Inspiration

I'm always on the look out for good ideas for activities to do with Liam. This gal's blog is quite inspiring!

Are You Alright?

This morning Liam and Daddy had some quality time while I worked at the greenhouse. They went to the MSU Horse Barns, they got a tasty doughnut treat, and then Liam found two horse toys at a yard sale. Later in the morning, they came to visit me at the garden. Liam got to play on the playground with daddy until I finished up my work.

When we came home, Liam played in the backyard by himself for a while. Sean and I were just inside in the kitchen and could hear him playing. He moved all the deck chairs together to form a train. I told him that he should get some of his animal friends to ride the train with him. He came in to get his stuffed puppy, dinosaur, and his favorite elephant. They rode on the train together for a while, and then Liam arranged a train wreck. He Went around asking all his animals, "Are you alright?" And then answering "I alright" or "I think so" for them in different pretend voices. It was so cute to watch him using his imagination and pretending.

This evening, he asked me to lay in his bed with him at bedtime. We snuggled for a few minutes and talked about his day. I rubbed his back and tummy to help him relax. We also talked about the possibility of visiting with or friends Ashtyn and Alissa tomorrow. When I asked him what he wanted to do with Ashtyn he said, "I play on little bikes with Ashtyn at home. I want to." It's so nice to have actual conversations with my son...he's growing up so fast!

Unsolicited Parenting Advice

Why is it that everyone Joe or Jane on the street feels they have a right to tell you how to parent your child?!? In the past two weeks, I have gotten a ton of unsolicited and rather annoying advice from perfect strangers. Everyone wants to tell me that there is something wrong with my kid: he's hyper, he has sensory issues, he needs a speech therapist. For crying out loud people, he's not even three years old yet!

I have a very hard time believing that any of these so-called conditions can be diagnosed at this young age. Maybe he's just stubborn and bull-headed like the rest of his family. Maybe he's extremely intelligent and knows what he wants, which makes him harder than most kids to "control". I think we've become a nation of hypochondriacs. Every child that doesn't fit into some limiting and rather boring mold is suddenly labeled deviant or defective - you'd better medicate that kid!

Sorry for the rant, I've just had it up to here with total strangers telling me that my kid needs and "evaluation" for some condition.

Manitou Meanderings & Making Friends

Today is my least favorite day of the year. This afternoon, I took Liam to the park in order to escape thoughts of my deceased father. It was a lovely sunny day. At the park, there was a large family with a little boy who was probably 3.5 or 4 years old. He was the same size as Liam. He asked Liam, "what is your name?" He followed Liam around asking over and over. I could tell Liam was worried, he came over to me and said, "what name?" I told him, "it's ok, you can tell him your name is Liam and then ask him his name." He ran off happily and told the boy his name. Liam came back and reported that the boys name was Tim. Then he went back to play with Tim. It was very cute to see Liam learning how to socialize with new kids. They played on the jungle gym for a while, until Tim's family left.

After that, Liam and I played. He pretended that the gym was a sailboat. We sailed off to dinosaur land and then went to meet the dinosaurs. I am so grateful for the wonderful imagination of childhood!
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Last week we took our vacation to South Manitou Island, off the NW coast of Michigan near Sleeping Bear Dunes. Liam was actually pretty good for the week. He enjoyed camping, paddling, and hiking. While hiking, we pretended we were trains - he was Thomas and I was the coach Clarabelle. Liam splashed in the water and looked for pretty rocks along the shore. Liam also got to climb up a 100+ foot lighthouse, twice! It was a lot of fun for all of us, but also very exhausting! See my flicker page for photos of our adventures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archymommy/sets/72157621739868164/

Full Circle

Yesterday and today, Liam and I picked snow peas in my garden together. I have many fond memories of doing the same with my mother, when I was just a toddler. Tonight we had fresh snow peas with our fried rice, yum!

I spy something...

So this evening while Liam was on the potty, Daddy started playing games with Liam to pass the time. First they made up stories together. Then they started playing "I spy". Daddy went through a number of colors: yellow was a rubber ducky, green was daddy's shirt, brown the kitty cat, and so on. Eventually he got to the color white, and Liam responded with utmost glee "My Penis!". Needless to say, Sean and I were nearly rolling on the floor with laughter!

In typical toddler fashion, Liam is quite obsessed with his male anatomy right now. I suppose it comes along with potty training. Which, by the way, has been going great. He's pretty much worn underwear for the past three weeks. I put him in diapers only at bed time, but he usually wakes up dry. I am very pleased that he has finally decided to use the potty consistently! It's so nice not to have to wash diapers all the time, or paid for disposables.

The cat puked in my fishtank, true story...

After a long, but fun day driving to Portland, dropping of some bikes for repair, stopping by a few geocaches, visiting Jamie and (Liam) playing on the farm, then delivering milk to friends in Lansing, we came home to notice a rather bad odor in the house. At first I couldn't figure it out. I sniffed around in the kitchen, removed some old produce from the frig and took out a small trash bag, but still the smell lingered. An hour or so later, I happened to walk by the fish tank, when I noticed...well, you know. It was totally gross and ended up ruining my evening, and Sean's too once he got home. We had to totally tear down the tank and scrub it clean. I suppose the plus side is that none of the fish have died and now the tank is nice and clean.