5 years

This post is about Liam at the age of 5. It will be long and you are more than welcome to not read it as it is more for me and Evan to look back on and get a glimpse of who Liam is at this age.

Liam is a fun, friendly, enthusiastic little boy! Although he tells me all the time how big he is and that I should stop calling him little. :(  Liam started preschool this last fall and goes 3 days a week for 3 hours in the morning. He LOVES preschool and has made many new friends but his very good friends at preschool are Anthony and William. I really enjoy hearing about his day when he gets home from school and what he learned about and who he played with. Now when I pick him up from school he likes to say good-bye to all of his friends often initiating the greeting. He has come a long way in 6 months.

Liam knows all of his upper case letters, some of his lower case letters, the days of the week, months of the year, his numbers and is working hard on learning how to count to 100. He can write his name and wrote a letter to Santa Claus this past Christmas with my help. Although I made him sound out all of the words and figure out what all of the letters were by himself. He was so determined and we were so proud!

"I have been a good boy. Plese for chrismas I want the mr freeze monster

(this picture is the first draft, which stops at plese.

The finished draft says the rest which I will put in his keepsake box)

Liam goes to daycare with Ms. Jana twice a week and Grammie Walles comes to our house once a week. I still get to stay home with him and Caroline on Wednesdays and Fridays which I really enjoy as well.

Liam weighs 38 pounds and is 41 inches tall. He has now graduated to a high back booster seat for riding in the car which he thinks is pretty cool. He loves using the regular seat belt and has a bit more freedom to get toys, books and blankets for himself and for Caroline. He wears 4T/5T shirts and 4T pants. He no longer needs a pull-up at nighttime and is excellent with using the bathroom all by himself. 

Liam will lay down for rest time and many times falls asleep for one hour although there are some days that he does not take a nap. He will go to bed around 8 pm and wake anytime between 6:45-7:15am.

Liam is a very kind and thoughtful big brother and loves to help Caroline. Liam is also a big brother who loves to sometimes terrorize his little sister by chasing her around the house pretending that he is a monster or hiding and then jumping out to scare Caroline as well. It's a love/hate relationship like all siblings have. I can't believe that it has already begun (the fighting) but I don't think that it's unusual by any means that they sometimes have quarrels over the silliest things.

Liam is becoming very helpful to grown-ups as well. Liam will now help me unload the dishwasher, set the table and has always helped me cook. This past weekend at Grandpa and Grandma's house he helped Grandma Fink clean (dust), Grandpa Fink pick up sticks in the back yard and Aunt Emily as well.

It's been really fun to see Liam's humorous side grow in this past year. He is always trying to play tricks on people or trying to get others to laugh at him. He's a natural!

Liam is still really into playing with his superheroes although his Batman sets definitely get the most play time right now. (Imaginext) He also really loves playing with Legos. He likes when we follow the directions and build a Lego set together but sometimes he also likes playing with Daddy when there are no rules or directions and he can just build whatever he wants. Liam likes playing games with "Simon Says" being one of his favorites.

His favorite shows currently are TMNT, Curious George, the many Lego movies, Paw Patrol, PJ Masks and watching the old Batman TV series with Adam West. He truly enjoys any TV/movie time and I think he could watch any movie or show happily if we allowed him to without restricting his hours of screen time. He also likes to play games on the lap top computer, ABCmouse, and my cell phone. He recently told me that he needs his own IPAD so he could play games on it like all of his other friends. (I told him no way) (Liam's screen time is limited to 1-2 hours a day)

Liam loves to play T-Ball and Baseball with Daddy. He was enrolled in T-Ball this past summer through the parks department and was THAT kid who ran after the ball even though it was hit to third base and he was playing first base. "I want to get the ball every time!"
He also was in swimming lessons last spring and summer and really became very confident with putting his head under the water and jumping into the water as well. We need to sign him up for lessons again soon.

Liam is very excited about going to kindergarten. I don't think he has a clue what that means but he wants to go to Brynleigh's school and thinks that they will have all sorts of fun together. (Metcalf; Brynleigh is Ms. Jana's daughter who is in kindergarten now)

I can't believe that Liam is 5 years old! I am so excited to watch him continue to grow up and discover new things over this next year. He truly makes my heart happy.

