Liam is 3!

Liam wants everyone to know that he is...

!!!

Our little man is 3, and in many ways, it just doesn't seem possible.  The morning of his birthday, we had a little exchange that went something like this:
"Mommy, I three?"
"Yes Liam, you are!"
"I not two?"
"Nope-- you're 3!"
"No I not"
"Yes, you are!"
"Really?!  I three?!"
"Yep!"
"Oh!  I a big boy now!"

And what a big boy he is.  Turning 3 was what finally convinced Liam that it was time to say good-bye to diapers and hello to the potty, which really is a birthday present for everyone.  About a week and a half before his birthday, Liam decided he wanted to wear underwear instead of his diaper, and he hasn't looked back since!  It took several days before he made the leap to being fully potty trained (i.e. #2), but as with everything as far as Liam is concerned, it was on his terms and he let us know when he was ready.  He's still wearing a diaper overnight, which is a-okay by us.

So back to his birthday!  Since his birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, we decided to throw him a little party on the Sunday before.  He invited his neighborhood buddy Lucas, his gal-pals Brigid and Kara, and of course Miss Doreen and Uncle Sam.  Nana, Grandpa, Jen, and Pete were also there to help celebrate. Liam was so excited that the party was for him!  He wanted to have a "baseball party," and we were pleasantly surprised to have a beautiful sunny day where the kids could actually play outside!  

We recently discovered that Liam has developed an unfortunate intolerance to lactose, so combined with his sensitivity to eggs and allergy to nuts, I had to get creative for his birthday cake.  So I borrowed a cookbook from my vegan friend at work, and Nana and I baked our first vegan birthday cake!  And it was actually pretty good! 

Just in case, though, I also baked a normal cake with buttercream frosting so there was an alternative for our guests... which Liam dubbed the "itchy cake" since that's exactly what it would have done to him!

Liam helped to sing "Happy Birthday" to himself and was pretty excited to get to blow out his own candles:

Amidst all the festivities, I discovered little Joer sitting on the floor of the kitchen with a captured balloon.  He stuck the end in his mouth and was batting at it like a nut as if it were a punching bag.  It was a riot!

Opening presents was a group effort, and Liam was lucky to have such good helpers :)

Liam was super-excited for his new toys, puzzles, and games (thank you to all his generous friends!).  He also got to open presents from Nana and Grandpa-- a doctor kit, scrubs and a doctor's coat!  He loves to make-believe about going to see Dr. Niami, Dr. Wodell, and even Dr. Missy (his dentist), so this was beyond fun for him.  In under a minute, he and Brigid had torn into that kit and were taking each others' blood pressure and listening for their heartbeats.  And you know what?  Given Liam's experience with doctors in the past year, and in a very different way, Brigid's experience with doctors over the past 2 years, seeing them playing like this together was both awesome and a little emotional.  I couldn't help but stop to thank God for good health and prayers answered.

As we all know, kids + birthday cake (vegan or otherwise) = a little bit of crazy.  Liam, Brigid, and Kara for some reason decided to jump up on the window seat in the kitchen and start a rousing chorus of "GO IRISH!"  Although this is a short clip, suffice it to say that this went on for a rather long time.  Loudly.

On Liam's actual birthday, the festivities continued.  Dad, Joergen, and I were up before the birthday boy, so we donned our birthday hats and woke him up with the Happy Birthday song.

He was a little befuddled!  He said, "It's my birthday again?!"

That evening, it was time to open the rest of his presents.  He got a "super-cool" (in his words) boat from Aunt Erin, Uncle Thomas, Sarah, Pierre, and Augustin:

New books (with CDs!) from Uncle Tim, Aunt Jackie, and Colin:

And lots of fun new playclothes from Grandma and Papa!

Grandma and Papa also sent him his very own digital camera!  He has been having a blast taking pictures of everyone and everything, and he's actually pretty decent at it!  Even Joergen would smile for Liam's new camera:

One of his favorite gifts was this baseball jersey from Uncle Andrew, Aunt Beth, and his Illinois cousins.  Um, how cool is this?! 

Liam sure felt lots of love from all of his family and friends, and really, what could be a better present than that?

First (and only) Snow

It's been a weirdly warm winter (not complaining, believe me!), but back at the end of January, we did get a little snow one Saturday-- just enough to have some fun with.  Dad was in Philly for a training all morning, so the boys and I piled on our snow gear and headed outside to play.  It was Joergen's first real snow!

Liam went to work right away with some of his sand toys from the summer, scooping up snow and sweeping it off the railings of the deck.  Joergen tried to crawl through it, but slipped and face-planted right into the snow! 

And... there ended Joergen's interest in winter.  Not that I can blame him!  A little snuggle and a kiss at least put him back in a good mood again.  It reminded me so much of this day, minus about a foot and a half of snow.

When Dad came home, he and Liam got to work shoveling.  He really does love to be given a job and Dad said he was sincerely a big help!

After all that hard work, we built a fire in the fireplace and roasted marshmallows.  Liam got a big kick out of lighting his marshmallows on fire and excitedly getting one of us to blow it out. 

Could that have been the worst of our winter weather?  We can't possibly be that lucky, right?!

10 Months Old

Clap if you're 10 months old...!

