Liam helps read Goodnight Moon

We learned a while ago, thanks to Terry, that Liam was actually soaking up and retaining much more of his stories than we thought. Now we have fun by letting him "fill in the blank" while we read the stories.

In this reading of Goodnight Moon he got distracted by mom and the camera, and then halfway through he gets obsessed with finding the "elephant." Have any of you who know Goodnight Moon ever seen an elephant in there? I'm betting not. But our little eagle eyed reader found an elephant on the shelf in the last page and now hunts for it on all the pages of the room.

Who is that cool guy behind those aviators?

In a tragic accident, Liam's favorite froggy sunglasses were broken. Auntie Natasha to the rescue! Natasha found these super cool kid's aviators and they were quickly adopted as "mine sasses"

Event date: May 24, 2011

Liam and the Cicadas

Activity Date: May 23, 2011

This year Nashville saw the much heralded return of the cicadas. Liam was at first scared, and later fascinated by all the "buggies." After one particularly ferocious storm, leaves and buggies were strewn all over our back deck, along with some styrofoam from the recycling container.

I noticed Liam was crouched at the threshold and repeatedly picking up and putting down one of the pieces of styrofoam. It turns out he had constructed a little styrofoam lean-to house for one of the live-but-exhausted buggies.

Later Liam took his little Liam-sized broom outside with me and we both "swept the buggies" off the porch. This became a favorite activity and for nearly a week every morning he wanted to hand me my broom and lead me to the back door so we could "sweep a da buggies."


After he finally works up the courage to pick up one of the (dead) cicadas, he takes him on a little tour of the deck to find more of his buggy friends "C'mon cicada. Here cada. Where are you?" and later after I suggest that he throw the cicada over the railing, Liam thinks on this suggestion, looks at the cicada and makes the observation "Having wings. Fly."

Liam rides along with the Chincotague wild ponies

I just returned from a weekend away in Minneapolis while Terry and Liam stayed home in the bachelor pad. I missed him so much it was like my heart exploded when I walked out of the airport and saw him sitting in the back of the car. So we're celebrating mom's return with a little family movie night. Since seeing the Derby (and watching the Preakness on TV) Liam is obsessed with horses and horse movies.

Right now his golden curls are swinging as he rocks back and forth on his rocking horse, which is planted immediately in front of the TV. He occasionally chimes in, "horseys" or "neigh!" He's watching an old-school movie about Chincoteague Island's wild ponies. Every time the horses on the screen start running he starts rocking his horse as well, running along with them.

It is the sweetest thing. Somehow neither pictures, nor video, nor words really capture the soft happiness in my heart from watching him right now.

The no-no monster!

This morning I woke the no-no monster. I went to the crib where I thought my sweet toddler was sleeping, but in his place I found a no-no monster! It started with "no no no" he did not want to get out of the crib with mommy, but no no no he did not want to sleep either. Only the promise of milk got him out of the crib and huddled up in my arms.

We got milk, but then it was more no no. No no no he did not want to sit on the potty and read some books. No no no he did not want to play with blocks. Did he want to cuddle with mommy while he finished his milk? No. So he got himself on the couch, face down, butt in the air, and just kept randomly repeating "no" even when nothing had been asked of him or offered to him.

I tried rubbing his back and he said "no." He just said "poo-poo poo-poo" and I said, "Do you have to go poo-poo?" and he said, you guessed it, "no." A moment later he said, "I stinky!" so I said, "Are you stinky?" and he said no. So then I said, "you are crabby! Liam is crabby!" trying to give him a word for his mood and he said, "no."

So then I said, "are you contrarian?" and he said, "no." That last one was really more for my amusement.

Little moments of Liam

Random moments I don't want to forget:

If you ask Liam "what does mommy do?" he will hold his fingers to his nose and mimic honking. Something tells me my Class A sinus infection has gone on too long.

He has an orange hat that says "Remember the Alamo" on it. It belongs to Grandpa Ron, or "choo-choo papa." When we stayed at their house over Thanksgiving he was obsessed with this hat. There are literally dozens of hats all over the house, but he just has to wear this one particular orange hat. Choo-choo papa gave him the hat at Christmas, and he continues to wear it all over our house and out when we do errands. He calls it "choo choo hat" or "papa hat."

