Happy Birthday Daddy!

This Monday the 29th was Sean's birthday. It also happened to be the day that the contractor came to build our new shed. Sean was so excited. He stayed home from work and watched them build it. Here he is with Liam once it was done. The shed came with primer on it, but we will have to painted it some time this fall or next spring. Now Sean has his "man hut" where he can store his goodies and go work on projects.

Boo at the Zoo

This afternoon, Liam and I joined our friends Alissa and Ashtyn for the Boo at the Zoo event. It was beautiful and sunny and a little bit chilly...the perfect October day. Liam wore his Luke Skywalker costume again, since it seems to be his favorite.

I also managed to cobble together the rest of my Princess Leia costume. I stuffed brown pantyhose with batting and then stitched them into buns. Then I sewed the faux hair onto a cap I made from an old brown t-shirt. You can see the results...it was highly entertaining! You should have seen the looks I got at the zoo, not to mention in the car on the way there!

We spent most of our time in the farm area. Liam wanted to feed the goats his candy. I somehow don't think tootsie rolls are part of their approved diet.

After the zoo, Liam and I took daddy out for his pre-birthday dinner. We went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and had quite a feast...dim sum and all!

Liam's Playspaces

About a month ago I ran across a great thread on Mothering.com about play spaces for your little ones. It got me thinking about what I wanted to do for Liam in our new house. We went from around 700 sqft to 1200 sqft, so we finally had room enough to give him places to play throughout the house. He has a place to play in nearly every room. His bedroom has this great overhang that makes a natural play space. We found a cute "road map" rug at IKEA that perfectly fit the space and then added cubbies from an auction and a shelf that we salvaged. I still want to paint clouds on the walls and hang some curtains to really enclose the play area and make it more fun.

Our dinning room is quite big (compared to the 8 by 10 ft one we had in the old place), so I made a play/reading nook for Liam in one corner. He has a bookshelf with toys and plenty of soft and board books to look at. There is a little rug for him to sit on and a rocking chair to cuddle in.






In the living room Liam has several baskets of toys under the couch. He can pulls these out any time. It's also a great place to store his toy truck and pound-a-peg toy. The baskets make picking up really easy...so easy that even Liam will help sometimes!

Our office is fascinating to Liam, but can be a dangerous place too. I made another reading/play nook on this small futon. He has his own basket of books here too.

Once I finish his play kitchen Liam will also have a place to play in there as well. Hopefully I can get that project done before Christmas. I am also making play food out of felt and fabric scraps.

Haunted Housewarming Party

Today was quite a busy day for Liam. This morning we prepared for our housewarming party. Then grandma Bev and grandpa John stopped by for a short time in the afternoon. Liam had just woken from a nap and was a little timid at first, but then was very happy to see grandma and grandpa. They took this picture of us in our party costumes.

Before we knew it our guests started arriving. Many of our friends with toddlers came. I think at one point there were eight toddlers wreaking havoc on the house! But everyone and everything survived. Our elderly neighbors to the south of us had fun watching the little ones run around...I think it was the most fun then had in years! Many of Sean's friends from work also came. It was definitely a FULL house and lots of fun! Everyone brought such good food too! Here are a few pictures of the festivities. We had a monkey, prairie girls, a clown, super man, pippi longstocking, a pirate, and even Aurthur Dent.

The Force is strong in this one.

Today while at a playgroup at the Library I heard about a trick-or-treating event in downtown East Lansing this evening. So I quickly put the finishing touches on Liam's Luke Skywalker costume and we all went out for some fun.

I was a little worried that the costume wouldn't come off very well...especially since I only invested $1 into the making of it. I used a shirt I bought at the thrift store, which I cut open and then sewed a new collar into using scraps from an old t-shirt. Then Liam wore a cream pair of fleece pants and carried Sean's toy light-saber. We got SO many compliments for the costume. Plus it helps that he is such a ham! It was gratifying to hear people laugh and remark at how cute Liam looked toddling around with his light-saber in hand. (If only I had gotten together my Leia costume!)

Liam really got into trick-or-treating. After stopping at a couple places, he quickly understood how things worked. He would get all excited and run up to the next store and even try to bypass the line of kids because he was small enough to get around them. He was VERY possessive of his bag of goodies, even though he didn't know what he was getting, he knew that they were his.

