Our Little Helper

Liam likes work. He likes helping. I can't say whether this is part of his natural inclination or the influence of his Montessori schooling, but he likes to be a part of any interesting work that's going on.

When his Poppa and Daddy had to take off the banister on the downstairs stairway, he helped "hammer" the nail heads back in...using his red "silly monkey" swirly straw from the zoo. If there's something to be measured with a measuring tape, he wants to hold one end (or both). It wasn't so hard to have him be the little helper when it was me, Daddy, Grandma and Poppa Schultz, because there was an adult around to take him out of the way for dangerous or delicate tasks.

But yesterday Terry and I put the bannister up on the stairs to the second floor, and it was just the three of us. Liam, coming from the sweetest, most curious-george part of his brain, wanted to touch everything. That means wanting to use the stud-finder, wanting to swing the lazer-level around (eek! lazers! blindness!), and of course, it also means that in the delicate measure-and-mark phase of trying to get these stupid brackets aligned and the railing marked off, he wanted to help hold the railing. But being as he's a little guy, his version of holding was more disruptive than helpful, and the fourth or fifth time he accidentally pushed it off its markings or pushed a tool scattering down the floor, we got frustrated.

Its hard, I realize, trying to maintain your cool while you are attempting work that is truly challenging for your skill-set, with a kid who is repeatedly doing things that you, as an adult, find super aggravating, distracting, and sometimes detrimental. So we finally explained that this was daddy's work, and just like at school where you can't touch someone else's work without their permission, he couldn't touch daddy's work right now. So we said he could go down to his play room and color. He said "okay" and off he went.

I stood there trying to hold the 12 foot bannister up frozen in place while Terry marked, and I heard Liam toddle up next to me and he kept saying "shark! shark!" and so I said, "Oh fun, are you pretending to swim in the ocean and see a shark?" because lately he's been interested in pretending we are at the beach, and talking about dolphins. So I casually and slowly turn my head to smile at him and then my smile freezes on my face: he is holding an 8 inch vegetable clever in his hands, by the handle thank God. And I realize what he is really saying is "Sharp! Sharp!"

So I say something like "Holy S*** Terry!" and he leaps into action and gently takes the knife away and gives Liam a talk about not grabbing knives off the countertop.

And because he had four times proven himself incapable of watching without touching, and having him with access to the rest of the house is evidently a piss-poor parenting idea, we asked him to go to his room and play with his horses while we finished the delicate measure and market and drill work.

Later, he helps me hold down the bannister while daddy uses the hand saw and power sander to make the parallel cuts to the bannister. Liam wants to be able to touch and do anything his Daddy does.

That night for bed I offer him the choice of two shirts, so he can pick which one he wants to wear. I happen to pick out his yellow Curious George shirt, and his special "Grandpa's Junior Woodworker" shirt, which his Grandpa Schultz gave to him when they visited. He looks very seriously back and forth, back and forth. He points his index finger and wavers it back and forth, and then resolutely points to the woodworker shirt. "Poppa shirt. I poppa helper."

And my heart melts. And I feel horrible for ever sending him away from any of the work, for not being smart and clever enough to find a way to involve him in the work without it being overly detrimental to the progress of the project. But mostly I just love my little man and his helper spirit.

Liam versus the Sushi

Our little guy is an adventurous eater, and one of his favorite foods is sushi, which sounds like "sue-chi" when he says it. So when we were visiting Grammy and Pop McDonnell, we went out for sushi. He was transfixed by the chopsticks and did his best to learn to use them.

Aww to heck with these chop sticks....

Visiting the Wilmington Children's Museum

While we were in Wilmington, NC visiting Grammy and Pop McDonnell, Pop took us to the Wilmington Children's Museum, which turned out to have a truly excellent array of fun hands-on activities to explore. Doctor Liam loved the room where he could use all of the doctor's equipment to check out whether the bears were healthy. He ran straight for the thermometer and ran over to the giant bear and took his temperature in his ear.

After checking out the bears in the doctor's office, naturally he had to race over and play dentist with the dragons, hop into a kayak for a quick read, and then play trains with Daddy.


But then the wild fun really kicks off when he discovers the outside exploration area...and a real live school bus. For a little boy who loves singing "The Wheels on the Bus" this is akin to walking into your favorite MTV video. He goes ape. He walks up and down the stairs at least 17 times, singing to himself the whole time. He chatters away about the song and eventually makes his way to the driver's seat.






After exhausting himself on the bus, he discover some large "builders"-- dump truck toys. These, naturally, are most excellent for racing around.




After a few warm up laps by himself we hear, "C'mon daddy!" and the races begin. Notice the advanced defensive racing technique, cutting off the opposing driver.

Learning Shoe Work with Daddy

The shoes come off. The shoes go on. The shoes come off. The shoes go on. This is life with a toddler. Liam's Montessori program really emphasizes independence, so we have to work hard to find toddler shoes that fit him well and that he can put on and fasten entirely on his own.

Event date: June 6, 2011

Liam loves Hockey (and Elliott)

One day Liam went over to play at his friend Elliot's house and got to watch the Nashville Predators, our local hockey team. And from that day forward hockey has been among his favorite sports. He especially loves to go over to Elliot's house and play hockey with Elliot, complete with sticks and helmets.

The images are sort of blurry but there's something nice about that too, because when the boys are together, the boys are sort of a blur of activity as well. Though amazingly, they play really well together, and even though rowdy we've yet to have one of them get injured with the stick. Perhaps its because of those awesome helmets...

Liam learns to spit...

There's a funny little thing about kids. Every once in a while something happens that makes you remember that these crazy wonderful little creatures don't know how to do so many of the things we take for granted. Like spit. It seems like little boys should know how to spit from birth. That your primary problem as a parent would be teaching them NOT to spit.

But after Liam turned two he was eligible to move up to big boy toothpaste with actual floride in it, provided he could learn to spit instead of swallow it all. So we had to begin the lessons in spitting. The first couple times he just couldn't get the idea. He would chug down the water, swallow and then open his (empty) mouth wide.

Then the very next morning he tried again and voila! victory!





Event date: May 19, 2011

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.