Halloween

Halloween is now a special day in our house. We always remember that today was supposed to be Liam's birthday. We didn't do much this year for Halloween for two reasons. First, Liam is too young to appreciate it. Trying to get him to wear socks and hats is a battle enough so the idea of a costume just seemed like a big battle for no reason. Since he doesn't eat candy we didn't feel a big need to get into trick-or-treating this year. Next year we will attempt Halloween with Liam.

Second, Liam seems to have caught a cold (or has allergies) or something. He is very hoarse and has been coughing a lot. He was OK this morning, but this afternoon from 3:00 PM on was hard work. He was very irritable, clingy, fussy, etc. We thought it might be fun for him to see neighborhood children trick-or-treating, but we only had ONE child come this year.

On top of all this, today is the day we go back to standard time. In addition to everything else, we wanted to keep Liam up another hour to try to get him adjusted to the time change. We will find out tomorrow morning if we have been successful or if we just cost ourselves 2 hours of sleep. Here is a picture of our little guy when he was not fussing today. Oma, as you can see, he still loves his Sandmaennchen.

For comparison - Liam on his due date last year

Call me Bubbles!

When we went to give Liam his bath tonight we realized that Tobias' tub was not working. One of the faucets is stripped and we could not get the water on. We had to go back to the old way of bathing Liam in his tub on the counter. It was a messy, fun time. We have been teaching Liam to splash in the normal tub, so we couldn't easily change the rules now that he was back on the counter. You can imagine how much water was on the counters before we finished bath time!!

Call be Bubbles!!

It's like Tobias told him to put it there. :-)

Exploring the world

The Fall weather has been lovely the last couple of days. This morning we took Liam for a walk. We went to the overlook at Williams Field and he had lots of fun exploring the Noland Trail. (BTW - thank you Win, Wes, and Charlie for my jeans, jacket, and shoes!!)

(The resolution isn't great because these are cell phone pics,
but if you look hard you can see Liam's top front teeth in this picture.)

Something old and something new

First the 'something old': No matter how many times he goes to time out, Liam cannot resist some of the cardinal timeout offenses. Right now touching the TV and electrical equipment is his favorite vice.

Now the something new: Yesterday Liam's new find was the spoon. He played with the spoon for most of the evening. Tobias and I were not sure if we should punish him or reward him for touching the TV and receiver with the spoon and then looking at us to see if it counted. (It did.)

Yard work - in style!

Tobias is always so diligent with stuff around the house. It is not unusual to see him working every day on something. What I had not seen before was yard work in formal dress. I have to admit, this sight made me chuckle when I got home yesterday evening!

15 year reunion

Last night I had my 15 year high school reunion. It was great fun catching up with several people I had not seen in years. The most fun, though, was spending time with some of my favorite people.

Still my favorite German exchange student

The Papa John's Crew

Alex's mom, Beth, got us all jobs at Papa John's in high school. She died of cancer a few years ago. Her favorite drink was Wild Turkey bourbon. This was a toast to Beth. Gone but not forgotten!

Yesterday was also a big day for Liam. He stayed with a babysitter for 5 hours when Tobias and I went to the Norfolk Wine Festival. Thankfully, he did really well!!

I might be cute but I can ROAR!!

Since the weather has finally decided to cool off, Liam is now moving into his fleeces and sweaters. This is a jacket that GG gave him for his birthday. I think this is too cute for words. It's the only head covering he will leave on!!

What sound does this animal make??? RROOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!