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