All American boy

Holding his bat and eating watermelon. I love summer!

Liam's Newest Friend

Mr Potato Head! Since Hasbro is located in Rhode Island, they sponsored an amazing playground at the zoo. I knew betetr than to try to get a photo of Liam posing. High five is teh next best thing.

Another Sign of Parenthood

I was reading the zoo member magazine and mentioned to Mike that one of the giraffes died. I gave some of the life story of the giraffe and read the statement from a zookeeper. Mike asked "Was that Kenya's dad?" Never in a million years did I ever think we would know the zoo animal by name.

Here are two pictures from Father's Day. We went strawberry picking, got Mike a good scotch glass, has coffee and watched cars, played in the backyard, went for Mexican, and stopped at the park. Liam went swimming in the ocean (well, Narragansett Bay) for the first time. He loved it.

As you can see, he eats strawberries as soon as he picks them. I don't think one of his made it into the container.

"All Boy"

I hear this about Liam all the time. i am starting to think "All Boy" is a nice way of saying "toddler of fury." He gets into everything. He tries to take apart everything. He throws thirty second tantrums. He throws food the way Daniel Bard pitches: fast but with little accuracy.
A few favorite "All Boy" moments:
A thirty second tantrum because I refused to let him sticks his toothbrush in the power outlet.
When I asked him to use his words today when reaching for a sippy cup, he started saying "word" over and over while reaching for the cup.
While changing a diaper full of poop pellets, he decided he wanted to play with the poops and was very upset that I didn't think that was a good idea.
He showed his determination by trying to take out the ceiling fan with a broom today.
He had learned how to get out of bed.

Through all of this, I love him more and more every day. He is a little person. This eyes make it impossible to get frustrated with the little guy when he tears through the house.



Mike and I took Monday off and spent the day togehter. We went to take lake where Mom's ashes are and let Liam put daisies in the water. He wanted to play.


We went to Mom's favorite ice cream parlor and had lemon ice cream. We got Liam his own kiddie soft serve because, if mom were her, she would have bought him his own ice cream. He did really well with it. However, he was wstill wired four hours later. Next year, we will do the ice cream earlier.

Picture Overload

Since I am finally sitting at the computer.
This is one of the last pictures I sent to Mom of Liam. I went back and forth about whether I should make her wait until the day of the blessing to send her the pictures or send them early. I'm so glad I sent them early. She went into hospice the day before and died the day after the blessing. It is hard to believe that the last conversation I had with her was a year ago tomorrow. She told me she was going to try to stay until after Liam's blessing. Even though I offered to reschedule it, she didn't want to "ruin his big day." I talked to her Friday and Saturday, but she didn't really understand what was going on. She loved this mischievous picture that I almost used for the thank you cards until I looked at it a second time.

Picture taking as become almost impossible as the Liam Monster never rests. He requires no sleep, no breaks, and very little food. This was a rare moment that he looked at the camera. This was only because he'd been caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing: hanging out in the picture window. Don't mind the fingerprints on the window.


Just a random picture I discovered while going through the computer that reminded me how excited I am for summer.

We are doing year two of picky sticky pictures. They are quite a challenge. We very naively thought picture taking would be easier once he could stand on his own. Note the devious grin. That is the face of a boy who laughs at you when you tell him to stop doing something. That is the face of a boy who alternates between throwing food and, just as you're about the take it from him, eating a single bite. That is the face of a boy who laughs in the face of outlet covers and throws a tantrum when his mean mama refuses to let him explore said outlet with his wet toothbrush. That is also the face of a boy who, when mama is at her wit's end after chasing him all afternoon, will run over me to snuggle.


Our newest game to play is to go back and forth calling each other by our names. He'll call out "Ma!" and I'll return with "Liam." He thinks it is hilarious. Who am I to argue humor?

Here are two more outside pictures, just for fun:

An Ode to Natural Beauty

Never considered scheduling this stuff before having Liam. I used to have an hour or so to myself every day when I got home form school. I used it ro run errands, clean, correct/plan, etc. That time is now occupied by a wonderful toddler abd I am beyond lucky to have us time each afternoon. However, my "me" time is gone. Therefore, I sent Mike downstairs to play video games and locked myself in the bathroom. I sat on the floor of the bathroom, hair removing cream on my chin, pore strip on my nose, and filed off a callus on my big toe. Natural beauty requires secret sessions.