Welcome to 2010

I'm still up. Not celebrating, but bogged down with a silly project of mine. For the past couple years now I have been trying to really simplify my life and get rid of stuff! This also includes all the silly memorabilia from my childhood. Because I am a sentimentalist at heart, I feel like I have to preserve some of it however, so I am scanning artwork, cards, and certificates. I just finished all my stuff from elementary school. I still have 80% of a huge file box to scan however...it will have to be enough for now, because I am going to bed.

It's a wrap!

Can't believe that it's New Year's even already! I've been so terrible at keeping up with the blog this year. Liam has grown in so many ways and is such an amazing little boy! This Monday he climbed in bed with my after his daddy got up to get ready for work. He told me, "Mommy, you're my best friend." Then he also said that kitty and daddy and Kensie (a girl in his preschool class) were also all his "best" friends. He is so sweet!

Today we all went to visit the Air Zoo again. This time we started at the space exhibits. Liam was so excited he kept running from display to display. In the WWII exhibits, we all got to go inside a bomber and Liam sat in a cockpit of a fighter jet. It was a fun day and a great way to end the year.

Story Time

It makes me so happy that Liam has an overwhelming love of reading. At nap time and in the morning, he loves to pull all the 200+ books off his shelf and "read" through many of them. Despite the mess it makes, I am pleased that he loves his books. Not only does he love to be read to be us and his teachers, lately he also likes to tell stories of his own or pretends to "read" a book to us from what he remembers or sees in the picture. Tonight he read The Little Engine that Could. It is so sweet and precious! He also has started asking me what the words say on signs or subtitles on the TV. Hopefully he will keep up this curiosity and interest in words and reading....of course he still has to master his letters before we get too carried away. ;)

A Train Load of Fun

Today we treated Liam to a ride on a steam engine. This is a holiday tradition we started last year. This time my mom and Sean's parents were able to join us. I like giving Liam rich memories, rather than more stuff for Christmas. Here are some photos from our adventure...

Talkin' with Santa

Friday evening was our cities annual winter festivities. We didn't have time to participate in everything, but we did go to the city market, where Santa and Mrs. Clause meet the kiddos. We've taken Liam to this event on several occasions, but he was always afraid of Santa. But this year, to our surprise, Liam was so excited to see Santa and he ran right up to meet him. He even talked to Santa and told him what he wanted for Christmas!

My Sunshine

This has been one crazy week! I'll start with the happy news that we are expected another kiddo, due in June! I am only 6 weeks pregnant. We were planning on keeping this news secrete till Thanksgiving, so we could announce it to our families. But of course, fate had different expectations. Tuesday morning, while teaching in front of 35 students, I started hemorrhaging! I dismissed class and quickly drove myself to the ER. After a torturous day of tests and procedures in the hospital, we were no closer to knowing whether or not I had lost the baby. I was told to go home and rest and wait for another round of blood tests on Thursday. Meanwhile, we called the family to let them know what had transpired.

My in laws, who are retired, came up to watch Liam for me. They decided to take him home with them for a couple days, so I could rest. While I was sad to see him go, I knew it was for the best. My mother happened to have Wednesday off from work, so she came to keep me company, make sure I stayed off my feet, and keep me fed.

Thursday morning was tense. I canceled my class so that I could get my blood test and continue resting. I decided, however, that I should teach my afternoon class, so it would not be behind. I managed to make it through an hour and half lecture, then quickly checked my phone for messages from my OB's office. Sure enough, there was a message...to call them! So I called and waited for the nurse. She told me that it was good news, my Hcg (pregnancy hormone) levels had doubled and that I was still pregnant. She told me to take things ease and rest as much as I could. We also scheduled an ultrasound for Monday, to check on the baby and look for a heartbeat. What a relief!

Friday, Liam came home. It was so good to see him, I really missed my little guy! His grandma and grandpa said that he was a good boy while he visited them. He came home with a nice haircut. They took us out to dinner before going home.

This morning we attempted to get Liam and I vaccinated for H1N1 at the county clinic. We arrived a half hour early to find that there was a line of more than 500 people around the building. We waited in the cold rain for a while, but decided it wasn't worth it. We attempted the clinic again around noon and were able to walk straight in! So that is one less thing I have to worry about now. I only wish that we could have gotten Sean vaccinated too.

Liam is napping now, but when he wakes, I want to carve some pumpkins!

