'Round Here

Operation Christmas Tear Down is officially complete. A little earlier than usual but in order to assemble all the baby stuff (no, she's not here yet!) something had to go. The tree seemed a good candidate much to Liam's disappointment. He was pretty impressed with the lights and would not stand for them to be off at any time. Here he is checking out the tree on Christmas morning....

It was all a bit too much to take for a little guy, but he did pretty well. Aside from playing with the paper and boxes he narrowed in on a mini hockey set and Elmo phone and got right to it:

It's been a while, so this is a big update! Liam officially moved into his new room a few weeks ago. There was very little fanfare to the transition that had us hesitating for weeks. One day we just decided to try it and braced ourselves for a long night of confusion and tears. Nada. Dare we assume the transition to big brotherhood will be so smooth?
Some new "art" for a new room:

Liam's move into his new room left the baby's room open for a bit of a makeover as well.....and yes, the pink was my idea and was met with some resistance. Who knew this would be such a difficult colour? Our first attempt was called Princess. Or more accurately "Princess Pepto Bismol". Fortunately our power went out before Matt was able to apply a second coat, and by the time the lights came back on we were ready to admit the shade wasn't going to work! Back to the paint store. This time we were confident we had it right. A pale, creamy pink....but the walls turned out a bit more "Hubba Bubba" than we bargained for. I hope she likes it 'cause my powers of persuasion are nowhere near strong enough to get Matt on board with a 3rd-times-a-charm paint philosophy!
Here are a few things waiting for her when she (finally) arrives:

And of course, the ultimate accessory for the under 3 set:

Liam had to go for his immunizations this morning and has been feeling a little put out by the whole ordeal. (That's an understatement. I'm being nice.) It's been one of those days, but he did seem comforted by the resurrection of his old baby swing and was content to lounge around in it for a good half hour. I'm sure he exceeded the weight restriction on this months (a year?) ago....but it seemed to hold up nicely and in all honesty I was truly grateful for the reprieve. After all....it's not THAT high off the ground. Right?

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

First of all.....Merry Christmas! Peace and joy to all.
We've been a bit preoccupied around here with our perpetual to-do list. Lots of getting ready for Christmas, getting ready for baby.....you'd think we would feel prepared by now, but as I type it is closing in on 11pm Christmas Eve and Matt is downstairs frantically wrapping Christmas presents. Not his fault though - between extreme snow shoveling, multiple power outages, some car issues and my tendency to add "just one thing" to the list, he hasn't been left a lot of time for the things he enjoys. Like wrapping. ;)
Today we carved out some time to go for our traditional Christmas Eve walk. (Does 2 years make a tradition? I guess you need to start somewhere!) Since Liam has still not discovered his snow-legs, we thought the baby backpack would be the way to go. He obviously didn't agree:


Or he may have been upset that we woke him up from this cozy little car seat slumber to drag him out into the cold:

Fortunately, he did come around and we ventured into our Winter Wonderland. Can you find Waldo?....

Most of the trail was very open, but we did make it a short way into the forested area. We heard/saw the snap of one very large branch under the weight of the snow and it was full speed out of there! I never would have guessed at that 9-months pregnant I'd have that much waddling power, but we really motored back to the clearing!
Look out below!:

Time to go stuff some stockings and prepare to train Liam in Advanced Paper Ripping. So far he's showing a natural talent! :)

The Most "Fitting" Ornament on our Tree...

One Little Monkey Jumping on the Bed

You caught me! I'm sure you can tell by the curly locks that this is a bit of a cheater post. These pictures were taken last weekend, but I forgot about them until now.
Liam was having a great time flopping around on a big pile of blankets and pillows on our bed. I can remember having so much fun doing this myself as a kid....although usually when my Mom was trying to put the bed back together. In hindsight that was probably kind of frustrating....sorry Mom! :)

"I'm so rumbly in my tumbly....time for something sweet to eat!"

