Monday, December 21, 2009

Liam and Auntie Jen get super high in the park


Hi, guys! Guest blogger Auntie Jen here, making her premiere entry about her on-going quest to corrupt The World’s Cutest Nephew. I’ve already introduced him to both Fritos and Oreos, but I’ve outdone myself this time. Yep, Auntie Jen took Liam to the park and got him high. Not just high, but super high!



Heather called me Saturday morning – they were on their way down to my neck of the woods so Heather could get her hair done. She asked if I wanted to come meet them for coffee and then play time at the park. Well, caffeine and Boo are two of my favorite things, so off I went! I met them at Twiggs, shared a croissant and biscuit, and then headed to the park with Rey and Liam as Heather went off to the salon. It was ridiculously beautiful out on Saturday, sunny and in the high 70’s. Perfect day for the park!


Trolley Barn Park has a playground and a big grassy area for dogs, so our first stop was to watch the puppies run and play. From there, we were off to climb up the slide towers. Then we climbed back down the slide towers. And climbed back up, and then climbed back down again. Liam loves the climbing part, but he’s not super fond of actually riding on slides. He’s not scared of them, but he REALLY hates getting staticky (and it was one of those low humidity Santa Ana days). The only way he’d slide down was on my lap, so then I was the one who ended up looking like I’d just stuck my finger in the light socket. (Smart kid, eh?)


Next up was the rope ladders! Boo was super excited about climbing pirate-style. As I was helping him up, he busted out a big grin and said “I’m a big boy climbing the ladders! I’m super strong – I’m wearing pull-ups!”


Our final stop was at the swings. Swings are Auntie Jen’s favorite!!!!! Boo went in the little-guy swing (the bucket type seat), and I started pushing him. After a few minutes, Rey came over and took over pushing duties, so I got to climb into the big-girl swing as Boo’s neighbor. I started swinging next to Liam, and he started yelling to Rey that he wanted to go high, high like Auntie Jen. Rey pushed him a little harder, and Liam shouted out “I’m high! I’m super high with Auntie Jen!” Yes indeed, little Boo! You got to be super high with Auntie Jen, and a good time was had by all!


Makes me wonder why H&R don’t let me babysit more often……

Thursday, November 26, 2009

I'm sitting on my wheelchair

We're putting Liam's tricycle together. He just grabbed two of the wheels, set one on top of the other, sat on it and said, "I'm sitting on my wheelchair"!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

What are you doing, Dug?

Liam's imagination continues to grow and it's fascinating to observe. Last Saturday night, Liam started calling me "Dug". In case you don't know, Dug is a talking dog from the Pixar movie, Up. "What are you doing, Dug?" "Do you like mac and cheese, Dug?" "I want some water, Dug". "Where are we going, Dug?"

He listens more closely to Dug than he does to Mommy or Daddy. When Dug says to take off his shoes or go to the potty, Liam listens.

When Daddy is Dug or when he's just Daddy, there's no rhyme or reason to it.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

MC Liam

Mommy and Liam came home from Story Time on Tuesday and as soon as they came into the house, Liam wanted Mommy to put the microphone from Beatles Rock Band on the mic stand. Liam walked up to the stand, grabbed the mic and said:

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages... Hi, I'm Liam!"

Saturday, October 3, 2009

"I don't want to be big"

We'll have a post sooner or later about our trip to Disneyland (just not now).

Liam told us this morning that "I don't want to be big".

Daddy said "Too late" and we proceeded to explain to him all the things he could do now because he was bigger, like how he could drag the empty diaper box around and stuff things into it, and how he could say so much now. Liam said something about using all of his words, which he followed by "I don't want to have words in my mouth!"

Monday, September 21, 2009

What goes on in the mind of a toddler?

Liam was in bed the other night looking at his feet when he said the following:

"I have two feet. I don't have more feet today."

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Monday, September 7, 2009

What Liam's saying

"Mommy said it!"

"Hey, wait for me!"

"I wanna look at my brown eyes."

"I'm an actor baby." (After Mommy accused Liam of acting like a baby)

"Mama, hold my hand."