Dino Dasher

Liam ran his first official race today! It was only about 200yards, but it was still a race. He was the fastest in his age group (1-3)! Although, he was disappointed when all the kids 'won' medals and didn't think his medal was special. :( Pictures will eventually be posted on flickr, for family. Stay tuned...

"I love you mommy."

I never get tired of hearing those words, no matter how many times he says it in a day! Liam has learned how to share his appreciation and love. In the past couple weeks he will frequently tell Sean and I that he likes us or loves us. It is so sweet to hear those words in his little toddler voice.

Snakes and Snails and Puppy-dog tails

It has been declared that Liam is 100% boy! His fascination with all things icky has really become a passion. He spent most of the weekend finding bugs, collecting worms, and petting frogs and caterpillars.

Dancing with Fireflies

Last night I let Liam stay up late and go outside to explore the world at dusk. We watched the bats chattering and flying in the sky. I told Liam how they ate the bad mosquitoes for us. Then we started looking for lightening bugs to put in his bug box. We looked all around the back yard and caught quite a few. Someone in the neighborhood was setting off fireworks. We walked down the street to see, stopping to talk to neighbors along the way. Liam had to show them his collection of blinking fireflies. It was starting to get dark, so we went back to the backyard and sat at the table to watch the lightening bugs. When the mosquitoes started biting, we opened the box and watched the bugs climb out one by one. It was hard to say goodbye, but I told Liam we could catch them again another night.

PS - I gave Liam a haircut yesterday. It came out pretty good!

I'm the mother of a 3 year old!

Two days ago we celebrated Liam's third birthday with friends and family. Since Liam's current passion is dinosaurs, we had a dino themed party - complete with a dino cake and all! I think everyone had a good time, including Liam. He was spoiled by many great toys: legos, books, and even a dino-car toy!

On his birthday we went to the local science museum, where he played for several hours. It's hard to believe that three years have flown by already. He is such a big boy and has grown into a little person of his own. He's nearly 39 inches tall and weighs about 35 pounds. He talks quite a lot now - sometimes in whole paragraphs. One of his favorite pastimes is singing. He sings about cars and dinosaurs, as well as the usual childhood tunes. All summer he sung Happy Birthday to all his friends and toys. He was all ready when his own birthday came. :)

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.

Bountiful Birthdays

No, it's not Liam's birthday yet, but several of my friends little girls turned three in the past week. Last Sunday we went up to St. Johns for Hannah's birthday. Liam was fairly well behaved through it all. The only difficulty seemed that he wanted to be outside when we were inside and vis versa, so we were constantly chasing after him.

Liam has been signing the Happy Birthday since March, when several kiddos had birthdays at his preschool. So he was very excited to sign for Hannah's party and did so with gusto!

Tomorrow is Ashtyn's birthday. She is having a bug-themed party...I have to fill you in on what happens another time.

As for the rest of the week, Liam and I were quite busy. This week's theme is farming. So we visited the MSU farm: horses, sheep, and cows. Another day we visited the children's garden on campus. We met up with some friends for lunch and play time. While we were there, they started up the model train that runs through the garden. Liam really enjoyed that part. He also enjoyed playing in the dinosaur garden.

The weather was quite hot on Wednesday, so I took Liam to the splash pad at the local park. He had fun at first, but then was reluctant to get splashed. I put on my suit and made sure he got good and wet with me. ;)

PS - I'll probably jinks myself for posting this, but Liam has been using the potty reliably nearly all week. In fact, he asks me to use the potty and has worn underwear instead of diapers for the last 4 days. The only time he wears a diaper is at night, and he wakes up dry. I am really hoping that this is finally it! He is definitely ready and now seems to take an active role in using the potty.

Liam Returns

Liam returned with his grandparents yesterday. He reportedly had a great time and was fairly well behaved. The highlight of his trip was getting to drive the little John Deere tractor that his grandparents gave him. Their yard is nice and big, so he had plenty of room to drive around. He also helped grandpa pick up sticks in the yard using the tractor's trailer.

Grandma also spoiled Liam with a swimming pool and sand box. Liam had fun splashing about and getting sandy. One evening, Liam's other grandma, his uncle, and his aunt all came to dinner. Liam was the center of attention and ate it up! What little boy could ask for more?!

Thanks grandma and grandpa for a great time!