Chilly Man

Tuesday night I made chilly for dinner. Liam REALLY liked it! He gobbled it down like there was no tomorrow. He even managed to eat some of the chilly off of a spoon instead of just shoveling it into his mouth with his hands (like in the picture). He has started getting much better hand-eye coordination.

Liam liked the chilly so much that I gave him the leftovers for dinner on Wednesday night. The only drawback is that chilly makes for really icky diapers...and I mean Icky!

Critters in my pants!

Last night, as I was getting ready for work, Liam came to see me with all these critters in his pants. I just couldn't stop laughing. Daddy put them there of course, but Liam thought it was a load of fun!

Apple Butter Festival

The weather couldn't have been more gorgeous this weekend. Unfortunately, we spent much of our time working on the house and at the home improvement store, so we didn't get to enjoy as much as we should have. But Liam and I did manage to go to the Apple Butter Festival this afternoon. Unlike last year, when we had to wear heavy coats and hats, this year we just wore light shirts.

After buying the obligatory apple butter, we briefly ran into our friends Alissa and Ashtyn before heading for a walk on the trails. We didn't walk too far, but Liam sure had a great time. He had to explore every interesting log and rock on the side of the trail. I took lots of cute photos...aren't we just two ragamuffins!

I also reflected on how much Liam has changed since our first trip to the festival last year. Then he was just a couple months old...a tiny baby. We took him for a walk on the trails in a stroller. We were still struggling with his GERD and he was very colicky because of it. Now he is a little person, running and playing and exploring the world...my how time flies!

We weathered the weather.

Last night was quite a long and turbulent one. The tornado sirens went off at least a half-dozen times! Luckily, nothing touching down in Lansing, but the nearby town of Williamston wasn't so lucky. In addition to the storms, Liam and I are also weathering earaches. Now that he is a little older we are trying to wait to see if it can heal on its own before we resort to antibiotics (especially since we had so many side-effects with the antibiotics last year). So far so good.

Liam has been such a little smarty. This afternoon he said "again" when I asked him if he wanted to do another somersault. Last night he told me he was ready for "bed". He's also said "clothes" and "goat" this week too. If I could just get him to sit down and look at books with me...I know he's learning language, but I'm concerned that he might begetting behind.

He's also quite the helper. This morning he picked up Sean's socks on the floor and I asked him to put them in the laundry basket and he did. Later after I dressed him for the day, he put is jammies in his basket. He will also put his toys away in their basket (with a little encouragement). This afternoon he found his boots in the wardrobe and got them out. He brought them to me so I could put them on him. He had fun wearing them around the house. He also knew to put them away when he was done with them, just like he does with his shoes.

One last funny story. Last night Sean fed Liam some hummus. When he was done, Liam's hands were covered with hummus. I teased him when he came over to me and said "yuk, don't touch me with your sticky hands!". Liam immediately came running at me with his hands outstretched. He knew exactly what I said and was teasing me back.

Swing Low

Yesterday afternoon was a brief return to seasonal temperatures. So the whole family spent some time outside. Daddy worked on the snowblower that we bought at a garage sale for only $10, while I installed the toddler swing that I bought last Saturday. Liam had such a great time swinging that he giggled and laughed. Later in the evening, before I headed to work, we took a walk to the library to rent some more movies. Liam had spent a good portion of the morning at the community center (where the library is) playing in the gym. On Monday's and Tuesday's they have "tot time" in the gym. You pay just a $1 per child and they can play all they want in the large gym filled with toddler toys. Liam had a blast. He found the sign-in clip board and pretended to write on the paper...it was so cute. He also liked the little bicycle they had there. Most of us mom's brought our knitting projects and got a chance to chat.

Dog's on Fire.

Well the weather is officially COLD here. We went from record highs to below normal temps in just one day. The first couple days we decided to tough it out and not turn the heat on...just in case the warm weather returned. But, alas, no warm weather. So we turned the heat on. Now the previous owners had five, yes, FIVE dogs and they must not have been big on sweeping or any sort of cleaning for that matter, 'cause we filled our shop vac with dog hair from the heating vents when we first moved in. Even with all that sweeping, it still smelled like burning dog when the heat kicked in. Yuk!

