365: March 15-21

This has been kind a strange week around here. I've started training for a new job (work from home!), and I've been away most evenings because of that. Liam is on a delayed sleep schedule and is going to bed, waking up, and napping much later than usual. It's going to take a no-nap day to normalize it again, but I love nap time, and have needed the break everyday so far. However, we have been able to spend a lot of time playing outside this week because the weather has been great.

March 15: Unless he heads straight for the slide, Liam always heads straight for some dirt when we go outside. he loves to dig in it and pull up weeds, especially the flowery weeds. He's pronouncing the word "flowers" as "waters" these day.

March 16: Saturday morning, I thought it would be great fun for us to all go to a park together and play. We went to a park we had never been to before, but it had all the essentials. Unfortunately, it was meltdown city for Liam. He complained about everything! So, no fun was had! I do like this picture of his windblown hair, though.

March 17: We went to Trader Joe's for a few items. By some miracle, Liam sat in the buggy without a fight! In this picture, he's holding "chocs" which is his word for chocolate. Will likes their cheap, dark chocolate and he shares a few little bites with Liam occasionally.

March 18: While we were playing outside, I noticed a few dandelions. I decided it was time to try and teach Liam how to blow dandelions. He loved watching them blow away in the wind. He got the blowing motion down, but never really got the holding the dandelion right in front of his mouth and blowing part. He would hold it down near his belly and blow! He enjoyed it all anyway!

March 19: We were outside yet again! Liam was laying down on a bench with his head hanging over the side (toddler planking), so I snapped a couple pictures from below without really knowing what I was capturing in the picture. I like the trees overhead. It was a gorgeous day!

March 20: I had just changed Liam's diaper, and was washing my hands in the bathroom right next to Liam's room. When I went back to his room, he had somehow produced a crayon from somewhere and proceeded to draw all over the back of his changing pad (which is pretty much always on the floor). I had no idea there was a crayon stashed in his room. I think Liam totally had a plan to do this, though!

March 21: As evidenced by the previous photo, Liam has started to branch out when it comes to the surfaces he decides to color on. He has also recently colored on the tile in front of the fireplace a couple of times. He is seriously so fast, and it can happen if I take my eyes off him for just a minute or two. Thankfully, he is eager to help clean up and is starting to understand that he can't color on the tile. When I told him we were going to clean it up, he immediately took off one of his socks and started scrubbing it! That's why he's only sporting one sock in the picture. Then I gave him a wet paper towel and he "keened" it all up. He's a good helper!

Liam at 22 Months

March 14th totally sneaked up on me! This past month flew right by, no doubt helped by the fact that it was two days shorter because of February. I have a feeling May 14th will be here in no time, and I'll have a two year old on my hands. I've got to start planning his Curious George party!

Liam is a lot of fun to be around. He has his moments that try my patience, but overall he's a good, fun kid. He's also a smart kid. One day, I asked Will to turn on "you know what," and Liam immediately said, "George." Ha! These days, though, he's not as obsessed with Curious George as he used to be. Lately, he wants to see "Babies," which is Baby Signing Time. He finally added the signs for dad and grandpa to his repertoire, and he refers to both of his grandfathers as "Peepaw" these days, even though that's not either of their grandfather nicknames.

Liam has developed an intense love of sliding this month. He wants to "wide" all the time. Since the weather has been nice this week, we've spent a chunk of our mornings outside walking and "widing." It's handy that there's one outside our apartment door. When we get a house, we're planning on getting him a slide, especially since there won't be a park in walking distance anymore. We've also tried out a couple parks we hadn't been to before this month, and Liam enjoyed swinging (in the baby swing). However, he gets so frustrated that he can't swing in the regular swing. The kid just does not have the balance yet, plus he doesn't get the "you have to hold on the whole time," thing. When I do give in and plop him up on one, I keep my hands on him. That usually causes a meltdown because he wants to do it by himself...but he can't! So we both end up frustrated. One day, Liam, one day.

In February, Will and I spent more than eight hours away from Liam when we celebrated our tenth anniversary. It was the longest amount of time we had been together but not with Liam, if that makes any sense. It was also the first time neither of us was there to put him to bed. I had no idea how that would go, and as it turns out, it didn't go well! My parents tried for hours to get him to go to sleep. He eventually crashed on the couch about ten minutes before we got home at 11:30 pm. Otherwise, I think they all had a great time together! Liam is just very used to me being there for bedtime. Unfortunately, he even gives Will a hard time with it if I'm not there for bedtime. I've only spent two nights apart from him since he's been born, although I've missed more bedtimes than that!

As for teeth, this month has been all about molars. The bottom right molar is mostly all the way in, and the upper molars are both breaking through the gums. That makes teeth numbers 10-12. Those are his one year molars coming in, and for now, the incisors have been skipped.

