Structured Chaos

At 17 months Liam is WIDE OPEN.

He is everywhere, all the time, at the speed of light.

Just for fun lets run through an average day at our house.
8:00 am Liam wakes, gets a diaper change and hits the ground running.
while I make breakfast he takes all of the clean dish towels out of the drawer and throws them onto the floor.
8:30 Liam eats breakfast, I pick up dishtowels and stuff them, unfolded, back into the drawer.
8:50 After shaking the milk out of his "leak proof" sippy cup and soaking his breakfast in it, Liam swipes the remaining scrambled eggs, toast and banana off of his tray and onto the floor.
9:00 concluding a battle to get his hands and face wiped I set Liam free and drop to my knees not only to clean the milky-egg mess but to summon the strength to get through to nap time.
9:30 I shoo Liam out of the oven drawer and into the living room to play while I put all of the cookie sheets back and finally pour some coffee.
10:30 Story time. Liam will pick out several books for me to read and then he forcibly turns the pages faster than I can read them.
11:30 Nap time. While Liam sleeps I: check email, pick up toys, exercise,sweep and/or vacuum as needed, empty then load dishwasher, make the bed, put away laundry, make and scarf down lunch, waste time on facebook and various other websites, jump in the shower and prepare lunch for Liam.
1:30 Liam wakes and starts screaming because he's gotten his chunky little thigh caught between the slats in his crib rail.
1:40 Liam eats lunch.
2:00 Repeat shaking of the juice onto the tray then splashing the refuse to the floor etc...
2:30 Liam gets cleaned up and we head outside to play. If the mosquitoes don't immediately eat us alive we'll play in our yard alternating between the pool, sandbox and various other toys. Often trying to bring the sand into the pool and visa versa.
3:30 snack time, for quick cleanup snack is usually enjoyed outside. And by enjoyed I mean eaten only after it has hit the ground, been stepped on and inspected by various bugs.
4:00 Errands, we jump into the car to hit the grocery store, bank, post office or whatever. While in the car Liam finds a sippy cup half full with soy milk. FROM DAYS AGO. And gulps it down as though he were stranded on a desert island and just discovered water. Within seconds the curdled mess comes back up, all over Liam and his carseat.
5:30 A quick change of clothes then Liam and I hit the kitchen to prepare dinner. If he's not too cranky we pull a chair up to the counter so Liam can help. After a few minutes of 'helping' Liam toddles off to discover, and eat, a few macaroni hiding under the fridge.
6:00 Dinner. Repeat breakfast/lunch scene.
6:30 I clean up the mess from Liam's dinner while Liam attempts to help by picking up food off of the floor and putting it in his toy box.
7:00 Bathtime. Liam plays in the tub occasionally splashing most of the water out of the tub and onto me. After bath we begin The Dance, wherein Liam and I lock horns in a struggle as old as time: getting ready for bed. More specifically brushing teeth and putting on jammies.
7:30 Story time. Usually, Dr. Seuss will provide just the right amount of entertainment to maintain his interest while simultaneously lending a soothing cadence to help wind down from a busy day.
8:00 Bedtime. phew.

8:10 Chris returns home from work.

I wonder what's on the agenda for tomorrow?

Love Wins

Aunt Kimmy was there the day Liam was born.

I mean right there, front row seats. In fact, judging from the amount of work my OB did, Kimmy could have pinch hit while the doc went for coffee.
She was there, eager, to babysit whenever I needed a break or just a shower. She called him her sweet angel boy because when she was with Liam his colic magically subsided. Hand to God. Only now is it clear that that was a tell tale sign: he cherished his time with her.

She loved him, because thats what she did; thats who she was, Love. And even though he wont remember their time together he'll feel her love for him and he will know what they shared.

"They that love beyond this world cannot be separated by it."

Love Wins.

Sweet revenge.

Scene: 7:00 am Saturday morning
Mommy wakes the sound of Liam stirring over the monitor. Mommy waits until his jibber-jabber turns to frustration because no one has come to spring him from the confines of his crib. Realizing that daddy has no intention of getting up to tend to his son, mommy rolls out of bed and staggers groggily to the nursery. Liam's grin upon seeing mommy is almost worth being woken so early. Almost. At this point Mommy has two options: take Liam downstairs to play quietly over coffee and juice or...



If mama's not happy aint nobody happy.

Homemade Haircut

Everywhere we go people always mistake Liam for a little girl. When he was a new baby I didn't mind- you really can never tell with babies and most people aren't observant enough to consider the clothing- but now that hes older, a little person, its really starting to bother me. Even after I took him to Peek-a-do to have his first haircut people still called him a her. His first cut didn't really go short enough, he still had hair over his ears and in his eyes. Although I really can't fault our hairdresser I'm just thankful we made it out of there without puncture wounds all over his scalp.
So the other day I decided to take matters into my own hands. Im convinced (if Chris ever lets me) with practice I will get better at it! I happen to think, despite the crooked bangs, that I did a great job considering I had a moving target.
Here is Liam with his new homemade haircut. He's getting very upset with me because its time to come in from our outdoor play to take a nap.

But mama, I don't wanna take a nap

what if I make this cute face, then can we go back outside?

(wait for it....)

Meltdown!

These boots are made for walkin...

Now that Liam has these cute little puddle jumpers

it will likely never rain again!

Spaghetti Dinner

Now that Liam has been going to the daycare at my gym, he's been catching all these little nasty germs that, every few weeks, turn into a runny nose or a ugly cough. Combine that with separation anxiety and squarely focusing all of his attention on walking and he doesn't have much interest in anything else, including eating.
He now turns his nose up at almost everything I put on his tray. Unless its a cookie or, apparently, spaghetti!

Off roadin' in the front yard

Hello! Long time no see! How have you been? Oh, us? we're doing good- hanging in there, you know.

So its been a while and I have a good excuse for the first few weeks: my computer was infested with this really annoying virus that crippled every program. So I dropped it off to my computer guy who then took a week and a half get around to looking at it and then took 5 minutes to fix it and then charged me 120 bucks. What a racket.
But the good news is the virus is gone. The (other) bad news is so was my itunes and all of my music and my loyalty to that particular computer guy.

Anyway, all the glitches are cleared up so we can get back to it.

We had a really bad cold snap in January and there was a week or so when it was just too cold and/or rainy for Liam to play outside for any stretch of time. But as soon and it warmed up we were outside four wheelin' up a storm!
Liam and his ATV.

Taking a break from tearing up the lawn for a photo op.

Tricky dismount.

Dead battery- a sure end to the fun... Ma where's the cord!??