Joergen (whose name Liam just started pronouncing correctly!) has been growing and changing by leaps and bounds over the past month.  Clapping, waving, high-fiving, and mimicking (or at least trying to mimic) other motions are all part of his new repertoire. It's been a lot of fun!  All of his new learnings are tiring, though, and he lets you know quickly when he's had enough-- usually like this:

Thumb in mouth, grabbing on to nearest piece of fabric... message received!

Joergen has been pretty insistent about eating and drinking like a big boy.  It started whenever I would drink a glass of water while holding him, and he would grab at it and fuss until I gave him a sip.  And then he would pretty much commandeer the glass for himself.  So good-bye bottles at Miss Doreen's house, and hello sippy cups!  He doesn't even want the kind with the valve in it-- just a straight-up cup with a spout.  Miss Doreen was a little sad to see the bottles go, but it sure is nice to not have to wash them anymore.  At dinner time, he likes to have a little sippy of water to go with his meal:

As for eating, I think he's getting over the baby food phase.  With more and more frequency, even though we know he's hungry, he'll push away the baby food and will only be placated by whatever he can feed himself.  He eats Happy Baby puffs like they're his job!  He's also had little chunks of cheese, some veggies, and I'm sure a few things that Liam has snuck him when we weren't looking.

Joergen loves toys that he can bang together or shake to make noise, so Liam's little drum and instrument set has been a huge hit.  He's also a big fan of this big tub of plastic connector beads that Miss Anita got him for Christmas.  He'll dump out the whole thing, gnaw on a few, and then just see how far he can throw the rest.  While I was baking cookies the other day, Joergen got out both the drum set and the beads-- party in the kitchen! 

Studying the velcro strap on the drum:

To save both water and time, we've been letting the boys take baths together-- which has been working great as long as Liam promises not to pee in the tub!  They pretty much play follow the leader the whole time, banging on the side of the tub, splashing in the water, clapping... definitely a case of monkey-see, monkey-do.

In just the last week or so, Joergen has learned some new moves, too.  He is crawling on all fours, maneuvering pretty quickly from lying down to sitting up to crawling, and has even pulled himself up to standing (which is happening too quickly and not yet frequently enough for me to catch on film).  He's also just starting to cruise a little.  This video is a bit dark, but you can get the idea:

He's doing a little "talking" too!  Now, if we could just get rid of his cold (and mine...), we'd be in great shape :)

Unseasonably Warm

Slowly but surely, I'm getting caught up...!

The days leading up to New Years were weirdly but wonderfully warm, and we were sure to take advantage of it while Grandma and Papa were visiting.  Liam was excited to try out his new tee, so with some pointers from Grandma, he took to the field with his cousins.

On the Friday before New Years, Dad had to work and the rest of us headed off to the Zoo.  Although we didn't see any real hippos, the kids got up close and personal with this one on our way in:

Papa and Grandma with their grandbabies:

We spent a good chunk of time in the reptile house, and Aidan was just amazed at this enormous yellow anaconda.  Let's just say we were pretty grateful for the large pane of glass separating us!

Considering it was winter, we were impressed with how many animals were out. Liam had fun counting tigers with Grandma at the Big Cat exhibit.

We also spent a lot of time in the primate house-- they were fascinating!  Check out this gorilla-- again, grateful for that pane of glass!

Outside, we found a gorilla we were a little more comfortable hanging out with:

My four favorite "animals" :)

Before heading home, we went for a ride on the carousel-- who knew it would even be running in the off-season?!

It was an awesome day! 

We spent New Year's Eve at home together. Joergen was a little cranky-- until we took his pants off. And then he was all smiles! Happy baby hanging with Papa:

In honor of Daddy's love of Chicago-style pizza, we tried our hand at making our own for NYE dinner.  Aidan was a great helper-- and the pizza turned out pretty yummy!  We will definitely be doing that again.

Liam tried his best to stay up with the "big kids", but alas, he just couldn't hang.  He asked Aidan to come upstairs with him to read a story, and before he could even get through "I Love You Stinky Face" (love that book!), he was out:

We had such a great visit with Grandma, Papa, Toni, and Aidan and were so very grateful to have that special time together.  Toni and Aidan are just awesome with Liam and Joergen-- we adore them!  We feel so blessed to have such amazing nieces and nephews.

Happy 2012 everyone-- wishing you your best year yet!

Aunt Jen's Barber Shop

While Aidan and Toni were visiting, Aidan eyed up his Uncle Anthony's haircut and asked if he could get his hair cut like that too.  Now, after the buzz incident of early summer, we invested in some electric shears, and I've been DIYing haircuts for Dad and Liam here at the house ever since.  I was happy to "expand the business" and give Aidan my signature cut, but in the interest of wanting his parents to continue to allow him to come to our house, we made sure we got parental approval first.  Little did they know just what they were approving...!

It was unseasonably warm, so we took to the deck to minimize the mess.  Here's his before picture, and for those of you who know Aidan, you know he has one seriously thick head of hair.

I had to start with a 5-guard just to thin it enough for a buzz, and after my first cut, Aidan and I schemed together on a little practical joke.  See if you can guess! (Photo credit: Antonia Derry!)

 Everyone who guessed that I gave Aidan a mohawk gets a point!

It was getting chilly, so we ran inside and called his dad to reveal his sweet new look.  Watch his priceless reaction here.

As Uncle Andy dealt with the shock, Toni ran interference while Aidan and I snuck back out onto the deck to finish the job.  Let's just say that his dad looked a little relieved when Aidan showed him the (real) finished product.

Handsome and then some!