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!

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.

"It's okay!"

Liam does his best to console his crying cousin

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...

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...

"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