May 30 ,2011

Monday:

Liam still loves to draw, which is great, it keeps him occupied for a bit, and I really like to keep the pictures. While Phillip and I ate breakfast, he went off to the living room art area, and with his Doodle Pad and markers, began to draw. He enthusiastically exclaimed he drew circles, ovals, Pad Thai, and then he started on drawing flashlights. He said they were blue, white, and with light bulbs. Then, I went over to check it out, and asked him what the pictures were, he told me where the Pah Thai was (very top zig zag line on left), the flash light (circular marks below), then he pointed out where he drew a picture of a tent (bottom left). All the things he loves to draw and play with. Then of course, the circles and ovals below on the right. He's so creative.

May 29, 2011

Sunday:

Phillip and I bought a little 2-3 person tent for camping for our anniversary. Phillip really wanted to set it up, so he did, in our living room, with Liam's help of course. Liam fell in love! I foresee many nights of camping out in the back yard with Dad. We had to take it down so that we could head out to Ari's third birthday party, and that was heart breaking for him. We explained that we would put it up again, another time.

At Ari's, it was well past nap time, and even with the cookie, cake, and Pirates Booty, it wasn't enough to eliminate the tantrums and melt downs that took place. It' rough being a toddler, I get that, but once we got home, he walked with me back to his room, took his crocks off, laid in bed and it wasn't but sixty seconds till he was sound asleep.

May 28, 2011

Saturday:

Liam has some of the funniest sayings. Our favorite right now is, "I wan hi num yat!" Which translates to "I want to have some of that." It's so funny! He has often came up with various word arrangements in the past, and I usually don't think to write them down. I love that I can keep track of this stuff so when he is older, or when he grows out of phrase, I can look back and smile.

May 27, 2011

Friday:

This morning I asked Liam to get Annabelle a binky in her crib, and when I went in to her room, I found a binky buffet of half a dozen binkies next to her. I was pretty surprised he found all those and said that was a lot. He told me he found them all in her basket and said, "I told Anbel, 'No more binkies, Anbel!" He's such a good look out for his sister.

Then when she was getting close towards the dog food, he said, "Anbel Mae!" to warn me, and then after I moved her away said, "Don't go back to that dog food again Anbel." I wonder where he gets it.

Liam is just loving having the dogs here. He likes to play with them, which usually means chasing them around the house screaming and squealing. It's fine for a bit, but it wears on your ears. It's fine for Ripley, since she is pretty mellow, and it's fine for blaze, since he's not that big, but Honey is the problem. Which is no surprise. She's just so big, and bulky, and is really like stampede just by herself. Liam loves it, and the screaming squealing just eggs her on.

May 26, 2011

Thursday:

This morning we were headed out to Dad and Linda's so that we could pick up the dogs and drop off some jerky ingredients, and on the way out I was kinda frazzled since I was running late, forgot my wallet, and still had to go to the grocery store to pick up a few things and it was past 9:30. As I backed out of the drive and began to drive off, Liam goes, "Close garage door, Mommy!" I'm glad I have a smart little boy to remind me of such things, and I'm sure Phillip will be very happy as well.

When we got to Grandpa and Grandma Linda's, they showed us their baby kitties, which are much bigger than they were the last time, and Liam fell in love. My parents offered us one, and as Liam would love to have one, we've done it before and the whole litter box thing, Phillip allergies, etc is just not with it. I think we will start with a gold fish for his third birthday. That will be fun. At their house, Liam almost ate them out of raisins, and even ate some raw groats. In their front yard, he found a little red car that who knows how long has been out there, and asked Grandpa to clean it off, and keep it. He, of course, let him.

We came home and tried for nap, and that just wasn't happening, so we packed up and headed to Bonny's for a sew day. Liam and Violet did a lot of spraying with spray bottles outside, which reminds me, I have got to but one for Liam. It's a dollar investment, and entertainment for hours. Especially on days that I decide to get out and hang dry clothes on the clothes line. He'll have something to do.

