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

Beautiful baby

We went for our 20 week ultrasound this morning. Liam was thrilled again to see the "baaaaybeeee!" All looks very good--the doc was happy with how the baby is progressing. He/she is measuring a day bigger, so we are right on track. Our ultrasound technician was the same from our last ultrasound at this office--very sweet lady. She was really fixated on the baby's face, in particular, his/her mouth--she said the babe's lips were beautiful ("textbook perfect!") and she took quite a few pictures of them. You'll see a few below. The doc noticed how many pictures our technician took of the mouth and commented that usually she focuses on the genitalia--well, since we aren't planning on finding out the gender, we steered clear of that part. She did tell us that all was well in that area. ;)
Here are some pictures of the wee babe.

Head and torso with view of spine

Wee arm and hand

Beautiful face


Nose, mouth (open), chin


Little leg and foot

Hand, arm and head

Our next appointment with this group, for the fetal echocardiogram to check out the babe's little heart, is in about a month. We're over the half-way mark, baby! Keep on growing and getting stronger and smarter!

love

b

A Wednesday in the life...

Man, I'm just a posting fool these days! I owe it all to my friend Kristin. She seems to be able to find time to post every few days and we all know how often I usually post. Ahem. So, she has inspired me to do better! Thanks, Kristin! ;)

Today, we went to the licensing bureau to get my drivers' license renewed with our new visa which lasts THREE years as opposed to the one year visa we were on. Yay! Since it went so smoothly, I decided to take Liam for a haircut. Knowing that it was going to be a bit of an ordeal, I chose a kid-friendly hair-cuttery with toys and climbing things and chairs in the shape of cars and trains. But all that? And he still screamed bloody murder. Ah well, it was either take him here or try to do it myself, and still end up with tears and snot and hair everywhere. At least his haircut looks better than when I attempt to do it. And Liam got a free balloon!

We came home and played with our new! car! toy! that we got from our next door neighbours. They've outgrown it and kindly passed it on to Liam. I think they felt sorry for us since our outdoor toys consisted of a ball and a shovel. Hey, I take hand-me-downs. I'm not proud. ;) Anyway, it was super sweet of them and they are also taking pity on us lonely two and having us over for a barbeque tonight. Mmmmm!

Well, Liam seems to have fallen asleep for naptime, I'm going to try to do the same. My evenings have been filled with cleaning (well, last night was...) and I need my energy to keep it up so this house will finally get clean. Tonight it's the kitchen! Beware dried up cheerios under the high-chair! Your days are numbered!

Another beautiful day today--here are some pics of the new haircut, the new car and the shovel--still a favourite toy!

love

b

Pretty Boy

Such a beautiful day! We spent the afternoon, after nap of course, at the park with our friends Lisa and Ethan. Ethan is one week younger than Liam and Lisa is expecting a baby two weeks before ours will arrive! Liam had a great time at the park near their house. Here he is watching the big boys play on the play structure.

We've pretty much been spending as much time outside as we can and it has been a wonderful week, weatherwise, for it. Here's Liam enjoying the slide at our neighbourhood park. It's just his size!

And here's the little man taking his new trike (thanks Auntie Sarah!) for a spin outdoors for the first time.


Aaaaaand, back at the park, again! Ride 'em cowboy!


All that park playing requires some good food! After eating his dinner, Liam likes to play, "Is it a hat?" Whether it's a spoon, a muffin wrapper, a bowl, a plate, a sippy cup, the answer is always, "Nooooooooo."



And this last one is of Liam being Momma Duck, saying, "Quack, quack, quack!" when her little ducklings go off to play, "over the fields and far away."

Bring it on, summer. We are ready for you.

love

b