Children are exhausting

The following list are things that happen when I try to do anything else besides watch my children, including but not limited to, doing laundry, trying to prepare and cook meals, trying to clean our house, doing the dishes, unloading the dishwasher, etc. (you get the point)

1. My children fight. Caroline screams at the top of her lungs.

2. Liam chases Caroline around the house pretending to be a monster. Which at first she will think is funny and then will decide she is terrified and begin to scream.

3. Caroline will decide she doesn't want to be downstairs anymore and go upstairs. This is really not a problem UNTIL Liam decides she shouldn't be upstairs all by herself and will go after her and drag her back downstairs again. Caroline screams at the top of her lungs.

4. Caroline climbs on top of our dining room table.

5. Caroline finds a pen, marker or crayon on the table and decides she wants to start coloring. She really doesn't care that there is no paper near her, she will happily color any solid surface.

6. Liam does puzzles by himself. (yay!) Caroline wants to "do puzzles" also. Caroline takes apart the puzzle that Liam is trying to put together. Fighting begins.

7. Caroline finds a piece of chalk and happily colors any solid surface. Including our stereo speakers.

8. Caroline finds the chalkboard eraser. Caroline wants to help clean up and then proceeds to "erase" on our furniture, smearing chalk dust all over said furniture.

9. Caroline announces she is pooping. Then says potty. After I ask her if she wants to sit on the potty to poop she says no. After a couple of minutes I will find her sitting on the potty with the seat down saying she is pooping on the potty.

10. Liam finds his sleeping bag and pulls it out of the carrying backpack. He will then get inside of said sleeping bag and decide to use it to slide down our flight of stairs. 

Enough said. How come some days I just feel like my world is completely chaotic. I am trying so hard to pick up the house, do the laundry, cook dinner and make sure that the chalk, eraser, pens, crayons are also picked up and put away but I never seem to do enough. Caroline always seems to find that one crayon that I missed. Liam is always trying to break an arm or leg by performing daredevil stunts. Everyone says these days go by so fast. Don't wish them away. I wish I could go back when my kids were your childrens ages. I think the next time I hear that I will invite that person over to babysit for an entire day. We'll see what they say when I return after 8 hours with my children. I'm guessing they will be just as exhausted as I always feel.

Interview with a 5 year old

What is your favorite food?  "mac n cheese"
Who is your favorite stuffed animal? "My bear"
Where is your favorite place to go? "library"
What is your favorite color? "red"
What is your favorite movie? "Star Wars"
What is your favorite TV show? "Curious George & Teen Titans Go"
What is your favorite holiday? "Christmas"
What is your favorite restaurant? "McDonalds"
What is your favorite game to play? "Penguin Panic"
What is your favorite toy to play with? "Gotham City Batman"
What are you going to be able to do now that you're 5? "I could let the dog outside by myself" "I get to go to kindergarten"
What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Swing"
What do you like to do with Caroline? "play with her"
What do you like to do with Mommy? "go fun places"
What do you like to do with Daddy?  "go to zoos"
Who is your best friend?  "Eli"
What is your favorite animal? "leopard"
What makes you happy? "Daddy playing with me"
What are you scared of? "the dark"
What do you want to be when you grow up?  "a police officer"
What is your favorite part about preschool? "recess"

What is the best thing about you? "I'm funny"

Happy Birthday Liam!

Happy Birthday to my favorite little boy who turned 5 today! I can't believe that you are this old already. I remember the moment you were born and how we were told first how much hair you had and then that you were a boy! We were so surprised and you have continued to surprise us and teach us so many things. Like how to have patience, how to laugh uncontrollably and how to love unconditionally.

We are so excited to see that you are becoming an amazing little person. You are such a good brother and a great friend. You are funny and silly and just plain goofy at times!

Happy 5th Birthday Liam!

A look back at Christmas

Since I'm in the mood to look back at 2015, let's talk Christmas.

Our Christmas was so wonderful. It is truly my most favorite time of the year. Liam and I listened to Christmas music as much as humanly possible. In the car, at home and then I would also listen to it all day at work. I am still sad that I can't listen to my Christmas songs anymore.

