Random thought.

Thomas trains, Super Why, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse... make me feel all the feels.  I just think back to the time when Liam was at the age where he would watch those shows. Now, he is just too COOL to watch those "baby shows". He's into Teen Titans, Star Wars, Ninja Turtles...  It also makes me think of my grandma, too. They used to watch those shows together when she lived with us and when we lived at my parents house.

End of random thought.

First Shower

Tuesday, June 18, 2013 - Liam's first shower

Sorry no pics. I am a bad mom, I just wanted to jot this down for Liam's baby book...which I have not even started, or care to start. I have all the pieces and a book... just no time or desire... Maybe one day...

Bike Riding!

Over the weekend while I was visiting my little sister in San Antonio for her baby shower (photos here: http://divinefrenzy.shutterfly.com/2070 ), Joel and Liam had some daddy and son bonding time. And in that time, he learned how to ride his bike! Joel sent me this video as I was on my way back home. {Note: He is not wearing a helmet, but Joel was right behind him the whole time. Next time we try it he will be wearing one! This was the first time he picked up the pedaling.}

3-Year Stats

Liam's 3-year checkup was last Tuesday... even though his birthday was on December 6...yeah, mom should have known better than to put off scheduling this appointment the week of his birthday!

He is a super healthy and growing boy! No real concerns from the doctor. I did ask her about his knock-knees, but she said if it's not bothering him and he can still walk and run with the best of them, then we should not worry right now. I have a degree of knock knees (and scoliosis) myself, but I can still run like a champ with my unsymmetrical body!! lol I just hope it doesn't affect him either!

His stats are:
39.5" tall (up 4 inches from 2-year old check up)
38 lbs (up 6.2 lbs)

He got the flu mist which did not seem cool at all. At least it was not a shot and he did get a lollipop from the nurse afterward.

I leave you with some of Liam's "C" tracing and coloring skillz...

LIAM IS THREE! ...and 4 months in pictures

Liam is 3! 

And all potty trained and in a new class at daycare! He's super smart and always surprises us with thing he's learned at school. His teachers in the 2-year old room were worried that he was getting bored and not being challenged, so a few weeks ago they let him sit in part of the day with the 3 year olds to do activities with them and to help adjust to the change of a new classroom. I'm surprised at the skills he has with a crayon - which I have to attribute to ME! LOL He generally stays in between the lines when coloring AND he can trace letters and numbers pretty well. I am a very proud mama!! He loves music – we have him enrolled in a music class at his daycare that meets every Tuesday. He LOOOVES going to school on Tuesdays!

coloring skillz!

He wrote "tot" all by himself!!

On the other had, he's surely a three year old in regards to behavior and brattiness. I guess it's expected. We can't ever really go out to eat anywhere without him getting antsy and bored. Well maybe 1 out of 5 times we will have a good meal where he will be good and sit and year and keep to himself. Other times he will be OK in the beginning and then start jumping on the seats, going under the table (gross!) which causes us to have to eat fast and then jet out of there. He's also such a picky eater and won't eat much of anything. So frustrating sometimes.

But we can at least reason with him now and he understands how things work. But if he's already really cranky, he's extremely touchy and will cry at the smallest thing. He also STILL cries when we leave him at daycare! He went through a good long period of pushing us out the door when we dropped him off. Now, for the past 2 months he's been clingy and whiny. You'd think after a year of doing this, he'd be used to it!!! NOPE! But he's fine after that. And is always having a great time when we pick him up.

Here is a photo summary of the last 4 months with this kid!

Liam's FIRST Race: Daniel Defense Pooler 5K - Kiddie Run (September)

Visit to the Jacksonville Zoo (September)

My sister's wedding (October)

Playing with Scarlett and meeting her new baby sister Emme (not shown) (October)

Fun at a local Fall Festivals (October)

Halloween (October)

New School Photo (November)

I had a cute tie for him to wear!! I wish they used it or at least unbuttoned the top button!

St. Augustine Half Marathon with mom, dad and Auntie Jen (November)

Fun at an awesome Tramoline arena (I think the adults had more fun) (November)

First time Bowling (in Ocean City with Leila and Kazia!) - which was a pretty rough trip due to Mr. Crankypants (November)

3rd Birthday Party at local Go Kart Fun Zone! (December)

Gonna upload a TON of photos to Shutterfly soon... Have a great holiday!!!! And happy new year!!

Bad Blogging Momma

Hello! Anyone out there? Does anyone even read this anymore? I have seriously neglected this blog. There's so much going on in addition to toddler chasing, it's crazy. As many of you might know, I am currently training for my first half-marathon which will be the Rock and Roll Half in Savannah on November 3rd. {want to follow my running-blog? go here!} It's about 10 weeks away and I am running everywhere... well, every part of me seems to be running these days, not just my body, but my mind and life.

I haven't been updating shutterfly as often, mainly due to me taking phone pics all the time and well, every time I take out the camera, Liam wants to grab it and press the shutter button multiple times. It's cute and all, but it gets excessive and plus I haven't paid for the camera in full yet!! LOL

I do want to make note of some notable things that have happened since the last update:

So proud of his poop

1. Liam can poop in the potty now!! Woohoo! He had the first #2 in the potty a few months back, but after that first time, something freaked him out and he refused to go. He can totally control his urges, but some times he'd just rather go in a pullup. But today, he did 3 poops in pullups. :( The last time, he put on a pull up all by himself and went. I moved the pullups to the top of the closet where he can't reach and therefore can't drop a deuce in them and will force him to use the toilet! This past week he did AWESOME (up until today) and we made sure to reward him every time he went. I hope he can get back to the potty soon. I was so proud of him when he went. A gross/funny thing is that when he goes, he does not like using the awesome Cars potty seat that goes over the big seat. He prefers to sit on the edge of the seat (with the seat raised up)... ugh... so uncomfortable to me!! And I have to make sure it's disinfected all the time...