For dinner, since I forgot to thaw something, we went to Freddy's place. They have a little play ground there, with a slide and swing. For a while there were some much bigger kids running around and Liam would watch them and laugh whenever they fell down. There was also a live band playing of a friend of Bonny's (who met us there with Violet) that Liam loved. When they would finish a song, he would clap and yell, "YAAAAAYYY!". He would also do some dancing and head wobbling to the tunes. After the big kids left, Violet really wanted to push him on the swings, but he's not really a fan of swinging. I put Annabelle in the swing, and Liam and Violet took turns pushing her. He really liked that. It started to get dark, and we began to head out. It was past 8:30 and that coupled with a no-nap-day, sent off the two-year-old-fits. It was worth it though. We all had a lot of fun, and bed time was a breeze since Liam was already starting to fall asleep in the car.

May 25, 2011

Wednesday:

I woke early this morning to go to the dentist at 7:30, and the peace and quiet and little stimulation was almost enough for me want to wake every morning before the kids do. Almost. Liam sat on my lap while the dentist did a TMJ examination. He was pretty nervous, and said, "He not check me out." I assured him that he wasn't going to get check out this time. I am wondering how to go about that in the future though. They say to have dental check ups as soon as they have teeth, but I think that's a little much. Maybe as soon as you can rationally get a kid to lay in the dentist chair and hold their mouth open without screaming is a good time to start.

After that, we did our grocery storing, which included a trip to Walmart to get a gift for Beth. I told Liam it was Beth's birthday today, and he said, "We should get Beth a birthday cake." How thoughtful of a little boy I have.

I made ribs for dinner, and cut Liam one off the rack and put on his plate with the intention of cutting the meat off the bone for him, but I think he saw me and Phillip eating them, and picked him up and began eating it himself. It was kinda cute seeing his first, hand held rib eating. We are big fans of baby rack ribs in our house, so it's good that he's starting now!

May 24, 2011

Tuesday:

We went to Circle C park for play date today with Bonny and Violet. It always tickles me and Bonny when Liam and Violet hold hands and talk to each other. She asked him, "Do you want to sit down on the blanket?" to which he responded, "I do, yeah." Looking at them next to some of the other kids, who were a little smaller really was another shock on how fast they grow. There of course were other big kids there, and I know it won't be long till our kids are going to be the "Big Kids" on the play ground.

May 23, 2011

Monday:

Nothing too exciting happened today. Pretty much the same old same old. We did go out to eat at Casa Garcia tonight since we were both still pretty tired of the busy previous weeks and weekends. I'm working on Liam ordering for himself, and was trying to explain the difference between Nachos, Enchiladas and Quesadillas. I even drew little pictures, but Liam kept saying, "Ummm....I want....chips." And pointed to the basket of chips on the table. After I told him Nachos were chips with beans and cheese on them, I think I got him to decide on that as an entre. He would keep asking for chips, and it was hard to say no since he was always so sweet about it. "May have have more chips please Daddy?", and once given a chip, "Thank you, Daddy." We almost made it out of the restaurant without any spills, and this time it wasn't me, so it didn't bother me as much. It was just water, and it's bound to happen a few times in their childhood.

May 22, 2011

Sunday:

We didn't go to church this Sunday since we've had a busy weekend and I wanted to catch up on some sleep. Liam and Dad hung out while me and Annabelle had our morning nap. I was still pretty exhausted, as was Phillip, (who I gave major kuddos to for having kid watching all day Saturday and ending it with baths for both of them!) so we decided on bedtime starting at 7:30. I think we are going to start doing this every night, since it takes at least half an hour for bedtime to get settled, and that puts sleeping around 8:00. It also happens to end up being right after dinner every night, so one of us cleans the kitchen (usually Phillip) while I brush Liam's teeth and get him ready for bed. Then we swap. I think Liam is past his season of fit throwing at bed time. He's stayed in bed the last week or so and gotten his no-cry treats every morning. Maybe this will stick now.

