Scenic Saturday

The Birthday Boy

The table.

 The cake!

 The kids!

Blowing out the candle with some help from Grampy. 

Ya, I'm one of those moms who makes my kids read the card BEFORE opening the gift!  So sue me! ;-)

 The walkie-talkies.

 A new Thomas video.

 The bike.

I think he's happy!

Until next time...

Just Some Pics

I just can't tell you how much we love these two!

Hello!  I don't have time for my usual longwinded posts, so I thought I would just post some pics.  We are doing well and had a very good week!  Hope you did too!

Fresh Air

Yep.  You read it - today I was able to get some fresh air into our house!  It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day!  It is still a bit cold, but we are definitely above freezing.  I just checked, and it is in the mid 40's!  It hasn't been that warm in a long time.  For a while there we were doing good to be above 0 degrees F!!  So I took advantage of this today and opened some windows to get fresh air in.  I love it!   I always love winter, and look forward to it, but usually around the end of February I am very ready for spring, as I am now.  Although there are a few more storms in our forecast, I hope that they will be the last and we can enjoy the grass and nice weather here again soon.

This last week was a busy one.  My brother, Andrew, and his family came up here for a visit and we had a lot of fun.  It was my birthday on Sunday, and my church gave me a surprise party after the evening service which was very nice.  The only thing was that Liam and Leila have been sick.  They had colds, but Liam's did not seem to be getting any better.  So, on Tuesday, I took him in to the dr. and we found that he had an ear infection.  Poor guy.  He has only ever had one other ear infection, and that was when he was 5 months old.  But once the antibiotics started working, he perked up and is almost our happy little boy that we all know and love.

He is doing great on the potty.  I really don't have to ask him anymore - he will tell me when he has to go.  It is wonderful not to have to change his diapers anymore!  Not only is it saving money, but I think he is more comfortable too.  I think back now and am not sure why I was so anxious about potty training.  It really was not bad at all.  Of course, I know it makes a difference when the child is ready to start, and not the parent trying to force it on them.

Leila will not sit still now that she knows she can get around.  She wants to be everywhere and do everything.  I have had to resort to pulling out the pack n' play to use for her playpen because she gets into all kinds of stuff, and I can't always be on the floor playing with her.  Now the thing I am dealing with is teaching Liam that, yes, it is nice to share our toys with Leila, but we shouldn't throw them in the playpen on her, especially his little cars that has little parts that she can choke on.

My sis, Amanda, will be here in about an hour to spend the weekend with us.  I am excited to see her!  She is treating me to getting my hair cut and highlighted, so I have an appointment set for tomorrow.  I am excited to spend some time with her.  She will leave on Monday, then will be coming back in 3 weeks with her boyfriend for a visit.  Then, I will be going down to NH to go to an Elizabeth George ladies conference that Andrew and Danielle's church is putting on.  I am really looking forward to that!

So, I think that is all that is up with us here!  I have been playing around on our new computer, and there is a fun program that you can take pics of yourself, so Liam and I took some of ourselves.  I will see if I can put some on here.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and I shall talk to you later!  Until next time...

Adventures in Toddlerhood

Hello!  Today's post is solely dedicated to my dear 2 1/2 year old toddler, Liam.  Toddlers are interesting creatures.  It seems like they go through new phases about every 5 minutes or so.  Let me tell you some of Liam's most recent "phases."

First, he has decided that 5:45 or 6 a.m. are GREAT times to wake up in the morning.  I used to be so spoiled in that he would sleep in until 8:30 or 9.  I loved it!  But in the past few months, it has just gotten earlier and earlier.  You see, I am a major night person.  I love to stay up late.  That is when I think the best and have the most energy!  I don't like getting up super early - nor do I love to sleep in half the day.  8:30 is a great time for me to wake up.  So, back to Liam.  Lately he has been getting up at 6 or just before, then coming to our room and just standing by my side of the bed, waiting for me to wake up.  Now, since we have carpet only in the bedrooms of our house, I can hear the "pitter-patter" of his feet all the way through the house.  And I will now confess that when he does this, I just pick him up and put him in our bed, hoping he will go back to sleep.  That rarely happens.  Usually he will lay there, talking to us, or he will toss and turn, all the while kicking Matt or myself in the back, legs, face, etc.  It is quite frustrating, but I just am so tired and can't really get up.  But this morning he fell back asleep, which was WONDERFUL!

