Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Classic Skate and More
Okay, so we had WAY TOO MUCH FUN on Saturday!
Liam's dentist put on a patient appreciation party at Classic Skate Fun Center. I called the office earlier in the week to see if Liam could bring a friend. They said yes. So I put the idea into a couple friend's mom's minds and they both ended up saying yes. So we took two friends (Cristian and Ethan) which was awesome for Liam, but once we got there and saw the massive amounts of people, I started to freak out in my head a little. I immediately talked to the boys about staying together and only doing one activity at a time as a group.
We had voted in the car before we arrived that we were going to scooter and skate first, bounce houses second, jungle maze thirds, and blast zone last.
Those boys were so cute on their scooters. I loved roller skating and chasing them around with the camera. Liam was grooving to the music and in his own little world. The other two boys were ready to move on to the next thing within 30 minutes... but I told them they had to get Liam on board (chase him down) to go to the next activity. They chased him a long time and it was so loud in there Liam thought it was a game. It was pretty funny. I ate it up because I was having so much skating and grooving myself.
Next was the inflatable bounce houses, slides and obstacle courses. I had to turn on my robot laser eyes to keep track of all three of them in the crowd. Luckily they listened well and stayed together in one toy and then would move as a group to the next thing. So grateful for a good trio of boys that cared enough to never run ahead to the next thing without his friends.
The boys were getting pretty sweaty so we took sweaters off and they moved on to the jungle maze. That thing was massive. I asked another parent AFTER the kids went in if this was the entrance and the only exit. They confirmed it was. Big deep breath. After awhile Liam came out by himself. I told him to go find his friends. A moment later all three of them emerged. Big deep breath.
The blast zone only had one entrance too. So I let them play on their own in there for about 15 minutes and then went and faced the foam ball shooting range to find them all. They were even sweatier, but having so much fun! They played a little longer and then wanted to go back to scootering.
We weren't able to get scooters so Cristian and Liam tried skates. Big fat joke. I must have looked like a fool out on the rink with two heavy footed monkeys tumbling along as I held their arms. I got beat up enough with their skates that I gave up after 5 minutes... Liam attempted crawling on his knees on the rink... the gig was up.
Blue slurpies for all! Color of choice balloons for all! Everyone loaded into the car. Big deep breath.
When we got home Liam got out of the car and then immediately started going on about his balloon and then tears followed. Then I saw it. His orange balloon apparently removed itself from his arm on the ride home. It was on it's way to visit the sun and Liam was heartbroken.
We went over to Cristian's house to return his car seat and Haydee saw how upset my boy was. She whispered sweetly to Liam that he could take Cristian's blue balloon and she would buy him another one later. Cheer restored! (Cristian was in the other room and had no idea.)
Fast forward to our ride to my friend Jessica's house that same day. Liam takes a cat nap in the car, but when he wakes I am on the phone with Grandma Dixie. He wanted to talk to her and I handed the phone over. She got an earful of Liam's fun morning and I don't think any detail was missed. He also told her the story about his orange balloon going to visit the sun. His tone was very sad. They talked about a few other things then the conversation was over.
We helped my sweet friend Jessica at her house all afternoon then headed home around 4:30.
Around 7pm Uncle Drew came over for a movie night. Hidden behind his back was a little something for Liam.
Wouldn't you know it, he found an orange balloon floating in his yard an hour South of here? Amazing how it traveled to the right place for Uncle Drew to return it to Liam!!! I had a tear in my eye over the extent Grandma Dixie goes to make some magic happen and cheer up her grandson all the way from Minnesota. (We love you! Thank you!)
And so, that ends our Saturday. We watched The Tourist with Drew then slept like babies that night.
Liam's dentist put on a patient appreciation party at Classic Skate Fun Center. I called the office earlier in the week to see if Liam could bring a friend. They said yes. So I put the idea into a couple friend's mom's minds and they both ended up saying yes. So we took two friends (Cristian and Ethan) which was awesome for Liam, but once we got there and saw the massive amounts of people, I started to freak out in my head a little. I immediately talked to the boys about staying together and only doing one activity at a time as a group.
We had voted in the car before we arrived that we were going to scooter and skate first, bounce houses second, jungle maze thirds, and blast zone last.
Those boys were so cute on their scooters. I loved roller skating and chasing them around with the camera. Liam was grooving to the music and in his own little world. The other two boys were ready to move on to the next thing within 30 minutes... but I told them they had to get Liam on board (chase him down) to go to the next activity. They chased him a long time and it was so loud in there Liam thought it was a game. It was pretty funny. I ate it up because I was having so much skating and grooving myself.
