Monday Night

Monday night we got our first snow of the season! I had taken Liam to the grocery store with me on our way home that evening. As we walked to and from the car he tried to catch all the snow flakes falling. He was so excited and happy as he reached out to touch and grab the snow!

When we got home it started to pour down corn snow. Liam heard it and Ian wanted to show it to him more closely, so they went out on the front porch to get a better look. Ian got scoops of the icey pellets, put them in his mouth and spewed them out into the air. Liam was chuckling to no end! It was hilarious! Ian just kept doing it over and over again and Liam reacted the same way each time. Giggles turned to whines when it was time to come indoors to thaw out... so sad...
Later that same evening Liam showed off his manners by using a fork to eat his food! What a big boy! I cheer for him each time he does this! I am so proud of him!

Dear Santa...

Liam would not be torn from the Sears portrait studio on Friday evening... He was so taken with this wonderfully HUGE bead maze! I don't think any more excitement could have poured out of his eyes... He only left because we told him that he could report his findings to Santa and possibly find this wonder on his own turf at Christmas.

Happy 13 Month Birthday, Liam!

Dear Son,

It was a busy birthday weekend for you. Your little cousin, Sierra, came to visit and you enjoyed showing her around the house. You were very possessive of your toys and even went as far as slapping a wooden block between her eyes to show her how fun a block can be. You also enjoyed racing her up and down the stairs, having spitting contests with her and jumping on the bed. When you woke up from your nap today you looked all around for your little friend. You seemed sad that our visitors were gone. Hopefully we can see Aunt Heidi and Sierra again soon.

You learned how to wave and mean it this weekend. You have also recently started laughing on your own accord as if you are making a joke and then we join you in the laughter. It's just so adorable to see that goofy grin on top of your jesting giggle. So we trade laughs back and forth for a minute and then you move on to whatever you were doing before.

The past few days you've been bringing your books to me to read to you. You motion to get up on my lap and you listen really well until we get half way into the book. You then start turning pages and study the book more closely. You'll even carry a couple of your small board books to the car so you can turn pages while you are en route in your car seat.

You point at things you want or want to show us. This past month you've learned to see what WE are pointing to also. You recognize that we are showing you a location and your eyes always follow (some times with your legs taking your body to where we've instructed).

You are eating all kinds of foods and it seems your sensitive stomach has been outgrown. You haven't dealt with any stomach pain this past month and I am grateful (as I am sure you are too).

You've dealt with your first diaper rashes this month which has contributed to your distaste for diaper changes. Oh the lovely effects of every kind of menu!

Your tip-toe-penguin walk is turning into a toddle type of run. You are quick! It's really fun to chase you around the house and see how fast you can go in your glee. It brings me much joy to see you laugh and respond to us when we get on the floor and play with you. You are such a kissable kid and it never fails to make you smile when I repeatedly give you smooches and squeezes. You are all about giving the open mouth kisses when you are in the mood. We feel especially honored when you hand those out because they are very far and few between. I never thought kissing an open mouthed baby would bring me so much happiness.

You continue to be a charming child. Today at church you gave quite a few adoring church members your award-worthy toothy grin. I beam with pride when you show folks that stinkin' cute gap between your teeth! It's just too much... I want to freeze that sweet face and pay the bill for a billboard so the whole valley can see that mug! Or maybe a mural on one of our walls would suffice.

Thanks for keeping me on my toes kiddo! You are such a fun person to spend the majority of my time with! Also, a million thanks for the long nap you took today so I could catch up on some Z's too. There is no better gift than long needed sleep for a tired mom.

Love you always,
Mom

Oh that FACE!

I try so hard to get THIS particular grin on camara... and I suceeded on Saturday! This is the grin I was referring to in this post way back when he was playing in the gravel being all goofy!

Playing in the whites

We had a good time last night playing with Liam.

This sheet has been waiting weeks to be folded and put away. When I started to shake it out, I thought if the cats think it's great to play under a balloon sheet when making the bed, maybe a baby boy would too! So I started ballooning it over Liam and saw how much fun he thought it was.

