Camera Hog

Liam has been asking for the "pamma" to make videos lately. This is his latest production:



And to add to the list of fun words that he has been saying:
-dawbies (strawberries)
-buttfly (butterfly)
-fuddah (thunder)
-raycar (racecar)
-peedoo (computer)
-doop (scoop--it used to be syoop and it's morphed)
-baffobe (bathrobe)
-pamma (camera)
-mats (match)
-mits (mix)
He also says 'dis way' and 'dat way' correctly. He's just a 3 ft tall genius. Well, almost 3 ft.
;)
love
b

Happy 21-monthiversary, Liam!

Liam, you're tall! :)
We love you, have a great day today!
love,
Mommy and Daddy

Proud Momma

Happy Mother's Day! I hope all of the mommies out in the blogosphere had a lovely day today. I am getting over the flu, but thankfully had some of my energy back and after a nice sleep-in was able to participate in a wonderful Mother's day with my favourite little guy, Liam, and my absolutely favourite person, Scott. Liam drew me a lovely picture and Scott and Liam got me a massaging chair cushion. Ahhhh. In Liam's picture, Scott wrote Liam's name, but Liam spelled it for him. He tries writing it, but for now, it's just light scribbles. He traced over the word, "Mommy" in the picture with a scribble for each letter. Soon he'll be published like his Mommy and Daddy, I'm sure. ;)

So, since the last post, Scott and I have been writing down more Liamisms so we can add to the list of Daily Fun Things Liam Says. So here are some that we've noted, BUT, I've made it into a game! Try to guess what these things mean (some are obvious, others...not so much!):



-bi-mins

-puddo

-panno

-hai-pin

-effint

-fis

-dis

-ahbow

-hockey

-kisses

-hugs

-us-suh down

-woos

-side

-cuddohs

-"Ho-hi!"

-ohgurt

-bargage

-"feddy"

-fuhd

-"bess oo"

-ah-keem

-bah-rees

-a-bet

-finiture

-fengine

-assauce

-gu-ul

-dude





And here are the answers:


-bi-mins = vitamins

-puddo = puzzle

-panno = piano

-hai-pin = airplane

-effint = elephant

-fis = fix

-dis = this

-ah-bow = elbow

-hockey = hockey

-kisses = kisses

-hugs = hugs

-uh-suh down = upside down

-woos = woosh

-side = slide

-cuddohs = cuddles

-"Ho-hi!" = "Hello?...hi!" on the phone

-ohgurt = yogurt

-bargage = garbage

-"feddy" = "your food is ready"

-fuhd = the song "What a Wonderful World" (world)

-"bess oo" = "bless you"

-ah-keem = ice cream

-bah-rees = batteries

-a-bet = alphabet

-finiture = furniture

-fengine = fire engine

-assauce (tee hee!) = applesauce

-gu-ul = girl

-dude = dude


:)


Some are pretty clear--he actually has a lot of clear words that he says that I didn't include, these are just the cutest ones to hear him say.

{Edited to add: Mom reminded me of one more Liamism that I have seemed to have blocked from my memory. As Mom, Liam and I were headed to the library a couple of weeks ago, for storytime, Liam told he he wanted his "fockers". I said, "You're what?!" "Fockers!!" and he went to the closet and got out his frog shoes. :) }

Yesterday he did something amazing: he generated his own rhyme to a word! This is pretty cool...when I did my research study for my Master's thesis project, I tested 4-5 year old non-reading children about their awareness of phonological knowledge, including rhymes. The kids had to tell me if two words rhymed (yes or no) and then a harder task was to actually tell me the part of the word that rhymed for a set of word that I gave them. A lot of them could indicate yes or no to a pair of rhyming or non-rhyming words, but it was significantly harder for them to identify what part of a word rhymed my given words (ie "at" is the 'rime' of cat and hat, so when given the two words, the kids would have had to say "at").

But yesterday Liam was able to generate his own rhyme! This is kind of a step between the two tasks above. Scott was trying to get Liam to guess the colour 'pink'...so he said, "it rhymes with 'ink,'" and then we both kind of laughed and said that he probably wouldn't understand that, so we started listing off rhyming words like drink, sink, think and then Liam piped up with "wink!" (there's this library book that he LOVES that has a boy winking in it, so he always flips to that page and puts his finger to his eye to wink.) We were pretty amazed! So, Liam is surpassing my research study kids...although, he woudn't have qualified anyway for the study, since all of the kids who could read were "disqualified" as being too advanced for the study. And Liam is up to reading about 18 words now: me, no, go, Mommy, Daddy, Liam, baby, Nana, Poppa, pool, book, cat, dog, cow, cold, hot, food, stop, bee; and some that I will have to check on but I think he can read are: car, milk. So, about 21 words.

