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!

Merry Christmas 2010

He made the nice list!

And here are some holiday illustrations by our in-house artist.

Frosty with his leprican leaf hat (clover).

And a decorated tree with lights!

Yes, Butterflies in December

See this? Liam made this for me a week or two ago. How sweet is this? I'd say very!



Update: Ian informed me after he saw this post that these butterflies were made for him. Liam had drawn the first one and then was told that he had 10 more minutes before bedtime to do 10 butterflies. That explains why his handiwork loses quality towards the end.

Remembering the Good

So, it's been a rough week. Liam has reached a point in his life where he can't control his impulses and anger to the extreme where those around him are getting hurt. I am praying that this next week proves he can handle this new school and his new peers. I hope he treats his teachers with respect. I hope he makes a really special friend.

Every fiber of my body wants him to be happy. So happy that we find him being resilient and easy going once again. We'll continue to dwell on the good moments rather than the sad ones until this phase passes. It's all we can do other than restating how wonderful he is and how much we love him.

A close friend of mine (Jessica) was bursting with mother pride on Friday as she told me about her daughter's first successful dance recital. Her glee and excitement reminded me of my own pride just last month.

I was with my friend Danell and her children at an indoor amusement park for kids. Liam wanted to go on a ride that is much like a roller coaster that goes around in a circle at a high speed then stops and does the same thing backwards.

He hopped on. The ride started. He put those strong arms up in the air and smiled the cutest smile! I stood on the sidelines cheering my unashamed brains out! I was so excited that he was the only kid on that ride unafraid. I couldn't stop screaming and cheering him on!

I was beyond proud! He is going to be my roller coaster buddy one day soon. And what a cool thing that is for me to realize. Pure joy in the thought.

Heard in the backseat of our car

Liam: "You know, Pirates sleep with one eye open."

Me: "That's right! They have to watch out because they are naughty."

Liam: "I'm stronger than a pirate. I am a really stong little boy!"



Liam: "Guess what, Mom!"

Me: "What Liam?"

Liam: "Santa was peeking into my classroom today and waved at me."

Me: "Wow, you are so lucky. He's really busy you know. Did anyone else see Santa peeking in?"

Liam: "No, just me. Nobody else could see him!"

A Frankly Put Update

So last Saturday I needed to work and Ian had a game he was going to with Drew. We arranged for our newest friend and neighbor, Haydee to watch Liam while we were both away. 90 minutes after Ian dropped off Liam, Haydee called me to say Liam said he didn't feel well and she said he had a temperature.

Figures. We send him off to a new person and hope it's a positive experience for all and we actually put an illness in her home which houses three boys and a husband.

Ends up I couldn't leave work as a few people had called in sick that day, so Ian had to leave his game early to pick up Liam. He also took it upon himself to take him to the Express Care Clinic to see what was going on. Since Liam had a cough, they chalked it up to a croup virus going around because his lungs and ears were clear... The PA gave him a 5 day dose of a liquid steroid for some reason... we later found out that was useless.

Saturday night was sad. Sunday was sad... though we did go to sacrament meeting and Liam actually slept through that. He was obviously not himself. Sunday night was sad.

Monday I stayed home from work with him all day. We did perler bead projects, watched movies when he needed a rest, played Memory, etc. He rested a lot. He was really sick. Monday night was sad.

Tuesday wasn't any better. Ian took the morning Liam shift and I took the afternoon. That night Ian gave him a blessing.

Hoping and praying for a miracle, I took him to school Wednesday morning around 10am. It took a lot of coaxing. Early that morning Grandma Dixie talked to him on the phone and he committed to getting dressed. Once the major morning flem had passed, I drove him to school. He did well. I didn't get a phone call. He fell asleep around 6:30 that night.

Thursday Liam went to school, but I got a call around noon and was informed that he had another fever and actually said he didn't feel well. I picked him up and he looked horrible. I've never seen a kid look that wiped out and physically ill in the face. He progressively looked better as the afternoon went on. We decided to go out to eat for dinner since he seemed more bouncy. He fell asleep not two minutes into our ride and we thought he'd wake when we carried him into the restaurant. No dice. He slept on the seat of the booth through our whole meal. We took the sleepy child with us on a drive and then decided we better check him out again before we send him to school Friday. He slept all the way to the Express Care and barely came to for his quick exam. It was a sad and funny sight with him that groggy. We were again told that his ears and lungs were clear.

Friday I dropped him off at school with the promise that his dad would pick him up in a couple hours. Ian did so and I am glad he was able to. Liam seemed worse than ever. He had coughed more the night before than the entire week combined. He was exhausted. Ian said he fell asleep on the living room floor and he had to transfer him to his bed... then he slept for 2 hours! I got home from work and we took him to a real doctor's office.

The physician said Liam had an ear infection and gave us a prescription for an antibiotic. He was concerned about Liam's nightly coughing fits and was happy to give us a stronger cough syrup with a narcotic in it. He informed us that the steroid he was prescribed on Saturday was a complete mistake, but didn't do any harm either. He enlightened us on the fact that Liam's allergy medication, Singulair that he takes every day is probably doing him no good. All in all, we learned a lot and I felt like a crummy parent.

Friday night was quiet and not sad.

Saturday morning we had a new boy. He slept until almost 9am.

Sunday morning, same story... we had a pretty healthy boy with a lot less coughing.

He wanted to go to church. I was so happy to take him for all three meetings.

Slumber

It amazes me that a boy 5 years of age, still looks like a newborn when he is sleeping. I found this old photo tonight that Skye Johansen took of my baby. I love that sleepy face.

Candid Perfection

Last night I ordered a 16 x 24 canvas print of this darling photo. It's so fun I can provide myself with professional looking photos these days. Really fun!

He's got energy

As wonderful as he is... he has energy to spare... and he really wears us out!


Photo taken October 24, 2010

First Sledding of the Season

Sugarhouse Park, UT

Friends in Town

My wonderful friend Danell brought her two children to Utah for a visit last week. She needed to get a big trip in before she has baby Claire next month. I used to go down to Arizona to visit her now and then before I had Liam... then she moved to Atlanta and we both had our first babies. We have talked on the phone about twice a week ever since. She is one of my closest friends even though we are so many miles apart.

We spent a fun weekend together. Here are some highlights.

Sammy was pretty dang shy at first.

We took the children to a local indoor amusement park. After riding rides for a bit, we took a lunch break at the delicious Marie Callendar's and then went back for more amusement.

The children had a lot of fun at Jungle Jim's in Midvale.

After a long day of fun, we got the bathing done and put the short people to bed. After they were really asleep, Danell and I went out to run a couple errands and enjoy some one-on-one time without children. We came home and logged onto hulu.com and played SNL skit after SNL skit and laughed our heads off! It was an awesome evening.

Sunday morning we went to church and then came home for a bite to eat. We went outside to get some photos of Sam and Emma.

Then it was time to say good-bye. It's not fun seeing one of your best friends and her well behaved children drive away. I hope after they get moved to Hawaii in February that we can start planning a trip to go see them!

My beautiful Danell in her 8 month pregnant glory!