Liam's first trip without me

This morning Liam woke up all excited, with the knowledge that he and daddy were going to visit grandma and grandpa's house. He was so excited that he didn't even want to eat breakfast before the left. So I said goodbye to my guys and the headed off. It was hard for me see him go without me. I was a little maudlin. But the reason that they went on a little adventure without me was so that I could finish writing my dissertation. Two days alone was just what I needed to get the job done. I finished up the last writing and editing Sunday morning! What a relief to have my draft done. I was very excited to have them home Sunday afternoon. We went out to dinner to celebrate.

(written from memory on 3/18/09)

Surrounded by Al'gators

This morning when Liam got up, he came and snuggled in bed with me as he usually does. But this morning, he told me that were surrounded by al'gators. I went along with his make-believe and we pretended that the bed was an island with alligators all around it. He asked me if the alligators had gotten daddy and I told him that daddy was too fast to be eaten by alligators. Then we talked about whether the alligators would get kitty. We decided that kitty was to mean and tough to be eaten and that he would, in fact, eat the alligators so we could get out of bed. It's so fun to play pretend with my little guy. He has such a vivid imagination!

Boats, Bunnies, and Bikes

On Friday, I had to pick up Liam from daycare, but didn't have the carseat. Since the weather wasn't took bad, I biked over to pick him up with the bike trailer. Liam was so excited to see that I came on the bike. Many of the other kids were a little jealous of Liam getting a cool bike ride. On our way home, I stopped by the park to let Liam play for a little bit. He had fun chasing after another little boy about his age.

We had another busy weekend. We spent most of Saturday at the Michigan Lightcraft boat show. It was a lot of fun to dream of kayaking and canoeing (in this cold weather). Liam was a very good boy while we were there. He stayed in his stroller. I let him hold pamphlets and stickers from the vendors.

While daddy was in one of the many talks, Liam and I visited the potty. Then we went over to the Rabbit show that was going on in the other half of the building. The show was free, so we walked around. Liam charmed his way into petting a couple dozen adorable little and giant rabbits.

(written from memory on 3/18/09)

World Day of Prayer

Well, my beautiful calendar (made for me by my mom) tells me that today is "World Day of Prayer". It just so happens, that one of my prayers came true today! I have been awarded a fellowship from the university that will put my financial worries to rest. It has been hard making ends meet while paying for Liam's full time daycare when I'm not working full time. I have to have him in daycare in order to get my dissertation done, so we've been making a lot of sacrifices just to get by. The fellowship doesn't mean that we are on easy street or anything, but it means that I don't have to fret so much over how to put food on the table for the next couple months, and that is huge for us!

Nerdy never looked so cool!

I stumbled upon this awesome Etsy page today. Her artwork is very beautiful and educational.

Flowers and Cars

This weekend was the annual MSU orchid show, which is always one of the highlights of February. My mom came up to see the orchid show too. Sean came home just as we were getting breakfast. He ate and then went to lay down after 20 hours of driving. Before mom and I went to see the flowers, we took Liam to Lowe's for one of the Build and Grow workshops. This week's project was a race car...which we couldn't miss! Liam helped build his car, but had even more fun playing with it when he was done.
The orchid show was lovely as always! It was a welcomed bit of summer here at the end of winter.

(written from memory on 3/18/09)

Second Annual Chocolate Party

Yesterday Sean left for Florida with his parents. He went to help take care of his Uncle's estate and go to the funeral. Unfortunately, it also meant that Sean would miss the Chocolate party that we scheduled man weeks ago. I was a little worried about getting everything ready for the party. But, thankfully, everything went smoothly and our guests arrived to a clean house and the smells of yummy food!

We had quite a crowd - ten adults and five toddlers. The kiddos were so cute. They all wanted to play upstairs in Liam's room. I checked in on them regularly, to make sure there was no mischief. On one of my trips up to his room, Liam and Hannah were sitting in his bed together and Liam was reading Hannah a book!

All the adults had a good time chatting about parenting, work, school, and life in general. Everyone brought yummy chocolate treats too!

(written from memory on 3/18/09)

What a day

What a day. The president signed the stimulus bill. I mailed our taxes and turned in Chapter 8. Ellie rushed to give Liam a hug and bring him some toy trucks when he arrived to daycare out of sorts...what a day!

One rough week

This was a rough week for Liam. He caught a bug at his new daycare and this week it became an ear infection. He had a couple nights of a fever and cough. The poor guy is such a snot machine right now. :(

In spite of all this, he's done pretty well. He played well at his new daycare. Wednesday night Liam and I made some Valentines cards for his classmates. On Thursday they had a little Valentines party, complete with cupcakes. I was surprised to learn, however, that Liam's daycare was not going to be opened today. So Liam got to spend today at Cheri's house with his pal Ben.

Good-bye Uncle Bill.

Last night, Liam's great Uncle Bill passed away. Bill never got to meet Liam and Liam never got to meet Bill, but I know that Liam has one more guardian angel looking out for him now.