Needless to say, I have a lot of reasons to be a proud Momma, but most of all, Liam is just a sweet, funny, hugable, laid-back kid who I just love to hang out with day after day. I'm a very lucky Mommy.

love

b

Liamisms

Liam is just doing way too many cute things these days and I'm trying to keep track of them all. His baby book is filling up, and my plan to make a book of this blog one day will hopefully keep them for posterity, but only if I actually make a blog entry!

So, here goes!

Liam is able to speak in 3 word phrases these days, one of his first being, "I go poop," to Nana when they were playing and he had to run off to the corner of the living room for some privacy. He likes to describe things he's doing like plugging something into the computer "pug in paddo" or singing the "bus" song (wheels on the bus) and saying "up-n-down". He likes playing the "panno" (piano) and has gotten clearer at saying, "peas help" when he needs something. He likes drinking his "waddert" (water) and standing things up on their ends and saying, "I taw." (I'm tall) When going to sleep after being tucked in, as soon as he senses you are about to leave, he says, "Hand!" and wants you to hold his hand for a minute before going. When he wants you to take something that he's handing you, or that you have, he'll say, "tay-tay". During mealtimes, he loves everyone else's cutlery and will often take yours and give you his, saying "tade." (trade)

He's a little Mr Echo and will usually repeat the last word Scott or I would say, even resorting to yelling out, "Jeez!" every once in a while.

Today, after naptime, when I told him that we were going to the park to play, he got all concerned and said, "Owwies" and pointed to his eyes. Then he said, "gasses". I asked him if he wanted some sunglasses to wear outside because it was bright and it hurt his eyes and he said, "yes".

Poppa brought his guitar down to pass on to Liam and while he and Nana were here, Poppa played some songs and Liam strummed along. So now, when Liam sees the guitar, he says, "Poppa. 'Itar."

Liam loves going "owside" to play with his "twucks" and see the "fwowehs" (flowers) and dig in the garden "deiwt" with his "wake" (rake) and "syoop" (scoop). He likes to ride in the little car and on his trike. We go for walks to see the "cane" (crane) and "mix" (cement mixer) in the construction sites. He likes drawing and will often request a picture of a "happy" (happy face).

Reading has been a huge part of Liam's daily life since birth--Scott or I would read his books to him in the morning and throughout the day and always before bedtime. Liam also crawls up on the couch to read his books by himself sometimes, too. Lately, Liam has been finishing the sentences in the books--even for new ones from the library that he's only heard a handful of times. Here is a video of Liam reading one of his books with Nana.

All is "growing" well with Baby #2--we are 27 weeks this week. My neighbour, who was pregnant with twins who are now Liam's age, told me that she was on bedrest at 27 weeks! I can't imagine. I would go crazy! :)

Mom and Dad were here last week for a visit and Mom helped me with the flower beds. We got tomatoes, basil, parsley, cilantro and strawberries planted in the back, and lots of flowers and flower pots planted in the front. Last night, I coiled some sprinkler hoses in the flower beds and covered them with mulch for easy watering (Mom's great idea!) and set up both sprinklers to get the grass in the back covered so the seed will grow this week. It was a busy couple of days getting everything done, and my daily tasks now just include watering the pots, chasing sprinklers every 20 minutes or so and making sure that Liam doesn't dig up or walk on the flowers...or lock me out of the house like he did today! Thank goodness he likes being a good helper and opened up the door right away so I didn't have to resort to the back up plan of going all the way around to the garage and finding the spare key to open up the door. This child is too smart for his own good sometimes!

Well, this place is in need of some tidying, so I'd better get on that. Then it's straight to bed!

love,

b

Happy 20-monthiversary, Liam!

Hope you have a fun day!

We love you very much!

love,

Mommy and Daddy

Cultivating an Interest in Theatre

When Elmo Grows Up

Last Saturday, Liam and I went with some friends to see Elmo. Live. Dancing. And singing. With his Sesame Street Friends. It was awesome.