I called Ian to come up and play with us (and to bring the camera with him). The three of us had such a good time! After the sheet lost it's luster, Ian started chasing Liam around on all fours. You can see the glee in Liam's face!

The previous two photos, Ian is hiding his hand under the sheet and grabbing Liam's toes and legs. We just love the chuckles we get out of him lately... so easily amused!

click on photos to enlarge

My goodness! This gave me the chills!

by Max Lucado

You are in your car driving home. Thoughts wander to the game you want to see or meal you want to eat, when suddenly a sound unlike any you've ever heard fills the air. The sound is high above you.

A trumpet?
A choir?
A choir of trumpets?

You don't know, but you want to know.

So you pull over, get out of your car, and look up. As you do, you see you aren't the only curious one. The roadside has become a parking lot. Car doors are open, and people are staring at the sky. Shoppers are racing out of the grocery store. The Little League baseball game across the street has come to a halt. Players and parents are searching the clouds. And what they see, and what you see, has never before been seen.

As if the sky were a curtain, the drapes of the atmosphere part. A brilliant light spills onto the earth. There are no shadows. None. From whence came the light begins to tumble a river of color spiking crystals of every hue ever seen and a million more never seen. Riding on the flow is an endless fleet of angels. They pass through the curtains one myriad at a time, until they occupy every square inch of the sky.

North. South. East. West.

Thousands of silvery wings rise and fall in unison, and over the sound of the trumpets, you can hear the cherubim and seraphim chanting, Holy, holy, holy. The final flank of angels is followed by twenty-four silver-bearded elders and a multitude of souls who join the angels in worship.

Presently the movement stops and the trumpets are silent, leaving only the triumphant triplet: Holy, holy, holy. Between each word is a pause. With each word, a profound reverence. You hear your voice join in the chorus. You don't know why you say the words,
but you know you must.

Suddenly, the heavens are quiet. All is quiet.

The angels turn, you turn, the entire world turns and there He is. Jesus.

Through waves of light you see the silhouetted figure of Christ.

He opens his mouth, and you are surrounded by his declaration:

I am the Alpha and the Omega.

The angels bow their heads.
The elders remove their crowns.

And before you is a Figure so consuming that you know, instantly you know:

Nothing else matters. Forget stock markets and school reports. Sales meetings and football games. Nothing is newsworthy..

All that mattered, matters no more.... for Christ has come.

This excerpt was sent to me in an email. I have never read this book, but I think maybe I will. What a grand picture the author has painted for us to imagine.

I beleive that all the world will indeed witness something this huge all at the same time... we'll all know what is going on when it happens.

It could be in a week, it could be in 30 years, but it will happen.

I hope I am prepared. I am not ready today, so reading this email really scared me at this point in my life. This event should be a joyous time for all who have the privelage to witness.

The Second Coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I pray I can look up into the heavens with no hestitaion, with no reservation, with only anticipation to meet the Beloved Son who paved the way for me.

Funny Smooches

Liam was being so funny this afternoon. My camera batteries died so this is all the footage I got.

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

If I only had a...

live-in biographer...

So many cute things happen at our house on a daily basis lately. I swear since Liam turned one our lives have been even more enriched. I just wish there was a video of each moment... someone recording what we are enjoying. Let me just report a few things that make me smile just thinking back on them.

~Last night Ian brought home a chocolate silk pie with an abundance of whipped cream on top. Ian was swiping his finger through the cream and eating it, then decided to let Orion (one of our cats) have a taste too. Liam observed Daddy sharing with the kitty and giggled. Ian then put some cream on Liam's little finger so HE could feed the kitty. Liam was so amused at this and just kept laughing every time the kitty would lick the cream off his finger. Just a darling site!

~Last night we turned on the radio to see if Liam would dance for us. (The sitter says he was dancing with her kids the day before, so I thought we should witness this feat.) Sure enough he did his little dance. He kind of marches, spins, sporatically puts his arms up and the kicker is him trying to lift his right leg up. We were tickled with his talents!