Second, he is asking more and more questions about everything.  I told you in the last post that he is constantly asking, "What's that?"  Well, some other very common questions he asks many times a day are, "What are you doing?" and "What you think, Mommy?"  Then, he not only asks you the question, and I or Matt will answer, but he will repeat it about 7 more times before he changes the question!  At first it was cute, but now we get a little weary from saying the same thing over and over and over.... I am sure I never did that when I was his age! Hehe.

The third phase I am going to talk about is one that I knew was coming, just didn't know when.  I think that most kids go through this phase.  And Liam started it today.  When he gets up in the morning, he immediately asks to be put on the potty cuz he really has to go.  Well, this morning, Matt was already up when Liam woke up (after he had fallen back asleep in our bed), so he put Liam on the potty.  (Side note:  I am a pretty scheduled person, who has my children on pretty tight schedules.  Life just runs smoother if everyone knows what to expect.  Anyways, I think Liam is quite like me because he poops the same time, everyday!  :-)  That is part of what has helped potty training a bit easier!)  Okay, back on track.  Matt put Liam on the potty so he could do his "stuff," and Liam did his usual reading and singing and talking which he does all the time now on the potty.  Well, Matt had to go in the other room for a minute, so we left Liam unattended, which is no big deal - well, at least it wasn't.

The next thing I know, Liam is calling me telling me he is all done, so I go to help him get down.  I helped him up when I looked down and low and behold, I see... well, instead of describing it, let me show you -

 

Yep!  Liam took some foam ABC's and 123's that are his bath toys and threw them in the potty - after he had done his thing - # 1 AND 2!!!    Now that I think about it, I guess it is a little better to do that after than before! EWWWWW!!!!  So, I am one who HATES to get my hands dirty, so I was thinking how to get them out, all the while trying to keep Liam from flushing the potty!  I said, "Liam!  What did you do?" and he just gasped, put his hands to his mouth and said, "Uh-oh!  Oh no!  Oops!"  I then reminded him that it was NOT an oops, and that was a no-no.  Anyways, my knight in shining armor came to my rescue and he fished out the letters so I wouldn't have to get my hands dirty.  What a guy!

I knew that kids are curious about the potty, and most end up throwing stuff in, so this wasn't a total shock, but not necessarily expected!  I must say, though, that later I laughed and told Matt that we must have quite the smart and talented kid who can poop the ABC's!  Hehe!

Okay, so the fourth and last phase that I will share today is the fact the Liam is now almost more tech savvy than I am!  He knows how to run the t.v. remote and DVD remote, can turn on the cd player and his little keyboard, and almost anything else that turns on and off.  And today he showed me that he can run the DVD player too.  I was not aware that he could do this.  But today, as I was getting out of the shower and getting ready for the day, he came in asked me if he could watch one of his Baby Einsteins.  I said, yes, I would be right there to put it on.  Well, I continues what I was doing and a few minutes later I heard him saying, "Yay!  Baby Einstein!"  And then I heard the beginning theme music.  I walked into the living room, and, sure enough, Baby Einstein was playing!  In order for that to be possible, he had to turn on the DVD player, open it, take the Thomas the Train DVD that was in there out, put the Thomas DVD back in it case, take out the Baby Einstein DVD, put it in, and push play!  And he was so proud of himself!  Oh, my!  These kids are smarter than we think!

So, there, in a semi-large nutshell, are a few of the "phases" that we have been going through with Liam.  If any of you out there in blog world have some toddler stories, I'd love to hear them.  It will make me feel like I am not the only mommy who has these interesting episodes! (Just kidding, I know that we all have them with our kids!)  It really is so fun to see Liam grow and learn and change.  What a blessing he is in our lives, and I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring and what those new adventures will be.  And don't worry - I am sure you will hear all about them!  Until next time....