Momma, Liam, Madison and Beti

It marked Liam's first show in a theatre. He did very well, considering he had to stay in one tiny spot for over 75 mins with a brief intermission in between. He was able to stand on the seat, and sit, and crawl all over Momma and dance on the floor, so it wasn't too bad. He had plenty of snacks, too (very important) to keep him happy. Liam was fascinated with all of the lights, and the singing and dancing giants on stage. He loved seeing 'Melmo', 'Nernie', 'Baba' (Big Bird), 'Gogo' (Grover), and all of the others.

I give these actors credit for dancing around with these heavy costumes on!

Prarie Dawn and Big Bird--ahhh, old school.

Liam's first reaction when the show started. Kind of like a "hmmmm."

Liam and his little friend Madison. This must have been during a 'boring' talking part of the show...

Liam and Momma

love,

b

Happy Easter Family!

Today we had our family Easter egg hunt! A wee bit early, because Scott headed out to St. Petersburg, Florida this afternoon for his next race and will be gone all weekend. The Raymonds are heading up this way next weekend for Easter and that weekend will be jam-packed with a town egg hunt, and a neighbourhood egg hunt on Saturday and the Raymond Eastereggstravaganza on Sunday, so this gave Liam a chance to polish up his egg-hunting skills with a quiet egg hunt at home with just the family. (ahem, remember last year? Boy Scouts' motto: be prepared. And bring extra eggs.)

So, last night we decorated our Easter tree and got the eggs all prepped. This morning, Scott and I took turns hiding the eggs (6 each) and Liam found them all. Once he found the first one, he was like a hound set loose! He was on the trail! After he filled his basket, we sat down and opened them to find lots of fun things inside. We pulled out his Easter basket and he went wild with all! of! the! little! cars! and! trucks! and! balls! His absolute favourite things in the world. Not that we need anymore, but what can you do?

So enjoy the photo montage!

The Easter Tree

Liam and the Easter Tree

Liam and his ears from last year.

Oh, there's an egg in the farm!

Ohhh! I see one!

This is fun!!

You can't fool me!

There are a lot of eggs!

There's even one at the track!

Got it!

Another one!

Let's see what's inside: a lizard and some chocolate!

An Easter basket full of cars, trucks, balls, paint and animals!

Little cars.

A fancy wooden racecar.

Look, Daddy! A Gasoline Truck!

A multitude of construction vehicles and animals living in harmony.

Go go car!

And the best of all: a beach ball!

Up up, beach ball!

Our little flower of spring!

A kiss for Daddy.

Oh, silly Daddy!

Peek-a-boo Blue Eyes!

So, we all had a blast.

Liam's been especially talkative the past week or so, and we can even have a bit of a conversation with him. He has moved from whining to using his words when he wants something, even if it's "please" and we are left guessing as to what he 'please' wants or "go" if he is all done and wants to go play. His words are becoming much clearer--for example, today in the garden he picked up a rock, and said, "A rock!" and threw it.

However, there are times when we are just out-to-lunch with what he's talking about. Yesterday, he kept sayin this one word over and over again. It sounded like "cock". Seriously. But whenever Scott or I would ask him "What's cock?" he would laugh hysterically. It was like he was saying to himself, "Haha, I got them to say 'cock'!" Today, the word was "hey". When we would ask him, "Liam, what's 'hey'?" again he would just laugh his big, deep belly laugh and look at us as if to say, "Gotcha!" This kid is a riot.

This afternoon, after Scott flew out, Liam and I met up with some other mommies and kids for dinner at Red Robin. They are famous for giving out free balloons. (and their yummy burgers, apparently, but whatever) So, after a lovely dinner with friends, we left behind a bit of a balloon graveyard above our table. You see, it's easier to just get another balloon for our kids to play with when they start getting antsy than packing up and heading home to an empty house. It was well worth the sacrifice.

Well, another busy week while Scott's away: library and playgroup tomorrow, shopping and playdate/dinnerdate on Friday, ELMO!! on Saturday (yay, MELMO! and NERNIE! and the rest of the Sesame Street crew!) For a kid who never watches Sesame Street, he's still innundated with Sesame Street stuff! The characters are on his diapers for heaven's sake! Liam walks around with an Ernie diaper because he likes Ernie so much. (Thankfully, a real Ernie doll is on order and should arrive any day...) We have a birthday party to attend on Saturday, too, for our 2 year old neighbour. Scott will be home on Sunday, so time should fly pretty quickly.

Well, my dry spell is over. This post is going up!

love,

b