2 year, 10 months

Dear Son,

Here we are again and you’ve grown another month more…

We shared a birthday yesterday. You were so excited when I told you it was my birthday so you replied, “It’s my birday too!” You were correct since you are now only two months away from turning three! As tall as you are getting, it’s odd to be calling you a two year old at all. The way you’ve been eating the past week or so, I think you are due for another growth spurt, so you may be looking like a four year old by the time you are three!


The past month has been one full of change. You started day care a little over a week ago and are adjusting well to it. You don’t take naps there so you seem more tired than usual, but you always have good things to report about your time away from us. The first day I dropped you off, I could barely fight back the tears. Though I was comfortable with the caretakers, it hit me hard that nevertheless I left you with strangers. It hurt again the next day and then I was fine with it though I missed you so so so much during my long work day. We had a nice weekend together so yesterday when I dropped you off, my heart sunk again. I didn’t want to let you go.

It’s interesting how connected we are and how hard it is for me to let someone else take care of you. You, on the other hand, are fine with kissing me good-bye and sending me on my way. It’s certainly a blessing that you are an extremely social little boy. When I have you back in my arms again, you are excited to see me and tell me about your day. At bed time we’ve been reading books and snuggling… I love how tickled you are with that time alone with me. You are so sweet to give me kisses and hugs, more than once. The “I love you’s” are passed back and forth… and then you reply back to me that I am the best after me telling you that you are the best. Sometimes you agree and say, “yes, I the best” instead and I love that too!

Savoring you is sometimes a challenge, but I am trying so hard to make my time with you count more now that I have less time. In the working hours that I am away from you, I am grateful for this journal and all the photos I’ve collected of you. I am able to take a break and stare at your beautiful face, tilt my head and think “awe… I am so lucky”… then go back to work! I miss you so much during the week days.

Thanks for making me laugh.
Thanks for saying you are sorry.
Thanks for minding your manners.
Thanks for brightening my days.
Thanks for always loving me.

“Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature of a boy.”

Loving you always,
Mom

Dinosaur Museum

We met up with Kara, Joslyn and Jered at the Dinosaur Musuem. The admission was only $2, so it was pretty crowded. Uncle Drew came with us too. It's always fun to have him with us. Liam loved all the exhibits and was very interested in the water table, but it was so crowded he couldn't play. We decided we'd pay full price another time so he could enjoy it fully.

More Harvesting

Just a warning, I can't get enough garden veggie photos of Liam. I just love how excited he gets over this almost-daily activity! So here are more for now and there will be more to come well into the fall.

Here he is on Friday evening...


And here he is after church today searching out "Liam's matoes"... His are the yellow pear tomatoes. He knows when they are ready and eats them all while still outside!


Mom's lesson of the day: White shirts don't survive a forest of tomato foliage. His shirt now looks like a full tie-dye of grass stains.

Liam a year ago...

I found these clips on an old memory card last week. I had to post how small he was and how little he spoke! Such a different kid a year later!

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Wednesday Harvest & Thursday Horse Feedin'

Wednesday night we three went out to the garden and found A LOT of treasures! Liam was so excited as he took each one into the house... well the first three things. Then he told me he couldn't do it anymore, so Ian helped me get everything into the house.

Thursday night I had a goal to take Liam to see the horses down the street. I have seen other people feeding carrots to them and I've been told that they are friendly horses... so before I had to go visiting teaching, we packed up some cucumbers and carrots and triked/walked down the street. Liam was so tickled with the whole experience... mainly watching me do all the feeding. But before we left, he took the two carrots he was snacking on and held out his hand flat to give them to that needy-eyed horse.




Notice in this photo that he had tried to feed this guy carrots for the first time and got freaked out and dropped them.

New Bedding

I painted the twin size headboard and the shelf that is in Liam's room. Both were an almost white beach wood, so the manly espresso was a welcome change.

Then last week the new bedding came in the mail and Liam immediately helped me put it on his bed. He was thrilled with the pillow sham mainly, but ever since that day he's welcomed anyone willing to come up to his room to see his new bed!