Liam has had a bit of a cold and now I have it too. But, we are otherwise fine. Thursday Liam and I spent a couple hours at the Fenner Nature Center interpretive building. It was too cold to walk on the trails, but the had all sorts of fun things to look at and play with in the building. Liam liked watching the turtles and playing with their puppets. We also met a 2-year old toddler and his mommy there. Liam beg quite a few of their raspberries off of them.

Friday was a crawlers gathering at the birth center. I am definitely realizing that Liam is too big for these. Some of us with toddlers made plans for an alternative meeting place. I think the second crawlers group in October will be our last. I will sure miss our times there!

Saturday was the Mom2mom sale in Haslett. Alissa and I split a table. There was a pretty good crowd and I was happy with what I sold. I also did a little shopping while I was there. I purchased a out-door swing and also a little basketball/baseball toy for Liam. Overall, I retrained myself from getting more.

Saturday night, our friend and former neighbor, Chris, came over for lasagna dinner. Chris brought a chocolate bar for Liam. I wasn't too pleased with the idea of him eating chocolate, but he loved it. Unfortunately, he started burping up chocolate later and even spit up some of it. :( Today Liam and I played a lot while daddy painted with Chris.

Liam has such a sense of humor now and has been doing a lot of really amazing things lately. He thinks it's funny to give me a kiss and tries to do it every chance he gets. On Thursday night he picked up his dinner plate and blew on it too cool it off. Yesterday he pointed to the ghost on a Halloween blanket that I have setting out. I told him it was a ghost and that ghosts say "Boooo". He then pointed at the ghost again and said "Go, booo." Today he grabbed my hankie and pretended to blow into it. Later he pointed to a picture of an erupting volcano that is on his play rug. I told him it was a volcano and that the volcano was going "boom". He repeated me and later pointed to it and said "boom" again.

It is such a relief that he is communicating again. He's been boycotting signing as of late and even refuses to use a sign for "milk". Consequently, there have been many more tantrums because we can't always figure out what he wants. I hope that this was all just temporary due to teething or something and that he is now focusing on communication once again.

PS - I almost forgot that Liam pretended to give me raspberries on my stomach this afternoon!

Assorted Activities

Well, I have no excuse for my belated posting other than a hectic life. The past few nights Liam has been extremely clingy and I couldn't get any time to post anything. On Monday night (when the weather was unseasonably hot) Liam even managed to kick daddy out of bed. Sean went to sleep on the couch, away from the hot and cranky toddler. Without daddy there, Liam had only me to snuggle with. I think teething is the culprit again. All 4 of his canines are coming in at once, just like his molars did two months ago. Right now both of his upper canines are poking through and the lower ones are swollen.

So to recap a little...Last Thursday was a warm and sunny day, so Liam and I spent some time outside in the backyard. We raked a little and also planted some daffodil bulbs. Liam helped dig a hole and planted one of the bulbs himself!

On Friday the family went to stay with my Aunt Jan & Uncle Scott in Goshen. They were kind enough to put us up for a couple days while I attended a conference in nearby South Bend at Norte Dame University. While I listened to boring papers and later gave a boring presentation of my own, Liam and daddy played in my aunt and uncle's large yard, went for walks around the neighborhood, went yard sale shopping, and also went to Potawatomi Park Zoo. They claimed that the zoo was a disappointment, but I'm sure it was better than what I was doing! :)

Saturday night we drove down to Fort Wayne from South Bend. It was a long drive, but Liam held up pretty well. I entertained him by acting goofy and singing to music. We stayed the night and most of Sunday at my mom's house. My mom and I spent some time looking for some of my old toys for Liam. I was so thrilled when I found my ancient See-and-Say still working...Liam fixed that after playing with it for about 5 minutes. What a bummer! The rest of my toys faired better, however, and it was nice to see him enjoying things that I remembered playing with.

Monday Liam and I went to the Natural Family group at the birth center. He loves playing with all the babies and toddlers there and get so excited as soon as he sees the building. It will be a shame when he outgrows these play-groups.

Tuesday, we met Lisa, her daughter Lesli, Eva, and her daughter Hannah at the Potter Park Zoo. It was so much fun because all of the kiddos are now walking. Liam was racing this way and that way all over the zoo! Here you can see the three of them pausing briefly at the Ostriches (From left to right: Lesli, Liam, and Hannah). Things got really exiting at the when we went to see the baby snow leopard...he kept pouncing at the trio. Unfortunately, Liam was oblivious to the excitement because he turned around every time the leopard pounced.