 I know this will obviously just keep getting better and better, but Liam has definitely improved his communication skills this month. He's starting to get really good at making known what he wants to do or doesn't want to do. He says yes and no appropriately and usually with emphasis. "Do you want to go outside?" "YES!" "Do you want to get your diaper changed?" "No!" He has also started saying, "Mmhmm." He does a ton of babble-talking these days with real words thrown in. Three word sentences are common from him, though, and one of the new ones is, "I did it!" The most common phrase I hear from him, though, is "Wow! Cool!"

He has gotten better with napping, although he will occasionally still skip a nap. I think we've been able to play outside every morning this week, and he has napped every day. I just have to wear him out so he'll sleep!

Liam is still loving letters, coloring, and stickers. Stickers are all over this place. It's ridiculous. But it makes him happy, so we oblige. If we don't, a fit is usually thrown. He's had a lot of fits this month, but I do think this is one of those frustrating ages for him. I refuse to say he's terrible or call this period The Terrible Twos. That's mean. He's being completely normal for his age. Although he's getting better at communication and coordination all the time, there are still many, many things he wants to say or wants to do, but he can't yet. So a frustrated scream and occasionally some overly dramatic falling to the ground has to do the talking for him. I'm trying to take it in stride, especially when it happens in public.

It seems that lately, Liam is not happy in public places unless he's allowed to run free. We made the mistake (we didn't know it was a mistake at the time) of letting Liam push the buggy around a very empty Target one day last month. Well, since then, he thinks he ought to push the buggy every time. A scene occurs if we try to get him to sit in the buggy. This is typically fine if both of us are there. It's much more difficult if I'm by myself with him in a store. You should've seen me trying to get him in a buggy in Sprouts a couple weeks ago! Thankfully, it happened in the very back of the store outside the restrooms where no one could really see us. I eventually won. I had too. That store had way too many people in it to allow him to push the buggy. I don't remember the last time Liam was in a stroller. He probably wouldn't get in it if we tried. It might be time for a leash (sorry....tether) soon. Meals in restaurants are usually spent trying to keep Liam in his high chair. We haven't gone out to eat much at all lately!

Liam had a brief obsession with washing his hands this month. He still likes to wash his hands, although it usually turns into a frustrating situation these days if I try to help. But he doesn't really wash his hands if I don't help, he just plays with the water.

These days, Liam also likes to lay down on his toys, especially his Legos. I think he's trying to duplicate a ballpit situation. He experienced his first ballpit last month, and spent a lot of time just falling down on the plastic balls. Unfortunately, Legos don't have quite the same effect. Ouch.

Finally, Liam continues to love dirt. He has no qualms about getting dirty. When we're outside and not sliding, we're looking for dirt. When we find some, Liam spends a lot of time playing with it. We sat in front of someone's house for twenty minutes yesterday playing with a small pile of dirt. Pictures are below!

Up the stairs to the slide

To my dismay, he discovered the part of the play equipment that has one side open to the ground four feet below. 

"Water!"

Strolling the neighborhood

Obligatory walking away from me picture

He always stops to pull up the weedy flowers

Concentrating on the dirt

We sat in this sunny spot about 10 minutes while he dug in the space between the sidewalk and grass.

Then we found this dirt spot about twenty feet away.

He's happy if there's dirt on his hands.

Still occupied after 20 minutes! I had to literally pick him up and carry him away down a different street.

Decided to feel the breeze on his belly. He loves showing off his belly these days.

Walking in the sun.

Watching cars go by.

365: March 8-14

This week has been extremely uneventful. That's not a bad thing, but it makes it hard to remember to take pictures. I actually forgot to take any pictures Sunday. Oops. The weather has been nice this week, especially the second half, so Liam and I have been spending an hour outside in the morning sliding and walking around. Then Will takes him out again in the evening while I cook dinner. Daylight Saving Time isn't so horrible after all!

March 8: We are in the process of buying a house, and the inspection was Friday afternoon. It got started late, so Will didn't get home until almost 10 pm since he was there for all of it. Liam and I snuggled on the couch some in the evening (watching Curious George) waiting for Will. However, Liam was in bed by the time Will got home.

March 9: We decided to go to Home Depot to look at home stuff since we are trying to get in to the mortgage-paying club. Unfortunately, these days Liam pretty much REFUSES to get in a buggy. There was a small scene trying to get him to sit in a buggy at HD, and he did sit in it for awhile. The complaining eventually worked, though, because we let him walk around some. Of course he went straight to the table saw area.

March 10: This was the day I didn't take any pictures. So you get to see a picture of some kale and Brussels sprouts I sautéed for dinner last night. Eat your greens!

