Liam

Cutest thing ever? I've been instructed by the boss (Danielle) to update the blog with this little tidbit -

Liam has spent a part of this morning sitting with his little brother and 'reading' to him. He flips through the book and names the pictures for Aedan. What a good big brother he's turning into...

Poor little sicko. The wife has just informed me that Liam's sick (again). The whole family has this stomach bug that's just going around, and around, and around. Oy. Projectile vomiting - yay! I should know, I had it Saturday night. I honestly thought that I had food poisoning - unfortunately for the rest of the family, I didn't - and now they're getting sick.

Other than that, Liam is doing great - talking up a storm, and really getting into this whole communication thing. I think that he's very happy that he can get ideas across to us with increasing regularity. He loves music, and dancing - anything from techno, to the classics (Beatles, Iron Butterfly, etc...). His (and Aedan's) favorite is still the Bloodhound Gang, though (good bouncy tunes like "Relax, you're asleep at the wheel").

He absolutely loves going to "school" (daycare) at the YMCA while Mommy works out. If it's a day where we're not going to the Y, he positively sulks and requests "Mommy car!" and "School!" Nevermind that fact that once he gets there he may very well excape from the playground, and wander around the Y while the daycare folks go ape-shit looking for him.

He does enjoy pushing the limits; he's in Time Out at least 10 to 126 times a day. He has a very real problem with the concept of "no", I think. We're still trying to figure out how to deal with and combat this 'deficiency'. The rest of the time though, he's simply a joy; full of energy, fun, life, curiosity, and just generally a wonderful pain in the ass.

I'm not sure why I chose to post this picture of Liam... it could be that Mommy decided to have a bit of fun with the bathtime Crayons, but then it might also be because Liam looks like he might be blowing bubbles.... Enjoy!

 

~Cheers!

Wow. Liam and I just left the Superbowl shendig at Joe's. We both had an absolute blast. I can't say it often or loudly enough; Our circle of friends is simply amazing. There were at least 7 "aunts" and "uncles" there that helped herd and look after Liam, most of whom we consider family. Liam adores and trusts them all (with the possible sole exception of Chris, who means well, but just seems to take inordinate pleasure in being that uncle).

I also can't say this enough... What a fantastic kid Liam is. Precocious, outgoing, tough, smart, and curious (to a fault). It took him a few minutes to get into it, but after he did, he spent more than 45 minutes upstairs dancing to techno in Joe's darkened computer room, and when I say dancing, I mean that that kid was going nutz. All out dancing, jumping, and waving the American flag that someone thought it would be funny to give him.

Could Not Be Prouder

Went to the mall yesterday (Sunday) to expose the children to as many viruses as possible before the holidays. umm.... see Santa Claus. The fact that Liam (much less Aedan) has no clue what's going on, who Santa Claus is, that Christmas is right around the corner, or even what Christmas is was absolutely no deterrent to my lovely wife or the kids paternal grandmother.

So… we waited in line for what seemed like an hour. It seemed like an hour because it was, in fact, an hour. Actually, it wasn’t all that bad. The wait wasn’t quite as long as I thought that it would be, Liam had a blast going up and down the escalator – over, and over, and over again, and Aedan fell asleep and had a good 30 or 45 minutes nap.

In the end, we ended up with a few good shots of the kids on Santa’s lap – Out of guilt, we did end up paying 15.99 for a couple of wallet size pictures and a 3x5, even though I was right there with my dSLR, clicking away. I’m guessing that the malls don’t pay Santa anymore, and he’s getting paid by the company that does the photography. It’s still a racket, but god knows the man’s a Saint (no pun intended) for letting these brats climb all over him all day long.

Liam, as you can probably tell from the picture, had just about had enough, and Aedan, as chubby as ever, probably caused Santa sciatica to act up (if you look closely, you can see that Aedan had burst out of his jeans - top and bottom), but Santa was unflappable.

:-D

Scarlet. It's one of those words that, if I look at it too long (in this case, 20 seconds was too long), I get a minor case of dyslexia.... you know? Where the word just looks wrong.

Scarlet...Scarlet... Scarlet... ScarlŧŤ...Scarlȩŧţ...ScaŗГȩŧţ...ێḈḁŗГȩŧţ... ฏۀᾮᾐ№₫⅛.

So... Liam has the Scarlet Fever, and no, he's not crazy about Miss O'Hara in Gone With the Wind... He's picked up Strep throat somewhere, which (in children) can cause vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, sore throat, rash (and probably more). So. He has had all of those symptoms over the course of the past week, and is finally starting to feel better since I had the doctor stick a needle full of antibiotics in his leg on Sunday.

