Johnny Cash

Our Christmas tree!

This is the first year that Will has been interested in decorating the tree. VERY interested, especially in our frog ornament!!

Hope everyone is enjoying a lovely holiday season!

The Los Gatos Christmas Parade

This past weekend was the Children's Christmas parade in our neighborhood. William was very excited to see that the train locomotive from Oak Meadow's Wildcat Railroad was parked right by his front door!

A great seat to see all the parade floats is on Dad's shoulders!

Halloween, in which a very serious bee trick-or-treats a little

Pumpkins

Mom and Will and Zoe went to lunch at the Happy Hound after preschool a few weeks back... Will enjoyed the pumpkin motif.

A day at Gilroy Gardens...

...can tire a guy out pretty well.

Baking with Mom

Chocolate chip cookies, of course. And mostly gone now (equal parts interest from William, Mom and Dad; Zoe abstained).

Shoulder ride from Grumpy

Sorry for the poor photo quality - we still wanted this one in the blog because it was a lovely visit with Grumpy and Will enjoyed his shoulder ride home from the park very much!!

Care for a bite of my corn dog?

Mmmmmm, corn dog.

Mark shows William the surgeon's scrub-up

6 is afraid of 7...

Will is singing the Bare Naked Ladies song "7 8 9" in which 6 is afraid of 7, 'cause 7 8 9. He likes to sing "7 8 9" in his special deep voice.

Regression?

Bee preview

William tries on his bee costume - he's a (somewhat bigger) bee than he was 2 years ago.

William holds Zoe!

William in a handbasket

Aunt G calls this Will's "Elvis look"

On my bike!

Tour de France

More Gram and Will time

William hides from the new baby

As an oldest child herself, Mom can relate. Sorry, Will, she's coming home with us!

Gram reads to Will (and Zoe listens in)

Will meets his new baby sister, Zoe Attabelle

...and is not entirely sure what to make of her. But he was thoroughly pleased to see that she had gotten him a present of some trucks! So they started off on the right foot. (Thanks to Stephanie and Julie for the big brother present!)

Some pre-Zoe catch-up

William likes to make a little "nest" out of the comforter in the playroom - very cozy!

William also enjoys driving his friend Jason around in an ice cream truck. Jason is a good sport about this and lets Will drive, despite his lack of license or permit to do so.

WILL's first day of preschool! Part two: Pick up

Dad arrives at noon to pick up Will - teacher Lauren spots him before William does.

"Hey Will, look who's here!"

"Dada?"
"DADAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Dad got a big hug. And also a report from Lauren - Will did well in general but had a little trouble following directions and relinquishing his sippy cup when it was requested... oops. Mom and Will are working on "giving up the cup" drills now... more "give it" and less "WILLIAM GRAB IT" is the aim.

Will's first day of preschool! Part one: Drop off

On Tuesday, 9/1, Will started preschool! He felt pretty serious about the whole thing, but was optimistic and also very much looking forward to playing with all the toys in the playroom.

Will's preschool is at the JCC in Los Gatos - his classroom is aptly named Dubonim (the Little Bears). His teachers are Lauren and Smadar. They are both quite nice and very professional.

Here's a photo montage of the drop-off process:

Stoicism in the car on the way to the JCC.

Time to get out of the car!

Saying goodbye to Dad at Will's cubby.

Mom snags a goodbye kiss.

The patented Will Kraus smile re-appears as he begins to play with the farm set in the classroom!

Once he got started with the cow and the horse, he barely noticed us saying our final goodbyes! Mark and I left and went to get some breakfast at Sweet Pea's cafe, sans toddler - a strange experience, but not entirely unpleasant...

We are proud of Will for being a big kid who goes to school!