Today we went to the PDK Airport with Walker and Jessica. There’s a playground right off one of the runways and the boys were mesmerized by the planes. We had a great time!
Big Airplanes:
Little Airplanes:
There are swings with a great view of the planes.
Liam was in heaven.
So was Walker.
Lucky Charms:
Driving:
Walker Moore: Monkey Boy
Love from “Jeff-ca:”
Ovals! (Liam-style):
Ovals! Â (Walker-style):
Tonight Liam really wanted Matt to read him his Matisse book. Matt was in the middle of changing his clothes after work so he said “I’d love to read you your Matisse book, Liam. I just need to put on some shorts and some socks and I’ll be ready.” At this point Liam bolts out of the room and comes running back a few seconds later with a pair of his own dirty socks and hands them to Matt. When Matt explained that Liam’s socks wouldn’t fit and thanked him for being helpful, Liam opened up the top drawer to my dresser and “put away” his dirty, rejected socks. Toddler OCD = awesome. The fact that my kid asks for Matisse by name = even more awesome.
1: I’ve been listening to Steve Martin’s Banjo CD for a while in the car, which of course means that Liam has been listening, too. Yesterday Gillian informed Liam that he was listening to a Banjo. Today we were sitting in the car getting ready to leave for the grocery store when I hear Liam from the backseat: “Banjo on, please Mama.”
2: Liam’s displaying some OCD tendencies these days. No door is left open, he puts any clothes that are out in our bedroom into our clothes hamper (even if they’re not dirty), the latch on the door to the basement MUST be latched at all times (and explanations about the fact that his father is downstairs and latching the door would lock him out seem to have absolutely no effect). The most detailed OCD-esque routine (by far) comes when he wakes up from a nap or in the morning. It goes something like this: Matt or I go into his room. Liam immedately gives us his pacifier and woobie (narrating while doing so). The second we have those he screams his version of “sound machine” until we turn it off. Next is “light on” which is immediately followed by “basket back up” (since he still can’t keep his little hands off his clothes hamper we continue to keep it in his crib while he’s awake). Recently he’s also added “Baby Liam” (at which point he points out the three pictures of him as a baby that are around his crib) and “Aunt Sarah” as he points emphatically towards the Luckovich hanging over his bed. I won’t be at all surprised if getting him out of the crib soon takes more time than putting him in there.
3:Â Instead of just saying “Bye Bye” when anyone moves out of Liam’s sight (which he’s been doing for a while and continues to do) he’s started saying “Hello” except that it comes out more like “Huh-lowww” which is insanely cute.
4: Liam’s starting to get into sequencing. Today on our way back from the grocery store when we turned onto our street I hear from the backseat: “Almost home, open garage, turn banjo off.”
5: It used to be the case that when I was on the phone Liam would go play quietly until I was off. Now he either screams “Bye, bye Gee” or “Bye, bye Da” and “Phone back up” until I’m off. I could do without this particular development.
6: Liam has a fascination with trash and trash cans these days. The only problem with this until recently was making sure that he was asking one of us to throw something away (so that we could determine that it was, in fact, trash and not underwear or dollar bills). Now he has a fascination with trash when we’re out and about. I’m all for cleaning up our neighborhoods and parks but I’d prefer it if my toddler weren’t trying to single-handedly achieve this goal by sticking his hands directly on other people’s garbage (and inevitably into his mouth). I just can’t figure out quite how to encourage cleaning up without Liam touching chewed gum and used kleenexes. Also — he spent about 30 minutes of the last playgroup we attempted to attend running back and forth to the trash can instead of playing with (or near) the other kids and threw an absolute fit when I removed him from the general vicinity of the trash can. With this particular interest you’d think that my house would be clean, wouldn’t you…?
7: Today we were in the grocery store when a song off the Indigo Girls’ latest album came on over the sound system. I have trained Liam so well that when I said “Liam, do you know who’s singing this song?” he thought for a minute and said “Emmmly and Aaaamy.” Fantastic.
Goooooo Jackets!
Dancing with Gran:
Ready to hit the links:
Cheese!