Next was the inflatable bounce houses, slides and obstacle courses. I had to turn on my robot laser eyes to keep track of all three of them in the crowd. Luckily they listened well and stayed together in one toy and then would move as a group to the next thing. So grateful for a good trio of boys that cared enough to never run ahead to the next thing without his friends.
The boys were getting pretty sweaty so we took sweaters off and they moved on to the jungle maze. That thing was massive. I asked another parent AFTER the kids went in if this was the entrance and the only exit. They confirmed it was. Big deep breath. After awhile Liam came out by himself. I told him to go find his friends. A moment later all three of them emerged. Big deep breath.
The blast zone only had one entrance too. So I let them play on their own in there for about 15 minutes and then went and faced the foam ball shooting range to find them all. They were even sweatier, but having so much fun! They played a little longer and then wanted to go back to scootering.
We weren't able to get scooters so Cristian and Liam tried skates. Big fat joke. I must have looked like a fool out on the rink with two heavy footed monkeys tumbling along as I held their arms. I got beat up enough with their skates that I gave up after 5 minutes... Liam attempted crawling on his knees on the rink... the gig was up.
Blue slurpies for all! Color of choice balloons for all! Everyone loaded into the car. Big deep breath.
When we got home Liam got out of the car and then immediately started going on about his balloon and then tears followed. Then I saw it. His orange balloon apparently removed itself from his arm on the ride home. It was on it's way to visit the sun and Liam was heartbroken.
We went over to Cristian's house to return his car seat and Haydee saw how upset my boy was. She whispered sweetly to Liam that he could take Cristian's blue balloon and she would buy him another one later. Cheer restored! (Cristian was in the other room and had no idea.)
Fast forward to our ride to my friend Jessica's house that same day. Liam takes a cat nap in the car, but when he wakes I am on the phone with Grandma Dixie. He wanted to talk to her and I handed the phone over. She got an earful of Liam's fun morning and I don't think any detail was missed. He also told her the story about his orange balloon going to visit the sun. His tone was very sad. They talked about a few other things then the conversation was over.
We helped my sweet friend Jessica at her house all afternoon then headed home around 4:30.
Around 7pm Uncle Drew came over for a movie night. Hidden behind his back was a little something for Liam.
Wouldn't you know it, he found an orange balloon floating in his yard an hour South of here? Amazing how it traveled to the right place for Uncle Drew to return it to Liam!!! I had a tear in my eye over the extent Grandma Dixie goes to make some magic happen and cheer up her grandson all the way from Minnesota. (We love you! Thank you!)
And so, that ends our Saturday. We watched The Tourist with Drew then slept like babies that night.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Written to Liam on 1/25/09
"You continue to crack us up, infuriate us, and make us feel lucky all in a minute, hour, or day's time. You being 3 is really different, really good, really hard, and sometimes too easy. I love it, I can't stand it, and I embrace it all at the same time. What would I do if I didn't have you to dote on, yell at, waste food on, or sing to at night? Who would I tickle, put in time out, or praise to no end? It's only you."
~ Liam's Mom
~ Liam's Mom
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Overnighter
My darling friend Saedi invited me and Liam to come stay the night Friday. I put a pasta salad together the night before, packed our stuff, and we headed to Utah County right after work/school Friday. Fortunately Liam fell asleep on the way down... I knew he'd be up late playing with the boys and any extra winks were welcome.
We arrived 3 minutes before I said we'd get there. I was amazed with myself! To think I was stressed the night before to get everything done and also hit the store on the way to their house to get dessert and also a meat for the salad... it turned out just fine.
Saedi and Dan had a great dinner all set up. Dan grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we dug in! It was so delicious to eat a summer themed meal and with fun friends to boot!!
The boys were loud and busy the rest of the night. Saedi and I settled into the couches and chatted the night away. It was so fun to be with a practical modern day woman that really "gets it" when it comes to motherhood, marriage, and loyalty in friendship - in summary... the value of hard work! She is a breath of fresh air in so many ways.
Saturday morning came too soon, but I got up and made sausage balls and cut up some melon. Soon Saedi was joining me with tired eyes and made some wonderful whole wheat pancakes for us all. YUM!
The boys played video games and us moms kept on chatting while we did some productive homemaking stuff too.