"Mama, hold my baby." (which means "Mama, hold me.")

"Stop, Daddy!" followed by "More?" followed by "Daddy say, 'Mmmm, no!'" (after eating the baby belly)

"Oreos" (he sometimes calls Rubio's by this name)

"Dad, see my cheese" (after which Liam opens his mouth to show you his cheese)

"Get off the phone and drive!" (not quite what Mommy said in its entirety, but somehow, I lucked out & this is the only part he says)

"Uhhhh...."

"I want that," or "I want that thing," when he can't remember the name of something.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Just how tech savvy is this kid?

I gave Liam my iPhone so he could play his Toddler Teasers Shapes game between Trader Joe's and Costco (a very short ride). I put it in Airplane mode so he wouldn't make any outgoing calls and we could hear him playing and picking the shapes.

After a short time we heard the sound of the virtual keyboard keys clicking.

What the heck is he doing?

Suddenly we heard the sound of Kari, the babysitter from the Pixar short "Jack-Jack Attack". Liam knows how to get to the iPod controls and then to the videos and then he can pick out a video to watch.

In the past, he's managed to place a phone call from Mommy's phone to Daddy's phone. And he's also gotten to the voice control, where he then knew to say, "Play music". Mommy didn't even know how to get to the voice controls at the time he did it.

Ridiculous!


Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Cleaning up at Comic-Con (written by Liam's Ninang (godmother))

Pictures from Comic-Con here and here

Cleaning up at Comic-Con

To most Comic-Con attendees, the phrase "cleaning up at Comic-Con" means getting a giant tote bag from an exhibitor and filling it with dozens of freebies radiating geeky goodness. This year's freebies included Hallmark pins featuring Star Wars ornaments, large tote bags, Ralph Wiggum fans, big tote bags, Dexter diapers, huge tote bags, blinking Astro Boy pins, massive tote bags, Zombieland t-shirts, jumbo tote bags, Heroes watches and enormous tote bags. To Liam, however, "cleaning up at Comic-Con" meant cleaning up at Comic-Con.

After enduring a lengthy episode of the intensely annoying Ni Hao, Kai-lan at a Nick, Jr. screening, Liam enjoyed a somewhat amusing and mercifully brief episode of Wonderpets. Then he headed off to the "How to Draw Star Wars" panel with Uncle and Ninang, while his parents participated in that most popular of Comic-Con pastimes, waiting in line for a panel (Supernatural).

At the drawing panel, everyone received pencils, blank paper for sketching and ready-to-color illustrations featuring Star Wars characters. Liam, unable to create the broad strokes or fat dots that characterize his greatest crayon pieces, grabbed Uncle's black Sharpie and started vigorously slashing and dotting his paper. A significant amount of ink bled through and stained the desk, so I (Ninang) took a wipe from Liam's diaper bag and started cleaning the desk. If you've ever dined with Liam, you know what happened next. He grabbed the wipe from me and started enthusiastically wiping the table. After one really good swipe he yelled in triumph, arms raised in victory. Liam was cleaning up at Comic-Con.

After lunch, we took Liam to the LEGO booth, which contained a shop, displays and several LEGO building tables. Liam squeezed into the table with the toddler-friendly, chunky DUPLO blocks and started brushing loose blocks into bins set into the table. Once again, Liam was cleaning up at Comic-Con.

Other Liam at Comic-Con highlights:
-As we walked towards the Convention Center, Liam spotted the red MTS trolleys and said, "We're riding Thomas!" Ninang pointed out that they were red and Liam replied, "James." (For the record, we did not ride Thomas or James.)

-Liam doesn't quite know what to make of costume wearers. Although he is familiar with many Star Wars characters because he was born into a family of Star Wars-crazed meganerdgeeks, he seemed wary of Stormtroopers and Jedi. One Jedi disappointed him by wielding a lightsaber that held no blade. It was just a handle. Even Princess Peach, a favored character from Mario Wii games, and Mickey Mouse were approached with trepidation. Costumed children were less threatening. Liam smiled when he spotted a young Batman in an upper hallway and happily followed him until Batman disappeared in the crowds.