Yes, that's a bottle of honey. Looks like the sweet tooth gene is dominant.

Round and Round and Round He Goes!

You may recall this very sad predicament (and photo) from Matt's Christmas party last year:

Liam was deemed "too small to ride" by the very authoritative Carousel Marshal. And clearly, he was bummed. This year he waited with bated breath (and a rice bar) to see if he'd make the cut:

After a strict warning to hold on tightly (a 17-month old?!) Liam was given the all clear to ride! In hindsight, I can understand why he was held back before. That is the fastest carousel I have EVER SEEN! As Matt and Liam whirled around at top speed I desperately tried to pick them out of the sea of cascading horses and snap some photos. I'd like to tell you this trippy photo effect was intentional....but not so much.....

And here is Liam demonstrating his version of "hold on tight" - known to the rest of the world as "Clap, clap! Whee, this is fun!"


But it wasn't all good times for Liam. You see, there was some business to take care of with Santa. Not too surprisingly, that went a little something like this:


On a second attempt Liam and Santa reached a long-armed understanding.

I think that's the best we can hope for this year!

Laminated Hair

Liam's first haircut....another milestone for Liam, another reason for me to get all verklempt over how fast my baby is growing up. You could say those gorgeous curls are gone, but the truth is they're safely enshrined in a laminated card. Some (Matt) would say that's creepy. But I felt genuinely relieved when they handed me that warm little piece of plastic. Okay, maybe it is just a tiny bit creepy.
Anyways, after last weekend's torture session with Santa we were a little gun shy over Liam's potential reaction to someone coming at him with scissors rather than candy canes. So we sought out the most kid-friendly location and hit the jackpot. A spiderman car (with steering wheel!) for a seat, cartoons playing on a TV right in front of the mirror, balloons, a little bin of plastic animals to play with.....I'm pretty sure even Santa could have cut his hair and it wouldn't have phased him!
Liam looks awfully grown up now, but I'd say he looks ready to take on the role of big brother. On the other hand, his sister will be in pigtails until she's at least 13.

Rain's In His Veins

Judging from his reaction this morning it would seem that Liam inherited his winter weather hardiness (or lack thereof) from me. He seemed pretty content to watch the falling snow from every vantage point in the house but once we got him outside...well, this look pretty much sums it up!:


It was a very brief foray into winter. We have plans to practice some boot wearing in the house, see if we can get the hang of it before the next dusting!

Waiting, Waiting, Anticipating....

I don't have any pictures of Liam today (gasp!), but I do have a sneak preview of our little miss with just one month to go. Well, as close of a sneak preview as possible!:

Yikes! Just when I think I can't possibly stretch any further....
Now, because no post is truly complete without a Liam picture/story, here's another blast from the past photo from exactly one year ago today:I can hardly believe he's the same kid!
Finally, here's your cute Liam anecdote for the day....Tonight we were out for dinner and I didn't notice that the waitress had brought me a 7-Up refill. I did notice that Liam seemed thirsty and I had forgotten his sippy cup of water out in the car. You can see where this is going......
In my defense, the 7-Up was in a water glass without a straw. It looked like water. So after he took a couple of sips and started making crazy faces and laughing like a wild hyena, I attributed his reaction to the unfamiliar sensation of cold ice against his lips. A little strange, but sometimes there's no explaining what fires this kid up! We were none the wiser until a) I asked the waitress for a refill and she pointed to Liam's glass and b) Liam had guzzled down an awful lot of pop for a toddler! Liam's little secret.....

"Look Ma, No Cavities!"

If you're wondering why there's green paint all over Liam's face, the answer will soon be coming to a mailbox near you. :)

Ho, Ho, Ho? No! No! No!