Oh and I had forgotten I bought a fish pillow for him months ago and put that on as the finishing touch. I am shooting for a nautical theme... He was so grateful for the fish pillow and thanked me profusely for it!

League Night

Well, not really, but we did take our friends to the bowling alley last Tuesday when we found out the roller rink was closed.

Liam used his muscles once again to lift those heavy bowling balls. After a few rounds using the ramp, he decided that was for the birds. He started tossing the ball down the alley, sending it into slow motion. He got a couple strikes and a few spares with both methods though. A better score than his mom.

(I had some priceless video of him trying to throw the ball and falling to his knees each time, but I accidently erased my whole memory card and was only able to recover a few photos.)

Veggie Model

One of our many harvests and our proud harvester!

Sundance

Tuesday night we took the new car for a spin. We ended up at Sundance. We walked around and then went to the little store there and bought treats. It was a nice evening out.

Seattle Trip

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We were so grateful to be able to take a family trip together with Daddy longer than a few days. Ian has never taken more than 1 or 2 days off of work at a time, so we usually make weekend trips. We had Daddy with us Wednesday through Tuesday and it was a treat! In addition, we had that whole week to enjoy our friends in Seattle, Washington!

DJ, Anissa, Ethan and Addison were such a great hosts! The kids played pretty well together the whole time. Anissa had everything we needed there so our stay was completely comfortable. Other than Liam having WAY too much energy, we thoroughly enjoyed our time away from Utah. (We did have to get him under control a lot on this trip, but it's so hard for him to be tame when there are so many people to play jester for.)

We all went to the zoo on Friday and had a nice time roaming around in the 70 degree weather. We saw lots of animals, did a lot of walking and the kids got to go to a little petting zoo and see some goats. We hit the Carousel on the way out of the park (when it was getting close to lunch time and nap time). Ethan and Addy had a ball on the ride, but Liam was pretty uneasy about the whole thing. He said he wanted a baby horse (which didn't exist), so when I put him on a random horse he started crying like his life was over and I needed to rescue him. Close to the end of the ride he calmed down. Suffice it to say, we got in the car and Liam immediately konked out.

"On the way home" we found a yummy drive in. When we finally got back to home base, we ate the foods and then took naps... All of us... Even the kiddos that slept in the car for a bit.

That night DJ’s brothers came over for the signature family party meal of Raclette. We ate like crazy starving people and like Anissa said, "we had plenty of good laughing spells to help offset the calories." There was much pranking going on when someone would get up to load their fry pan with more goodies to cook. Marc found onions in his dessert dish and Anissa attempted to sabotage DJ's dessert with tons of salt. Sadly he pretended not to notice.

Josh had brought his game, Rock Band, and all the boys rocked out and had a blast. The few that didn't participate got a good laugh and would poke fun.

Saturday all the brothers went out to their parents' property for a day full of paintball war games. DJ and Ian left to go over to the Wheeler’s place about 10 am. Anissa and I kept the kids and took them to St. Edward State Park for about an hour. We then went back to home base for lunch and naps. After naps we took the kids to join the rest of the family for Dutch oven dinner. The kids couldn't get enough of the new playground set that was there. It made it easy for we adults to chatter away and get stuff ready for dinner.

The food was amazing. Dutch oven everything... chicken, ribs, cheesy potatoes and carrots, beans, corn bread and chocolate molten cake! After force feeding our children as much as we could, we let them go back and play. We ate awhile longer then the guys started becoming undressed... Oh boy the lovely paintball welts. After much shirtless prancing and posing, we were able to get them to get dressed again. It was such a fun time being with everyone! I love laughing like that!

Sunday was a lazy day. Ian and I took Liam for a drive and we ate at another drive-in for lunch. Triple X Burger is a place where Ian went often in his high school days. He had forgotten that the triple x burger was so massive. He couldn't eat the whole thing. Cracked me up.