-Did I mention the numerous, over-sized tote bags that were distributed at Con? (Some are so large that when you hang one over your shoulder, you think that your next step should be into the fields to pick cotton). If you are as evil as I am, you are probably wondering if Liam would fit into one. The answer is yes -- I think. Daddy, Uncle and Ninang conspired to place him in the largest bag and take a photo, but Liam would have none of it and quickly stepped out.

Written by guest blogger, Ninang.



Saturday, August 1, 2009

"It's okay!"


Liam does his best to console his crying cousin

Thursday, July 30, 2009

What Liam's saying these days

Liam's language skills continue to improve, and he's communicating much more effectively these days. Some recent sayings:

"Mama carry me." (As opposed to the previous request, "Mama carry you," which always disappointed me, since I never did get carried anywhere.)

"That's a BIG burger!" (In response to the giant burgers on the new Carl's Jr. billboards along the freeways. That'd be Hardees, to our midwestern peeps!)

"Martian raiders! With a big net!" (From his current bedtime favorite, Mars Needs Moms.)

"Daddy go! Mama go!" (A boy needs his privacy to squat by the side of the bed to do his business!)

"I was bad! I need a timeout!" (Let me tell ya, they really don't work when the kid is downright gleeful about getting them...)

"Milo said it." "Trixie did it." "The WonderPets said it." (He loves giving recaps of his favorite shows and books, either as we're going along, or just at random points throughout the day. Maybe in 20 years he'll be Eberts' latest partner!)

"It's okay!" (Said in his most soothing tone, usually followed by "Mama's crying." Not that Mama actually was crying, but this is what he wants me to do so that he can console me.)

"I wanna hold the banana thing." "I wanna hold the apple thing." "I wanna hold the celery thing." (He wanted to hold every "thing" this morning while we were in Trader Joe's)

"We look stylie!" (Everyone was wearing sunglasses and Liam found it to be very stylie!)

Bam, Bam!

No, Liam hasn't turned into Emeril.

After bathtime, in what I suppose is the logical progression -- at least to Liam -- of the game where Mommy & Daddy munch on baby belly, Liam made the statement "Liam's drinking Mama!"

Mama's response: "What, you're a vampire, now?"

This was met by what we initially thought to be very enthusiastic shouts of "vampire, I'm a vampire!" Then all of a sudden, he reared back and punched Daddy as hard has he could, yelling "Bam! Bam!!!"

Turns out, Liam actually thought that he had finally learned the word for a guy whose favorite activity is hitting things: "Bampire!"

Makes perfect sense to me! Now I just have to figure out how to pitch it to HBO...

Monday, July 27, 2009

It's a Wiggly party!

Last Thursday, Liam and Mommy went downtown to see The Wiggles in concert. If you are not familiar with The Wiggles, you can check out their website, or view one of their videos on You Tube. They are a very big deal with the under-five set. They started out as just musicians, but now have a TV show & videos, and according to their website, they've opened their own amusement park on Australia's Gold Coast. It also says that according to Business Review Weekly, they were the highest grossing entertainment act in Australia for the past 3 years. Did I mention that toddlers really like these guys???

Since we were going to be walking around downtown, and since there were going to be hundreds of other children at the concert, I enlisted some help. Miss Susan (of storytime fame) had mentioned that her youngest daughter, Delaney, although 12 years old, still wanted to go see the concert. I thought "Aha! I can get my little helper, and spare her mom yet another Wiggles concert!" So that's what we did.

Incidentally, Liam behaves better for Delaney than he does for me. He got straight into his car seat, for example, and started putting his arms through the seat belts in a shameless move to impress her! It was very funny. And very convenient!

The concert was a lot of fun. The music was all very upbeat, and the audience knew all of the songs and were encouraged to sing & dance along, which Liam did with enthusiasm. In addition to the singing & the dancing of the four members of The Wiggles themselves, there were a bunch of acrobats/gymnasts known collectively as "the Wiggly dancers." They were on stage for most of the songs, dancing and doing some basic tumbling. Liam was especially impressed with the handstands they did. Each time someone did a handstand, he jumped out of his seat and put his hands on the ground, shouting "handstand!"

