So excited!

Nana & Grandpa are coming this weekend & they are bringing Liam's belated Christmas present with them! It's belated because it wasn't "seasonal" when Christmas time was upon us but last time we were at Camp Carolina we went & picked it out and now they are bringing it up with them! I'm so very, very excited to get it set up & I cannot wait to see Liam's face when we bring him down to play with it!!!


He is going to be SO over the moon about this! His very own slide! In his very own backyard! When we moved into this house, I was so giddy about having my new bebe grow up with a backyard in his very first home, I felt so lucky to be able to give this to him. And he loves it too! And now, thanks to Nana & Grandpa he will have a fantastic Woodland Climber in his very own backyard!

This means so much to me; the ability to open the door & just have something for him to play with that he will love. It gets kind of boring kicking around one ball outside, you know? Then we can wash up & bring out his water table since, hopefully, Spring has really, truly arrived & the warm (85 degrees right now!) weather is here to stay! We've got his tarp to put up also & I want to get him some more little outdoor appropriate toys for him to destroy play with; like a dump truck and wagon to store his toys in! We broke out the bubbles last night & now they have taken a spot in the constant rotation of Things Liam Wants to do Right Now; already had to make the rule that There are No Bubbles After Dark! We've already been out twice this morning to blow more too!

My mood has been fantastic the last two days because of the weather & the excitement that it brings for me, I love being a mother to a little boy who just has to go, all the time, it feels me with so much enthusiasm for everything, it's almost disturbing! I love watching him run around in his shorts & buying him new sandals & teaching how to blow bubbles & not eat bubbles. And watching him discover his camp fire set yesterday was like being a child again myself; he had to examine each and every piece one at a time & then played with them all together so thrilled with each new piece he encountered. It's such a charming thing to watch him discover things.

I also want to get him a kite & a little sprinkler sprayer thing for him to play with.

I'm so excited that my parents get to share in all this fun-ness too! They will get such a kick out of watching him explore & exclaim his delight over his new "stuff"!

Come on Spring, come on weekend! Mama cannot wait much longer!

Life Jacket Practice - not a Favorite Thing!

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And in this corner, The OverScheduler!

I fear I might becoming one of those Mothers who have their kids doing too much with all the best intentions of keeping their child busy, entertained and out of the house where they love to be (or not be, as is this case).

Every weekday morning, we have an event that we go to. Park playdates, regular old playdates, Toddlin' Time, our walking group, live music fun, etc., etc. etc. and then in the afternoon I try and take us out again. Afternoons aren't as fun as mornings cause we will run our errands and he's usually stuck in a cart but then we have our swim lessons in the evening and he just LOVES those! He really loves everything we do but sometimes I think we are hustling & rushing & getting annoyed at breakfast taking too long, cups not being drank quick enough cause we have somewhere to be, people!

Then I discovered a Soccer Tots program in our area for 18+ month olds & I wanted to sign him up that instant. The session started like two days later & I wanted him in it badly. It was the right price and for 3 months' worth of Soccer Tots, I was right on that wagon and then I sent the information to Matias & he wanted to hold off. Read that again - Matias wanted to hold off on putting his son in soccer.

It dawned on me when I was looking at the schedule that I was having a hard time figuring out which class to choose because we're pretty full up most mornings & weekends are iffy cause we travel so much...I realized that maybe I was already becoming an OverScheduler. For a not quite two year old. And I seriously had to back away from the schedules & calendars. And we agreed that we would put him in the Fall/Winter session to get him out doing an activity during the horrible weather months & we planned to put him in another session of swim lessons before our pool opened on Memorial Day to keep him in the water & in an activity.

But then we learned that the next session doesn't start until JUNE. And, I seriously almost nearly panicked without an activity to put him in. I thought about joining the Soccer Tots (you can join any time and they pro-rate your cost) because, seriously, the boy LOVES going out and doing things & I love having him in a structured environment with other kids and all the structured learning that goes along with that. And then I backed away from the Parks & Rec catalog again.

But, I still feel the need to check out some tumbling classes or music appreciation class (that doesn't cost more than a car payment ((and I know someone's thinking 'car payment? what car payment?' HA! HA!)) but I finally somewhat gave in & handed Liam the catalog of an Over Scheduler's Dreams for him to destroy, color & keep out of my hands.