Today, Liam got to paint while in the toddler room at daycare. They were making paper trees and the kiddos got to paint in cutouts of leaves. Sean picked Liam up from daycare, so I didn't get to see the finished project, but I can't wait to see it!

Reconneted to the world wide web...

Yesterday our dsl service was finally connected. Now I can update you on life with Liam. It has been busy, as always. Liam is really a mover and a shaker now. He can run, walk backwards, dance in circles, and stamp his feet. Consequently, it is getting harder and hard to take pictures of him. Hence, this shot of him scurrying away from me in our recently (mostly) unpacked office.



Last weekend we took a nice road trip around central Michigan. We stopped at a local tourist trap, Uncle John's Cider mill. It was complete craziness, but we stayed just long enough to get a shot of Liam sitting on this huge pumpkin. While we were out and about we spotted a place that builds sheds and other out-buildings. Sean wanted to take a look at their sheds. Liam and I played in this Victorian playhouse. Liam had so much fun that he didn't want to go home!

Liam graduates to the toddler room

When I took Liam to daycare today, he was moved into the toddler room for the day. Now that they are getting in so many smaller babies, Liam is being slowly introduced to the routines of the toddler room, especially since he is walking well and acting like a toddler in so many ways.

He got to play outside for a while and they told me that he ate lunch at the table with the other toddlers. Such a BIG boy! When I arrived he was napping on a mat on the floor, not a crib anymore. Now if I could only get him to do that at home!

I waited a while at daycare and then gingerly moved him to the car. He slept for another hour in the car and I chilled out in the car too while we were at the park. Then we got to play for a while at the Potter Park playground. Elli and Scarlet joined us with their mommy's. Liam had lots of fun on the swing and chasing the girls around (they are much faster runners than he is right now).

This evening it was stormy, so we stayed in and watched cartoons after dinner. Then mommy had to go to work in the rain, leaving the boys to get a bath.

Settling IN

Well, we are officially all moved in now. The only problem is that we still don't have internet connection. So, this is a brief update on things until we have a more reliable gateway to cyberspace.

Liam has been throwing full-blown toddler tantrums as of late. He screams so load that he's made is throat horse. During the moments between tantrums, Liam is busy exploring the new house, coloring with markers, helping mommy and daddy rake in the back yard, and playing with friends at the playground.

Liam as started showing preferences for different foods. His all time fav is gold fish crackers...what do they put in those things to make them so addictive?!

Moving Mania

Last night was our first night in the new house. Liam as so excited that he kept running around upstairs. Exploring one room and then another. We were all so exhausted from moving so much over the weekend that we passed out around 8pm. We slept pretty well, even with it being only 65 degrees in the house this morning. We haven't turned on the heat yet, but it might be necessary if the evening temps stay in the 40s.

I was so chilly this morning that I bundled Liam up in fleece pants, woolly socks, and a sweater. I took the time to hook up the TV and VCR after breakfast so that Liam could watch Baby Einstein while I unpacked some things. He happily watched his video. When it was over I came to check on him and there he was...half-naked. He must have gotten too hot, because he took off his socks and pants and was standing there in only a diaper (which was also partially removed) and a sweater.

Liam was a trooper all weekend. It was quite a crazy time, but we finally have most of our stuff out of the apartment...everything except my office and computer that is. Since we don't have internet service at the house yet, we're leaving the office till last. So I won't be updating the blog too often this week. I should go pack some books while Liam is napping...gotta go!

PS - A HUGE thanks too everyone who helped us with remodeling and moving! We couldn't have done it without you!

Super Poopy!

Today we had a potty training milestone. First, Liam indicated that he wanted to use the potty. He did this by going to and playing with the potty. Taking the hint, I undressed him and put him on it. Then he proceeded to go #1 and a moment later he went #2! This is his first time pooping in a potty. Yeah! One less poopy diaper to wash! I am so proud of him.

To celebrate, we went to Fenner Park for a stroll in the woods. We first went into the nature center. Liam had fun watching the turtles swim around in the tank, as well as looking at the injured morning doves they were rehabilitating. They also had books and puzzles and different objects from nature to touch and look at. Liam was particularly fond of a tree log, which he carried around with him while we were there.