The concert was at 3:00, which is right in the middle of naptime. Liam made it through all but the last 3 songs before he crawled over our armrest and fell asleep on Mommy's lap. I woke him up for the "Hot Potato" finale, though. Couldn't let him miss "Hot Potato!" Besides, we were parked 5 blocks away, and no way were Delaney & I going to carry him that far!

The Wiggles come to town every summer, so I'm sure we'll be going back next year. Maybe we'll drag Daddy along...

Sunday, July 12, 2009

"I Feel Pretty!"


Dot is the baby ant in A Bug's Life, which is Liam's current favorite movie. So, now when he puts on Mommy's headbands, he tells us: "I look pretty, like Dot!"

I agree, don't you?

Here's a link to his other photos: pretty Liam
Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Anna kissing Liam

Posted by PicasaAnna kissing on Mommy's boy!

4th of July

After our successful fireworks test at Sea World last week, we went to the local high school to watch Rancho Bernardo's annual display. Because we were concerned about parking, we got there an hour early. Turns out the parking was a piece of cake, so we had a fair amount of time on our hands to kill before sunset. We were concerned about what we'd do to keep Liam entertained & out of trouble around so many people.

Turns out, we shouldn't have worried, because as with most crowds, this one was about 50%... girls.

Yep, Liam found himself some new girlfriends. Three, to be exact. Not far from our blanket was a blanket with three very giggly ten year old girls on it. Liam walked over and sat right down with them, much to their delight! They spent the next 40 minutes tickling, playing catch, and generally enjoying themselves with their new "little brother." They asked us to let him stay during the fireworks, too, but Mama's selfish & wanted her baby back for that.

We all enjoyed the fireworks display. Liam's favorite were the smiley face fireworks, followed by anything purple. He wasn't at all freaked out by the noise, and it was a lot louder than at Sea World, where they were much farther away.

The fireworks ended at about 9:20, and here's how good our parking place was: we were home by 9:35! Wow!

Oh, and Liam's new girlfriends? One of them chased us down as we were leaving so that she could give Liam the toy they'd been playing with together. Another notch in his crib post...

Here's a link to some photos: Watching fireworks at Rancho Bernardo Middle/High School

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Kissing on MY boy???

Anna kissed Liam at storytime on Tuesday. A few times. I knew that girl was trouble from the first minute I saw her...

I'll try to get pictures next week, didn't have the camera with me Tuesday.

No more Limam?

Liam referring to himself as "Limam" may have gone the way of Liam referring to Kirk as "Knnnnkkk" (no idea how you spell the sound Liam used to make).

On Monday, he called himself "Liam" repeatedly.

Mommy and Daddy are a little sad that Limam won't be part of the little guy's vocabulary any more.

Sea World

Sorry, sorry... I don't post often enough, I know. My hands have been giving me fits lately, so I've been avoiding typing and/or shirking my responsibilities to the Liam-obsessed public, depending on your point of view.

It's not that he hasn't done anything interesting. The kid is extremely interesting!

Last Saturday evening we went down to Sea World. Couple of reasons for this... our annual passes expired at the end of June, and also, we wanted to do a test run for the 4th of July fireworks.

We (Mommy & Liam) rode the "robot Elmo" ride. The cars are shaped like Elmo's head, and each car is dressed up as something: fish, cow, etc. Ours was the robot, which worked out well--Liam had definitely decided during our 20 minutes in line that he wanted to ride the robot. I would have had to get back in line & wait for another ride if we hadn't lucked into the robot car! Anyway, as with all rides, Liam loved it, and was quite difficult to get off. We're still working on learning about taking turns...

Then, as Liam says, "we saw a lot of shows!" Actually, we attended 2 shows, and he saw 1 of them. We started at the dolphin show, which he spent mostly nuzzled into my neck. They had some pyrotechnics that included large jets of flame shooting up from time to time, and he absolutely hated them. Didn't seem to bode well for the fireworks experiment. (Incidentally, the dolphin show was very cool, including the pyro part!)

