Liam Takes the Wheel

Since Liam could walk and meet his dad in the driveway when he gets home from work they have done this. Daddy opens his car door for Liam and Liam gets on his lap to "go for a drive." Ian humors our boy by going up and down the driveway 15 feet back and forth for a few minutes. Liam gets the biggest kick out of it, but I think Daddy does too! Such simple pleasures...

Happy 20 Month Birthday, Liam!

Dear Son,

This past month went way too fast! To call you a 20 month old will be odd to me… makes you sound like you are nearing 2 years old, which you are, but you are still a baby to me.

Sure signs that you are still a baby:

You still have rights to the pacifier and the “mama drinks”

You still say “goo”

You still sleep in a crib

You still cry when you need a cuddle

You still get carried around

You still have baby fat

You still wear diapers

You still don’t laugh at your own farts (even though we do)

You still drool

You still wear a bib at meal times

You still obey most all my words

Sure signs that you are indeed a toddler:

You say “please help” ie. “pwee hop” (as you sign “help” in your own way)… it’s very sweet to have you ask so nicely.

You sign that you love me and your Dad. (Crossing your heart and then pointing to us until we touch our finger to yours.)

You eat with a spoon or fork. (Your favorite meal is oatmeal with blueberries or fresh raspberries from the yard.)

You are pulling doors closed behind you and tend to trap yourself in the closet now and then.

You say "outside" (Pronounced oud-dah) and put on your hat, find your shoes and also the shoes for mom and/or dad so we can take you out. You then wave and say "bye" to whomever doesn't go outside with us... and if there is no person, you wave to the cat, art or whatever is closest.

You run and jump and attempt somersaults. (We got the Happy Healthy Monsters DVD for you and you make sure we get exercising too.)

You grab our attention by saying "MA" really loud so we can watch whatever neato thing you are doing at the moment. (Or to be dragged by our shorts to whatever location you need us to be in.)

You repeat the word "cracker" in the most weirdly boisterous voice and we laugh every.single.time. (Pronounced CACK-ARE.)

You know ALL the animal sounds... and even know how to do an impression of our lovable friend, Grover. (My personal favorite is the horse sound because after the "neigh" comes two distinct spits just like a horse would blow or snort.)

You can do puzzles as quick as a whip. (I even brought some unfamiliar ones home from church nursery and you put them back together like you'd been practicing for months!)

You like to race your toy cars and throw balls. (You've got a pretty great throwing arm on you too!)

You answer questions by saying "no" most of the time, but sometimes you'll respond with a thoughtful "Ummm" and then say no. We are trying to encourage more "yes"'s... because the way you say "yes" is just plain adorable! (Pronounced YESSHHHHHH)

You are a mighty corn-on-the-cob eater! You whisper wildly the word "WOW" when you see an ear of corn coming your way. You eat every last kernel you can find on each ear too... nothing is wasted when it comes to corn... same goes with popcorn.

You seem to know when you have dirty drawers. The way you say poo poo is quite funny! And the way you avoid a diaper change is even funnier. I'll ask nicely if we can change your pants and you'll reply with a "no" that starts low and ends high... we love those multi-octive "no"'s.

Liam, you are a darling little boy. I love spending my time with you. Each phase seems a little better than the last. I am grateful to have you and be your teacher (and you mine). It's a rewarding job to see you learn and progress so quickly. I am proud to be in your life every day.

And, babydoll, thanks for indulging me and staying a baby a little longer. I appreciate it more than you know.

Love Always,
Mom

Blah photos

We went to Kiddi3 K@ndids on Tuesday night. Mom has been wanting to get a portrait done of Liam the whole time she was here, but the poor kid always had a bruise or scrape on his face. This week his face was clear, but his legs were still a little battered looking.

We couldn't get a short notice sitting anywhere but Kiddi3 K@ndids, so we went and dealt with the waiting and slow "photographer" who missed any possible good shots. Here is a sampling of what we got:

Mom wanted shots of his bare feet. It cracks me up that he has the exact same feet as Ian. I call them paddles because they are so square!

This is a photo of a photo... Cute little legs, but no smiles. He is cute no matter what though.

A Mighty Fisherman

I found this fish game and puzzle online at pier1.com. Liam is loving it! Though it's quite the advanced puzzle! I can barely get it back together. I had to print off the photo on the website and tape it to the back so I have a cheat sheet!

I bought him a few other things too.

P.S. I just noticed this is my 304th post. Wowee wow wow!

A Small Tale

Once upon a time there was a tiny boy who always woke up in a cheerful mood in the mornings. He loved to wake up around 5 or 6am each day. He was unfortunate enough, though, to have mother that was extremely fatigued at that hour of the day. She would nurse him and pray he'd fall back asleep, but alas each time it would somehow provide more pep to him instead of the sleepiness that she had hoped for.

