We love Liam

Bedding Upgrade

Liam has done a number on the bedding I bought him a couple years ago. Here is a link to his old bedding. Now he has a fresh set and it's Lands' End, so hopefully it's tougher than the last set.

Here is my little model and his new linens!






Hair Stylist: Liam

Lands' End Duvet: $15 (Sears Clearance)
Lands' End Matching Sham: $5 (Sears Clearance)
Lands' End Kayak Paddle Sham: $5 (Sears Clearance)
Striped Sheet Set: $7 (Wal-Mart everyday low price)

Partying with Joslyn

Kara and Jered were kind enough to tend Liam while I went to a wedding reception last weekend. It had been awhile since Liam and Joslyn had seen each other, so it took a few minutes for Liam to let me leave him behind... even with the prospect of pizza for dinner. They ended up having a fun evening playing Donkey Kong and playing like old times. I really appreciated seeing Kara again and catching up with her. She is an amazing friend and I miss having her as my neighbor so much!

Thanks for taking photos, Kara!

Getting to Know Liam

This is a write-up I gave to Liam's new home daycare provider, Kim, his first day with her. I thought I should post it to kind of freeze time January 17th, 2011:


Getting to know Liam Peterson

Liam is a very lively and extremely smart 5 year old. He loves verbal quizzes on simple math, alphabet sounds, 3-letter spelling words, and any other fun kid trivia. (Ask him what a tadpole grows up to be or what comes next in a pattern.) He also loves bantering back and forth on rhyming words. These are all great things to redirect him if you see him headed south in the attitude department.

He loves drawing and coloring if given the assignment. He colors in the lines if you praise him for it and scribbles outside the lines if he’s in a hurry to beat someone at the task or if there is another fun activity waiting for him. You’ll see some really amazing freehand work when you ask him to really think about it.

Liam loves contests and may turn anything you or the other children do with him into a contest. He is driven by incentive like any child, but charts work for him if you find he needs a visual on progress. He has a daily chore chart at home with his 5 jobs he does each morning. Get dressed, eat breakfast, exercise (he goes up/down the flight of stairs five times), get on shoes, and say morning prayer.

Liam currently does not nap, but there are times when his body will fall asleep in the middle of the day during a movie or a drive in the car. Most days you’ll see him wide awake during quiet time.

If he does fall asleep, he will wake up needing to be held or given a nice rub on the back. He’ll bounce back within 20 minutes.

Liam has year round allergies. He will sniff and you’ll need to remind him to go blow his nose. He does it willingly and is very used to doing it on his own. He takes a prescription, Singulair, every morning before he leaves home. He is not allergic to any foods or animals.

Liam uses the bathroom by himself and will need wipes on hand for the dirty business. If you don’t have them, I will provide them. Please remind him to flush and wash if you suspect it didn’t happen. He’s about 50/50 on remembering these things.

Liam is a mood eater. He will say he’s hungry and then eat practically nothing. He’ll say he wants a treat even though he only ate a fourth of his lunch. We save his meals for when he is “hungry” again. He has to finish that sandwich or noodles before he gets a snack or treat. He’ll try to con you, so watch out. He likes making deals so work with him as you see fit. We trust you and understand another strategy may work at your house.

He will have breakfast at home and some of the leftover may travel to your house if he doesn’t finish.

Favorite foods: Pizza, quesadillas, cheese macaroni, scrambled eggs, bagels, strawberries, apples, mandarin oranges, pasta salad.

Strong dislikes: Beans, green salad, green beans – will tolerate broccoli/peas if hidden in casserole.

Our Sunday

So we made the mistake of letting Liam play Donkey Kong most of the morning. When it came time to go to 1 o'clock church, he seemed compliant. He got dressed, he grabbed his scriptures, he headed out the door happily. Then something happened. I didn't take the right walking path to church. "Wait, Mommy!" {Queue tears}

Tears subsided but the attitude stuck. A bribe from the member of the Primary Presidency got him in. 15 minutes later I have a Sunday School sidekick. One with an attitude. One that wasn't very reverent.

A sidewalk talk in the wet outdoors. Two choices. Tried to go back into Primary but found himself in tears again. Beginning to think he is very very tired from our late night with neighbor-partying. Ah yes.

Walk home. Don't go inside. Walked towards our vehicle. Strapped in the car seat for hopefully a little auto-induced slumber. Interjections of the sadness to bring attention to cloud covered mountains. Better. Going towards the canyon full of cloudy fog. No sleepy nodding... Donkey Kong still on the brain. Head back home.

Deal made to nix any word of video-gaming the rest of the day.

Spent basically the whole afternoon and evening in his room playing pre-school and playing non-electronic games. Great bonding happened. Great kid emerged. One on one time that was purely enjoyable.

Ready for a new day at yet another new place tomorrow. He'll do well. He's ready.

Son of a Dannon Employee

The Best Neighbors

A few weeks after we moved into our apartment in Salt Lake City, we met some really special people. They live down stairs and across from us. All three of us clicked with their family. We have similar backgrounds and reasoning for being in the same apartment complex. It seems our life circumstances were parallel to theirs (minus that fact that they have 3 boys and we have 1).

They are much like some previous favorite neighbors we've had that just love us for us. They are thoughtful of us and we of them. We talk and see each other so often because it would be impossible to get sick of each other. Those kind of friends are hard to come by. We so appreciate the blessing of good friends.

A few weeks ago Liam was having a rough time at his new school. So rough that I got a call to come pick him up at 2:30 in the afternoon. I couldn't do that very easily... so I called Haydee (our sweetest neighbor and friend). She happily went to pick up Liam and gave him the love and attention he needed (along with her other 3 boys). The next week Liam was doing better, but Haydee checked in by sending me a text message to ask if I needed her to go pick him up. That previous favor and current gesture choked me up. She is just so wonderful!

Last night was Tuesday night. Since Liam is having such a rough time making friends at his new school, I made an arrangement with Haydee for Tuesdays to be our play night with her family. The past 3 Tuesdays have been a highlight not only for Liam, but for our family. We did a game night last week with all of us (it was so fun) and this week Liam went down alone. Not long after he happily came home to get ready for bed, Haydee sent this photo of Liam and Christian!

Such good buddies!

Savoring the Good

I have to report that this child of mine has been a dream for 5 days in a row! Something must have clicked with him... or us... or all of us. Whatever it is, all credit goes to our Heavenly Father who is answering some very desperate prayers. We are feeling really happy with each other and Liam is an agreeable sweetheart. I appreciate all he does to make our home harmonious! Liam, you are awesome! We love you so much!

Christmas Morning

Liam got a haul for Christmas. He would get lost in his room when he'd go in there for a purpose this last week. He has so many new things he doesn't know what to do with them all!



Thanks, Anissa, for that awesome super hero cape! He's a fire ball for sure!