	Liam had his two year birthday party on December the 1st. Wanna know what else he had? Too much cake and soda, soon followed by an upset stomach, nightmares, and waking up 3 or 4 times during the night. December the 2nd sucked for me. No sleep.
But anyway - Liam had a blast; we had about 25 folks over for pizza, and everyone had a great time. See PICS - <<click here>>	Liam, playing with Liam

 

 

 

Mommy shows Liam his Elmo-Car-Cake. Check out
www.edibleincredible.net for details on the cake...

 

So... I took Liam to the Park yesterday (Lake Lynn recreation area or whatever it is) to go for a walk. Bbefore we embarked on our walk, however, we (Liam) decided to stop off at the play area to go down the slides and play with the other kids. The "other kids" consisted of all girls, all his age or less. One particular little girl was very small (I'm guessing just over 1 year), and a bit timid. I wasn't surprised to see Liam run up to her, full steam, apply the brakes and give her the absolute gentlest of hugs (amidst many "awwwww's")... what happened a few minutes later did take me by surprise.

4 girls and Liam. (Dear Penthouse Letters, I never thought that this would happen to me....). 2 girls were a bit bigger than Liam, 1 the same size, and the lilliputian that he had hugged a few moments earlier. Apparently the Hive Mind took over, and all 5 kids decided to attack the same slide at the same time. Once they all got to the top (loading ramp? Is there a name for this area??) of the slide, there was much hemming and hawing (c'mon - 4 girls, right?) and no one seemed to have any clue who should go next. It never got to the point of pushing, but there was posturing galore.

So... This is what surprised me. I was 1.2 syllables into the sentence "Liam, wait your turn." (if you're counting, 1.2 syllables would be "Liam," (no, it would not be "Liam, w" because pauses count as syllables.)(Yes, yes they do)). If you had trouble following this aside, please see the footnotes in the appendices of the foreword.

Ok, where was I? Ah, yes. This is what surprised me. I was 1.2 syllables into the sentence "Liam, wait your turn" when I saw him pinpoint the lilliputian, pull her from the fray, gently walked her to the slide, and then stood back as if to say, "After you madam...". It was the damned cutest thing that I have ever seen - but it wasn't over. Once the smallest of them had gone down the slide, Liam returned to the fray to retrieve another of the quibblers, and repeated the previous actions. The last two girls sorted themselves out, with Liam waiting patiently for them to go. After everyone else had gone, Liam partook of the slide.

I'm giving him a box of condoms when he turns 6.

~Dear Penthouse Letters,

I never thought that this would happen to me, but I ran into 4 hotties at the slide today.... And I was a perfect gentleman.

 Any one else getting a Mick Jagger vibe here? Liam turned rock star after a haircut from Mommy. He's actually gotten to the point that he'll sit fairly still for the first few minutes of a haircut. After that, it's anyone's guess how long he lasts until he gets cut. I don't think that she's actually nicked him yet, but as antsy as that kid gets, it's only a matter of time...

Liam's vocabulary and speaking skills are growing by leaps and bounds, daily. He's using phrases regularly now - "go walk", "I do it", etc... He recognizes the entire alphabet, although he can't say it on his own yet, he'll say it along with the kids on Sesame Street. When we go for walks, I'll ask him to point out letters on street signs, the sign at the entrance of the aparment complex up the road, etc... and he'll pretty much nail each letter I give him.

Another landmark - he's not afraid of the big kid slides at the park up the road anymore. Mommy usually goes to the top of the slide with him and then slides down with him, but Daddy's almost too big to fit on the slide at all. So.... I let him do it himself. He absolutely loved it. He went back up immediately and did it again. 7 or 8 times, in fact... Yelling "Wheeeee!!!!" all the way down....

^end^

The Pre-Liam entries, PreNatal Peek Pictures, etc. are now located HERE!

It's about time, huh? Master Liam is almost 2 years old (in about a month). It's time to start planning for his 2nd b-day party, I guess. He's running, jumping, talking (although we still don't understand 80% of what he's saying). We're working with him on his diction and vocabulary, and he's making good progress.
He's still being a great big brother, helping out with feeding, changing and torturing Aedan. He sees Mommy and Daddy do something, like wipe Aedan's mouth after a feeding and does it for us now. He's helped out quite a few times by actually holding the bottle for Aedan!

The T-two's are starting though. If Liam doesn't get his way, it's often tantrum time - crying and moping only, so far though - the screaming hasn't started yet. It doesn't last long - just long enough to be annoying - but it's offset by how helpful, cute, sweet, loving, mischievous and altogether wonderful he is the rest of the time.