The Shamu show was next, and this one we did manage to get Liam to watch... although he insisted that the lights were bothering him & that he needed to wear his sunglasses. He loved the show, especially the parts where the whales splashed the audience (not us, we were up too high). He likes telling about "the baby whale spitting on the people!" And yeah, that is what it did. Again, a very cool show. It's nice that they have the trainers back in the water with the animals.

Finally, after the Shamu show, we got to stay in our seats for their nightly fireworks display. Liam did just fine with them. He did keep the sunglasses on throughout, but whatever. We were more concerned with the noise scaring him. His review: "the fireworks went BOOOOOM!!!" So, we're all set for Saturday's show. Yay! We watched from a few miles away last year, and it was definitely not the way fireworks were meant to be seen.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

On the way to the Del Mar Fair

On the way to the Del Mar Fair, we heard Liam saying "I can't reach my man bag!" Liam has been borrowing one of Mommy's old purses, a small Liam-sized green purse. It was on the back seat of the car and Liam eventually got his hands on it.

Liam had a lot of fun seeing the animals. We saw cows, goats, rabbits, pigs... He sang "Old MacDonald's Farm" as we walked through the barns. He enjoyed feeding the goats and one of the cows, which he did one pellet at a time.

We brought Liam's backpack with the leash and he loved running ahead of us. Once in a while he'd notice the leash and try to pull it away from me.

Liam's first ride at the Fair ever was a whale ride with Mommy. It was made even better by a bubble machine that they rode by on each rotation. He wanted Mommy to start it again when it was over.

Liam also rode the Jumbo elephant ride with Daddy. He was excited every time the ride went up high.

Liam wanted to ride the bumper cars and some other rides that he was just too small for. He even picked out the orange car for himself. We told him he'd be big enough next year and he was okay with that.

So what did we eat? Liam had a hamburger and fries. Mommy had a chicken kabob and grilled corn. Daddy had a Philly cheesesteak. We also had deep-fried Oreos and funnel cake. We didn't have any trouble at all getting Liam to try any of the desserts!

Liam thought the Fair was like the Zoo and Disneyland combined. A pretty good description!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Thanks for NOT doing that on my birthday...

Liam woke up a little while ago, and as I usually do, I leaned over to kiss him good morning & ask how he was feeling. Got my answer when he projectile-vomited right up into my face! (Subtlety has never been one of Liam's strong suits.) Not the greatest way to start the day, let me tell you.

He seems fine now, no fever, and he's out eating breakfast with Daddy. Fortunately, he asked for "toast bread" for breakfast, so we didn't have to fight him about not getting a yogurt or something like that this morning.

On the plus side, today is almost bound to get better, right?

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

"I'm playing Wonder Pets on the harmonica!"

Liam understands the concept of playing music on an instrument, if his comment is any indication.  I can only hope he doesn't figure out how to play the "Wonder Pets" theme on any musical instrument! It's definitely an earworm.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Liam is fabulous!

Liam and I were reading "Llama Llama Misses Mama" before bed the other night (as we do almost every night), when he made the following observation:

"Mama Llama has a purse."

He leaned back against the headboard and put on his very best pout. In a sad little voice, he said, "Baby doesn't have a purse." ("Baby," if you don't already know, is how Liam refers to himself.)

"I have to buy one."

That's Mama's baby! He loves shoes, and now purses, too!

Elephant Odyssey at the Zoo

Last Saturday, because we're gluttons for punishment, we took Liam to the Zoo... for the grand opening of their newest exhibit... on Memorial Day weekend!

We must have been living particularly exemplary lives lately, because we got there an hour and a half after opening & still managed to get a great parking place (thanks to Liam's favorite "blue placard"). We walked around the monkey and ape exhibits for a while and then sat down in the shade at a cafe while we waited for Aunt Jen.