He is dramatically fantastically in love with the large box that his tricycle came in (from Grandma and Grandpa Schultz). Some times he hides in it, getting inside and drawing the flaps down on top of him. No one taught him that. The first time he did it, it scared the bejesus out of me. He toddled around the kitchen island while I was cooking and then it was like the disappeared into thin air. I started calling his name and he popped up and said "BOO!" and then disintegrated into gales of laughter. He also loves to be pulled around the house and spun around while in his box. It is a substitute for sledding, which we don't get to do often in Nashville. When he wants to be pulled in his indoor 'box sled' he climbs in and says "box weeee!" or just "weeee! more weeeee!"

He loves kissing things. We got him wooden blocks that have animal faces on them. He likes to take them out one by one and name them (when he can) then for reasons unknown to me, he selects some of them as worthy of a kiss. He names the hippo, bear, giraffe, monkey, and elephant. All the different wild cats get lumped into one. Then he says "stacking" and sometimes builds a tower up, and sometimes puts them all down next to each other in a big lined up row. Usually when he's done making the long row he says "choo choo!" and pushes them forward until they fall one by one off the end of the coffee table.

He also continues to love kissing "Santy!" the tall, lean, black santa carving we have from Ghana. I think he will be sad when Santy finally gets packed up in the box for next year.

His new favorite word is "tasty!" which sometimes sounds like "teetee!" if he doesnt quite sneak the "s" sound in there. When he's eating something he likes--roasted red pepper soup or breakfast porridge have been favorites lately--he scrunches up his shoulders, squints his eyes, smiles and says "tasty!"

First Snowfall of the Season

I'm so far behind in posting photos that on the blog it is still mid-summer, but in life it is mid-winter. And the updates are just so charming, they demand to be captured.

Today we had our first snowfall of the season, and we got about an inch of snow, which in Nashville is cause for a major shutdown. All the schools were closed, so Liam and I have been having a snow day together.

Before Terry headed out to work, we drove by the Hardware store to buy a sled. Then I got Liam super bundled up (and yes, there were some plastic baggies and masking tape involved at one point). When he was so bundled he had to waddle, I knew we were set. Out we went and I gave him a sled ride into Shelby park. He just laid on his back in the sled staring up at the snowy trees and seeming quite content.

Then we got out and tromped around in the snow. Whenever he would get ahead of me he would look back and call for me "mama!"

We went onto the golf course where they have some gentle hills that were perfect for sledding. I hauled the sled with Liam in it up the hill and then we rode down together. Weeeeee!

Then I found some pristine snow and took out the cups I had stashed in my backpack. I pressed the snow town into the cups and then poured some Vitamin Water over it to make a homemade snow-cone. I brought out the bendy snowman straws and we were all set for a feast. I wasn't sure how he would feel about them but he was thrilled. Absolutely loved his, ate/drank the entire thing. He finished it off as I was hauling him uphill out of the park on the sled again, which proved to be mommy's workout for the day.

When we got back to our house and I stopped the sled he looked up at me and started trying to communicate that he wanted more. "More! Go! Pull!" so I took him on one more pull around our block before forcing him to go in. It was quite cold out and I didn't want him to get cold dispite the multiple layers and wool socks.

Once inside I made us both some cocoa (his was only with a little bit of cocoa powder, and only a little warmed milk) and I poured his into his tiny kid-sized pastel tea cups and we stood at the kitchen counter and drank our cocoa together. The cocoa was also a major hit. His cheeks were rosy and he was slurping it down and when he got to the bottom of his tea cup he would put it down on the counter and say "More! cocoa! MMMMMMM!" and then smile a cheesy grin. He wound up drinking about half a regular cup full of cocoa.

The morning with him was charming and delightful, the sort of thing I wish I had been able to capture with the camera, but of course it was no where to be found and I didn't want the poor kid to overhead in his bundles while I searched for it. But it also makes me appreciate that some times you just have to go out there and have the kind of adventures that make an indelible impression on you even if they are never captured on film, because they stick in your heart.