I’ve been wanting to blog for at least a week now, but haven’t quite been able to find the right mood. The last month around here has been rather hectic. After a couple years of working 4 10-hour days, Jason got notice his schedule would be going back to 5 8-hour days. His assigned shift was 6:30-3:00 which was nice for daycare pickup. I say “was” nice because this schedule lasted about 9 days. In a surprise turn of events, Jason was selected to work on a special project at work. This is a good thing, as he was part of a small group selected for this project by management, it will be a great resume builder, and it will be a break from the day-to-day of his normal position. On the downside, it makes us have even more daycare hours than we did before his initial schedule change, and as of yet there is no financial incentive for this new position. Sounds like it should last 3-4 months, so by the time the baby arrives we should be able to figure out normal schedule hours again.
In case I don’t state it often enough, Jason is the best husband/daddy in the world. He proved this once again by being ever-so-helpful on a Saturday in October when I had volunteered to watch my friend’s 15 month old and ended up spending the day in bed with food poisoning instead. Jason stepped up and not only watched our whiny and possessive child but also watched sweet-as-sugar Owen. Here is a cute picture of them getting along watching cartoons (before William threw a tantrum).
We survived our first toddler Halloween! I got William a cute lion costume because he was in a phase where he liked anything that roared. The evening of trick-or-treating was a bit touch and go because William had resisted napping all day at daycare and came home a temperamental wreck. He somehow got a sucker and refused to remove it from his mouth during dinner. It is funny to watch a kid try to drink soup from his bowl with a sucker in his mouth. There 
was great distress while putting on his costume and I had to bribe him with a piece of candy in his bucket to leave the house without sobbing. Once out, he loved going door-to-door and could not say “trick or treat…” but resorted to “candy treat” instead. He said “thank-you” at every house (with a little prompting). Unfortunately we eventually had to return to the house for bedtime and there was again 20 minutes of absolute hysteria when we forcibly separated him from his candy bucket and put him (sticky fingers and all) to bed. On the bright side he made a very cute lion and the next morning the first word out of his mouth was “candy”. We may have created a monster.
This month Will is really testing his 20 month limits as he makes way for the terrible twos. He can be absurdly moody and I question almost daily whether he is getting the last set of molars. He also seems hell-bent on breaking something or killing himself on a daily basis. There haven’t been any casualties thus far, but Jason is quick to remind me “this is why we can’t have nice things”. When Will’s not being a terror he is as sweet as can be. He has started to say “love you mommy” or “love you daddy” on occasion out of the blue. 
He loves to read books and will bring you one after another to read. We’ve made several trips to our local library to gather new materials for mommy and daddy’s sanity. At bedtime he will want me to read him a book and when we finish he will say “daddy’s turn” and take the same book to Jason to read again. The words continue to double on a weekly basis. Depending on the day, Will can be very chatty and tell you everything he sees or wants, or he can be disagreeable in which case “no want it, ______” is his favorite sentence. (“NO want it, milk” “NO want it, jacket” “NO want it, draw picture” etc.)
We had a couple warm weekend days at the beginning of November which really helped us button up the yard for winter. We raked, weeded, and mowed several flowerbeds to get them ready for spring. 
We spread leaves on the garden and have a patch cleared for spring planting. We have raked, and raked, and raked, and raked leaves! One day our neighbor lady Judy even took pity on us and raked our front lawn one day while we were at work. In the front yard we have 3 amazing American Lindon trees which produce amazing shade in summer but are also an amazing mess about twice per year. 
I think we’ve raked about 20 bags of leaves, and the center tree is still being slow about letting go of its remaining leaves. I don’t know if we’ll get any more warm weekends for raking so hopefully the leaves finish up soon. I put out the bird feeder yesterday as they were predicting valley snow overnight. So far there was no snow, and the birds haven’t really discovered it yet. I am sure in a few days word will get out and the birds will return. In sad news, something killed 2 of our goldfish. We have gone a season or two without any casualties, so it came as a bit of a surprise. At this point I am waiting until Spring to restock the pond since I haven’t decided if we will try to winter them over outside this year.
Pregnancy has been going well. I’ve gotten a portion of my energy back and my stomach is much less sensitive. I continue to feel better this time than I did last pregnancy. We find out in about 3 weeks if we’re having a boy or girl. Either way I hope William is excited. Stay tuned! 🙂