We got back to home base and then Anissa and I were given permission to get out of the house on our own. It was nice to spend a couple hours away with no kids. That night, we enjoyed leftover raclette and grilled steaks for dinner.

Monday we went to the Pacific Science Center. I took a lot of photos of Liam having a blast! He just couldn't focus on one thing! His head was literally spinning (along with his body) on what to do next. While we were there, Liam had his first IMAX movie experience. It was a dam big movie about beavers! We were all thoroughly entertained. I certainly learned a lot about beavers that I hadn't known! The whole theater would laugh at times because of how quirky those animals are.

After visiting Pike Place Market, we met up with DJ and Anissa at Juanita Beach. Liam went straight for the water and didn't even glance at the great playground they had there. DJ and Ian helped the kids make sand castles... and Liam did his normal rounds of demolishing all sand creations! The kids played well together and it was a treat to enjoy the sun and blue skies for awhile.

After de-sanding children, we headed out to dinner at Claim Jumper. We had a huge corner booth kind of out of the way, so we didn’t have to worry about the kids bugging other people. The food was amazing and we all ate like kings!

That night after the kids were in bed, we watched the guys bowl on the Wii. This was pretty much the norm every night before hitting the hay at midnight. Wii, Scene It and then maybe a movie! So fun! (I have to note that I am way better at Wii tennis than the real thing!)

Tuesday was DJ's birthday. Anissa made some wonderful sour dough pancakes. We gave him his gift before he had to leave for work and then said our good-byes. We headed out before noon since Liam was a live wire. We wanted to get him strapped in the car and have a bit of sanity before heading to the airport. We drove around Ian's old stomping grounds and then stopped at Pine Lake for awhile. Liam had a great time!

We dropped the rental car off at 4pm and rode the fun shuttle bus to the airport. Liam loved it! Once we got checked in at the airport, we did a little shopping. Ian found Liam a great Lightning McQueen sticker book. That thing kept him entertained for quite a long time. Our flight wasn't until 7:30pm. Liam did well on the plane and the bumpy descent into SLC didn't even bother him. I, on the other hand, got nauseated for the first time on a plane. Ick!

Anyway, we got home at midnight and to bed by 1am (we were so surprised he didn't fall asleep in the car). Liam let let us sleep in until 9am... and we were grateful.

The End.

See Anissa's Report HERE.

Blogger Meet Ups!

I met with a couple of my blogger friends this week!

I met Yvonne for the first time in person on Sunday evening. We've been corresponding for over a year now and it was such a treat to see each other in person! We just chatted away like old friends. Her daughter, Heidi, was kind enough to play with Liam the whole time and he enjoyed every minute of it! They played ping pong and read books for a long time! Thank you Heidi!!! It was so wonderful to truly focus on my conversations with Yvonne!

Then tonight I got to see Yvonne again! (Sans Liam.) We met up with UTmommy at Cold Stone and the three of us talked for an hour! I loved hearing more about their lives and connecting face to face like we did. Such a nice evening! Thank you both!

Good News Post

We traded in the Freelander and got a Mountaineer on Thursday! I am so surprised how I fell in love with this vehicle! It's the most comfy thing! If it had better gas mileage, I'd go on a few Sunday drives...

Friday night, Kara and Jared had a date and we got to have Joslyn over! She and Liam had a ball together as they usually do. We ate dinner, played outside, molded play-dough, got jammies on, watched a movie, jumped on the beds - and finally - konked out. A fun evening!

This morning Ian ran some errands and came home bearing a gift! I'll give you two guesses of what it might have been on this the day August 2nd, 2008.

That is right, Breaking Dawn! It cracks me up that he kept up with the release date and even asked me last night if I was headed to Barnes and Noble at midnight. What a thoughtful guy! I love him!

Photo taken by Josh on the Wheeler Property last week. I'll have to post about our Seattle trip another day. Don't mind our hair do's... mine is a result of humidity and Ian's is a result of a full day out in the Wheeler Paintball Course.