March 11: Liam doing his best Earl Hickey while playing in his room. He specializes in making messes at lightning speed.

March 12: Liam insisted on taking this tennis ball outside to play. It made climbing up to the slide a little more difficult, but he persevered and held on the tennis ball the whole time. Dedication...or stubbornness, one of the two.

March 13: This is one Will actually took of Liam on their evening walk. The sprinklers were on at a house in the neighborhood. Will said Liam just stood there getting soaked and saying, "Water! Water!" He was a fan.

March 14: We took a walk around the neighborhood this morning, and I took some pictures of Liam for his 22 month blog post (coming in a day or two). I don't think I ever succeeded at getting one of him actually looking at the camera. To me, this picture doesn't really look like Liam. He's making a face he never makes, but I somehow caught it on camera. Again with the closed eyes.

365: March 1-7

This felt like a very long week to me because Will was on a business trip for most of it. Yesterday (Wednesday) felt like Friday, and today feels like Monday. Thankfully, I imagine I will be quite happy to wake up tomorrow morning and realize it's finally the real Friday!

March 1: Liam was helping me eat an apple. He kept saying, "Good," but then he got tired of eating it after about four bites.

March 2: I was waiting in line at the post office to mail a present to my friend Amanda. She got married that day in New Orleans, and I was super sad to not be there. Amanda and I have been buds since first grade! I was in line at the post office at noon when it closed, so they locked us in and let us out as we finished our transactions.

March 3: I'm not a fan of this place unless I'm going somewhere too. But we were there to drop off Will for a business trip to Las Vegas.

March 4: The weather was actually really great Sunday and Monday. Sunday, the high was in the 80s! We spent a lot of time outside both days and tried out two parks we hadn't been to before since we had the car. This was taken at Yale Park. Liam loves to swing, and does enjoy the baby swing. However, he's starting to get really upset that he can't swing on a regular swing yet. He kept going over to them and saying, "Wing. Peas." I told him he didn't have the balance to swing like that yet. The couple of times I did put him on the swing I kept my hands on him, and he would have meltdowns about that. He didn't want help. It was frustrating for both of us!

March 5: It got chilly again that day, and we ended up spending the majority of the day inside. Liam loves to do this little trick these days on the chair in his room. Eh, not much happened that day!

March 6: We went back to the airport to pick up Will! Liam and I went to Grapevine Mills Mall beforehand so he could walk around. We spent 20 minutes walking up and down the same set of four stairs. Yep. Surprisingly, Will's plane landed early, so he had to wait a little while for us to pick him up. We were so glad he was home!

March 7: Sticker obsession. This kid has one.

Anniversary Pictures

A while back I thought it would be nice to have good pictures taken of the two of us for our tenth anniversary. If at all possible, I wanted them to be taken on the exact date of our anniversary. I asked my friend Brenda if she would be available for about 30 minutes that day for an anniversary photo session. Thankfully, she said yes, even though our anniversary is also her birthday!

We took them at Prairie Creek Park, which is where Brenda took our maternity pictures almost two years ago. We took them right before we went to Dallas for dinner and the Anberlin concert.

These pictures are by Brenda Cook and posted with her permission!

I think we finally look like adults in our thirties, right?

I'm wearing my new wedding ring Will bought me for our tenth anniversary!

Brenda gave us the rose for our anniversary!

365: February 22-28

One month down! I'm starting to get into the habit of taking at least one picture a day for this purpose. It's kind of neat to see some of the events from the past week in pictures. This week, you can tell that Liam was the focus, as he's in all but one picture. You can also tell I don't get out much! I wouldn't trade getting to spend all this time with Liam for anything, though.

February 22: In my effort to lose weight, I'm eating a lot more fruits and vegetables. This was my breakfast that day, and I think I've had that same meal for breakfast twice since then. Now I'm out of cottage cheese, though.

February 23: Liam is pretty good about not messing with our glasses, but he is all about placing items on his head or face. I think Will might have handed these over willingly for a quick photo, but Liam put the death grip on them when he tried to get them back.

February 24: We went to Bible Study at our friends' house that night. They have two girls. It was only a matter of time before Liam found the necklaces and tried them on.

February 25: Liam has recently become obsessed with washing his hands. He calls it, "Hah hands." I think he really just likes to play with water. The stool is still a little short as he can barely reach the water.

February 26: Liam woke up with this lovely hairstyle that day, and I could not get it to lay down at all. His hair looked like that all day long.

February 27: The weather the past few days has been sunny but cold. It's the wind that's caused it to be more frigid than I like to experience. However, we couldn't stay cooped up inside all day, so we put on some layers and took an hour-long walk around the neighborhood. Liam likes to stop every ten feet or so and play in the dirt and mess with sticks. That's why it takes an hour.