This week we took our first trip to the library to check out books for Liam (I think he’s finally at the point where destroying “real” (non-board) is the exception as opposed to the rule). The experience was interesting, to say the least. There’s a little section in the middle of the children’s area where there are a bunch of little tables and (thankfully very sturdy, very heavy) chairs. On one side is the picture book section and on the other is the juvenile literature section. There is also a cordoned-off area where there are three carousel horses (clearly labeled as being purely for looking, not touching). Liam was fascinated with both the chairs (he absolutely HAD to sit in every single one of them) and the horses (convincing him that climbing under the bars on the barricade was not a good idea was quite a feat, and not one I accomplished entirely). Basically I just threw as many books as I could pull from the first row of shelving that didn’t look entirely inappropriate for his age into our bag and ran out with my tail between my legs. I’m thinking I may begin searching books in advance and putting them on hold so that there’s no downtime while we’re in there. It’s impossible to remain inconspicuous with a child screaming “HORSES NO TOUCH” while emphatically pointing at the children’s section from the circulation desk.
Library loot:
So much treasure, so little time!
Oh, yay!
Today we took a trip to the Botanical Garden with Gillian. The word we’ve been using to describe Liam’s mood today is ornery. I took an obscene number of pictures of his backside because that’s mainly what he showed us today. I also took a lot of pictures of plants because they’re much better at sitting still for the camera. Despite his increasing sleep deprivation a good time was had by all.
Turtle!
Pictorial progression of the photographic posing process:
Venus flytrap!
Soccer skills:
Gitcha, gitcha, gitcha!
Stairs!
Onward!
More stairs!
Pictorial progression of the photographic posing process part 2:
Letters!
Despite explanations to the contrary, Liam holds fast to his belief that leaves are trash and should be disposed of as such:
Liam doing his interpretation of a caterpillar breaking out of his cocoon:
“Yeah, Mama — I see the butterflies — but something tells me I should know who these guys are…”
Tone block:
Loner:
Evidence that Liam will eat anything if someone else eats it in front of him first:
Exact point at which Liam realizes that he still has an apple in his hand (and has clearly forgotten that he has dropped said apple on the ground and was supposed to be looking for a trash can):
Exact point at which Gillian realizes that Liam has realized that he still has an apple in his hand:
Exact point at which Gillian realizes that Liam cannot be trusted to search for the trash can:
Flower fountain:
No shoes!
Giant button:
And this is where my camera battery died and I discovered that our spare hadn’t been recharged. Oops.
1. On Sunday, on our way home from the park Liam and I had the following exchange while I was walking down the street carrying him:
S: “Liam, I’m going to have to stop and put you in the stroller very soon. Do you know why that is?”
L:Â “I DO know why that is.”
S:Â “Oh.”
2. Liam has been working a lot recently on his “puffles” (puzzles). He’s really getting the hang of the talking number puzzle. There’s only one problem. It doesn’t just say the number — it also names what’s on number underneath the puzzle piece (“one ladder, seven quarters, etc.”). He has memorized the pictures while not necessarily the numbers that go with the pictures. He’s going to go to school and someone’s going to ask him to identify the number 20 and he’s going to say “20 frogs.”
The fish nuggets from the Cooking Light 5 Star Recipes cookbook are awesome.
The oven that sets the smoke detector off every time it bakes above 450 degrees is not awesome.
My response to the oven setting off the smoke detector every time I try to, I don’t know, USE it, is even less awesome.
That is all.
This week we held “Saturday Splurge: Hors D’oeuvres Edition” and were joined by Gillian and Deborah.
