The Connolly Family

Liam just looked at me and told me he needed to poop (yesterday I started talking to him about telling us if he needs to poop, so it wasn’t a complete shock, only a mere surprise).

I took him to the bathroom and held him up on the seat (we don’t have any potty training equipment as of yet).

He then proceeded to poop in the potty.  Let me just repeat this, because it is now my most favorite thing to type:  LIAM JUST POOPED IN THE POTTY!!!

He thinks I’ve lost my mind because of the amount of jumping around and screaming that occurred as a result.  I think it’s a miracle.  My boy can poop!  In the potty!

I’m fully prepared for this not to happen again for months, but I’m taking every little bit that I get.  If he knew what an M&M was I’d definitely give him one.

When Liam gets his own potty seat he’ll look just like this (only he has lots more hair and he’ll be reading Stephen Hawking):

On this day, Wednesday, September 30th in the year 2009, I hereby decree Liam Woolf Connolly to be a genius in the areas of literature and mathematics.

Nobel Prizes are definitely in the works.

We went to the playground at PDK Airport and as soon as we walked up the walk he began pointing furiously and screaming (and I’m not making this up): “Mama, look at that plane fly.  Go plane, go!”  (Seriously.  Pronouns and all.)

Then, after we’d been sitting on a bench watching planes for a while, two took off at the same time.  He then looked at me and said “One plane, another plane.  Two planes fly!”  Also, he can count to ten (when he feels like it) and I have heard him several times while he’s playing by himself “counting” whatever he’s playing with until he reaches 10, at which point he starts over.  Hooray abacus!

I am one proud Mama.

ETA: We just finished lunch.  Liam had hummus and crackers (among other things).  I asked him if he knew how many crackers he had on his tray (I purposefully gave him 10).  He looked at me, then looked at his tray, then correctly counted the ten crackers on his tray.  Case closed.

Matt: “Liam, are you ready for a snack?”

Liam: “Please cracker! Please goat cheese!”

Matt: [Sighs] “You are your mother’s son.”

Why is it that if I am sitting in the room with Liam, while doing absolutely nothing (besides staring at the wall) he happily plays by himself; but if I’m in a room with Liam, trying to talk on the phone, make dinner, or read articles on the internet, Liam wails and throws himself on the floor?  Also, why does he do this at an even higher level of volume when I’m at the absolute end of my rope?

Why?  Why?  Why?

Yesterday we went to the Moore’s house to hang out with Jessica and Walker.  Walker calls Jessica Mommy.  Liam has always called me Mama.  When Walker wanted Jessica’s attention he screamed “MaaaaMeeeee.”  Liam picked up on this but in the process I think he failed to realize two important points: 1: This word does not need to be yelled at top volume in order to be effective and 2: “MaaaaMeeeee” is the same thing as Mama.  The result is that he’s been running around the house since yesterday (in addition to most of the car ride home) screaming “MaaaaMeeeee” at top volume although he has absolutely no idea why he’s saying it.

Today I was reminded (yet again) of why I don’t shop at Kroger on a regular basis anymore.  I went in to pick up a couple of things because I was already in the shopping center at another store.  I had to walk with Liam through clouds of smoke created by Kroger employees smoking on the sidewalk that you have to walk down to get inside.  I finished as quickly as possible (Liam wasn’t in a cart, so grabby hands made speed even more important than usual) and went over to the self-check line (one of the few things that Kroger has that I wish Publix had) and put my things down to pay when an employee came over and shoved me out of the way to do something underneath the machine.  She then huffed off and when I looked up my checkout screen said “Lane Closed” where it had said “Welcome” not 2 seconds earlier.  She didn’t say a word to me.  The cashiers at Publix know Liam’s name and how old he is and the baggers fall all over themselves to help me take my bags to the car.  Game over.

(while sitting at a stoplight waiting for it to turn)

Liam:  “Come on, light.  Come on people.  Let’s go!”

Shannon:  “I apologize for the portion of your genes you inherited from me.  I really do.”