Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Picnic and Bedtime




Liam was a total toddler today. He was a crazy mix of frustrating and adorable. This morning Mike and I were both ready to pull our hair out due to a nonsensical tantrum before we all headed out for the day. Thankfully, tonight he melted our hearts by having a cute picnic with "lots and lots of friends." If that wasn't cute enough, when I went up to go to bed I peeked in and saw Liam with two books propped up and him fast asleep. There are many of my habits that I wish Liam would not have picked up. I adore the fact that he has to have at least one book in his bed when he is heading to sleep. That is a habit I hope he always keeps.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Crazy blue worm

Hmm...it seems like our house has been infested by a large alien worm from a faraway planet!! Oh, nevermind. Just Liam.


Liam downhill skiing



Liam had his first true downhill experience on Sunday. We have had him on his downhill skis a couple of times now generally just trekking him up small hills and letting him slide down. Sunday, however, we took him on the chairlift and let him ski down the hill with the help of the Ski Leash. He did amazingly well. He loved riding on the lift. I couldn't get over how natural being on skis was for him. The skis became an extension of his body and his was able to figure out the balance necessary to ski without falling. I had to do very little with the leash except for periodically use it to guide a turn or to help him stand up when he did fall. He is quite the little athlete and I love it. I so look forward to sharing skiing with him in years to come, just as Mom and Dad did with us.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Swimming, Christmas, and Cake Batter



Hello blog, remember me? Ah yes. But really, did anyone think that two procrastinators such as Tara and me could make it beyond one year?? So I guess we already defied the expectations. Hah!

Liam is rapidly approaching the 2.5 mark and astonishingly I see the first glimmers of little boy and less toddler as the weeks go by. He certainly seems taller, and he's a heck of a lot heavier, and looking over here at the door frame where we measure height, he's grown a good inch since his birthday in June. And he's grown in so many other ways - little milestones that he crosses that seemed so far away when he was born are now a matter of course. He is singing along to songs and and sit and can sit and look at books (for short periods of time). He can run - fairly fast too! - and he can hop around the house like a frog. This past weekend we went for free swim at the Y and he really took to the water like he never had before. He was extremely comfortable jumping in from the side holding on to my hands, and even going under the water as we traversed between lanes in the pool. He climbed on to my back and hung on as I swam a lap down to the deep end of the pool where we watched people diving in from the diving board. We practiced a bit of kicking and paddling, but my hope is he learns how to swim naturally. That just through time and experience, one day he just goes. A few weeks ago, Liam got his first pair of real downhill skis - handmedowns from a friend at work - but real bindings and real metal edges. We just need to find the boots. Liam is thrilled - he knows exactly what they are and what they do and the day we got them he was standing on them on the living room rug and asked to go sking. So between swimming and skiing, it is going to be an active and fun winter. Anything to get us through darkness at 4 pm.


And there have been some other milestones that cause us to pause. Such as the first time we think he had a nightmare and said it was a monster. Where does that come from? Learned or simply experienced and 'monster' - was the word he heard other people using? Who knows. I think the first monster he ever enocountered was the cookie one. Liam definitely wants to experience life first hand. His way of saying, 'I can do it', like when descending stairs, is to say 'my turn', and he does get frustrated when you say, no, it's not your turn, it's my turn and we have to get moving, so let's not dawdle and yadda yadda yadda. It's enouraging to see how he's taken on the concept that failure is not an endpoint but a reason to try again. He's likes to say 'try again,' or 'maybe next time' and tends to not get frustrated with immobile things in life. He saves that frustration for mobile things like his parents, who tend from time to time to hold him back against his will. I know, it's rough for 2.5 year olds.


Liam is extremely excited about Christmas; mostly for the lights and the music, and the shows, and less, I think, for the presents, which he hasn't mentioned and therefore, I don't think he really understands. The day after we set up the tree, he crawled underneath the branches to look up at the lights and later he decided to crawl in behind the tree, hiding himself in a corner, but probably in a world of colorful lights. He is also asking to listen to 'Christmas Songs' and seems to like just about anything we put on - JT, Martin Sexton, and the inimitable John Denver, of course. We're heading back to OH and NY at the end of next week, but before we leave we're going to try to have a pre-Christmas just to ourselves. Should be fun.