May 21, 2011

Saturday:

Liam woke up and wanted oatmeal. He wanted it in a different bowl than that which I had already filled with his breakfast. I explained that there was nothing wrong with the bowl that he had in front of him and he was satisfied with my explanation. Between breakfast and nap, Liam and Annabelle played and interacted quite a bit, as they increasingly do. As she crawls around, he follows her on his hands and knees. With any toy she shows the slightest interest in, Liam has an overwhelming urge to play with that specific toy (although he may not have acknowledged its existence for months). We spent the morning watching X-Files off and on, as well as his 'movie' (reading videos). In the afternoon, having been without Ruth's company for about 24 hours, I decided it was time to get out of the house. I loaded the kids in the car (Liam was ecstatic about riding in 'daddy's car.') When we returned home Liam ate pizza and bell peppers. He also got milk. He is now able to open the refrigerator and remove whatever he fancies. Thankfully most of the time I hear his uncharacteristic silence and know that he is on a quest for milk. We read his story before bed and he went to sleep peacefully. I continued to watch tv. About 30 mins after he fell asleep, I noticed his bedroom light was on. We have to unscrew the light bulbs to turn the lights off, because the pull chain has become detached and I have all but disassembled the fan trying to re-attach it. I went into his room and the light turned off. I attributed the occurrence to not unscrewing the light bulb enough, and the vibration of the fan likely completed the circuit. Thankfully he didn't wake up.

May 20, 2011

Friday:

I have a mom in labor and have been calling around all morning to get childcare so I can head out. Of course when I'm on the phone, Liam has to ask for everything under the sun of only things he knows he can't have. For example, he wants ice cream. So he goes and stands with the fridge open, whining for it, even though we don't have any in the house (right now). Then it's "I want play with these scissors" as he digs through my sewing basket. Seriously? Lastly, after repeated requests to drink "some Mommy's tea", and my repeated answers of "no", and his understanding replies of "it has caffeine in it", he decides, he'll just grab the cup and drink it, and then spill it. Of course! Then when I finally get everything worked out, I go to the living room and see Liam sitting quietly on the couch, peacefully smiling, with his "My Baby Elephant" book and he grins and looks up and says, "I read book, Mommy!". Sigh.

May 19, 2011

Thursday:

We went to Walmart today for a few things, and as I passed the kid section, which I of course had to browse, I saw a superman shirt! It was so cute! I enthusiastically asked Liam what he thought of it and if he wanted it, to which he replied, "I already have superman shirt (du-du man dirt)." He must get his frugality from me. I told him that was a pajama shirt, and was getting too small anyway. I told him how when dad was little, he loved super man. Liam said, "Dadn want get superman shirt!" I didn't think they had men's superman shirts, but when we looked, we found some superman pj pants, that we did get for Phillip for Father's day. I also picked up a little girl shirt hat says "My Daddy makes me smile!" I'm planning on waking Phillip up on Father's day with breakfast in bed, superman pjs as a gift and the kids dressed in dad attire.

May 18, 2011

Wednesday:

So, Liam has been coming in our bed and last night was the first night I remembered why we never let him before. He didn't lots and lots of tossing turning and kicking, and talking, and stirring, and more. I had to threaten him in a sleepy haze of return to his bed if he didn't stop. I'm not sure how this is all going to unfold. We will see.

May 17, 2011

Tuesday:

This morning we ran a few errands and made it to the park for playgroup and lunch by 11:40-ish, and I'm immensely proud of myself for my timing. Liam had fun running around chasing birds and playing with some cars left there by the other kids. He doesn't have much interest in swings, slides, ladders, ect, but loves going to the park. I've given up on trying to get him interested, and when I was thinking about it today, I think I'll probably build more confidence in him if I just let him play with whatever he wants instead of trying to get him to play with the other kids. So I did.