The new exhibit is called Elephant Odyssey, and it is truly amazing. Here's a link to the Zoo's information about it: http://www.elephantodyssey.com/. The enclosure for the elephants themselves is 7.5 acres, divided in half for their Asian & African herds (they switch sides in the afternoons so that each herd has some time to play in the pool on the north end). The theme of the exhibit is sort of "San Diego, old and new," showcasing animals that lived here in the pleistocene era. So, the elephants are paired up with huge statues of mammoths, and the lion & jaguar exhibits have statues of saber-toothed tigers & a giant cave lion out front that kids (and grown ups!) can climb on, and there are condors, which have been here all along, and a bunch of other animals. Liam really loved seeing the llamas -- of course!

They have great play areas throughout the exhibit for kids. Besides the statues I mentioned above, there are a couple of areas where kids can "excavate" fake fossils, and some more traditional playground stuff, too.

There is also a very good restaurant, not a sit down place, but with actual tasty food! And it doesn't cost much more than their other restaurants, the ones with burgers that taste like the awful things in school cafeterias. Yay!

For those of you familiar with the Zoo, the new exhibit covers the area that used to be Hoof & Horn Mesa. I don't know what they did with all of the herd animals or the giraffes. I'm sure they're around the Zoo somewhere...

Here's a link to the pictures from our day at the Zoo. http://picasaweb.google.com/Liam.Camoras/20090523AtTheZoo?authkey=Gv1sRgCLCsw9iI8eON-AE#

Take me out to the ball game!

We went to the Padres - Cubs game today with Uncle Ryan & Aunt Judy. Cubbies got clobbered; lost the entire series, in fact. Liam has a new phrase, though: "go, Padres!" He liked the Cubs logo on my jersey, but he wanted nothing to do with saying "go, Cubbies!" Where are the little red Cs floating around in his bloodstream, I ask you???

Maybe with this generation we'll break the cycle of abuse!

Sundays are kids' days at Petco Park. The giveaway today was a Padres batting helmet, and every Sunday after the game, kids can go onto the field to run the bases. We were planning on doing that with Liam - cool! - but since the Cubs games here sell out, the line was insanely long. Maybe next year we'll take him to a game against some team nobody wants to see, like Milwaukee or the Washington Senators!

Also, we're pretty sure that the kids have to go onto the field by themselves, without parental help. Liam's very brave, but that's just too much for him. However, they have a mini-diamond in the "Park at the Park," which Liam ran with some help from Daddy. Here's a link to the video of their run. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=Liam.Camoras&target=ALBUM&id=5340039620185547857&authkey=Gv1sRgCKamp9D9h7_0Xw&authkey=Gv1sRgCKamp9D9h7_0Xw&feat=email

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Sears Tower glass-bottom Skydeck

Who wants to walk on the "Sears Tower" glass bottom Skydeck?  We probably won't the next time we're in Chicago (Mommy hates the idea but says Daddy needs to get additional life insurance first if he's dumb enough to walk out there).



Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Mommy's a melty little puddle

Liam and I hung out today. We went to storytime & had pizza for lunch with Aunt Jen. We did some housework & played. We took a nap. We did some coloring & had dinner. We played at the park while Daddy did the dishes.

I usually get a recap of his day while trying to get Liam to go to sleep. Tonight, he grabbed my face to make me look at him and told me, "I had a good day with Mommy!"

Melty, melty Mommy...

Children's book fair

Saturday was the annual children's book fair, sponsored by the county library system. We took Liam, along with Rey's sisters Reynalyn & Roxanne. Liam had a great time!

We met one of his favorite authors, Antoinette Portis. She was reading from her new book, "A Penguin Story." When she finished up, she whipped out one of those giant pads of paper and showed us how to draw a penguin. I asked if she'd show us how to draw a bunny, too. She did, and then she signed the drawing and gave it to Liam. Then, best of all, she read "Not a Box" to us. Liam was ecstatic--his smile could have lit up an entire city. (The video is too big to upload here; I'll try to put it on You Tube or something) We got her to sign our copy of "Not a Box" and bought an autographed copy of "A Penguin Story," too.