~Then today. Liam and I were upstairs playing and he got into my huge photo box. He pulled two framed 5 x 7 photos. One was of me and Ian kissing on our wedding day, the other was one of our engagement photos walking along the train tracks. Liam held them both and looked at them with smiles. He then let go of one photo so he could point to his dad. He pointed to his dad in both photos over and over again smiling. I said, "Is that your daddy?" He seemed really pleased with himself and kept pointing back and forth. I immediately called Ian to report. He thought this scene was about as sweet as I did.

It's so neat to watch Liam discover new things each day. I feel so special because I get to witness his life experiences first hand. I wish Ian, Liam and I were together 24 hours a day every day. We seem to have richer experiences when we three are all together. I just love it when Ian can interact with Liam. I like how we both become "proud parents" when we are with Liam. We smile more, laugh more and love more because of him. One can't understand the concept of THIS kind of love until a baby joins the household. I certainly appreciate all children and how unique each one is, but MY boy just can't do any wrong. He's MINE... I spend ALL my time with him, so of course he is my favorite child in the world!

Food, glorious food!

Liam is eating SO much more these days! He eats and eats and eats! I am so excited the loves to eat! Last night and today he went to town on peas. He loves to pick them up one by one and eat them until they are all gone. You'd think the peas were candy he loves them so much!

This morning I gave him some Silk brand peach yogurt and he loved it. I turned the container to the side to see the nutritional values and I could clearly see why he loved it so much. It had a fair amount of sugars in it, but less than regular fruit yogurt, so I didn't feel bad shoveling it in his eager little mouth! I am so glad I found this lactose free yogurt! I can't wait to try the other fruit flavors to see what he thinks.

I noticed a couple days ago... and every day now, that he doesn't swipe food on the floor because he isn't hungry. He swipes food on the floor because he doesn't like it. Liam doesn't seem to like boiled potatoes, noodles and peanut butter sandwiches. He even refused some turkey the other day. Oh well... if those are the only things he refuses, I think we'll have a healthy eater no matter what. I mean, really, the child LOVES peas! What more could a mother ask for at meal time?

Mastering toys

Liam has mastered two of his toys. The push cart that he puts different shapes into and his crate of blocks. He can fit the shapes into their holes and he can put all the blocks tightly back into the crate. (And gets much applause from us when he does these things again and again.) So last night I thought it was time for us to buy him the pound-a-ball.

I put Liam to bed and headed to Target to buy this fun toy last night.

So this morning I opened the pound-a-ball packaging and let him at it. All he had to say was "oh" and grabbed two of the four balls and kept rotating them so he could hold all four. He loves balls, balloons, anything round. So it took me a few minutes to get his attention on the hammer and the pounding, but I had no luck getting him into the real purpose of the toy as a whole. He was content with carrying a ball in each hand and "sharing" them with me for seconds at a time.


About ten minutes later he wandered back to the base of the toy and set up the balls. He picked up the hammer and pounded two of the balls in and chased the third one that got away! I immediately got the camera ready to record him doing it again. It was a one time deal. He never did it again. I was disappointed but proud at the same time. He got the concept and wanted me to know (or wanted to see what the fuss was about all by himself). He continued carrying the balls around and "sharing" them with me over and over.

We got home from work this evening and we worked with him some more on the pound-a-ball. He tried it one more time successfully then started chasing the balls again. He must be pretty smart. We need a new toy that is more advanced apparently. I would like to get him some of those wooden puzzles, but they are so expensive. Maybe there are toys like that at thrift stores. I will have to investigate. We certainly need to keep that little brain stimulated. I hate putting him at a stand still.

Sunday Fun

A Fun Fall evening

I had been meaning to let Liam play in the rocks again sometime this past week, but every time we got home it was dark already! So I got home about 30 minutes earlier than usual today so he could play outdoors. Dad was home already, so we all went in the back yard and played in the leaves. Liam wouldn't trade that rake for anything else! I tried to give him the snow shovel so I could rake. "No can do, Mom!" I guess we need a second rake just like we got a second broom because he HAS to help!

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com