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 . . .