Right before I made Liam get dressed for the day, I remembered I brought my camera to get a photo of the boys together. Funny they weren't so agreeable as they have been in past visits. Liam had a grumpy face on, Ethan was posing Kellan's cute face, Mason enjoyed contorting his own face, and Aiden was the only one concerned about the right pose! Gosh these boys are a crack up! I wouldn't expect anything less from a group that has a mother as outgoing and expressive.
Thank you, Saedi, for being a great example to me and also getting me out of my element for part of the weekend. Give Dan another "thank you" for letting us just hang and be mostly unproductive. I so appreciated that time with you.
We arrived 3 minutes before I said we'd get there. I was amazed with myself! To think I was stressed the night before to get everything done and also hit the store on the way to their house to get dessert and also a meat for the salad... it turned out just fine.
Saedi and Dan had a great dinner all set up. Dan grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and we dug in! It was so delicious to eat a summer themed meal and with fun friends to boot!!
The boys were loud and busy the rest of the night. Saedi and I settled into the couches and chatted the night away. It was so fun to be with a practical modern day woman that really "gets it" when it comes to motherhood, marriage, and loyalty in friendship - in summary... the value of hard work! She is a breath of fresh air in so many ways.
Saturday morning came too soon, but I got up and made sausage balls and cut up some melon. Soon Saedi was joining me with tired eyes and made some wonderful whole wheat pancakes for us all. YUM!
The boys played video games and us moms kept on chatting while we did some productive homemaking stuff too.
Right before I made Liam get dressed for the day, I remembered I brought my camera to get a photo of the boys together. Funny they weren't so agreeable as they have been in past visits. Liam had a grumpy face on, Ethan was posing Kellan's cute face, Mason enjoyed contorting his own face, and Aiden was the only one concerned about the right pose! Gosh these boys are a crack up! I wouldn't expect anything less from a group that has a mother as outgoing and expressive.
Thank you, Saedi, for being a great example to me and also getting me out of my element for part of the weekend. Give Dan another "thank you" for letting us just hang and be mostly unproductive. I so appreciated that time with you.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Zombie Boy
Liam felt pretty special yesterday when he got his face painted like a zombie! He looks like an even creepier version of Beetlejuice.
Beriet, you do great make-up and photography work! What a skilled young lady you are! Thanks for making Liam feel like a rockstar!
Beriet, you do great make-up and photography work! What a skilled young lady you are! Thanks for making Liam feel like a rockstar!
March 5 & 9 Catch Up
Last Saturday was a full day. While Ian was at work, Liam and I kept each other busy. First we went to Home Depot for the long expected derby car workshop. Liam took a lot of pride building his car and then racing it on a custom race track! He was so thrilled with the whole activity!
Next we stopped at our local library for the first time and explored there for awhile. Liam stocked up on Star Wars picture books and he found a Transformers one too. We also went through all the music CDs and DVDs. We came home with a large pile of borrowed items. The rest of the day he couldn't help but tell people about his haul from the library. We decided we needed to go find a special library bag to fit all our books. We found it and it's huge! It takes up about half Liam's bedroom - okay it's a bit smaller than that.
Once we had our library bag and the books/media safely stocked inside, we headed to the rec. center for Liam's swim lesson. We met Ashley and Liam was pretty cute in the water with her. He wanted to show off all his cool tricks instead of listen 100% of the time. We learned a few tricks to practice at home and hope to get him in a group class soon.
We got home from the pool and took it easy for awhile. Haydee came to visit with me and Liam was so good to let us chat while he went through cover to cover of each of his "new" books. He also got a healthy dose of Indiana Jones on the Playstation.
Fast forward to Wednesday - we had about a foot of snow on the ground that morning (March 9) and I had a feeling it might be our last snow. To make our good-bye easier that morning, I promised him we would go sledding when I picked him up that evening.
I was so glad we retained some of the snow during that warm day. We went down the street to find a sledding hill still covered - whew! He was a bit sad about Daddy still being at work and not having a snowball fight with him... so I surprised him with a few throws and he fed them right back at me with lots of giggles!
I loved playing with him that evening. We truly had a wonderful night together. We even went over a few steps to a playground and put the swings to good use. Swinging in the snow! It was so nice. Then we packed snow on a big metal slide and Liam shot down it like a rocket a few times.
After a few more cheap shots with a few more snowballs we finally made it to the car to head home. As I was closing his car door, he nonchalantly said in a glee-filled sigh, "That was a fun day!"
My heart melted.
As I tucked him into bed that night I said, "Thanks for going sledding with me." He said in a similar sigh, "That was such a fun day, Mom!"
Be still my heart, kiddo!