When we got home, the kids napped and I did Yoga, which of course he woke up during. Annabelle first, then Liam. And being siblings, I think it's a given for them to require a mom referee in the times I want to do that least. Liam insisted on playing his Don't Break the Ice game, even though I told him I wouldn't put it together till I was done with Yoga, and I think I should have been more clear. After he got done begging me to put it together (which lasted about 10 minutes), he then decided he wanted to play with all the cubes...right next to me. Let me just say, releasing and coming down from a shoulder stand and landing on one inch plastic cubes all up and down your back is not something I want to have done again. I think only quite, calm, independent activities are what I'll have Liam do when he is up and I'm Yogaing. If those exist that is.

May 16, 2011

Monday:

This morning, while Annabelle napped, Liam and I snuggled on the couch and watched Shaun the Sheep. This is his favorite movie, and it's all claymation, and has no dialog, but it's about a sheep who helps a dog run a farm who both help the very incompetent farmer. It's really funny. Between the very interesting story line of Shaun the Sheep, and Liam's ever so long hair tickling my face, I didn't get much rest. It did give me the idea of combing his hair. Once I did, it was too cute to pass up taking a picture. It pooffed out like an afro and look like a lion's main. I asked him if he could roar like a lion, and at first he didn't know what I was talking about till I showed him the first picture, then we had a lot of fun with it roaring back and forth. I couldn't post only one picture, because they are all so cute.

May 15, 2011

Sunday:

Today we went to church, and then came home for nap, and I headed out for a meeting while Nanny Frances was here. Liam always loves to play with her, and likes when she is over. When I got home, we played with blocks for a while, and since Annabelle has started crawling, it was kinda difficult to build any towers because she would always come and knock them over. Liam would get kinda upset and yell, "NO ANBEL!", and I started to get a glimpse of what the days/weeks/months/years have to come. I'll definitely be praying for patience.

Speaking of praying, we said prayers at night tonight, and since Liam has been going through a phase where he's saying he is scared of his room, I told him if he is ever scared, he can always pray to Jesus, and he will come an protect him, comfort him and keep him safe. He stopped for a minute, and said, "I don't like Jesus." I asked him why and he didn't answer. I told him Jesus was nice, and He loves us and wants to take care of us. He said, "Where's Jesus?" I told him in Heaven and He listens to us when we pray. Liam said, "I want to have Jesus." I told him that He's a person, and we can talk to him, but we can't usually see Him. "I want to find Jesus." I then reiterated the not being able to see him, to which Liam replied, "Jesus lost." I chuckled a little bit under my breath, and said he wasn't lost, he was always here, just hard to see. "Jesus talks?" he asked. I confirmed he does talk, but is sometimes hard to hear. Then he said, "I do like Jesus.", to which I was glad to hear. Then started the bed time rambling of, "Jesus has a bed?" "Jesus has a room." "Jesus has a door." "Jesus has an outlet....a light switch....a light bulb...." I told him I didn't know for sure, but if He had a bed, His bedtime may be 8:00 just like his. It was all a very interesting conversation.

May 14, 2011

Saturday:

This morning we went over to Amy's house so she could show me the ropes and inside info on the Doula collective that I am working with. I took the kids with me, and Liam had lots of fun playing with all the new toys. He was pretty shy when it came to interacting, and that only started to wear off as we were about to leave.

We headed home for nap, and Liam said that he wanted to nap in my bed with me, which I was cool with. We went down for nap around 1:00, and Liam woke a little before 3:00 whining something about a cracker, and I told him we would get a cracker after Annabelle woke up. He laid there a bit and then fell back asleep till after 4:00! I think when he wakes up whiny, it because he's still tired. I think he just decided to give into his tiredness and sleep.