Wednesday, October 08, 2008

First Dentist


I can't think of a better reason to post on this blog than to tell you that Liam had his first trip to the dentist today. Unfortunately, the trip to the dentist was predicated by two trips of the other sort. In the first instance he tripped and landed face first on a ceramic bocce ball. That ended up in a trip to to the ER, lots of blood, a chipped front tooth, and a couple other teeth that were moved back a bit. Stove-up as they say in Maine. And then last Thursday, he fell down the basement steps. Again, the banged up his mouth and tore that little flap of skin that attaches your top gums to your upper lip. The ferenium, I think. More blood, but we did have him checked out and no head trauma, concussion, etc.

So, we made an appointment with a pediatric dentist at the suggestion of the ER, to have things checked out.

The dentist is up in Bangor, so it's basically a half-day outing. Liam and I arrived and I filled out the forms while he played with the many toys in the waiting room. Then we were led back into the exam room. They've obviously done this once or twice, and Liam being two, they were fully prepared for a full on rebellion. Which is what they got. But it was fairly gentle. I held him in my lap such that I had his legs wrapped around my waist and I held his hands in mine. The nurse/hygenist held his head and did both a cleaning and inspection. Then the dentist came in for a look. All in all, they said that his injuries were fairly minor and that they see much worse. We still won't know for a few months if the jacked up teeth have fractured in any way, and even that won't be known unless the teeth turn color or an infection forms. They didn't do an xray because there was no way Liam was sitting still. All in all, it was a good visit if not entirely satisfying for dad. But what can they really do? The damage is already done and all we do now is wait and see. In the end, Liam was extremely glad to leave and only partially pacified by the stickers, balloon, and free toothbrush.


And finally, I'll note that one of my great realizations of fatherhood has been that the songs 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star', the 'ABCs' song, and 'Ba Ba Black Sheep', are all the SAME TUNE. Who knew?? Well, apparently Liam has figured this out.



Monday, September 01, 2008

A Whole Lot of Catching Up....











As is abundantly clear, we have not done a very good job keeping up with the blog this summer. Therefore, some catching up is in order. Our summer was pretty good. The weather in Maine was nasty and rainy for a good part of the summer but we did manage to get in some good times. Over the Fourth of July weekend, we went on a fantastic kayak camping trip to an island off the coast of Deer Isle. It was a beautiful non-rainy weekend full of kayaking, swimming, yummy food and great friends.
In July, Liam and I went back to Ohio to visit our family. It was so nice to be home. Liam had an awesome time with his cousins. He was a total champ in the car to and from Ohio. Thankfully, I had our friend Kay Raplenovich with us on the way to Ohio and Mom on the way back to Maine. They both did a really good job of keeping Liam entertained.
With the beginning of August came a trip to Nova Scotia with Grammy and Grampy. It was so beautiful there despite some rainy days. We drove along the Cabot Trail traveling through the National park. It was so gorgeous! We also went to a really neat fort that was kind of similar to Willimsburg. Liam was a big fan of the fort aside from when the soldiers would play their drums and flutes. He seemed to find that pretty menacing.
Liam had a ball throwing about a million rocks into the ocean with Grammy and Grampy. He can throw rocks all day long and be perfectly happy. Good thing Maine is so rocky!

Liam is turning into such a little boy. His language amazes us as it seems so much more advanced then a normal two-year-old (every mother must say that though...). He cracks us up daily. Ever since his birthday party in June, he loves to yell out "Happy Birthday Cake!" The cake part is always tagged onto the end. He has recently taken to pretending to cook birthday for us and passing out imaginary pieces. We walked into the kitchen the other day and he had an oven mitt on one hand and a kitchen towel hung over his shoulder. He had the oven door open (thankfully, the oven was off) and turned around to pull his "cake" out of the oven. It was pretty clear that he had been doing a lot of observing of our cooking habits. Liam also amazes us with his ability to sing and remember songs. He loves to sing Moonshadow, Circle Game, Mike O's song I can Be Anything, and other songs like the ABC's and Twinkle, Twinkle. He often comes out with lyrics that we had no idea he knew. It is pretty darn cute. He is so fun to interact with at this point in his life. I love two, if only we could rid him of some of his meltdowns and make him more pleasant to take out to eat. I guess we can't have everything. We are hoping to squeeze in another camping trip or two before winter is upon us. With any luck we will not only camp but post about it in a more timely manner!

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

A little home improvement

Time to play a little catch up here...

Grammy and Grampy visited over Memorial Day weekend, and when they are here, it usually means a project (or three). As you can see Liam was extremely helpful moving our large pile of dirt.

Or, perhaps a wheelbarrow is better used as a sedan chair.


Liam took his share of water breaks. It was a hot day.