Next we stopped at our local library for the first time and explored there for awhile. Liam stocked up on Star Wars picture books and he found a Transformers one too. We also went through all the music CDs and DVDs. We came home with a large pile of borrowed items. The rest of the day he couldn't help but tell people about his haul from the library. We decided we needed to go find a special library bag to fit all our books. We found it and it's huge! It takes up about half Liam's bedroom - okay it's a bit smaller than that.
Once we had our library bag and the books/media safely stocked inside, we headed to the rec. center for Liam's swim lesson. We met Ashley and Liam was pretty cute in the water with her. He wanted to show off all his cool tricks instead of listen 100% of the time. We learned a few tricks to practice at home and hope to get him in a group class soon.
We got home from the pool and took it easy for awhile. Haydee came to visit with me and Liam was so good to let us chat while he went through cover to cover of each of his "new" books. He also got a healthy dose of Indiana Jones on the Playstation.
Fast forward to Wednesday - we had about a foot of snow on the ground that morning (March 9) and I had a feeling it might be our last snow. To make our good-bye easier that morning, I promised him we would go sledding when I picked him up that evening.
I was so glad we retained some of the snow during that warm day. We went down the street to find a sledding hill still covered - whew! He was a bit sad about Daddy still being at work and not having a snowball fight with him... so I surprised him with a few throws and he fed them right back at me with lots of giggles!
I loved playing with him that evening. We truly had a wonderful night together. We even went over a few steps to a playground and put the swings to good use. Swinging in the snow! It was so nice. Then we packed snow on a big metal slide and Liam shot down it like a rocket a few times.
After a few more cheap shots with a few more snowballs we finally made it to the car to head home. As I was closing his car door, he nonchalantly said in a glee-filled sigh, "That was a fun day!"
My heart melted.
As I tucked him into bed that night I said, "Thanks for going sledding with me." He said in a similar sigh, "That was such a fun day, Mom!"
Be still my heart, kiddo!
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Mosaic Artist
Liam got these magnetic mosaic tiles from Grandma B for his birthday. He loves working on projects like this and then showing them off! Great work, Liam!
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Good Moment Report
Yesterday morning I woke up late... it was my own fault, but rushing couldn't be avoided. Liam wasn't ready to wake up and certainly wasn't willing to get dressed himself. When his fit and yelling started, I told him my job was to make him breakfast and his job was to get dressed. Reiterating a rule to an upset kid = no worky. So we had a very upset kiddo and a very persistant mom that needed to rush and get herself dressed.
Thank goodness Ian was home. He went and helped Liam get dressed, but his sour attitude stuck.
I was extremely nervous about taking him to daycare with the attitude he had carried all the way out to the car. Luckily he said good-bye easily once we arrived. I wasn't convinced that his day would be free of negative moments though.
After work I picked him up and everyone was in good spirits with a good report for the entire day. I was overjoyed! Praise from the mom all the way home. What a great kid!
This morning I woke on time, went to Liam's room to start the waking process. Went to the kitchen to make his egg sandwich. Went back to his room to move the waking process along. I whispered that his breakfast was on the table and I needed to go get in the shower. He just needed to get dressed and then go to the table.
I got out of the shower and then went to check on my sleeping babe. To my surprise he actually did what I asked while I was in the shower. Amazing work! I was so happy to see him all dressed and at the table chowing his egg sandwich! Good attitudes carried all the way to the car and he easily said good-bye to me so I could get to work!
We really do have a great kid. It's all about presentation. And sometimes I stink at presentation.
Thank goodness Ian was home. He went and helped Liam get dressed, but his sour attitude stuck.
I was extremely nervous about taking him to daycare with the attitude he had carried all the way out to the car. Luckily he said good-bye easily once we arrived. I wasn't convinced that his day would be free of negative moments though.
After work I picked him up and everyone was in good spirits with a good report for the entire day. I was overjoyed! Praise from the mom all the way home. What a great kid!
This morning I woke on time, went to Liam's room to start the waking process. Went to the kitchen to make his egg sandwich. Went back to his room to move the waking process along. I whispered that his breakfast was on the table and I needed to go get in the shower. He just needed to get dressed and then go to the table.
I got out of the shower and then went to check on my sleeping babe. To my surprise he actually did what I asked while I was in the shower. Amazing work! I was so happy to see him all dressed and at the table chowing his egg sandwich! Good attitudes carried all the way to the car and he easily said good-bye to me so I could get to work!
We really do have a great kid. It's all about presentation. And sometimes I stink at presentation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)