...but I spy it now, sitting over there calling to me, singing its sweet siren song of OverSchedulers Delights...

This is the Pope calling...

Way back when we were told that we would totally get tickets to see the Pope in DC since Matias' sister is studying in Rome right now & that she had a "connection" that was fool proof. We were put on High Alert with orders to pick up our tickets at Will Call tomorrow for the Mass at Nationals Stadium. Then we were told that we were to wait for a call officially confirming all of this. Well that call never came, sadly.

I joked that we were waiting for the Pope himself to call us and then found out that we were in fact waiting for a call from Rome and not from his sister but from someone in the church or something or maybe Matias is just pulling my pagan leg. Either way, we didn't get a phone call & it's past midnight in Rome now so it looks like our sure thing sure wasn't.

Kind of a bummer because it would have been a special time for Matias & Liam, sure I would have found it neat to be a part of it but obviously not in the same way my Catholic boys would have. I'm not sad about getting up before dawn to take the metro into town to stand in the Pope knows how many lines to get inside finally to wait for a Mass with a toddler, you know? Hopefully, this won't be a once in a lifetime missed opportunity though & some other day, some time, probably some other place, my Catholic boys can see the Pope together, as I do feel it's important for them to share in this experience together.

Matias said that it would be like seeing the Royal Family trying to light some sort of fire under my enthusiasm but I do have to say that those two things do not generate the same sort of "fire" for me! Yes, I would love to be a part of a historical event but sometimes you gotta realize when he's just not that into you and the Pope sometimes just doesn't return his calls like he says he will.

Meet The Loopholer

My son seems to have inherited my most favorite (rolls eyes) trait from his father (it's only 'father' when it's something bad, btw!) - he finds every single loophole there is and exploits it to no end.

Now, I'm sure every kid goes through this phase (it's a phase, right!?!?!) but if he doesn't look just like his father whenever he attempts it, I would think otherwise. It's like I'm watching Matias trying to get one over on me. And let me tell you, that gig was up YEARS ago, my friends. There is no pulling any such thing past me but whoa does this Fellow of mine sure try.

He is no longer allowed to freely roam around our bathroom and he knows this. BUT he will sit right outside the door, and scoot backwards inch by tiniest of inches until he just happens to have moved himself completely into the bathroom. The look on his face the entire time is very much I wonder how I keep getting closer to this place I know I'm not supposed to be, how does this keep happening? Scoot, scoot, wonder, wonder, scoot. Also he will throw a ball, typically a cat toy, in there because you know he's not supposed to throw things without going to retrieve them so in essence he is not doing anything Wrong.

LOOPHOLER.

Same thing with the stairs to downstairs when Dada is working - he throws anything he can get his hands on with the excuse of going to get it. And trust me, he knows he isn't supposed to go down there when Dada is working, but he will find a way that is legitimate if not approved of at his juncture.

Same thing with going outside in the back - there are times when that is just not going to happen - be it falling rain, freezing cold, or dark of night. My little Loopholer will beckon the cats to come hither so that he might unlock and open the door for THEM to go out. He's not really opening it for himself, but simply so that the cats might enjoy the night air or perhaps relieve themselves outside as Mystic is want to do.

I often wonder if there is some hidden audience he turns to after accomplishing each Loophole and gives them a sly wink or a brisk nod of the head before being noticed by us Unsuspecting Adults. Little boy, let me tell you a little something, Mama has been dealing with The Loophole for many years now & is fully versed in your LiamLogic Loopholer Ways and will not be fooled, tricked or look how cute he is-ed out of recognizing the gig as soon as you hit play.

I'm sure it's been fun while it lasted but your time is up, Little Loopholer, I'm so onto you; you won't be able to scoot backwards fast enough.

Smooches to my Loopholer, Mama loves you anyways :)

Spring is here! First morning at the park!

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Introducing Mr. Silly!

Nana got him this Elmo tshirt for Easter & he wore it on Sunday night after an unfortunate incident with the lake in front of our house (don't ask, I wasn't Parent in Charge!) and fell in Love with it. So much so that he insisted on wearing it again yesterday - the first time he has requested certain clothing & made a fuss about it until I put it on him. Then this morning he nearly made enough of a fuss that he almost got to wear it again but Mama prevailed & got some new, clean clothes on the Fellow.

Mr. Silly might more correctly be named Mr. Silly Cookie Face at the moment!

