May Round-up!

Life continues to move forward here in Iowa, and Baby Lamb continues to grow and entertain.  He has such a personality, and he loves to laugh -- and to make us laugh.  He ADORES Curious George, and good old George has become our new best friend when we travel.  The tablet, a holder attached to the seat, a few episodes of CG, and we can make the drive to the lake without stopping (with the addition of a few books and snacks that is).  This will be put to the test this coming week as Liam and I go on our first road trip, heading to MI to see all the family.  We'll be splitting the drive up, but it is still a long drive for a little man.

Liam is no longer in the "baby" room at daycare, as of June 1 he was moved up to the "Tots" and we've already seen changes that come with hanging out with the older kids!  He's started to "shush" us at random times, to count, and to be much more independent.  The stubborn streak is emerging more often, but he has a great, loving personality to balance it all out!

We took two trips up to the lake to visit Grandma and Grandpa in May, but the weather did NOT cooperate either time, so Liam hasn't had a chance to ride on the new "tontoon" yet :)  He still likes to snuggle up with me and watch a show or two before bed, and I enjoy every single minute of that snuggle time because I know it won't last. 

The perfect reading chair at the lake...especially on a rainy weekend

Reading to Grandpa

Reading with Grandma

Learning the finer points of how to play cornhole

Mr. Cool

Mr. Cool trying to take Harley on a walk

My kids

Trouble.  Trouble with a capital "T"

Grandma and 3 of her 4 grandkids

Working on his art

The joys of sidewalk chalk

Time Flies Part Two

The past two months continued...

We celebrated Daddy's birthday...

And Grandma and Grandpa brought a fabulous present to Iowa (although someone now HATES to go inside), while also sharing the fun of playing "monkey in the middle"...

We reconfirmed Liam's status as "grandpa's boy"...

And we worked on becoming a basketball star...sort of...

We found our belly...

And we celebrated Easter with the family (looking quite handsome of course!)

OH BOY! There are nilla wafers/goldfish in that egg!

A good looking trio of cousins!

And that concludes the brief photo collage of the past two months!

Time Flies

I can't believe it has been two months since I posted last!  We've had a lot of fun and a lot of adventures with our little monkey since then, which I'll try to summarize here.  He's not so little anymore though, he is definitely turning into a little boy and not a baby.  It is so exciting to see him grow, yet a little sad at the same time.

Meeting Clifford:

Clifford, who is a favorite at our house, turns 50 this year!  To celebrate, the Des Moines Public Libraries (which I LOVE) had a Clifford story hour at various time and locations in the city.  One was near Drake, so Liam and I took the morning off and hit the library!  I wasn't sure how he'd do with the group and with the big stuffed creature, but I should have known better than to worry.  We had to pry him away from Clifford to leave and he was fascinated listening during the story time.

The Simple Joys
We also discovered the joy of boxes and the microphone

Williams Family Visit

Then we hit March, which started off with a fabulous visit from the family, including cousin Kaeson.  This was fun to see as Liam had to share his "stuff" and he wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Overall, he seemed to like having Kaeson around though!

Grandpa and his boys

Hattie's Birthday
Our next big event was Hattie's second birthday, which Liam enjoyed every bit as much as Hattie did I think when it came to the cake!  He also learned to "play" piano and introduced Amelia to the joys of "Super Why".

 





























Chilling
We also spent a lot of time just relaxing, kicking back, and being generally adorable.  We'll pick up next post with the Easter photos! 

Another first...haircut!

Liam got his first real haircut...and just like that he looked even more like a little boy and not a baby.  We had trimmed up Liam's mullet back in December, but he still had quite the crazy head of hair.  Long and fine up top, a couple of cowlicks, and nice thick hair in back of varying lengths.  We decided that particular Sunday was the day and headed to Great Clips (it didn't hurt that he was in a fabulous mood after his nap, what better time for an adventure?!)

Stephanie at Great Clips was fabulous.  She did great with Liam, and he was about perfect...with a little help from the Kindle Fire and Curious George.  The pouty lip came out for a second at first, but he adjusted quickly and didn't fuss at all.  He ended up with a haircut just like his daddy...short on the sides and a bit longer/spiky on top.  A little bit of product and my spiky-haired little dude was set!

Har-weee

It's no secret that Liam is a big fan of Harley and loves nothing more than to play with/torment/feed her.  Harley doesn't quite return the same depth of feeling, unless there is food involved :)  Liam greeted me Sunday morning by constantly calling for Har-wee, and it continued throughout the day, to the point I couldn't resist getting it on camera.  There's no doubt what Liam is trying to say here!

 

P.S.  Please ignore his snotty nose...we were all under the weather on Sunday, and Liam and I decided it was a perfect day to spend all day in our PJs and relax and recuperate :)

Liam & Mr. Monkey...A Year in Review

While they were about a week late, we did get the official 12 month photos with Mr. Monkey in early January:

Squirreling away Cheerios

Such a happy kid!

It is amazing how much our baby has grown over this past year.  We can definitely see it, but in comparison to Mr. Monkey, the contrast is even more impressive!  Here is a photo history of Liam and Mr. Monkey, months 1-12 :)

Month One

Month Two

Month Three

Month Four

Month Five

Month Six

Month Seven

Month Eight

Month Nine

Month Ten

Month Eleven

Month Twelve

Just keep growing, growing, growing...

January has been another month of growing and learning for Liam.  He discovered the fun that is Finding Nemo (although mom and dad may have enjoyed that more than Liam, at least for now!), and is loving all his new toys from Christmas and his birthday.  We spend a lot of time playing on the farm, typing on the laptop, playing the piano and reading.  Liam LOVES his books, and he's almost as happy to sit and "read" to either himself or you as he is for you to read to him. 

Discovering the joy of Barnes and
Noble at an early age :)

He does have a clear favorite when it comes to an author though - Leslie Patricelli.  Quiet Loud was the favorite book, but it has somehow disappeared (OH NO!).  Luckily thought, Big Little was there to save the day, and since then we've also added No No Yes Yes and Yummy Yucky.  As Liam learned to shake his head no no no no no (and sometimes yes yes yes), that one is starting to become a favorite as well.  If you haven't seen these books before, I highly recommend them, they are very fun, and you can make them interactive with the opposites.  :)

Little guy not feeling so well

Liam started off 2013 with a bang, managing to hit the trifecta in early January - the flu, pneumonia and an ear infection.  It was along week, but he recovered quickly and seems to be doing much, much better.  We're hoping it stays that way, a few weeks of a healthy kid would be welcome at this point.  The fun right now is teething, as each of the past two weekends we had another tooth pop through.  Slowly.  And apparently painfully.  Poor kid.  We're up to SEVEN teeth though, four on top and three on bottom.  I suspect we're going to see a few more shortly here though the way those gums look!

We are starting to recognize more and more words, and he does like to babble away.  "No" is quite clear, and "Harley" is at times.  He is a little mimic though, and it's a fun game to get him to try to say or do what you do.  This works for animal sounds, talking, dancing, and even eating at times.  We have so much fun with him, and Liam keeps us both on the go and very entertained.  Now if we can just keep him healthy, we'll be on a roll!