Priorities

Today we went to the Morton Pumpkin Festival Parade. Liam and Staley were sitting next to each other and when the first pageant queen drove by everyone was pointing her out to Staley so she could see her beautiful crown. I told Liam who she was as well, "Oooo, Liam look a real queen!" To which Liam responds with, "Look at the car, what kind it is?"

So, good to know that Liam could care less about the beautiful 17 year old teen but is definitely more interested in what kind of car she's riding in.

I hope that we will continue to not care about beautiful girls until the age of 15. Maybe even 24.

TMI

which stands for Too Much Information.

This morning Liam was eating breakfast with Grandma Fink. Liam had chosen Cap'n Crunch Berries, which at the moment very much outshines Kix-Mother Approved. While Liam is eating his cereal he says, "This makes my poop turn green." With which my mother said, "WHAT?!?" I'm sure thinking that she had not heard him correctly. So, he repeated himself. While I laughed in the kitchen and my mother sat perplexed with that jewel of knowledge, Liam just continued on with his breakfast like nothing odd had happened at all.

Just a fact of life, if you're going to eat cereal so heavily dyed with artificial coloring and flavor, it just might turn your next bathroom trip into something.....different.

Wrapping it up

It is with the deepest regret that I type we are in the last days of summer. I know, I know, it is September 6th. Labor Day has come and gone. The pools are closed and it's beginning to get dark at 7:30 pm instead of 9. The kids are back in school and the playgrounds are empty. (finally!) I adore summer and all of the things that come with it. But considering tomorrow it's supposed to be 90 degrees out I will not give up on summer just yet. But I will show you a few things that I liked best about this summer. 

Learning how to ride a tricycle

Hoping to go to State Farm Waterpark
and instead having to wear Evan's winter coat to keep warm on the playground. 

Riding on Daddy's shoulders through Wildlife Prairie Park

And riding the carousel all by himself!

Let's face it, tonight we went to the Rader Pumpkin Farms, next week is the Morton Pumpkin Festival and Tanner's Orchard is sounding pretty good too. Until next year summer! I'll miss you!

Small roles with big impressions

Disney movies are great. There is usually a fun character who is the hero of the story that everyone likes such as:

Remy, the rat from Ratatouille.

Liam likes Remy and for awhile we would watch quite a bit of Ratatouille, in chunks of time. But recently Liam was looking through his movies and brought us this one with great interest. Thinking that he wanted to watch it I asked if he wanted me to put it in. He suddenly became very anxious and kept saying "No, pow, pow! I don't like it." Well, it took us a few minutes to figure this one out but than we realized that this part:

In the very beginning, where the old lady wakes up to discover she has two mice running around her kitchen and pulls out a rifle to kill them. Yeah, apparently that part has left quite the impression on Liam. We have assured him that we can fast forward through that part to get to the rest of the movie, which is not so "cary". 

But for now he wants nothing to do with Remy or Linguini. I guess he's not quite ready for The Godfather yet.

Howdy

BIG BOY BED

Well, I know I said that I wouldn't be moving Liam out of his crib anytime soon but with one month of potty training under our belt I thought it was time. He never did try to climb out of his crib but he is getting heavier and heavier to lift and I just thought it would be easier for everybody. 

The morning that I was considering converting his crib into his toddler bed I asked Liam if he wanted to say goodbye to his crib and get a new big boy bed. He very enthusiastically said yes. So, despite Evan and I misplacing the instructions on assembling our crib (does this really surprise anyone?) I went ahead thinking that it couldn't be that hard to do. Thankfully I was right. (but if we ever have to take this thing completely apart I will be in serious trouble)

My baby is no longer a baby!

So you might ask how are things going in the new bed? Well, so far so good. Liam continues to stay in bed even when he wakes up to let us know that he is ready to get up. I will say that it has probably helped that he has had several months of training at daycare with sleeping on the cot, and staying on the cot. Although for a good few weeks every night when I picked him up from the babysitters I would hear a new story about how he got everyone up from their nap so that they would play with him. 

Only once, a couple nights ago, an hour after laying him down did I hear little footsteps on the carpet and then BAM! Followed by many screams because in the half sleepiness he ran straight into the door. He has since recovered and now we have a cautionary tale as why one should stay in bed.

Because apparently us telling him that alligators are hiding under his bed and will chomp off his toes if he gets up didn't do the job.

Michigan Part Deux

My boss has a place in Michigan that he allowed us to use earlier this August. Even if it was just for a short weekend you can't go wrong with Lake Michigan. We had a blast with Aunt Emily, Uncle Blair, Aunt Stephanie, Violet and Eli. Well, of course we did....we were at the beach! Enjoy our pictures...

Buried in the sand

Sisters (minus one)

We missed Adriane the whole day but I think my favorite time that she was missed was when Emily said after dinner, "Man, I miss Adriane. If she were here she would already be up, clearing the table and doing the dishes." 

We love you Adriane!