Another Liam story

Sometimes after church since we are right next to Meijer we will stop and pick a few things up before heading home. Usually this means that one adult is left in the car with all of the children since it's such a big production to get everyone in and out of the car and especially in these frigid temperatures.

This past Sunday it was my turn to wait with the kids.

Liam promptly unbuckled himself from the back seat and came up and sat next to me in the front. He began to ask me these following questions,
L: "What does the R stand for?"
M: "Reverse"
L: "What about the N?"
M: "Neutral"
L: "What about the S-D"
M: "Well, the D stands for Drive, I'm not actually sure what the S stands for."
L: "I bet it means Super Fast"

I really love this car loving super fast little boy. He is so funny.

Liam funnies

For the most part there isn't much that Liam says anymore that has me scratching my head or laughing to myself. However, here are two recent examples;

We were driving in the car and Liam yelled from the back, "Mom! I can read all of these signs!"
I replied, "Great! that's awesome that you can do that now."
"No! I don't want to read right now!"
"That's kind of what happens when you learn how to read buddy. Words start to jump out at you and everything makes sense."

The most recent conversation:
"Mom, why is Moana's lips so big."
(Moana is a Disney princess from Hawaii)
I definitly don't want to miss an opportunity to discuss diversity with my children or how God made us all different so I had to pause before I answered this question.
"Well, that's how God made her."
"Um, no Mom. God didn't make Moana, the Disney people did."
(Laughing to myself)
"Well, yes, you're right but the story that they came up with had Moana coming from Hawaii and that's how Hawaiian people look. And that's why she looks different from me and you."

Beana

For a couple years now we have heard about Caroline's imaginary friend, Beana. Beana has blond hair and blue eyes and is maybe 6 inches tall. This morning Caroline told me that she likes to play with Lucy but that Lucy tries to eat her. Hmmm.

Sometimes Beana comes on errands with us. Caroline will have her hand outstretched like she is carrying her around.

For the last couple of nights as Caroline is fighting sleep she has come downstairs to tell us that for Christmas she would like an itty bitty pack n play for Beana to sleep in.

Last night on our way home from church she was talking about Beana and Liam kept telling her that she's not real. Caroline was getting very upset that her brother would talk that way about her friend. So she said, "I know she's not real! But she's my only friend!"

We reminded her that she has friends at the babysitters, at church and that we all like playing with her too at home. I hope that someday Beana will fade away once Caroline gets a little older. To be honest Beana kind of creeps me out.

My little one year old

Just like that our baby is no longer; she is officially a toddler! Lucy turned one year old November 21st and we had some fun parties to celebrate! (yes, it's been two weeks since but there is no way we forgot anything about this kids birthday)

The Sunday before Lucy's birthday we had the Walles family come over to celebrate! We were going to keep it simple and just have people over for a light soup dinner, cake and presents but then I went on Pinterest. Since Lucy consistently says "dog, woof, woof" we had a dog themed party. We made balloons that looked like dogs, cookies that were dog inspired, an adopt a puppy station for the older cousins and at the very end a 'simon says' game that was also dog inspired. So much fun!

Lucy's actual birthday was full of the usual Tuesday events. School, babysitters and work for everyone. We sang Happy Birthday to Lucy in the morning before we all left and tried to have extra play time before bedtime.

We were able to celebrate Lucy's birthday with my family on Friday since we had Thanksgiving on Saturday. Pizza from Monicals, a homemade angel food cake and presents was a great third first birthday party for this special girl.

At one year old Lucy weighs 16 pounds 9 ounces (7th percentile). And is approximately 2 feet 5 1/2 inches tall (58th percentile).

She is a very happy girl! Always laughing and giggling at everyone. She is constantly on the move and looks for any obstacle she can find. Climbing the stairs, climbing over the dog, unrolling the toilet paper roll and carrying around little stuffed animals are some of her favorite things to do. At her wellness visit the pediatrician was trying to ask me about her and the entire time she was walking around the room with her arms up yelling at the top of her lungs. That and climbing on and off the scale and climbing under the exam table. Dr. Traeger was laughing the whole time.

Lucy now says Dad, Momma, Dog and woof consistently. She has said in the past; cracker, up, more, Liam, please.

