Where to begin?

 After neglecting my blog for a couple of years it's hard to figure out what to post about to begin with!  I guess a good place is to talk about the baby that's on the way.  I have seen lots of creative ideas about how to make a dramatic announcement that a baby is on the way, but I wasn't sure what we could pull off.  We tried making four snowmen in our yard, but couldn't get a good shot of them afterwards.  It's hard to photograph snow.  Finally I decided to have Liam make little play-dough people with one for each of the family members we will have after the baby comes.  He enjoyed making them and posing for pictures with them.

 But what he really wanted to do was squish them afterwards!  Just so you don't think he has some kind of animosity towards this upcoming baby I have included several shots of the process.  the point was to squish each character, then combine them and squish the whole family.

We are all really excited about the baby.  The due date is the 22nd of July.  Our ultrasound is scheduled for this coming Thursday, and then we will know if Liam will have a brother or sister. 

Blog still around

Hey!  My blog still exists and I could still access the account!  I've been thinking about getting it going again since we have another baby on the way and those early days just turn into a blur so fast.  Plus, I think that Liam will really enjoy seeing his previous self complete with descriptions of what was actually going on.  Anyways, hopefully this entry will help to keep the blog live a little longer in case it times out at some point.  Three years of no posting is pretty impressive for having it stay around, though.  I wonder who's actually been looking at it from time to time.

Sleeping Beauty

Allen put Liam to bed tonight. It gives me a nice break when the house is quiet and I can do whatever I want. Usually, though, I just play Facebook games. I am exhausted most of the time, to tell you the truth. Lately we've all had colds, which doesn't help the tiredness.

For a while it seemed like Liam was giving up his afternoon naps altogether. I used to be able to lay down on the bed with him and get him to go to sleep, but then he decided he rather climb all over me and play in the bed. I couldn't hold him down and just got frustrated. So I made up a "special bed" in the living room hoping that he would fall asleep there. Now if he isn't falling asleep I lay down on the special bed and try to get some rest while he plays. Often he falls asleep between four and five p.m. This week he's taken some very long naps starting at that time. Makes for some late nights!

Often when he does fall asleep it's not on the "special bed, but somewhere else on the floor. Bumping into toys as he scoots around in his sleep doesn't seem to bother him.

Projects

You will not find this recipe in any cookbook! This is what happens when you combine lots of CSA veggies with not much time or energy. Helps to have adventurous eaters. It's curry made with leeks, beets and tops, coconut milk and black beans. That's what was handy. We have been enjoying our fresh organic vegetables, but they have often been more than we can eat. I would like to have done more preserving, but just wasn't up to it this year. Liam is often not up for new veggies, but he will at least try most. Often they come right back out, but at least he tries.

Liam has been working hard at learning to use the potty. Just yesterday we went several hours and several trips to the potty without having to get new underwear! The downside is that Liam still refuses to poop in the potty, so he can get a little behind in pooping when he's working on potty training. He gets to watch extra TV, though while he's waiting for developments.

Liam's big passion lately has been tunnels. Allen was dubbed "Tunnel-man" because he built some big 'pooky tunnels out of the big blocks for Liam. This track has survived much longer than most tracks do around our house. The tunnels have been modified and become parking spaces for small cars as you may be able to see in the picture.

We have also been continuing our project of learning Chinese. This has mostly involved play dates with Chinese friends, but we have also been watching a few online videos. This morning Liam was looking out the kitchen window at the neighbor's fall decorations. When he said, "Beaufitul flowers" I said, "Can you say beautiful in Chinese?" He said, "Beaufitul in Chinese."

Toledo Zoo

Last Wednesday we went to Toledo Zoo. It was sure different from last year's zoo trip when Liam thought that everything was a "doggy." Now he can say the names of the animals and even sometimes had special greetings for them. When I said, "Oh look, you can see the rhinos," he said, "Hi! I'm so glad to see you!"

He also enjoyed climbing on some rocks. He did a lot of walking around the zoo and actually got mad at us when we made him ride in the stroller on the way out.

Another big favorite was the elephants. I didn't know he was so interested in elephants, but it was the one thing he specifically asked to see.

He also had a close encounter with some ducks. I think that they were technically "wild" ducks that just happen to like living in the zoo. They aren't very afraid of people, though.

Catching up

Well, once again, it's been a while since I've managed to post. In July we went to New Hampshire for two weeks of vacation. We stayed with our friend Rob and enjoyed clean air and good fellowship. We had two weekends of "gaming." It was fun to play games, but Liam didn't have much patience with the process, so usually either Allen or I had to sit out.
Here's Rob and Allen playing "Agricola." I played this one too, but I'm not very good at it. Liam just wanted to arrange the little wooden pieces.

We also took a ride up a mountain in a sky tram. When we got to the top we took a little hike around the top of the mountain and climbed to the top of an observation deck. Liam was a trooper and climbed up the stairs himself. When we got back to the bottom he was pretty tired!


We also took another trip to Cascade Brook. The adventure this year was that one of Liam's shoes fell in the water and had to be fished out. Liam really liked throwing stones into the water and wading in puddles, but he didn't want to get in the water himself.


We enjoyed attending a couple of concerts that Rob played his tuba in. Liam danced to the music and did laps around the bandstand.

Out and about

Last week we got to see our friend Frances in Oberlin Ohio. She was lives in Texas now, but had a professional conference in Oberlin. We enjoyed having lunch with her. Well, mostly we enjoyed it. Liam was very frustrated because we wouldn't let him play with the salt and pepper shakers which were shaped like taxi cabs.


Afterward we took a walk in a nearby park. Liam walked round and round this planter. He would have been content to keep going but we were getting warm in the sun and I was getting worried about the bees which might not be as friendly as story books make them out to be.

On Monday we visited Grandma or "GG" in Lima. Liam and I went since Allen was in the middle of a three night "observing run" - he was running a telescope from his office. The telescope is actually in Arizona, but thanks to the internet he didn't actually have to go. Anyways, we had fun visiting with GG and Uncle John. Liam remembered that GG has blocks and he played with them and her "little houses" quite a bit. He also thought it was great fun to roll the container the blocks are stored in to us as we were sitting in the living room. He took a spill headfirst off a kitchen chair. It was pretty traumatic for all of us and he ended up with a bruise. But when we got home he said he had "fun" rolling the block container and didn't mention the fall. He's been climbing up on things just as much as ever since then - maybe even more.


In fact, the other day he picked up his ride-on car and put it on the ottoman. Then he climbed up on the ottoman and sat down on the car exclaiming, "Better!" Allen didn't think it was better since the wheels of the car were about to slip off on one side.

He's also been running more lately, which is good for his development, but can have negative consequences. Today he got his first band-aid. He and I were playing a "get you" game and he ran toward a wall and tripped. He caught the corner of a heating/cooling register with his forehead and clipped another part with his hand - removing a layer of skin. He recovered from this amazingly fast. After a brief application of an ice pack he said he was "happy."

The point of this picture is that it shows Liam's first band-aid. But he's more interested in the fact that it shows the truck on his shirt.