Daggel-bie, Jogurtmann, and Shocki

We have had a lot of winter weather here in the last week or so. This has really frustrated Liam because he can't go outside like he wants to. Today we were finally able to get back outside for about an hour. When Liam wants to go outside he will go to the back door. He is supposed to stand there and ask to go outside ('draussen, bitte!'), but he has recently taken to just opening the door and walking out. This has caused wide spread consternation in the house for obvious reasons. Safety is probably the biggest, but Liam also doesn't seem to appreciate that walking outside in freezing rain in socks with no jacket really isn't good for his health. When he does try to ask to go outside it sounds like 'daggel-bie' which is Liamese for 'draussen spielen.' At least today he managed to get dressed first and (miracle of all miracles) kept his hat and gloves on.

Liam is also enjoying learning about Christmas things. Christmas tree lights and ornaments are a big hit. I don't know if he will be able to survive the excitement of seeing real candles on a Christmas tree at Oma's and Opa's house. That just might do him in! When he tries to say 'Weihnachtsmann' it sounds more like 'Jogurtsmann'.

And, finally, Liam loves chocolate. I guess we can't act surprised on this one. Right now we are dealing with lots of temper tantrums when we cut off the Schoki supply.

Training for the plane and yogurt.

In preparation for our upcoming flight, we thought we better start working with Liam on plane etiquette. Our plan is to bribe him with all-he-can-watch Caillou as a treat on the plane. We started him on headphones yesterday to get him used to them. So far he lasts about 20 minutes before he pulls them off and takes the cushions off the ear pieces.


Just a nice shot of Liam working on his table skills. He loves yogurt and is still torn as to whether or not it is finger food . . . at least this day he used his spoon.

These boots were made for . . .

Win, Wes, and Charlie sent Liam another contribution from their clothing line when Nanna and Poppa came back from Boston. Liam's favorite piece is a pair of boots. He has been trying to wear my boots for months and he is thrilled to have boots that fit him. So thrilled that he wears them nearly all the time!

Our sweet boy

Illness, Gock, and cork soup

Liam has been fighting a GI virus off and on for the better part of 2 weeks now. Just when we thought it was completely gone, it returned for another 24 hours. Thankfully, he has been fine for the past 36 hours. Here's to health and no more relapses!!

The only pictures we have from Thanksgiving are pictures of Liam in his pajamas since he was sick all day. Tobias missed Thanksgiving dinner at Connie and Terry's because he was home with Liam. He did get a to-go plate so he got his annual portion of oyster dressing.

Thanksgiving Day
When Liam is sick he gets to stay in his pajamas all day.
This was his outing to GG's that day. Uncle Raymond
just put up the Christmas tree. Liam LOVED the lights

Guess who picked out his outfit all by himself!
I'm not sure what I like more: Mami's hat or
the sandalsover his pajamas!!

Some fun on a day when Liam was not sick

Daily walk in the Museum. Now that is a Gock!!

The Gock he really wanted . . .

After a hard day playing outside, it's nice to warm up with
nice bowl of cork soup.

Just like Opa, Schnapps before bed (or in his case - ginger ale)
He looked at the glass and said 'Opa Glass'

Twinkle, twinkle , little star

I have yet to capture Liam singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' in its entirety. I did get these little clips when he was playing the other day. Since he was playing with candles I knew it was unlikely that singing would be his priority . . . but you'll get the idea. He sings like a 2 years old. The words he hasn't made out yet he just makes sounds for.

Christmas picture

I still can't explain how but I am actually ahead of the game getting our Christmas cards out. Liam and Tobias set up the camera today and in less than 10 minutes we had our picture. In another 20 the cards were ordered!!

Tobias let Liam run the remote and he had a blast taking our pictures. Tobias connected the camera to an old TV so Liam could see the pictures as he was taking them. This kept Liam at least looking in the right direction . . . but it didn't keep him still. We still had a lot of wrangling to do to get us all in one picture.

I love Liam's expression in this one

Thanks for nothin', kid!

So, Mom was looking at the monitor . . . but Liam has a sweet expression

Liam's self portrait - not bad!!

