Liam is 3!

Liam is now 3 years old. 

He brings us such joy and really is a lot of fun to be around.   While certainly he can be difficult, he is mostly a really good kid.  We love our little man.

Here is what he's up to these days...

Sleeping -- we have tried to move him into his own bed (actually the futon in the office as Quinn is now in the boys bedroom).   Liam really likes his bed, but he only goes to sleep with somebody laying down with him.  For the most part, we still enjoy that too and it is part of our bonding with him.   It would be nice if he would sleep there all night, but once he wakes up and realizes that he is alone, he comes looking for us.  He either ends up in our bed or one of us goes back and just sleeps with him.

Binky - still his major vice.  He uses it every night to go to sleep and off&on throughout the day.  Oh well... maybe we can get rid of it soon.

Playing Outside - Liam is totally into sports activities.  He wants to go play on the sportcourt all the time and hopes that people will come see him.  He has a new friend in the neighborhood who comes over once in a while.  Baseball is the sport of choice these days and he always wants to play catch and hit.  

Playing Inside -- He is always playing with something, but matchbox cars seem to be a common favorite these days.  And at bedtime it is all about the ipad.   He plays all sorts of educational games on the ipad and knows how to start new games or books all by himself.  It is neat to see how comfortable he is with technology.

Food - It is all about McDonald's these days.  They have him hooked on their Happy Meal toys and 'Smurfs' in particular.   We have to force him to eat dinner as he plays games about not liking food when we know he does.   If he had his way it would be just snacks all night.

School - He really likes school and he always seems to be having fun when we pick him up.   The teachers have been great and we are so pleased with his development.  Sadly, he fusses in the morning when he is being dropped off -- not quite sure why this is and somedays it is just so sad leaving him and Quinn there especially when both crying.

Language - He seems to be a pretty bright kid and he has a pretty expansive vocabulary.  As long as the binky is out of his mouth, he communicates very well.   And what is most amazing is his memory and how he makes correlations.  He even just used "damn-it" correctly --- he was playing catch and the ball hit his glove and fell to the ground.  We told him it was a bad word and to use "oh shucks".  Then this week he said to me, "Dad, when I drop the baseball I can say oh shucks, but I can't say damn-it right?"

Learning -- He seems to have a good grasp on the colors, but still not great.  He has no interest in saying the alphabet -- not sure why, but he opposes any attempt to learn letters.   Counting is pretty good and can count to 11 or 12 without a problem, but he doesn't like to do it on demand (like alphabet).  Basically he is a bad student and doesn't want to practice these things -- must get that from his father!

Happy Birthday Liam! 

Hurricane Irene

The kids went to stay with Nana and Grampy Conley yesterday while we headed to Newport.   They are supposed to join us tomorrow, but with Hurricane Irene coming up the coast they may not come until Monday.  

Val and I are going to make the most of our alone time with some dining out at places that don't give out Smurf's.   And most enjoyably we'll sleep without any baby monitors.   Newport is boarding up shop all over town as there is a lot of anticipation of big surges of water.   We are pretty unconcerned (maybe just naive), so hopefully this passes without a lot of fanfare.

Earlier this week, Liam got to celebrate his upcoming birthday with his school buddies.  We sent cupcakes and "Cars" gift bags for all the kids.  Liam was excited going into school and said he had fun.   His birthday theme is "Cars" and we got him the movie a couple weeks ago.  I think we've seen it 4 times now and it would be much more if Liam had his way -- although he has not watched the whole movie in a single instance and always wants to multi-task and use the ipad while he watches the movie. 

Ohio Visit

Val took the boys to Ohio for a long weekend.  They got to see lots of the family, but most importantly were able to spend a lot of time with Grandpa and Grandma Mac. 

While there, they did plenty of playing despite the very warm temperatures.   They had an early birthday party too and got cool gifts, cake, and of course some ice cream.

Here are some pix..

Quinn update

Mr. Quinn gets to be more fun (read: less cranky) every day. I think most of this comes from his new found mobility. He is able to walk freely without holding walls or toys, but still uses them and anything he can find to pull himself up when needed. We've seen him get himself up without extra assistance, so he is just being lazy.

Quinn still hasn't taken to baby food and may just skip right past it. We try once in a while, but for some reason he just doesn't care for it. He does much better with some regular pasta, cheerios, fries, hot dogs, etc.. But more than anything, this kid loves his formula. We haven't tried to switch over to milk yet, but probably soon.

Lately Quinn has started to babble a bit more than he ever has. He can be super cute when he couples it with a little wave hello or good-bye.

On the sleep front, he really has been doing great for the last 4-6 weeks. There have only been a couple times that he has woken up in the middle of the night and needed attention. And on those occasions it is usually because he didn't eat/drink enough at bedtime. In the last week he has also been better at sleeping in a bit - we seemed to go thru a long stretch of the summer where he was wide awake by 5:30. Now he is closer to 6:30 and that one extra hour is a world of difference to us. So for the most part we have some pretty normal nights sleep happening. This has been particularly helpful in last month as Val has been traveling a bit for work.

Quinn isn't great at warming up to new people and takes time to even warm up to family and friends. While he is great with us, Papa Tom, and Ms. Meaghan from school, there is really just one person that he truly melts for and that is his brother. Quinn just love anything Liam does and laughs at him all the time. At time I'm on the verge of yelling at Liam for being too rough only to get a huge cackle laugh from Quinn . It is very sweet to see how much he loves Liam. I think Liam is really starting to enjoy having a brother he can almost play with and he certainly enjoys all the attention Quinn gives him.

Sports Court Installed

This summer we had a multi-purpose court installed in our back yard. Hopefully it will provide the boys with years of enjoyment while giving us some comfort having kids safely playing in the yard. We have already been down there a lot riding bike, roller blaring, playing baseball, tennis, and basketball. Liam plays each for about five minutes before coming up with new ideas of what to do.

We still need to do something with the landscaping to fix up the yard. So for now the court looks great, but the yard is a mess.