Once back outside, we stopped off at the pond to look at fish and frogs in the water. Then we headed down one of the forested trails. Liam examined sticks, pine cones, rocks, and leaves along the trail. We walked quite a ways together, having lots of fun crunching leaves noisily under our feet. Eventually Liam sat down in the path, his little legs where tired. Luckily I brought my wrap with me, so I tied him to my back and we finished our walk. Once in the car, he fell asleep. We both took a much needed nap when we got home.

This afternoon, we ran errands together. Liam actually ate a little dinner tonight. He likes his daddy's sloppy joe. Today went too fast!

He's got fangs!

Well...actually just one fang, but I just had to make the Monty Python reference. Yes, that's right, Liam is getting yet another tooth and this time it's his upper, left canine. Sean and I have been wondering why Liam has been especially whinny the past couple days. I swear he was happy for only 20 minutes of the day on Tuesday (yes it's been that bad!). It's seems that teething is the culprit again.

This morning Liam woke up cranky, but I treated him to a nice bubble bath with the new stuff I got by California Baby. The bubble bath is aptly named "Tired and Cranky". It's guaranteed to turn your baby from cranky to sweet. It worked like a charm this morning, just long enough for me to get this cute photo of Liam walking his puppy and eating apple slices. He actually looks happy here!

Liam spent the rest of the day at daycare. When Sean picked him up, they told him that he hadn't eaten much and had a bad diaper rash. Ugh! Mr. cranky was back in full force this evening. He cried and cried while we tried to eat sub sandwiches for dinner at the new house. I gave him a plate full of sandwich cut into pieces. Normally he would have loved it, because it was turkey and cheese. Finally I offered him my sandwich. That's what he wanted. He had to hold it himself and bite off of it. He was happy and eating for a few minutes, then crying uncontrollably again.

Later when we got home I snuck a feel of his gums after nursing him and sure enough, I could feel a canine poking through. He's got thirteen teeth now!

I tried to perk Liam up before I went to work for the evening by giving him the toy watch I had made earlier in the day. I thought he would like his own watch, since he enjoyed wearing grandpa John's watch so much.

You spin me right round

Well, we're overdue for an update on little Liam. He's been quite busy lately! Last week he started spinning around in circles. He seems to enjoy getting himself so dizzy that he falls down :)

Liam has also been very talkative. He's started using personal pronouns. Last weekend, he bumped his head on a drawer in the kitchen and said "I ow". If I listen to his babbling carefully, I can often pick up fragments of words and sentences. He uses too many words for me to keep track of now.

He loves imitating everything I do. Some examples of what he wants to do: flush the toilet, sweep the floor, paint on the walls, drink from a cup, brush his hair and teeth, fix dinner in the kitchen, write with a pen, and today he "helped" me rake up old mulch in the back yard. I've noticed him carefully observing people and children around him and them imitating their actions.

This morning, while Ashtyn was visiting, he imitated her trying to feed her stuffed animal from a cup. He picked up his stuffed Pooh bear and gave him a sip from a cup too! Here are Liam and Ashtyn playing on blankets...seems my attempt at naptime is not working.

I try to encourage imitation where possible and appropriate, because I know it's the way he learns how to do things. For example, I gave him is own rake and own small paint roller when we were working on the house. Today I purchased some markers for him so that he can "write" things down like I do. For Christmas I plan on making or buying Liam pretend kitchen stuff, since I have room for it in our new place and because he enjoys playing in the kitchen with me so much.

And the rain came falling down...

Whew, what a wet and rainy day! Liam was back with us today as we attempted to finish most of the big tasks at the house. Today we painted the dining room, kitchen, hall, and stairwell. We also cleaned and painted window sills, installed the baby gate at the top of the stairs and added more coats of varnish to the master bedroom floor. I did take a few moments out of my busy day to take some pictures of Liam and to snuggle and feed him too. Here he is playing on the porch of our new house.

Just before we left for the day, I unrolled the play rug that we got for Liam at IKEA and let him run around in his room. He had so much fun! I think we will make such a special place for Liam to play in his new room. After we all cleaned up, we went out to Zeus' for dinner. Liam fell asleep on the drive over and was so zonked that he slept in my arms for most of dinner. He woke up just in time to eat some of the lamb meat out of my gyro, finish off the humus, and share my rice pudding. Yum!