Break my Heart

Yesterday Liam broke my heart when he asked to go the Cheri's house instead of school. I told me that he missed playing with Ben. I know that he loves his new school, becuase he often doesn't want to stop playing to come home when I go to pick him up, but he also misses his old daycare.

First day as a shamrock.

Last week Liam said good bye to Cheri's House. Today he started going to preschool at Resurrection Church. It is a different environment from what he was used to a Cheri's house. There are more kiddos and a little more structure. He is actually one of the youngest kids there. Most of the toddlers are 3 years old. There are so many new toys to play with that Liam jumped right in and seemed to be having quite a lot of fun here.

Jolly Green Giant

My mom visited us this weekend for her birthday. We took her to the Hidden Lake Gardens conservatory to take in some lovely green, growing things. Liam had so much fun with Grandma and even more fun running around in the gardens. To my surprise, Liam wanted to use the potty while we were at the gardens. He used the potty successfully, and then continued to use the potty the rest of the weekend! :)

(written from memory on 3/18/09)

Phrase of the day...

"I DO IT". Yes, he's only 2 and he's already mastered the phrase "I DO IT!" So today, Liam washed his own face and lathered his hair in the tub. He clipped his own finger nails (with mommy tensely watching). He got out his own plate for breakfast. What a big little boy he has become!

This Little Piggy

Overall, this weekend was very trying. It was a combination of me being tired and a little sick and Liam being, well, a toddler...tantrums and all. But with all it's ups and downs, Liam made up for it this evening when he took my hand and started doing the "Little Piggies" poem on my fingers. I didn't really get what he was doing until he got to "wee-wee-wee all the way home". I started to laugh and told him he did a good job. Then we each did "piggies" on each others hands for a while. He is such a clever boy!

A kindred spirit...

Today I found this blog about making crafts from recycled items. This is also one of my pastimes, so I had to share!

Dinosaur Say Roar!

This weekend we visited two museums. Yesterday, we went to Impression 5 Science museum with Alissa and Ashtyn. Today, we decided to go someplace new. We took Liam to the Nautral History museum on the MSU campus. It is a small museum, with modest collections...but the displays are pretty nice. I told Liam that we were going to see Dinosaurs. He got very excited and said "dinosaur say ROAR!" He had fun going through the galleries on the first floor. Then we headed up to see the dino bones on the third floor. But the huge skeletons were a bit frightening to Liam and he wanted daddy to carry him. He told us that the dinosaurs were "scary". I told him that the Triceratops was a plant eater, like cows...thinking that this might make them seem a little more friendly. But he told us "that scary cow". Well, so much for that. :/

We did spend a little more time there and looked at the animal dioramas. At the gift shop, Liam picked out several tiny plastic animals: 3 dinos, horse, and lion. Then we walked over to look at the clock tower. The sun was peaking through clouds and the campus was quite lovely. Liam and I raced each other on the snowy sidewalks. It was a nice outing and we all had a lot of fun!

Think of the Children

In an effort to improve safety for children's products, our legislators have introduced the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Unfortunately, this act goes too far. If enacted, it will hurt our economy, create more waste, and more importantly it will significantly affect my pocketbook!

Please see my sister's wonderful post on the matter. She says everything more eloquently that I can and has many great links on the subject: http://fireinthewind.squarespace.com/ranting/2009/1/9/think-of-the-children.html

The Cat Returns

Tonight we watched Hayao Miyazaki's film, The Cat Returns. This is one of Liam's favorite films, mostly because of all the kitties! This interest in cats is because, Liam and our family pet, Dozer, have become inseparable. Even though they didn't get alone too well initially, Liam and Dozer are the best of friends now. Liam is obsessed with watching Dozer, feeding Dozer, playing with Dozer, chasing Dozer, and even naps with Dozer. Liam also has fun sometimes pretending to be a cat with Dozer. :)

Horsey New Year!

Yes, you read that right....Horsey New Year! Since we didn't get out of the house yesterday, we were all pretty stir-crazy today. But everything was pretty much closed today. So we decided to treat Liam to a trip to the MSU horse farm. It was opened today and more importantly, it was free! The frigged weather prevented us from staying outside too long. Luckily the stables were open, so we visited horses and barn cats inside. Liam loved to visit each of the horses. We learned from one of the students working there that some of the horses were kept inside because their had been shaved for ultrasounds and it was too cold for them outdoors now that they were missing so much fur. There were also two very friendly barn cats in the stable. One of them liked Liam so much that he followed Liam around. Liam had so much fun that he didn't want to leave.

Unfortunately for mommy and daddy, Liam fell asleep briefly in the car on the drive home. This meant that he wouldn't lay back down and nap once we returned home. Liam was pretty crabby this evening and fell asleep in my arms at around 6:30pm. Even with Liam not taking a nap, I managed to be quite creative today. I resurrected my long-dormant silk-painting skills to paint two orchid paintings. Why orchids, you ask? Well, every February Sean and I enter orchid-themed artwork in a local orchid show. Today's paintings will hopefully be good enough to use for this year's show.