The rest of the book fair was good, too. Lots of local bookstores had booths, and there were other authors reading & signing stuff. There was also meat on a stick, so we had a good lunch! And we got a balloon, so all in all, it was a pretty good day.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

What Liam's saying

"We're turn arounding!"

"Don't want Daddy to hold you."

"More abazon-e." (zabaglione)

"Dada has phone ears." (headphones)

"We're lightsabering!"

"Mama's baby."

"We're gonna put up the blue placard!" (Mommy's handicapped placard)

"Uh-oh, where is it?"

"Puffing down the track!"

"Foot and feet!"

"More massage the feet?"

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

"I'm a naked baby raccoon!"

Today, Liam has been calling himself "baby raccoon," courtesy of this morning's Wonder Pets episode, in which -- you guessed it! -- the Wonder Pets save the raccoon! Just now, as he was running around whacking things with his brush/lightsaber, he informed me that he was, indeed, a naked baby raccoon. And I thought they were scary enough already... now they're carrying weapons!

We went to see "Earth" today after story time. It was a fantastic, beautiful movie. Fortunately, Liam didn't seem to understand what was going on in the predator-prey scenes. He was quite unfazed by the cheetah taking down the baby gazelle, for example. I had been trying to get him to look away from the screen when it became obvious that the gazelle wasn't going to escape, but then he explained to me that "they're both dancing." He especially liked the bit where the baby ducks jump out of their tree in their first attempt at flight, and the scenes with the baby polar bears sliding around in the snow.

This was Liam's first time in a theater (since becoming sentient and mobile, anyway), and he did pretty well. There were only about a dozen people in the theater, so his constant play-by-play commentary didn't really bother anyone -- none of them sat down too close to us! We ate popcorn, and he sat on my lap. We didn't make it all the way through the movie, but I think we only missed about the last 10 minutes. Then we came home & took a lovely two hour nap.

Time to go get the baby raccoon settled down for bed. Hope he hasn't figured out yet that they're nocturnal!

Monday, April 27, 2009

Liam's head size

Liam was measured at his 2 year checkup as 34 inches long and 28 pounds, putting him in the 50th percentile for both. The nurse couldn't get a good measurement of his head (since he was fussy and crying the whole visit) and said it was 48th percentile, when it had been between 75th and 80th percentile in previous visits. Mommy measured his head later and it was indeed between 75th and 80th percentile. The kid has a big head.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Story Time triangle

Liam and I were the first people at Borders for storytime yesterday, but one of his girlfriends arrived shortly thereafter--Katrina, a 3 year old blonde. She immediately grabbed his hand and started running around in circles with him. When Miss Susan turned on the music, they danced together, holding hands in a ring-around-the-Rosie style. They kept this up for probably 10 minutes, running, shrieking and dancing together.

Then he arrived.

Andrew, Liam's rival for Katrina's attentions, walked up to them, grabbed Katrina's hand and pulled her away. Liam stood there staring after them for a second or two, then went up and wrapped his arm around Katrina's waist. Andrew is a 3 1/2 foot tall 4 year old, so when he gave Katrina a tug, she came along with him, trailing Liam along behind. Fortunately, the stories began at this point, and Katrina sat down, with her miniature suitors sitting to either side, each holding a hand.

During the dances, in a move I am attributing to his desire to show off his popularity with the little ladies, Liam sought out another girl to dance with. Unfortunately for him, Mina's a bit afraid of him -- or maybe she's just onto him, and didn't want to be a part of his plot to make Katrina jealous. She didn't want to dance with him, and she really didn't want to be hugged. Every time he tried, she gave him a shove. And every time she shoved him, her mom told her to be nice and hug the baby. Hmm, maybe Liam went after Mina because he knows her mom's in his fan club!

Once the bubbles started, Liam came up with another strategy to get the girls to pay attention to him: running after Miss Susan with his t-shirt pulled up, showing off his, uh, abs. No, not really... he just wanted bubbles on the belly. But in the context of the morning, it was pretty funny!

All in all, one of his more memorable story times!