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!

Cabin Fever

We've had snow on the ground for over a month, and with no end in sight (another storm in the forecast for the coming week- ugh!), we've been going a little stir-crazy over here. So far in 2011, I've had 3 delayed openings and 2 snow days, which I'm grateful for only because of how slippery it has been out there-- and I'm accident-prone enough, even without being almost 8 months pregnant! God bless our "mystery neighbors" though, who shoveled our driveway and sidewalks on Tuesday simply because they heard I was expecting. Whoever you are, thank you!!!

Our poor Sentra isn't doing so well in all of this, as Daddy found out the hard way when trying to get to work on Tuesday in some seriously nasty weather. He is fortunately fine, but the car needed some expensive TLC from our dear mechanic. At 11 years old and over 100K miles, it surely doesn't owe us anything... but it would be nice to get through the rest of winter before having to shop for a new car!

Being cooped up indoors has led to some.. um... interesting behavior from Liam, which we think mainly stems from not being able to burn off enough energy during the day. Naptime antics are at their worst, between the finger-painting with diaper contents (which has now been cured by dressing him in one-piece jammies with the feet cut off, put on backwards-- just try to get out of that, Liam!) and now with climbing out of both his Pack-and-Play at Miss Doreen's and out of his crib here at home! Do they sell a lid for these things?? So needless to say, the little bugger has been more tired than usual and is falling asleep in some strange places. Such as...

So, we've been finding ways to pass the time. We played hide-and-seek with best bud Brigid (while little Lucas tried to find them-- gee, who could this giggling mess be behind the pantry door?!):



We practiced being a big brother by crawling around with adorable baby Kara ("Hurry, Kara-- try to catch me!"):



We watched some old Disney movies on VHS in Mommy and Daddy's bed (running fave is The Aristocats, aka "Dats"):


Note the number of Liam's Favorite Things all in one pic. Milk, check. Lilly, check. Movie, check. Unnecessary hat, check! Also note the new paint job in our room, courtesy of Daddy and Marc! They sent us to Nana and Grandpa's house for MLK weekend and knocked out a heroic amount of painting upstairs. Our bedroom and the new nursery are lookin' good-- and we can't wait to have all the carpets replaced in the next couple of weeks. That project is long overdue!

Fun hasn't been totally limited to the indoors, though. During my Snow Day last Thursday, Liam and I finally got a chance to get outside and play a little. Could he be any more excited?!



No job too big for this guy, or so he'd like to think!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011!

A few weeks before Christmas, Liam got his portrait taken (can't believe the last one was a year ago already!).

While we had a great experience last year, our photographer this year was unfortunately devoid of any semblence of personality or enthusiasm for working with kids. And since I was flying solo that day, it didn't prove to be easy! We did get a couple of good shots out of the bunch, though... but we'll let you decide for yourself. You can check them out here.

Merry Christmas! Part 2

On Tuesday, we left for a weeklong visit to Grandma and Papa's house in Illinois. The trip was so much fun and full of so many great memories, so I'll attempt to highlight some of Liam's Especially Favorite Parts:

A surprise visit from DANTA at the airport! Liam met him with Daddy while I got us something to eat-- and by the time I came back, they were on a first-name basis. Shocker!


One-on-one time with Grandma and Papa, which they enjoyed a little extra of as Daddy and I snuck off to Chicago for a quick overnight. Liam really loved the Christmas e-card that Grandma had on her computer.


2 favorite things in 1 photo: hats AND playing ball!


Playing nekkid. This was the first (but oddly not the last) time Liam decided to strip down to play. We don't get it either!


Buddy time with Owen and Grandpa German:


Reuniting with Fox (aka DOX):


Trying to inch his way into photos that have nothing to do with him, i.e. the photo of a whole-lotta-buns-in-the-oven at the Ronna Family Christmas. We are in order from latest due-date to soonest-- Brittany is due in June, me at the end of March, Nikki at the beginning of March, and Shay any minute!


Fun times with cousins-- this was on Christmas Day with Aidan, Afton, and Antonia:


Outright silly times with cousins! These guys were a riot wrestling around on bed full of coats at the Ronna Christmas. From l-r, Antonia, Ava, Liam, Afton, Drake, and Aidan:


Opening his stocking with Grandma (yay!):


Opening presents on "Christmas Day" (really the 26th, but like he knew!):


Aidan, Antonia, and Uncle Andrew:


Aunt Surabhi and Uncle Jake:


The Team:


Toasting the holidays with a little eggnog:




Finally meeting his future bride Ava Fanning... or at least opening a present with her!


Watching Mickey Mouse cartoons with Aidan on the portable DVD player (could he be any more enthralled? We could have waved mangos and crazy hats and probably even Lilly in front of him, and it would not have torn him away from this thing!):


Playing DS with Toni. It is also worth mentioning that Toni and Aidan are awesome cousins to Liam! They were so patient and willing to share all their cool presents with him whenever he asked (er... demanded) them to!


Singing karaoke with Toni (Uncle Andy also has a great clip of this-- click here):


And I think one of the favorite moments for all of us this Christmas was this moment!

We truly can't thank everyone enough for all they did to make our trip so special. We love you guys!

Merry Christmas! Part 1

To all of our faithful readers, family, and friends, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and many blessings in the new year!

We kicked off our Christmas celebration the weekend before the 25th, when we enjoyed a visit from Nana and Grandpa before they left to spend the holiday with Aunt Erin and her family in Strasbourg.

(Side Note: Travelocity is currently at the very, very top of Santa's Naughty List for what they did to Nana and Grandpa, and the only difference between them and the Grinch himself was that I'm pretty sure it took less time for the Grinch to make right on his mistakes... but I digress!)

Since we were spending Christmas in Milford with Grandma and Papa, Santa made a special stop at our house on the 19th:


Liam was far more interested in Nana and Grandpa's presents than he initially was with his own-- note the silly hat (silly for Liam, not for Nana) and the obsession with Grandpa's new electric shaver!


Yay for new boots! Little did we know these would come in handy rather quickly (and notice that Liam still would not part ways with that electric shaver...)


Liam showing Nana his new Leaptop:


The best part of all was seeing Liam open his new tricycle from Nana and Grandpa-- I just wish we would have caught that on film! It was an "assembly required" toy, but Liam grabbed the seat and knew just what to do with it!


Helping Grandpa put it together:


Thank you, Nana and Grandpa, for such a great start to the holiday!

We were also excited to get news from Strasbourg on Christmas Eve that our little nephew and Liam's newest cousin had arrived-- welcome Augustin Thomas!! He was 6 lbs, 12 oz, and 18.5 in, and we CAN'T WAIT to meet him this summer. Here's the first pic of the little guy:



Congratulations Aunt Erin, Uncle Thomas, Sarah, and Pierre!