After about an hour of climbing all over his sleeping mommy, this small boy would take her hand and lead her to the kitchen and show her the sign for cereal or banana or sometimes he would just bellow "CRACKER" really loudly. His foggy eyed mother would then proceed to make this sweet child his blueberry oatmeal and possibly hand him a banana to tide him over while the cereal cooked.

This boy was

...so smart that he would listen to his mommy's words of "please go sit in your chair" and run to his chair.

... so agile that he would climb all the way into his chair.

... so patient that he would let his mother buckle him in and put a bib on him before being served his meal.

... so reverent that he might even fold his arms so a prayer could be said over the food.

... so ravenous that he would scoop each spoonful of berries and oatmeal into his tiny mouth as fast as he possibly could.

... so polite that he'd push his empty bowl towards the middle of the table and show the sign for drink so his mother would hand him his water cup.

And this boy was so MESSY that he'd hold out his mitts to be washed so he could go play.

Life is just a bowl of cherries

We had a pretty nice weekend. I haven't posted since Tuesday and we've had a pretty nice week altogether. I will just list the things we did because I don't have time to compile a montage or even post all my favorite doings this past week.

Things we've done, in no particular order:

Liam found a way to distort his face.

Liam successfully took off with Daddy's glasses. Something he's been working on since day one. Congrats, Liam!

Snuggled Mom in a new way while watching cartoons one morning. (He leaned on my shoulder for a long while as he was sitting sort of behind me on the couch.)

Grandma made a play house for Liam in 10 minutes flat (while Ian and I ran to Home Depot for seriously 10 minutes).

Liam built one of the tallest block towers yet.

We went to visit Rose across the street and on the way home, Liam played in the water. Notice the pine cone in his little hand.

He found a glass of water outdoors and played in that water too (looking over his shoulder at me with grins to see if he was going to hear a "no" from me)... then dumped it all over himself. I say go crazy when it's minutes from bath time, little buddy.

He helped Grandma peel potatoes... well he watched and then stole a potato and took a big bite!

We took Liam to the aquarium and he had a ball running around and letting us lift him up to each tank so he could point and "count" all the sea animals. (I'll have to get video of Liam's version of counting. He does the inflection with his voice, but doesn't say the numbers... just goo, goo, goo... each goo a note higher than the last.)

Liam has eaten like 100 fresh cherries we got from a friend's cherry tree. He wouldn't stop eating them! I just kept pitting them and he would down each one in seconds then "please" me for more!

Liam was kissed many times this week... as usual, but I have photos this time.

P.S. Liam and I were in the car running an errand (and I tend to sing to him now and then to keep him smiling). On this occasion we sang Popcorn Popping. And when I say "we" I mean it. He would repeat the following words in bold and on Que. He also would make the popping motion with his fists/fingers. I was so proud of my smart little boy!

I looked out the window and what did I see...
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

Spring has brought me such a nice surprise.
Blossoms popping right before my eyes.

I can take an armful and make a treat.
A popcorn ball that would smell [sniffing sounds] so sweet.

It wasn't really so [waving his finger], but it seemed to be...
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

Botanical Lover

In the past month Liam has learned to say "flower" in his own way. When asked to say "flower" he responds with the sniffing sound one would make by actually sniffing the scent of a flower. It's adorable and evokes laughter out of me every time he does it.

Here he is sniffing Grandma's flowers that Grandpa sent to her last week.

Liam also enjoyed going to his Great Grandparents' house on Sunday evening and sniffing all their roses. He also liked keeping an eye on the bunny roaming around in the neighbor's yard.

Need a Laugh?

Weeks ago I found some dog goggles at Target and bought them for Wyatt (since I've seen Drew put his own sunglasses on him). Is this not one of the funniest things?

Then if that isn't funny enough, Liam wanted to try them out... and we all laughed our heads off. Look how the strap pulls his ears down. Our own little Yoda.

And here is something more to chortle at. Liam dancing the other morning to his little kid tunes. I think he picked up a deeper interest in dancing since he met Kaden.

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Dang Cute!

This past week Liam has:

Waved and said bye-bye to the bubbles as they went down the drain at the latter part of his bath.

Held his naked Mr. Potato Head and swayed/snuggled him while saying "baaaay-bee, baaaay-bee"... in that ever so sweet voice that I wish I had recorded. That was one funny looking baby, but I guess a lot of babies are bald (but certainly not limbless).

Got up on our bed where both the bengals were napping and gave them each a light kiss on the nose... he then tried to hug them and they raced out of his grasp.

In other news:
Well, D, saved me some time and wrote up our whole trip to California. You can see her report HERE. Thanks, D! You are awesome!

Memorial Day Montage Report

I am still drafting my post for the trip details... here are the photos and video for now...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com