Act suprised when you get your Christmas cards
Here's our family picture, 2011

'No gucken' and 'kein kaputt'

We love listening to how Liam's language is developing. He is very expressive (verbally and non-verbally!). Right now he is starting to mix English and German. He comes out with some very sweet phrases. This morning he was trying to open a drawer that he is not allowed in. When I told him to close it he looked at me said, 'no gucken!' (no looking). I assume he meant he was not allowed to look in there as opposed to me not looking at him do it. Since he closed the drawer and walked away I assume it was the former. He also has a few nouns for which he always says both names in English and German: Auto/Car, Kurbis/Pumpkin, and Ente/Quack/Duck. For example, when we walk past my car he says, 'Mami Auto/Car'

Liam is also obsessed with candles right now. Our lighter ran out last week and for several days we told him we couldn't light candles because 'die Kanone ist kaputt' (the lighter isn't working). For days he would walk by candles and say, 'Kanone kaputt!' Tobias bought a new lighter yesterday and this morning when I was lighting Liam's breakfast candle he said, 'Kanone kein kaputt!'

Liam also sings the entire song 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star'. If I can ever get him on camera I will post a video. It's hard to catch because he does not sing on command. He usually breaks out on the way to GG's now that it is dark when we walk outside. He says, 'Dunkel, Mond' and then sings.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures I have been meaning to post. Enjoy!

A busy morning! (clearly from summer)

One of Liam's favorite play places - the car (or as he says 'Auto/car')

Morning walk to Lake Maury

So happy to have Oma and Opa here

Thank God I'm a country boy . . . at least when I'm at GG's

I put my sunglasses on ALL BY MYSELF

Helping Papi fix the washing machine

Another game 'night, night, Sweetie-pie'

Stock

It is a great time of the year for walks. It is really fun to watch Liam explore and play. Some of his favorite things to do on a walk include searching for big sticks and playing '1,2,yoo-hoo' at the blue gate.

Finding his first small stick

Finding a hole to stick it in

Ohhhh - gock!

Liam always has to sit on the stones on the Noland Trail

Really starting to play with sand . . .

Work and play

The weather is turning colder and I am trying to get the yard ready for the first frost. On Sunday Liam helped me get the herbs up and ready to dry. Here is Liam after his first kill -


After a hard day of work in the yard, Liam wanted to kick back with some popcorn and watch one of his favorite movies. (About the picture, I inadvertently learned how to do screen shots on the iPhone instead of taking a normal picture. That is why this one looks odd.)

Halle halle halle

Liam loves music. Our church sends preschoolers a CD of music every couple of months. One song on the CD this month is 'Halle Halle Halle'. It's a simple song that goes 'Halle halle halle lujah . . . '

Liam heard the song once and later that day he was playing and started singing the song. He will just break out singing this at various times in the day. I tried to catch him singing on his own, but he was done by the time I got the camera going. Here is the co-opted version. Not quite as cute as when he sings on his own, but still cute.

Trick or treat!

We had a fun Halloween with Liam this year. Our big excitement was carving the jack-o-lantern. I thought Liam would like playing with the inside of the pumpkin and that cleaning it out would be good goopey fun. Not so much. Liam took one look at the membrane and seeds and just said, 'bleeccchhhhh' over and over.



Once the top was off, Liam got very concerned and starting saying, 'top on!!' over and over.
Once the pumpkin was outside Liam looked at the front got very upset that there was no nose. He kept pointing and saying, 'Nase!! Nase!!'

We didn't do a costume for Liam this year since he still doesn't really 'get' Halloween. We did, however, get him a cute shirt for the day from a great new store in town. ;-) It reads 'Funny Bones'
The big highlight of the evening was lighting the candles. Liam LOVES candles and he spent nearly all night outside looking inside at them.

I did teach him about trick-or-treating. He rang the door bell. Tobias came to the door. We said, 'Trick or treat' (which for Liam sounds like 'tickerteet'). Tobias resisted his urge to say, 'TRICK' and throw a bucket of water on us and instead gave Liam chocolate. Liam learned pretty quickly that 'trick or treat' means chocolate (AKA 'Picnic).

Now, picture the scene. Lori and Liam wait in the house for trick or treaters. The door bell rings. Liam yells, 'tickerteet!' We run to the door. Lori picks up Liam in one arm and the bowl of candy in another. We open the door and Liam grabs a piece of chocolate for himself every time!!

Liam's first haircut

Before

Faux-hawk

Holding still

Playing with the squirt bottle - direct hit into the eyes!

Nearly done

All done! After

We finally took the plunge and took Liam to get his haircut today. I have been very hesitant to this because we really didn't know how he would react. In the end, the emerging baby mullet won and we decided we had to get his hair cut. We took him to Lorraine's and Kelly did a great job. Thankfully, Liam did well. No fussing at all. He stayed very calm and held very still (for a 2 year old). Kelly gave him the water bottle and he had great fun squirting himself in the face!

The end of ENG!

This picture is for Oma. Liam got some new clothes yesterday. We got them at a great new store in town!! We knew Oma would be happy to see this outfit. :-)