Wandering around the green and the fair

Liam has been having a rough time the past few days. He fell out of his crib yesterday morning at about 5 am (I'm pretty sure he found a way to bounce his way out), he's got the start of a cold, and more teeth are emerging. His mood has been less than chipper. But besides that, we have been fun exploring the world in new ways now that he can walk. He's taken to squirreling away little things in random places too. For example, we'll find a shoe and a book and maybe a pen which he put into his bike trailer, or we'll open the pots and pans drawer and find his bottle hiding out in there. I'm trying to tell him not to use the trash can to hide his little possessions, but I don't think he's quite caught on to that yet. He's getting better at sitting and reading too. He'll now pick up a book and walk over, and I can pick him up and put him in my lap and we can read the book together. He really likes turning pages and his interest to turn pages rapidly means the book gets in snippets as the pages fly by. Here's a video taken a couple weeks ago when I took Liam to the village green to practice his walking. As you can see, he's really getting the hang of it. The green was blissfully uncrowded on a weeknight as tourist season is starting to wind down.



Last weekend we went to the Common Ground Fair in Unity, ME. This was Liam's second time to the fair. He was *really* into it this year. We spent most of our time relaxing in the green in the middle of the fair and hanging out at the animal barns. We also took Liam to the children's area, but he was a little too small for most of the activities there. His favorite was the goat barn - I think he could have stayed there all day laughing and chirping and screeching with excitement. In the poultry barn, he was fascinated by the geese and started to mimic their honking sound. It's so cool to see him learn new things. So his repertoire of animal sounds now includes dog, kitty, duck, and fish (sucking sound with his lips). He tried a bunch of food at the fair including fried shiitke mushrooms, baked potato, strawberry cream puff, and a few varieties of heirloom apple they had in the kiddie tent.

Walking!

Liam came home from his daycare yesterday walking! It is true. He had been taking a few steps here and there the most being to dear little Eliza, who is the best little babysitter ever. She had him taking five steps to her one night when her parents Angie and Chris were watching Liam for us. Apparently, if we just leave Liam with other people, he comes back with new tricks. Yesterday though, he really took off. We took a little video of it tonight to show you all. It is the cutest damn thing to watch!

Vermont and Visitors

A few weeks ago now, Liam and I joined Mike on a business trip to Burlington, Vermont. Burlington is a great town located right on Lake Champlain. Liam did fantastically well the entire trip. One highlight for all of us was going to the Echo Lake Aquarium and Science center, which is located right at the water's edge. It was the first science center that Liam had been to. The center had a dinosaur display, which highlighted some big moving, sound making dinosaurs. Liam seemed totally unsure about the dinosaurs. He always seemed to keep one eye on them as if he were afraid they would start in after him. The science center also had a toddler room, which Liam adored. He made friends with the other kids in the toddler room and explored everything.
Burlington is a fantastic town as it has a nice little pedestrian street, which is blocked off to traffic. All of the restaurants on this street have outdoor seating making it really easy to have a little person with you. Liam and I spent much time wandering up and down this street exploring stores while Mike was in meetings.
When we got back from Vermont we had a couple of days and then Mike and I went to see James Taylor play in Portland. Our friend Barbara stayed with Liam making it our first night when neither of us was with him. We were so thankful to have a good friend whom we trusted enough to not have to worry about Liam and one who was willing to watch him! James Taylor was amazing!! We are thrilled that we got to see him.
A few days after coming back from Portland, Liam's Grammy and Grampy came to visit. We had a wonderful visit with them full of hiking, canoeing, good meals, playing with Liam and in general just good hanging out together. I believe that Grammy and Grampy were amazed by how active little Liam is. It is true that the boy never stops moving. Liam loved playing with his grandparents and was certainly sad to see them go. We all stood on the porch and waved goodbye and he gave us his very dramatic cry in which he is on his hands and knees and then drops his head and wails. The kid is born to be an actor!
The next day we picked up our good friend Mike Ostroski at the Bar Harbor Airport. Mike O arrived for the week ready to enjoy Maine in the summer. Mike gets up to visit every year to year and a half. This was his first time visiting in the summer. He was in love with how green it is here and how nice the temperature was. It was also his first time meeting Liam. He was great at entertaining Liam when Liam was sad. He would pick up the guitar and start singing to the little lad. Our favorite song of the week was kind of Greenday sounding called "Dancing with my Mom in the Morning." As with Grammy and Grampy's visit there was much good food, many good outdoor activities and in general just good companionship.
I started work last week. It was just teacher inservice days but it was getting back into the swing of things. Liam certainly knew that we were transitioning to a new kind of schedule and I am not sure he was thrilled. He has seemed really happy with his new daycare situation. I love picking him up and seeing him outside playing with the other kids. He loves being outdoors so I know he is happy.
Our camera was totally out of batteries for Mike O's visit and we couldn't find our charger so I will post pictures of that visit when we get Mike's pictures. Since we can't charge our camera all of our pictures with Grammy and Grampy are also going to have to be posted later. Stay tuned!
Finally, I have added a short video clip of Liam and his future drum career.