Let's see, so far this month we've had happy, smiley pictures of Liam:

* sitting in a trough of hay
* baking a cake
* climbing a wall
* eating not-so-tasty puffed rice squares
* being attacked by miniature goats

But what you are NOT going to see here is a happy, smiley picture of Liam:

* sitting on Santa's knee

Oh my. Poor Santa.
We thought we were prepared for this. Liam was dressed nicely (more on that later), fed, relatively rested, and amused by the train and reindeer distractions in the unavoidable Sunday afternoon line-up to meet with Santa. An elf had successfully up-sold us to a multi-sheet and CD picture package. Everything was going so smoothly that we let our guard down and subsequently broke a crucial law of parenting: Thou Shalt Not Assume ANYTHING When It Comes to a Toddler.
As soon as the elf lifted that red velvet rope and we were admitted to Santa's Lair...something changed. Liam's face turned red, his mouth opened wide in a look we refer to as "The Catfish" and all limbs started flailing. So we did what any bewildered parents would do....dumped him on the Big Guy's lap and hoped Santa would work some of that magic he's so famous for! But even Santa can't coax a toddler out of a Level 10 Meltdown so as Liam's tears flowed and screaming got increasingly desperate both Matt and I had the opportunity to sit on Santa's knee (donning our finest casual-wear of course), smile as if we didn't have eardrums, and try to get Liam to look toward the cranky elf behind the camera.
Now there's one for the scrapbook.
Fortunately, a kind elf let us back out of the picture package we were not sure would be enough photos just moments before. We do have one sheet for the memories, and because we're tentatively planning to try this again after a week of singing Santa's praises and candy cane bribes. But as of today I'm still a little shell-shocked from the experience, so don't count on it!
Anyways......here are a couple of pictures of Liam yesterday. Both were taken far out of Santa's range.
First, I have to say thanks to Matt for letting my increasingly sleep-deprived self catch a little extra pillow-time and getting Liam up and ready yesterday morning. But my favorite line of the day has to be: "I didn't know what you wanted him to wear to see Santa, so I took a guess." And here it is:

Dress pants and a sweater vest. Just the vest. (Check out those pipes!) And he thinks I dress the kid like Dog Bounty Hunter when he's wearing striped pajama bottoms. For the record, there was a wardrobe adjustment before the Santa pictures. You know, the ones no one is going to see. :)

And finally, here is Liam "helping" put some lights on the Christmas tree....

No Babies Were Harmed in the Falling of this Christmas Tree

....despite how it looks!:
Today we headed out in search of the freshest, most perfect, and likely the tallest Christmas tree possible.Liam's idea of a tall tree didn't quite pass muster:

But we showed him what a REAL tree looks like. Not sure he's convinced:


Since the Christmas Tree Farm also happens to be the Pumpkin Patch we visited back in October, we stopped in to visit our old friends - The Goats. They were very happy to welcome Liam back:Hanging out in some hay....

Santa's Helper is a Very Busy Boy

In fact, he does not sit still for one minute. I know this because I am hot on his heels and I have not sat still for one minute either. That is, until this blissful naptime.
Liam being on the move means I have another slew of blurry photos that are JUST clear enough not to delete. (Sorry Matt, I know you're already thinking of the back-up!) Here's my favorite of the batch!:

Q. How many candles does it take to melt a birthday cake?

A. 30 - But it was delicious anyway.

Here is the "Before" shot:
And probably one of our last pictures of us as "3"!:

Oh, The Weather Outside was Frightful....

Even so, we decided to kick December off with some Christmas festivities. One of our local "villages" was putting on a tree lighting ceremony complete with horse drawn carriages, caroling, and other events. We met up with Merran, took a look at the insanely long line-ups, got poked by a few umbrellas and then did what any smart West Coasters would do.....ditched the festivities and took cover in Starbucks! Hot chocolates all around....even Liam managed to fandangle a drop into his nose (thought that cup was empty!), triggering some chain sneezing and a ring of itchy hives around his face. But he's a trooper and once the crowds (and rash) subsided we had another go at the Christmas fun: