Category: News

This morning, Liam took his first shower.

This little experiment was born out of necessity/sincere desire.  I usually shower at night (it’s either that or get up earlier in the morning, and I think that anyone who knows me knows how fast that decision gets made) but last night I was so sick and tired (literally) that the idea of doing anything more than brushing and flossing was overwhelming.  I figured that the likelihood of us leaving the house today was slim-to-none and if I felt dirty enough I could shower during Liam’s nap.

I neglected to factor in just how good a hot shower feels when your body is achy and you have a head cold.

It sounded so good to me this morning that I decided it was worth the risk of doing it while Liam was still awake (plus, he had milk and snot all over him just from breakfast, so I figured that cleaning him up a bit would be a bonus).  I still can’t believe how well it worked.  I kept him busy identifying letters on the shampoo bottles and opening and closing my tube of face wash.  He did pee on me, but the tub needs to be cleaned anyway and pointing the sprayer at him is a lot easier than changing a diaper.  This is still not my first choice on how to take a shower (the soothing effect of the warm water is lessened a bit when you feel a finger poking you in the bum and a little voice saying “What’s that Mama?  What’s that?”) but it’s nice that we’ve reached the point where it’s an option to shower while Matt’s not here.

We’re both still feeling a bit puny, so I imagine that this will be our big activity for the morning.  We’re just a thrill a minute, aren’t we?

Thank you so much for listening to my plea.  I’m still trying to figure out how you got internet access (if you have an iPhone under your mattress you’re going to have some ‘splaining to do), but I’m very grateful, nonetheless.

Love,

Mama

Please take a nap.  Mama’s exhausted and sick and she needs a break.  Also, you’re exhausted and sick and you (really) need a nap.  Thanks for your cooperation.

Love,

Mama

(Matt and Liam are in the bathroom finishing up with the brushing of Liam’s teeth)

Liam:  “Good Job!”

Matt:  “No Liam, actually that wasn’t a good job, you weren’t very helpful tonight.”

Liam:  (pause) “GREAT Job!”

Liam is now telling us he needs to poop all day long (spoiler: he doesn’t actually need to go 15 times per day).  Tonight I overheard the following conversation between him and Matt:

Liam:  “Poop.”

Matt:  “Liam, have you ever heard the story about the boy who cried wolf?”

Liam:  “Poop.”

Matt:  “There was a boy who was herding his sheep.  One day he cried ‘Wolf!  Wolf!’ and all the townspeople came running because if you are a shepherd,  people come running when you cry ‘Wolf!’  The boy kept crying ‘Wolf!’ until the townspeople stopped coming.  Then a wolf actually did come along and the boy died.”

Shannon:  “Ahahahahahahaha!”

Liam has a cold.  He was up at 11:30pm and 3:30am because he couldn’t breathe.  Here’s how the morning went:

7:45am: Matt returns from his run and soothes Liam, trying to convince him that he needs to sleep very badly.

8:15am: Liam is completely over trying to sleep, Matt gets him up.

8:45am: I finally get Liam to try eating breakfast and put on a pot of coffee for myself to try to soothe my throat and wake me up enough to exist.

9:05am: My waffles are finished and I pour myself a cup of coffee.

9:07am: I sit down at the table, starving.

9:07:08am: Liam informs me that he needs to poop.

9:07:47am: Liam is sitting on the toilet and I’m trying to swig some coffee while sitting on the edge of the tub reading books.

9:30am: No poop and 10 books later, Liam gets off the toilet.

9:31-9:59am: I run around trying to get Liam (and me) ready to go get a (completely necessary) haircut and trip to the Farmer’s Market.

10:00am: We leave the house hungry (well, I’m hungry…), but in plenty of time to get to the appointment with 5 minutes to spare.

10:45am: Finally arrive in Decatur at Miss Lisa’s 15 minutes past our appointment time.

10:46am: Liam begins weeping and will not let go of me to be put in the chair to have his hair cut.

10:47am: Miss Lisa and I forcibly remove him from my body and get him into the chair.

10:48-11:05am: Liam screams, wails, and cries (despite the paci and woobie I have given him in a bribery attempt) for his entire haircut making it (seemingly) completely impossible for Miss Lisa to cut his hair.  Somehow she still manages to give him a better cut than previous hairdressers have when he was in a good mood.

11:06am: Liam is covered in sweat, tears, and snot to which all the hair is sticking (big surprise: he refused a cape) and he’s now flailing wildly and screaming “ITCHY, ITCHY, ITCHY” and clawing his neck.

11:07am: We remove him from the chair in an attempt to get him to allow us to get the offending hair off his neck and face.

11:08am: We give up.  I pay Miss Lisa while apologizing profusely (although she truly seems not to mind, which is the reason that we will continue to drive (what should be) 30 minutes to go see her).  I run out with my tail between my legs.

11:09-11:10am: I try to soothe Liam outside the car enough to get him to release his grip so that I can strap him in.

11:11am: We head home.  Organic apples be damned.  No errands are worth attempting at this point.

11:35am:  We arrive home, still covered in hair, and commence watching Sesame Street, complete with paci and woobie.  I’m toast.  Speaking of toast…

12:03pm: I attempt to feed Liam lunch.  He eats half a cheese stick and takes 2 swigs of milk.  He’s clearly finished.

12:30om: I put Liam down for a nap.

12:31am: Workmen in our neighbor’s yard commence throwing materials, screaming, and laughing approximately 20 feet from Liam’s bedroom window.  They aren’t yet aware that if I even perceive that they have prevented Liam from sleeping 30 seconds less than he needs there will be hell to pay.

Liam has taken his love of letters to the next logical step: he’s trying to learn to sing the alphabet.  When he sings the “alphabet” it always includes “A, C, H, Elmo, and K.”  He’s very consistent with those letters, but not so much with the correct ordering.  Just the attempt on his part has caused me to move up my deadline for him learning all the words to “Closer to Fine.”  He used to have until starting Pre-K and now I’ll be disappointed if we don’t see results by his third birthday.  I hope he realizes that he’s being graded.

He’s also trying to spell.  He’s just moved on from being thoroughly convinced that every string of letters spells “LLLIIIAAAMMM.”  Tonight he walked up to the vacuum cleaner and said: “O, R, E, C, K…VACUUM!”  Needless to say, we’ve got a ways to go — but we’re very excited to be on the road at all!

I love Fall.  I love the crispness of the air.  I love wearing sweats.  I love sipping apple cider.  While I have begun to enjoy the cold more and more, I have not begun to love the beginning of cold season.

I thought when I couldn’t fall asleep last night and woke up with a sore throat that it was all the result of drinking too many acidic things over the weekend (sometimes the reflux can be bad enough to cause burning in my throat).  It turns out that I appear to have kid germs.  Liam’s sneezing nonstop and it’s (apparently) bad enough to affect his nap.  He’s been “down” for his nap for the past hour, but I’ve heard snuffling, sneezing, the occasional cough, and almost incessant babbling for the duration.

I just went in there in an attempt to coax him into sleep only to find him standing up in his bed, talking about “Fly Guy” (which is the name of one of our most recent library acquisitions), and missing both his pants and one of his socks.  I should have known that all that work we’ve been putting into getting the kid to dress himself would backfire.  I’m just knocking on wood that he’s still wearing his diaper the next time I go in there…