February 28: Liam loves to sit at his table and color these days. He also can't resist dumping out all the colors. This is an accurate picture of what happens around here every day.

Celebrating Ten Years

Will and I celebrated ten years of marriage last Thursday. Months ago, we started thinking about what we wanted to do on that day. One of our favorite bands made it an easy decision by announcing they would be playing in Dallas on our anniversary. So we bought tickets first and worried about the babysitter part afterward. Thankfully, my parents agreed to come and visit from Louisiana and hang out with Liam.

Before heading Downtown, my friend Brenda took some pictures of the two of us for a little anniversary photo shoot. I knew I wanted good pictures of us from that day. We went to the same park where she took our maternity pictures. Although the morning was cold and rainy, by the afternoon, it was sunny and 70 degrees. Perfect picture-taking weather.

Then we headed toward Oak Cliff to eat dinner at our favorite restaurant, Spiral Diner. I know I've written about it before, but we love this place so much. It was a natural choice for our anniversary dinner. Everything is vegan...and crazy delicious. Will had the Cowboy Burger, and I had the "Mitch" Tofu Club sandwich, which is one of the best sandwiches I've ever had. (Bonus points if you know it was named after a Mitch Hedberg bit.)

Yummmmm

A fun little thing I want to remember: The guitar player for Anberlin (the band we saw) is a vegetarian and typically asks for restaurant recommendations on Twitter for each city he's in. Will got on my Twitter account and told him about Spiral Diner. The next day, he posted a photo of the restaurant with the caption, "Thanks for the recommendation, Jennifer C." So yeah, he took our advice.

After a great meal, we headed to the House of Blues for the concert. As mentioned before, the band we went to see is Anberlin. I'm sure most everyone reading this has never heard of them. That's ok. They're still good! They've been around ten years, but aren't super well-known. Thankfully, that means it's still cheap enough to go to their shows! This was our SIXTH Anberlin concert to attend. You could say we're fans. The first time we saw them live was in 2003. They opened for Relient K at the Strand in Shreveport. We actually saw them the night before we left for our honeymoon (which was 9 months after the wedding). Before that night, we had never heard of them, and I don't remember a whole lot about their performance. I do remember, however, that a few days later we both had their songs stuck in our head after only hearing them once. We decided they needed a second listen, so we got their first album, and we still listen to it almost 10 years later. They've released 6 more albums since then. We listen to those too. Every other time we've seen them live has been in Dallas. We saw them in 2007(came from Louisiana for that one), 2008, and twice in September 2010, with one of those being an acoustic performance at Good Records. Their show at HOB in 2010 was actually the LAST concert we attended before this one. Liam attended both of their September shows as well as a Smashing Pumpkins concert that month, as I was pregnant but didn't know it yet! As you can see, this band has been important to us over the years, and we were thrilled to get to celebrate our anniversary at their concert. They get better live every time we see them! It's neat that we know how they've changed and improved performance-wise over the years.

Anyway, I think we've established our love for Anberlin. Moving on. We got to the HOB after the doors had opened, so we didn't have to wait in line. We checked out the crowd situation, and there wasn't much of one yet, so we took some pictures in the photo booth there. You know, anniversary souvenir. I think this is the first picture I've seen where I think we actually look like a couple in our thirties as opposed to college students.

Our tickets were general admission standing room only, so we made our way to the area in front of the stage. It wasn't very crowded yet, so we got as close as we could and waited for the first band to go on. They were called All Get Out. I didn't like them. It was a little too screamy (thought it was 2005 for a minute), and the lead singer cussed too much while talking to the audience. Low class. The second band was Paper Route. We actually liked them and enjoyed their performance despite not knowing any of their songs.

By the time Anberlin came on, we were almost at the very front. There was one person between me and the fence, so we were about 5 feet from the stage. Will claimed he had never been that close before at a concert, but I had. When I was 15, my first real rock concert was Bush at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock. My friend Glenda and I were at the very front of a rowdy mosh pit. We had to duck to keep from getting hit in the head from people crowd surfing. We could only breathe when the crowd swayed backwards. There was a real possibility of being crushed against the fence. However, I was only a few feet from the picture below, so I was ok with it!

After what seemed like forever, Anberlin took the stage, and then the fun began. It's always awesome when you know the words to every song and sing along...loudly. The lead singer, Stephen Christian, sounded great and looked like he was happy to be there. I really love live music. I like being able to feel the bass in my chest. Fun, fun times! There was also great pit hospitality (are they still called pits?). Anyway, I wasn't pushed up against strangers. I had room to move and breathe, and the only person touching me was Will. Perfect!

Lead singer Stephen Christian

All in all, I think it was a perfect tenth anniversary. It was very much "us." I'm looking forward to many more decades and many more rock shows with the best husband ever!