2 part II

Some highlights from Liam's 2nd Birthday...


Liam woke up early and was excited to get the day started. This picture pretty much sums it up!



Yes, Mickey ("Douse") and Nemo ("Melmo") are his current faves!

After a fun day with his friends, Liam brought home a special present from Miss Doreen: Mr. Potato Head with all the fixin's! This kept him completely engrossed for at least 20 minutes while Mommy made dinner :)



After dinner, Liam opened some presents. An awesome birthday train from Grandma and Papa, who also sent him some cool new jammies (which Liam tried to put on immediately!)...



An inflatable horse (donkey? What is that?!), which Liam has named "Deuce", from Aunt Vicki and Uncle Dick. This thing is pretty cool, and Liam loves it (he may or may not have run out of the bath on Tuesday, jumped on Deuce totally naked, and bounced his way down the hallway... he has also covered Deuce with a blanket and insisted that he sleep next to his crib for the last two nights!)



A new Cars potty from Mommy and Daddy, which he has actually used but we will spare you the pictures of!



Before bed, Liam did some reading from his new Nemo book, in which he is the star! (PS- check out the new carpet!)



I only caught the end of this, but here is a quick clip of Liam trying to sing along with Nana and Grandpa when they called to wish him a happy birthday:



I took Liam in for his 24-month check-up this morning, and although we got stuck with good ol' Dr. Dinosaur (hadn't seen him in almost exactly 2 years, which was not a bad thing!), he had a good appointment and took his shots like a champ. He has hit the 3-foot mark in height and weighs 33 lbs, 85th and 95th percentiles respectively. So grateful for good health! Since all of Liam's 2-year molars have come in, we're going to start thinking about getting him off to his first dentist appointment, too. He's growing so fast... and will be a big brother before we know it!

Liam Turns 2!

Today is Liam's 2nd Birthday! Where has the time gone? No more counting his age in months!

He is growing and learning new things every day-- and never ceases to amaze us with his funny little sense of humor. Yesterday, he came home from Miss Doreen's and surprised us by counting to 10 all by himself! His pronunciation still needs some work, but for a kid who didn't say a single word until he was almost 22 months old, we're proud :) I even overheard him in his crib last night singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to his stuffed animals. I think I melted a little.

We started celebrating Liam's birthday last weekend with a great visit from Nana, Grandpa, and GG on Saturday. We decided to let Liam run around the Please Touch Museum for a couple of hours in the morning, which was a lot of fun for both him and us! Liam waving to... ? (strangers, probably!) on the Wanamaker monorail:



Decked out in astronaut gear in the Rocket Room. Between the costume (and how much he loved wearing the costume) and the random rockets whizzing around the room launched by kids in every corner, this was total hilarity.



Playing in the water with GG:



On the carousal with Nana and GG:



Back at home, pretending to make (and eat) pizza with Nana:



Blowing out his "2" candle (with some help from Daddy) on his Mickey cake:



Open wide!



Opening presents after cake at his new play table from GG:



A present from Aunt Erin, Uncle Thomas, Sarah, Pierre, and Augustin!



Liam had so much fun with Grandpa, who would rub balloons on Liam's head and use the static to stick the balloons to the ceiling:



The celebration continued today... more to follow!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Rumor has it that we might break 50 degrees today-- now that is something to love on Valentine's Day! This would be a nice change from this otherwise terrible winter... like, for example, when it rained ice a couple of weeks ago. While chipping my car out of its ice-shell was not fun, it at least made the trees really pretty!





We were sad that the Bears didn't make it to the Super Bowl, but we went to Marc and Cathleen's to throw our support to the Steelers (for more sadness!). Liam loved playing with Marc's cat Hobbes and getting to be one of the guys, feet on the table and all!



Liam's consistent climbing out of his Pack-and-Play when he is supposed to be napping continues to take its toll. Last week, he conked out in the short drive from Miss Doreen's house back home (she lives maybe 2 miles away!), and was so dead asleep that he didn't even wake up in the transition from the car to the house. When I got home from work, there he was, just snoring on the couch!



So since his schedule is a little off, sometimes we have to improvise... and sometimes we have to multitask. Grilled cheese sandwich in the bath, anyone?



The good news is that we finally received our crib tent on Friday, tried it out over the weekend, and it works! No more climbing out for you, little guy!

So I know that I've only posted one pregnancy pic so far, and since I've changed a bit since Christmas, I guess it's time for an update! This was last week at 33 weeks. Same outfit, different belly:



Things are getting a whole lot more uncomfortable up in there! In other baby news, though, progress is definitely noticeable on the nursery. Liam, as always, likes to be part of the action-- which we're cool with as long as he doesn't end up coated in paint. So we bribed him with some 1-on-1 time with Daddy's iPad in order to keep his distance:

New carpeting should get installed one week from today-- can't wait!

Lots of love to all our family, friends, and faithful readers. Happy Valentine's Day!