Lucy mainly now sleeps through the night. She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 pm and wakes in the morning around 7 am. Sometimes she cries around 6 am but usually puts herself back to sleep. The other night she woke around midnight and cried for an hour with no signs of letting up. Evan tried to snuggle with her and give her water but she just couldn't get back to sleep. I finally went in, nursed her and she went right back to bed. I'm really not sure what we are going to do when we give up nursing but I guess we can worry about that when the time comes. Maybe then she will be a little more consistent with her sleep.

Lucy takes 1-2 naps during the day. When we are home with her we are trying to consolidate naptime to just once during the day. I try to get her down between 12:30 and 1 pm and she will usually sleep for 2-3 hours. At the babysitters she is still needing the two naps. I'm not sure if she is catching up on sleep from when she's with us or if she is used to the nap schedule with the babysitter but I'm sure soon she will move to one nap there too.

Lucy is a great eater and a very hungry toddler. She likes oatmeal, toast, yogurt, cheese, chicken nuggets, goldfish, all kinds of fruit and most vegetables. She most likely needs the calories since she is constantly on the move and burns them so quickly.

Lucy does not like when Caroline pushes her down or takes a toy away from her. She also does not like when we take her away from the toilet paper roll or the dog's water bowl. She is very vocal when she is hungry and you are not fast enough with the food.

Lucy is a roll with the punches kind of kid. She is happy to go along wherever the night takes us. Whether we are going to the library for Liam or taking the older kids to AWANA she doesn't seem to mind and always has a big smile for everyone.

We could not feel more any more blessed than we are to have this amazing family and to have Lucy be the last piece in our puzzle. She's the best!

3 year old funnies

Goodness gracious is this girl funny.

Today we were looking at a flap book together. Caroline pointed to an ostrich with two eggs and asked me if I knew what was in the eggs. I thought I would be funny and say, a monkey! She opened the flap and said, "Two sausages!" "Caroline, do you mean two ostriches????"

The other day Evan was home with the girls and had the Monterey Pop Festival on the TV as background noise. (music festival from 1967) He walked out of the room to grab something to drink and when he came back in he saw Caroline staring intently at the screen while Janis Joplin makes her premiere. He asked her, "Caroline are you watching her sing?" "No Daddy. She is not singing. She is screaming!"

Happy Birthday to Butters!

This old dog just turned 9! Unfortunately her birthday is on Halloween which means she spends most of her time in the bathroom whenever the doorbell rings and that she also doesn't get a walk. I think all of the people dressed up with masks on would make her go nuts.

The kids sang her 'Happy Birthday' before we left the house that day and I'd like to think she took some really long naps and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Sounds like a great birthday to me!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween was a quiet one this year. We skipped the Children's museum and the library. We tried to keep it as low key as possible.

We did go with cousins to a Halloween party a couple of weeks before the holiday.

We also went to our church's Trunk or Treat event the week before.

The weekend before I took just Liam over to ISU for Tune or Treat. The strings students decorate the music hall (which is in a spooky castle) with spider webs and bats and then play music throughout the building. The kids have a code that they are trying to figure out and with each musician they would be given a letter to write on their sheet. It was pretty cool. They even allowed the kids to play a cello and violin at the end. After that we went over to a small Halloween carnival also at ISU which was ok but would have been a bit better for Caroline's age group. It was fun to just have a little time with Liam on our own.

On the actual day we went to Evan's work for a little party for the kids and then out trick or treating in our neighborhood. The kids had fun but Lucy was pretty cold. And Caroline wouldn't talk to anyone. After about 30 minutes I decided to take the girls home and Evan took Liam out more with the boy who lives a couple doors down from us. Evan said they had a lot of fun together.

This holiday is still one of Liam's favorites. He loves to go to the Halloween stores in town and check out all the creepy stuff. He had a hard time picking out an outfit this year though. He was trying to pick something really scary but I told him he had to dial it down a notch. So he decided on a skeleton.  He wasn't too happy with me when I told him that for the church events he couldn't wear his mask, so when the actual day came around he was determined to wear his mask. He wore it for about 2 blocks before taking it off since he couldn't see anything. (just like his parents said)

Caroline was talked into being a tooth fairy and then changed her mind to Queen Elsa. Of course.

Since Lucy can't talk yet I decided to have her be the tooth fairy instead. She was super cute.

Pumpkin carving was an Evan activity this year. (I think I was making cookies) The kids drew what they wanted their pumpkin to look like and then Evan carved it for them. They were ecstatic once they saw the finished jack o'lanterns. Evan also carved one for himself.

These three sure do keep us busy!