My Little Helper

Liam has always been a big fan of being My Little Helper with grown up things; feeding the cats, watering the plants, sweeping the floors, doing the laundry but not so much with picking up his own toys. Mr. Destructo has the knack of following right behind me if I make the fatal error of cleaning up while he's around and destroying, dumping & knocking over everything I have just put away.

I normally don't put his toys up while he's in the vicinity simply for that reason as it just causes a bigger mess that ends up with me doing it all over again. But lately, things have changed. Lately, after he's been playing with something independently he picks it all up & puts it away! This miracle doesn't occur 100% (or even 75%) of the time but slowly he's starting to help put his toys away. And he always gets great big "thank yous" and sometimes even a little snuggle from me depending on how large of a mess he picked up so he gets very excited about it all; although it can be to the point of undoing his cleaned up toys in order to clean them up again to get more "thank yous" and little snuggles. Cute, but definitely eye-rolling worthy after a long day.

The first time I noticed it, I could barely believe what he had just done! He was playing with his coffee set from Argentina that I keep in a basket for him and when I turned to watch him playing by himself I realized that he had put every single item back where it belonged and I waited as the clouds parted, the sun shone & angels sang. It's been a long, long Hurricane Season in this household & any help from anyone on this front is much appreciated.

He's always been a big fan of emptying baskets, bags & buckets and putting them back in as play but never when he's through with that activity so there's a lot to be picked up after, you know? And the anal retentive in me doesn't even freak out when he doesn't do it right. I have a tendency to go behind people and redo things they have done to be sure they were done right but I know by doing this with him that will most likely lead to a little self-doubting from him & I really don't want to do that! So I leave books astray & shoved in their baskets, lids on lunch boxes aren't closed all the way cause a hoof is hanging out & blocks are stacked incorrectly (geez, I even rolled my eyes at myself on that one!) because at least Liam did it & made the effort to help clean up! At the end of the day, I can even bring myself to find it endearing when I see all his toys haphazardly put up, knowing that it was a Fellow Effort that made it that way. And then after he's gone to bed, I straighten it all up, waiting for tomorrow so that we can do it all over again. Joyfully.

Sunday Mash Up

Quick laundry list of new words & new signs, etc.:

New Words:

1. bus
2. noodles
3. bag
4. pancakes (for both pancakes & French toast)
5. garbage (FellowSpeak = Ge)
6. airplane (FellowSpeak = Gee accompanied with plane noises)
   

New Signs:

1. milk
2. banana
3. shoes
4. ball
5. dog
6. cat
   

New Favorite Songs

1. Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes (complete with head patting & knee patting finishing it off with a large round of applause)
2. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
3. Hookie Pookie (this one we sing at swim lessons)

Two to Three Word Sentences:

1. Dada's car
2. More pancakes
3. mmmm applesauce!
4. More milk (both signing & verbal)

He's really been accelerating with his signs lately & his sentences - so cool to watch! He is very proud of himself also when he puts more than one sign together, properly. We've been watching a lot of pictures (on the screen saver gallery option) and he gets so very excited pointing out all the people & things he sees and knows!

Because he can TOTALLY do it!

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Bottomless Pit!

Now, I know it's going to sound ridiculous that I am going to "complain" about how much Liam is eating, oh but I am not going to let that stop me. This could be another growth spurt, this could be just something to do or finally this kid has just started to really, truly put some food away.

This is what he has had this morning between 8 & noon:

• 7 oz of milk
• 4 ounces of peach medley apple sauce
• 4 ounces of apple yogurt
• 1 piece of cinnamon french toast slathered with butter
• 4 oz of strawberry apple sauce
• 5 oz of peach cottage cheese
• 7 oz of milk
• numerous snackies

Before the day is done he will probably have 2 more apple sauces & another yogurt on top of his milk intake & dinner entree. I'm really not taking issue with how much he seems to be eating but rather with oh my god, could I please do something other than wrestle spoons out of his hands, wipe apple sauce off of every surface or more so WHEN CAN I STOP FEEDING THIS KID AND LET HIM GO ON AND FEED HIMSELF ALL THE TIME?????

Seriously, I'm getting kind of sick of feeding him. Is that bad? Or just weird? Or both. Cause you know it could totally be GOOD in a WEIRD way. And I'd be ok with that. I would. I totally would.

Getting Ready to Clear the Fields

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