May 13, 2011

Friday:

Last night was kinda rough at bed time. We put Liam's clock in his room, and I figured it would bother him, and sure enough he came out saying, "My clock so loud." I was kinda cute, that he insisted it hand on the wall in the kitchen and not in his room. So I took it out. Then he didn't want the baby gate, then he did, then he had to potty, then he wanted Papa's calculator, etc etc etc. It went on and on. I was glad when it was all done.

This morning, Gigi and Papa left, and Liam wanted to watch them leave as usual, except this time, he was at the door waving. I'm glad he's adjusted to loved ones coming and going. It's a hard thing to learn, especially for little ones and their very big feelings.

I couldn't sleep well last night and wanted to nap when the kids did, so I put Annabelle down, and Liam wanted to nap in Gigi and Papa's bed with me, so we laid down, then he wanted to go in his bed, so he did and I went to mine, and then he wanted to come in my bed. By the time he fell asleep, Annabelle woke not 15 minutes later. I think the late nights and the late nap today was rough because he's feeling pretty grouchy this evening. We had some cuddle time, while he ate the banana chips that Gigi and Papa left, and then when the crumbs fell on the ground, he got really upset and wanted to eat them off the ground. I didn't let him, and finally he let Honey come and eat them. Then, he said he wanted to change shirts, specifically to the red shirt that Gigi had bought him at Target with the peace sign on it. It's pretty sweet. I think it's his way of dealing with him missing Gigi and Papa.

May 12, 2011

Thursday:

It was raining and thundering all morning, so we decided to do an inside activity of painting Liam's wooden clock that we got at Target yesterday, which he had been talking about all day yesterday wanting to do. It came with some paint and two tiny brushes, which were showing to take along time to paint the clock, so we switched to hand printing. Liam would paint on his hand and then he covered the entire face of it with multicolored hand prints, then two brown hand prints on top. When the rain let up, we went to run a few errands and when we got back it was time for nap. When Liam got up, his clock was dry so we put the hands on it. Gigi and Liam and Annabelle hod lots of fun playing on the bed while I tried to finish up some work from the previous birth. They had a blast.

We also decided to make some play doh again as his orange was getting pretty dry. This time we made blue and yellow, and I figured with those two colors, he can also have green, so it worked out nicely. They are all blended together now in a marble like fashion, which looks really pretty.

Mona got to see how great the kids play together and just how sweet the really are. Annabelle sat in the hallway and Liam was running and jumping and hollering all around her and she was just loving it! He stopped at one point and said, "You not a good boy. No, you not a good boy. You good BABY." It was really cute. He likes to say, "I like Anbel, I like Mommy, I like Gigi, I like Papa, I like Daddy, etc". I don't get tired of hearing it.

In the evening, just before bed, he and Gigi blew bubbles for a bit. He loves bubbles, and I think I may have to go out and get some more at some point as almost all of the containers are running a little low. It was a great way to end the evening.

May 11, 2011

Wednesday:

Liam got to wake up this morning and go cuddle with Gigi in her bed, and I think that was the best way for him to start any morning. When I got home in the afternoon, Liam was headed down for a nap, and then after he woke, we went to the grocery store. He loves to go to HEB, and this time, when he got his buddy bucks, he was able to go with Gigi to the machine to put them in and got his stickers in return. He really liked that. I had to leave again in the evening to go to a birth, and Liam was the cutest thing when I was leaving. He went with me to the door and said, "Bye!" and I leaned in to give him a kiss. He usually likes to watch me through the cat door as I pull out of the garage.

May 10, 2011

Tuesday:

Last night, Liam did not sleep well. He woke up very grouchy, and cheered up for a bit when Gigi and Papa got here. I think that may have been a factor in him not sleeping well, the excitement of seeing them that is. He got really grouchy before we headed out to breakfast after Annabelle's morning nap. He was good there, and when we got home, it was almost 2:00pm, and I knew that nap would be a potential problem. Well, it was. He didn't want to go to sleep, and I knew his grouchness was due to his previous night of rough sleep and the late nap. Finally after I ignored his whining for a bit, he decided it was pointless and went back to his bed and went to sleep.

