Saturday is a Special Day!

Liam slept in until almost 9:30am today! (He must be having a growth spurt.) Since I was up at 8, I got a lot accomplished around the house before my friend, Dame Eyola, came over at 10am to help me get started on "mission organization" in my sewing/craft/ironing/gift wrapping/Avon room. Ian got a head start at 5am this morning clocking into work at 6. I was grateful to him for doing that so he could be here to play with Liam while I was up in the sewing room with the Dame. We got a lot accomplished!

After the "mission organization" session was through, Ian, Liam and I got ready to go to our friend, Vika's wedding reception. I have never been to a traditional Tongan wedding, but let me tell you there was a lot of cultural entertainment and music! Liam was so tired and the music was so loud, so he wasn't dancing around like I thought he would be. He was well behaved in his fatigued state, zoning out most of the time. I enjoyed watching all the family dancing. There was a traditional solo dance that the bride usually does, but they had another young woman do the dance and everyone tucked money into her costume. Liam and I went out to the dance floor and contributed to the fun. Vika gave us a big smile and lipped "thank you" as we walked back to our seat.

We ended up leaving before indulging in the island feast because Liam was getting restless and cranky. Crossing our fingers, we headed to a local Italian restaurant (hoping Liam would behave in a high chair as tired as he was). We gorged ourselves by choosing "market room buffet" off the menu. Liam ate a TON of food! Pasta, meatball, salad, bread... he went to town! At one point, he accidentally picked up a crayon he was playing with earlier and bit the top off. The look on his face was pure confusion... he spit that blue wax out so fast. Yuck! He continued to eat, eat, and eat some more real food after that!

He was asleep within 3 minutes of being put into his car seat. He took a two hour nap (and I got to sleep an hour of that)!

After the naps, we three went to run some errands. We hit PetSmart, Good Earth and Borders. I've been buying all of Liam's food and snacks in the organic part of the grocery stores (double checking sugar and sodium content, etc). We were running low on Liam's snacks, so I wanted to stop by Good Earth to stock up. I was so happy they had the soy yogurt! Yay, a store other than SuperTarget has Silk products! I should have checked much sooner than today.

At Borders, Liam had a ball! He ran around the entire store just giggling. He picked out a really adorable (annoying) choo choo train book that makes lots of adorable (high pitched) train sounds. He showed his selection to dad and we consulted together and vetoed the book. We ended up buying him a six-pack of board books for only $5.99! I got a $4.99 copy of Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson, since I recently found it recommended by a blog friend. I loved the book, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, so I thought this purchase was a wise one. Ian got his Bernard Cornwell selection as that was the whole reason for our trip. I love our quarterly Barnes & Noble/Waldenbooks/Borders trips! I also love that these trips are led by Ian... since he is the avid reader in the house! I hope Liam grows up to be like Ian this way. So far so good... he loves all his books!

We got home from Borders and Liam ate a HUGE dinner. I am so amazed at how his appetite grows by the day. He is starting to put food away like his parents!

After cleaning up from dinner, Liam ran straight to Ian's arms. Ian started putting a toy in the palm of his hand and hiding it then asking Liam to pick the hand it was in. We tested him quite a few times and even tried a third hiding place to see what he would do. He passed all the play tests! A few minutes later, I saw Liam with the same toy, trying to hide it in the palm of one hand and closing his other empty hand. He came over to us and it seemed like he wanted to test us! It was so cute not only because of the classic copy-cat behavior, but that the toy was too big for him to actually hide in his tiny fist! What a smarty pants! We just get the biggest kick out of him.

Thanks Liam for your cartoon grins, good eating, funny running toddles, slobbery kisses, love pats, hugs and magic tricks today! And wouldn't you know it, I didn't pick up the camera once today. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. Another full day with my sweet baby!