Liam basically decorated the tree this year. He loved helping me go through our ornament boxes, unwrapping everything and then finding a good spot to place the ornament on the tree.

 We were able to buy a couple of gifts again for some organizations that help families in need. Liam went with me to the store and helped pick out some nice floor puzzles. I thought he understood that they were for other children, since I had told him that at least 12 times in the store but once we got home he proceeded to rip the cellophane off of one puzzle and try to open the box. Thankfully, Evan was paying a bit more close attention then I was and quickly stopped him.

Liam had his first Christmas concert with his Preschool. We loved hearing the three songs that he memorized and watching him up on stage with all of his friends.

Liam with his friends Anthony and Roger

Our trip to see Santa went well. Caroline wasn't too sure, and it didn't help that Santa said to her, "Don't cry." Well, Santa, she wasn't even thinking about that until you said it so thanks for that. However, she quickly decided that I was staying close and there was no need to be dramatic since Liam had already been talking to Santa for 5 minutes and seemed perfectly content about it.

Christmas Eve and morning was with my family and then that afternoon we were able to see Evan's family as well. Caroline really didn't get the whole opening presents idea. Liam and I would open her present just a little bit and encourage her to finish taking the paper off but she just wasn't interested. And at the Walles Christmas she received her first present which was a purse from Uncle Ethan and then played with that purse for the entire afternoon. Despite showing her new presents and toys that the rest of the family got for her.

Caroline seeing for the first time her baby doll crib and highchair the day after Christmas.

 My sister, Adriane, came home from Philadelphia and so we were able to spend most of the week with her. Unfortunately with all the rain we received right after Christmas our sewer line backed up into the basement so we had to deal with that during our vacation week. Which was not ideal and really stunk up the whole basement and the whole house. Thankfully it was not as expensive this time to fix as it was two years ago.

All in all, we are truly blessed with a wonderful family and lots of love. And of course we celebrate the true reason for the season, Jesus' birthday. Merry Christmas!

Backtrack

The last six months have been a bit difficult in my blogging world. I have not been good about putting up pictures and remembering cute little stories to write about. I blame part of it on life with two kids, being lazy and having a computer that was over 9 years old. I have so many cute pictures of the kids from this past summer, fall and winter. Every time I tried to upload them onto my computer it would basically break down.

This year for Christmas, Evan and I decided to use our money that we would have spent on gifts for each other towards buying a new computer. I am loving our new lap top computer. I love that I am currently sitting on our couch instead of upstairs on our desk top computer. I love that I uploaded pictures from my camera that were from this summer and the new computer was done loading them within 2 minutes. With over 200 pictures and videos. I love that while the new computer was uploading the pictures it automatically put the pictures in the correct albums by date.

And now I am loving that I can update the blog with some old but really good pictures that have just been sitting on my camera.

Liam LOVED T-Ball this past summer.

Pentwater, Michigan. What a cute beach baby!

Seriously this dress and that face. Adorable!

These are the moments that melt my heart. Just having a picnic together.

Stories with Grandpa Fink are a must

Rader Pumpkin Farms. Our favorite spot in the Fall.

This picture. Those boots. That jean jacket. I love this picture.

Look at him! He is the sweetest kid ever!

Playing in the corn bin is fun for all

Halloween Hoopla at the Children's Museum

I brought down this basketball hoop from the attic. An old baby toy of Liam's. We kept trying to show Caroline that you put the ball through the hoop but all she wanted to do was put her baby in the basket. Every single time.

Can you believe all of these great pictures that have just been sitting on my camera because our computer was a dinosaur! Thank goodness we upgraded!

Edelweiss

The last couple of nights I have been able to put Caroline to bed have been so cute and memorable that I don't want to forget about them in three years. So this post will be short and not very eventful but I couldn't stop smiling tonight with all the cuteness that I was holding.

M: It's time for bed.
C: Song?
M: Yes that's a good idea. What song would you like?
C: Veiss
   I started singing Edelweiss, from The Sound of Music, to Caroline when she was an infant, then kind of forget about it and just recently have been bringing it back into her routine at night. It makes me smile that she is asking to hear it.

On the last line of the song Caroline will give me a big cheesy grin.

And tonight she asked to hear it three times. I couldn't say no.

Could you?