When he woke up he was in a much better mood, and we went to Target for a few hours and he was great. There, we got Papa new suitcase set, which Liam was overly enthused about. He got out two of the suitcases of the set that had pull up handles, the backpack suitcase Gigi had brought, and also Papa's work suitcase. He was in heaven. Papa asked him, "Liam is the the most amount of backpack suitcases you've ever had at one time?" Liam said, "Uh Yeah!" It was too funny. Papa and him also spent time showing each other their muscles and how strong each of them were. I was cute to see Liam try and repeat the flexing arm gestures. Bed time has proven to go much smoother than nap and I really hope he gets good rest tonight so that he gets all the enjoyment out of Gigi and Papa being here.

May 9, 2011

Monday:

Today is the first day of Phillip working his Supervisor on Duty shift where he goes in at 11:30 and works through the evening. He was home in the morning, and then after nap, I had to find some stuff to do, so I called Bonny and Violet to come over. We played for a bit, and Bonny and I got much joy out of watching Violet and Liam playing together. After they left, we went to Tino's to eat dinner where Liam ate broccoli, chicken, hummus, and lima beans. We walked to and back from the restaurant, and it was a nice stroll. By the time we got home, it was time to get ready for bed. I brought Annabelle in Liam's room when I read him a story for bed. When I was done, I asked Liam if he wanted Annabelle to sleep in his bed with him snuggled up with his Dog and Beeboo. He said, "No, Anbel makes noise." I don't blame him. She would keep him up.

May 8, 2011

Sunday:

Today is Mother's Day. I've had the best day ever. I even got a cuddly nap with Liam in the afternoon after church. That was big plus. He's starting to co-sleep at times, which I really like. He still goes to sleep in his bed, which I like, and then, usually in the middle of the night, he will come to our bed and cuddle with us. The difference now than before is that he actually sleeps and doesn't disturb me as much.

In the evening I did the kids' Mother's Day projects. I bought some canvas like fabric and some ink pads the last time I was at the fabric store, and used the ink to make little footprints on the fabric. I had Liam in my lap and at first, he was a little apprehensive of getting ink all over his foot, but then thought that it was fun.

Between the prints, I found this poem that I wrote:

I'm following in your footsteps
and I don't want to fall.
Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Mommy,
For you are leading me.
Someday when I'm all grown up,
You're what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who'll want to follow me.
And I would want to lead just right,
And know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Mommy,
For I must follow you.

When I first read it, it almost brought tears to my eyes. I really do need to slow down for the kids, especially Liam and the stage he is at, and when I hand it on his wall, hopefully this will be my reminder.

This is what it looks like so far, I still have to get some custom frames for it.

May 7, 2011

Saturday:

This morning, I woke to Liam in Annabelle's room singing, "TWINKLE TWINKLE...LITTLE STAR...HOW I WONWER....WHAT YOU...ARE.." over and over again. It's probably the sweetest thing to wake up to.

We had breakfast and got ready to head out to Grandpa and Grandma Linda's house for Mother's day lunch. We picked up Uncle Micah on the way and he was to sit in the back between the two car seats. As soon as he got in, Liam began to cry and yell for 'Mommy pick me up!'. I could tell that he wasn't familiar enough with Micah to have him sit that close to him. I went over to his side and said that Uncle Micah was really nice, and that he would be okay sitting there. He said he wanted me to get him out again and "I don't want sit by him!" in a very desperate voice. I told him that Micah was going to sit there and I would go sit in the front seat, to which Liam said, "HE want sit in front seat!". I was a good idea that I couldn't argue with, and was a little taken a back at his problem solving. Needless to say, Micah got out to sit in the front and I got in the back seat and we headed to Grandpa and Grandma Linda's house.