2. We decided to downsize our SUV to a smaller model. We got a BRAND NEW 2013 Mazda CX-5. It's our first brand new car. It's got awesome features and gets excellent gas mileage (this was the most important to us - now we can buy REGULAR gas - woohoo!!!). Plus its not that much smaller than our old car (a turbocharged Mazda CX-7), the width may be a bit more narrow and the trunk space isn't as roomy, but it's still plenty of room for our two 80+ lb. goldens to fit back there! Our car payment is pretty much the same as the old one! We LOOOOOOOVE it! The only downside is that we wanted leather, but for this model (the middle), it wasn't an option (lame!) and it's not as zippy as the CX-7 - but we will take better MPGs over zip!

3. I am FINALLY certified in infant and adult CPR. Liam's daycare opened up the class to parents, as they were re-certifying their staff. I really should have taken this course before Liam was born, but Joel had just gotten certified from work, so I didn't bother. But even since then, the guidelines have changed and I know the most current procedures in performing CPR! Let's just hope I never have to use it. It's a very useful skill especially for parents of young children.

4. Liam had his first week-long vacation WITHOUT us!! Late last month, my parents traveled down to FL to visit my sister and asked if they could kidnap him for the week. We (gladly) agreed and proceeded to have a kidless week vacation for ourselves!! Woohoo! It was fun, but I did miss Liam. We Skyped a couple times and talked to him on the phone... it seemed like he didn't miss me at all!! :( When he got back, it seemed like he grew a foot taller!!!

Baby Emeline

5. There have been a few new additions to the next generation: Shonna had her SECOND baby girl, Emeline, on August 4! I was fortunate to visit them for a week shortly after she was born to help out a little. I had forgotten how tiny newborn babies are!!! I had a wonderful time and I'm glad I was able to be there and meet little Emie!! My girl Stacie had her TWINS on July 24 - a boy - Everett, and a girl - Aurora!! I am so happy for her and her family... these babies are so adorable and I can't wait to plan a visit out to CA to see them all!!! And Bonnie had her second baby girl, Faith on May 23! She's already 3 months old!! How fast time flies!!!

6. We took a trip last month to visit one of Joel's friends from high school. He and his family currently live (he's in the Army) in Yorktown - a place in between Newport News and Virginia Beach, VA. It was about an 8 hour drive and Liam behaved for the majority of the car rides to and back. Woohoo! He also quickly attached himself to pretty much every member of their family, which made it awesome for Joel and I because we didn't have to worry about him or deal with him as much as I anticipated on our vacation! We had a great time and hope they can visit us down here soon!

At the beach

I think that's about it in a nutshell. We don't have much planned for September (that I really know of), but we would like to take Liam to either the Jacksonville Zoo, Charleston Aquarium or the Atlanta Aquarium. I'd like to do Atlanta, but we'd probably need a few more days than just the weekend. We are just thinking of ideas for a quick weekend excursion. Oh! I did take Liam to the beach on Hilton Head Island (SC) my myself last weekend. It was awesome and we both had a great time, other than afterwards not being able to find good ice cream!! (Ice Cream Shop only accepted cash - which I never carry, so I decided to settle on some gas station ice cream bars... but the damn freezer didn't work and we ended up eating half melted popsicles! grrrrr)

See you in another 2-3 months!! LOL

Fluke?

I woke up this Monday morning at 7:22am to the sounds of Joel tapping his razor on the bathroom sink. I was a bit disoriented, trying to figure out what day of the week it was, then went into mini-panic mode because the rest of the house was completely silent. I got up to check on Liam and sure enough he was still asleep in bed. (note: his normal wake up time is anywhere between 6am and 6:30am, every day of the week)

I was up late last night working on some freelance projects. It was also storming pretty hard with super loud thunder and lightning cracks. I swear one of them was so loud that it had to have struck near by! I was also sure that I'd hear Liam wake up crying. But no, he stayed asleep!

The last thing that was odd was that he woke up COMPLETELY DRY. It was so crazy. We put him in a nighttime pullup and as soon as he woke up he headed straight for the bathroom.

I'm so proud of him... he now can go #1 completely on his own: even flushes and hand sanitizes afterwards. We are still working on going #2... he can totally hold it - he always asks to be changed into a pull up when he needs to go. He seems afraid of sitting on the pot. Even with the bribes of getting a "big, awesome surprise" or a "lollipop from grandma".

In other news, he's been really defiant lately and has been frustrating both of us. We make threats of taking his toys away, but it does not phase him. He will GIVE us his toys to take. Argh! haha I guess it's funny now, but having a headache all weekend is not fun! LOL We had to install extra locks near the top of the doors to keep him from escaping and letting the dogs out.

Anyway, I think I'm going to make a photo post soon, with random photos from events since Easter. For now, here are a few from the past few weeks:

Tormenting Snorty by burying her under his toys and pillow

Playing with cousins Owen and Zane at Thunderbolt (Memorial Day)

Painting

Family pic at Pearl's