Anyone who knows me knows that an hors d’oeuvres dinner is kind of a dream situation for me. Dips, there were so many dips…Also, anyone who knows me knows that I’ve inherited my mother’s ability to worry endlessly about whether there will be enough food, the right mix of food, and an appropriate number of options which translates into an inabilty to make a normal amount of food for any gathering. Tonight was no exception. Behold, the mostly mayonnaise-based (and yes, it was a Saturday splurge, so only real mayonnaise would do) feast:
Granny’s sausage balls (Sausage, cheese, and Bisquick–how could this be anything less than fantastic? Plus, it always reminds me of my Granny, which makes it that much better!):
Jalapeno Popper Spread (Discovered this on Allrecipes.com–super simple and only cooks for 3 minutes in the microwave, lots of mayonnaise is involved.):
Herbed Cheese Puffs (Also from Allrecipes.com: biscuit pieces topped with a mixture of (you guessed it) mayonnaise, parmesan and romano cheeses, oregano, basil, chopped green onions, and garlic salt–AWESOME!):
Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip (Another hit from Allrecipes.com — I believe the site calls it : Hot Artichoke and Spinach Dip II, but I felt that the II would be confusing because we didn’t have a I. Mayonnaise was a star player in this scene as well.):
Bacon-Wrapped Scallops (Okay, so I sort of cheated on this one and bought them already prepared, but I have good reasons. #1–Matt has talked forever about wanting to learn to make these and how he could eat nothing but bacon-wrapped scallops, and then he usually morphs into a soliloquy about how everything would be better wrapped in bacon (not that I disagree, mind you) and then…well…I lose my train of thought — kinda like I just did just then. #2–We needed another protein-based hors d’oeuvre to round things out. #3 (and this one is kind of key)–They were BOGO at Publix this week. Don’t judge–they were delicious.
A good time was had by all (or, at least, Matt and I had a good time — I really shouldn’t assume that Deborah and Gillian had a good time — but I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch).
One additional bit of advice (and this is very important): All of these dishes are excellent but I do not, I repeat, I DO NOT recommend eating them all at once. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing (who knew?). The upside is that I’m now craving unadorned vegetables…
Several weeks ago I was on my way home from the grocery store and I noticed something very familiar:
The puzzle here is that it was in a very unfamiliar place (at least unfamiliar to that particular cone, since the City of Decatur is about 10 miles from where I spotted it). I have developed several theories.
1) Centex Homes is lousy with thieves who are apparently too lazy to steal from someplace far enough away that people don’t know that it doesn’t belong here (or — and this may just be too obvious — too lazy to at least steal cones without another city’s logo on them).
2) Centex Homes has spent all their money for new signage to display the continually reduced prices on their homes and had to go after-market on their cones (economy, bladdey, bladdey, recession, blah, blah, blah).
3) Someone out there knew that I have been longing for Decatur and was trying to send me a cosmic message about finding “my Decatur” out here. Something, something, metaphor about home, yadda, yadda, yadda.
4) Centex Homes decided that by placing a cone with the City of Decatur logo on it over the hole in the sidewalk that’s been there for a ridiculous period of time they could eventually sway public opinion enough that people would realize that the don’t want to live in Decatur (Decatur=holes in the sidewalk) and would find a suitable alternative in the neighborhood that’s just beyond the cone.
5) It’s just a cone and I’m putting way too much thought into it.
6) It’s a conspiracy that they‘ve concocted in an attempt to make it look like I’m losing my mind.
7) I’m actually losing my mind.
Liam: “Da Da Mess. Da Da Mess. Da Da Mess.”
Shannon:Â “Yes Liam, your Granddaddy is a mess, but you don’t have to walk around saying it all the time.”
Liam:Â (Pause)
Liam:Â “Da Da Biiiiiiiiiig Mess.”
Shannon:Â “Okay Liam, you win.”
One morning this week Liam woke up with bigger feet than he had the previous day. I’m not sure exactly which morning, but sometime between Monday and today the only shoes that he can comfortably wear are his Crocs and he takes those off everywhere we go (not exactly ideal for the playground).  The kid needs a pair of tennis shoes.
Enter Zappos. I love them. They have a ton of selection and great service. The latest example of this is that I ordered new shoes for Liam yesterday evening at 7:30 and they were on our doorstep at 3:30 this afternoon. The free shipping and returns don’t hurt either, since internet shopping for shoes (especially for a toddler) can be dicey. However, nothing is more dicey than trying to take Liam shopping somewhere and A) find shoes that I like B) find shoes that Matt likes C) find shoes that don’t make Liam trip all over himself & D) don’t put us directly in the poorhouse. I got the first two pairs of the shoes we decided on (I ordered the size I thought he’d need and the next half size up) this afternoon. The larger size fits him (and passed the running test–no tripping and he threw a fit when I tried to take them off) but if I can get away with even larger ones without him eating pavement then I’d prefer to get as much life out of these as I can, so I ordered another half size up this evening. It’s all worth it, though–could these be any cuter?
Fantastic price and just like Dad’s, how could we resist?
Action shots to come.