We got there and their cat had a few weeks ago, had baby kittens. Two of them. One black and one grey. Liam gently patted it on the head and said that he wanted to hold the cat. I picked up the cat and showed him how to hold the kitty with one hand on his chest and the other on his bottom. Liam gently held the kitten for a while, then said he wanted help putting the cat down. I helped him and the kitten began meowing and Liam copying him. It was so sweet.

Later, we had pizza, veggies, watermelon. Liam ate three helpings of watermelon, and still had room for cake and ice cream. I didn't mind it much. He hadn't napped all day and needed a kind of pick-me-up. He wanted to go play outside with Blaze and Ripley, and he would call for them and yell for them to come, but I don't think they spoke two-year-old as well as he thought. On the way home, around 5:30, Liam fell asleep, and barely stirred when I moved him from his car seat to his bed. He slept all through the night as well. I was very surprised, but knew he needed the rest. We thought of waking him around 7:00, and I'm glad we didn't. I figured, he'd sleep as much as he needed to.

May 6, 2011

Friday:

We got in the car to go pick up Nanny Frances so I could go to a few consultations this morning, but the ignition lock on my car was locked, so that meant we were to stay home. Annabelle was ready for a nap, so I put her down, and Liam and I hung out. With our new phones, they have kid games that you can download for free, and I'm all about that. There is a puzzle, a connect the dots, a letter game, and a number and counting game. Liam loves it. We cuddled in bed while Annabelle napped and he played with a few games after I showed him how to. He got bored after a while, so we just chit chatted.

Somehow we got on the subject of hair color. I asked him what color my hair was and he said "Brown", I asked him what color Dad's hair was and he said, "Brown". I then asked him what color Daniels was, to which he said, "Black". "What about Gigi's hair?" I asked, "Gigi hair gray." "And Papa's?" "Papa's hair white." We talked about our neighbor's Bonny and Violet, and after I said Bonny had blonde hair, he said, "Violet has blonde hair." Finally I asked about Annabelle's hair. "Anbel has little tiny baby hair." I thought this was very funny. It's just the thing Liam would say.

May 5, 2011

Thursday:

We tried to conquer laundry day today, but of course, we had much leftover when night fell. Annabelle was getting kinda cranky, but I just had one load left to fold of towels, so Liam came over to help me entertain her by playing peek-a-boo with a dish towel on her head. She would pull it off and Liam would let out a big laugh at her chuckling. He really does like her. Everyday, at least, he says, "I like Anbel." It's so cute. He really does like to play with her.

May 4, 2011

Wednesday:

This morning I made Liam eggs with tiny bits of chopped up spinach in it. For two eggs, I diced about 2 large leaves of baby spinach. He began to eat them and when he was about half way done, he asked what the green specs were. I asked him in return, "What are those?". He said, "Those little tiny baby spinach." I giggled and affirmed they were. He ate them, and he liked it. I used to think when I sneak in veggies that it doesn't teach them to eat veggies, but I guess if I'm sneaking them in, and he's identifying them, and still eats them, it's the best of both worlds, so I'm excited about that.

May 3, 2011

Tuesday:

Today I caught up on all my house cleaning and Liam, again, decided to be Mr. Helpful. I asked him to start to pick up his toys and he turned to me and said, "I be MR. HELPFUL!" with excitement in his voice. "What a great idea!" So he helped out with picking up his toys, Annabelle's toys that he had dumped out, and putting away other various things around the house. I'm so glad he can make cleaning fun. I think it's important at even a young age to give them guidance on responsibility. The best way for him to learn, I have found, is through play, so it's easier for both of us.

