holding one hand of mine although he would grab it with both of his. He is scooting along on his bottom more frequently although crawling is still the quickest way to get from point a to point b. The only positive thing I can think about the fall is maybe he’ll realize he can fall and not get hurt as badly as he did when his leg broke and he’ll gain more confidence to move around. However, I think we’ll look to other confidence building activities in the future!

I was tickled and saddened to see him on the red tricycle last night scooting with his left leg. There was a smaller big wheel and he could reach the ground with both feet on it. It didn’t compare to the flash of the red tricycle. He howled the whole time MaryVic was riding on it and climbed on as soon as she stopped. Unfortunately he couldn’t reach the ground with both feet. He scooted around by leaning off slightly to the left, making the right leg look even shorter. He was happy though.

The plan for today is to have a birthday lunch at El Rancho with Grandmomma and her friends then head back home. It is Main Street Festival in Franklin this weekend so we’ll see how William does in the Children’s area.