May 2, 2011

Monday:

For lunch, we went to meet another Doula and mom friend of mine, who has kids around Liam and Annabelle's age, at Chik-fil-a. They had a play scape there, but Liam seemed very nervous to play on it. He wanted to at first, then I think he saw the other kids there being rough and decided to stay with Mom. Not only that, he would have had to take his crocs off, which he wasn't really willing to do. So he sat with me while me and the other mom, Amy, talked. He ate all his food which was a medium bowl of fruit and a full chicken breast. He tried their carrot raisin salad, but I don't think he cared for it that much. It's really sweet and I don't think he was prepared for that. I think he wanted it to taste like carrots and raisins.

We then headed to our house, with her Amy and her kids, Rosemary who is 5, Bek who is 3 and Haddie who is 5 months. Liam was quite ready for nap. I thought it would be a fight, or that he just wouldn't nap with the kids playing in the living room, but as he headed to bed, he said, "We see them again tonight." I said I was pretty sure they would be here after he woke up, and they were. Liam and Bek were really cute together. I guess because they were both little boys, they hit it off. They would talk to each other and interact like I rarely get to see him do with other kids. I think they are friends now.

May 1, 2011

Sunday:

Ruth had meetings and appointments yesterday. I stayed at home with the kids. Liam didn't want lunch for the longest time. I was a little surprised, but finally he came around and had a pb&j. Liam wanted to play with play-doh, and read a few books, so we did. He pointed out several times that Annabelle was trying to eat several of the books, "Don't eat that Annbelle," he exclaimed. Also there is a creepy looking blue bilingual creature that makes laughing noises and attacks my feet in the night when I get up (see post from Feb. 18 (Annabelle)). For some reason, any time Annabelle focuses her attention on the creature, Liam decides that he doesn't want Annabelle to play with it. I had to convince him that it is ok that Annabelle plays with the creepy blue thing. We have a set of knit finger puppets in different animal shapes. One is a green hummingbird that I entertained the kids with for the better part of 45 minutes. I placed it on my finger and made what seemed a reasonable analog for whatever noise it is that hummingbirds make and tickled Liam's face, ears and neck. Of course it attacked my face and neck as well and Liam really got a kick out of that, "Dad so silly," he said. At nap time, Liam went down pretty easily. When he got up, he was in good spirits and really craving some edamame. I advised that I would make it. He decided that it should appear, fully prepared, immediately. I had to patiently explain that some work was required to get the edamame to an edible state. Also, we were dog-sitting and Liam wanted all three dogs in the house. I did not, and had to think of a creative way to allow him to play with the dogs without letting them all in, so we rotated. I would allow Liam to let the dog of his choice in, then when I saw he was uninterested or if Honey made too much noise we switched. That all ended when he let one of the dogs in the garage. I came into the living room and Liam asked, 'where's the dog?' I was a bit confused and we went back and forth until I realized he was playing a guessing game with me and gave up on me trying to figure it out; 'dog is in garage,' he told me. We had fun yesterday.

April 30, 2011

Saturday:

This morning we headed out to the farmer's market down town. I think it's one of the bigger ones in the Austin area, and has a lot more running around space for kiddos, which is good for Liam. For what ever reason, along with forgetting Annabelle's bottle, I forgot to pack Liam a snack. Good thing carrots are in season and I planned to buy a bag! We stopped at the first vendor with carrots for sale, bought a bag, then stopped at the soap vendor that let's you test the soap and rinsed the carrot off with water, snapped the end off and Liam was set for snack! I was cute to a lot of people seeing a family with a baby wrapped, and a little curly headed boy munching on a whole carrot as they strolled the market. Very Austin.

My favorite, and probably Liam's too, about this place is the wide open space for running. Pigeons are all around Austin this time of year and Liam chased and chased them. He would run this little hop, skippy run trying to catch them and then they would fly away and he would give his little Liam laugh that make anyone smile. Even this very grumpy guy who was sitting on the hill. He must have been having some sort of terrible day, and he was sitting there all by himself. He saw Liam and didn't really show any reaction. The birds went around where he was sitting and Liam came over and chased them and they ran, and let out a little half smile. I think Liam is infectious.