2 short videos of Liam at the park

At Clemyjontri Park last week...

Listen to him when he starts running away... heehee


He says, "walk, walk, walk"... and then faceplants at the very end! Oops!

Happy (belated) Easter!

 Comparison photos! Easter 2011 vs. Easter 2010

Happy Easter! Liam participated in his first egg hunt last weekend (weekend before Easter) with his cousins that were visiting. He wasn't too into it; he kinda just watched the other older kids hunt for eggs and pointed to the ones he found instead of picking them up. He liked shaking the eggs, though!

Cousin Owen giving one of his eggs to Liam

Last week, Joel's brother and family were in town. Joel took most of the week off and was able to take Liam along when they all hung out and did touristy stuff. Liam got to go to the Natural History Museum, the Old Post Office Pavilion, Arlington National Cemetery, the Jefferson Memorial and even this huge, awesome playground - Clemyjontri Park. At the Post Office Pavilion, Joel told me that they made Liam walk through the metal detectors BY HIMSELF, THREE TIMES (seriously?) because he was setting it off with the Hot Wheels car he was holding. When they took it away for him to walk through the final time, he got really upset and cried (don't take a little boy's toy car away!) and was probably hungry and cranky too. :( So I'm pretty sure we will not be visiting that place again!

Last Saturday, we colored a few eggs and then met up with my friend Diana and her kiddo Bri who were visiting from North Carolina.

A hug from Bri!

Easter Sunday, I helped my mom make breakfast and then we let Liam "open" his Easter baskets. He got books, a bubble machine, a bunch of toy cars, some goldfish crackers, some squeezy fruit pouches, an Easter bunny singamajig, a pinwheel, a plush Elmo and a small chocolate bunny. I didn't want to give him any candy, but I felt that all Easter baskets need a chocolate bunny! (He quickly overlooked the bunny and went after the cars anyway!)

After breakfast, my mom took Liam for a walk while I hid some eggs in the backyard for him to find. I only hid 5 because that's all I had. These eggs had Matchbox cars in them, no candy! :)

Then after eating lunch, we went over to Scarlett's house to play and hang out. We played in the yard for a bit and then went to a local playground. It was a fun day!

Liam and Scarlett!

He wanted to join the game

Fearlessly running across the shaky bridge

After this was taken, he flipped himself over the bar!

I realized I have not mentioned it, but in the past month, Liam's vocabulary has really blown up! He's mimicking A LOT of words we say now. His favorite phrase is probably "buh-bye". He recently learned cupcake ("c'cake"), bath ("bah")  and milk ("mik"), among many more. I made some cupcakes for Easter and had them in a cupcake carrier. The cupcakes are long gone, but the carrier remians on the dining table. He still points to it, wanting and saying "c'cake"... :(

We are also trying to learn colors, but right now everything is blue ("buu")! haha

April was a busy month for us! And it's not even over yet! What will May bring??

Weekend trip back to Savannah

Outside the old digs

Air purifier fun!

Such a funny pic of Owen

Swung upside down by Uncle Andy

Liam and Aunt Katie were tattoo twins

I can't remember much from the first part of last week other than trying to get a lot of work done, getting our taxes done, and preparing for our weekend trip to Savannah!

The drive that I was dreading was actually not bad at all. We left around 9pm on Thursday night. Liam slept through most of the ride down, only woke up a few times when we had to stop and just a few minutes of fussing (I was able to comfort him back to sleep by hugging him in the carseat).

The weekend was very fun, yet very exhausting. It was great to see Joel's family and some of our friends that were able to come by and hang out for a little bit. I miss everyone down there! Even though it was a vacation, we didn't get much downtime to just chill out. Between seeing family and friends and working on our house, getting much needed SLEEP and driving, there was no time in between! Oh well, maybe we'll catch a break sometime again soon.

It was also VERY HOT down there... I was totally not prepared for the heat (highs of 90 AND humid), and neither was Liam. He got a heat rash (or something) while we were down there, among other things...

Owen giving Liam some love

Topless toddlers!

Liam had LOTS of fun playing with his rough and tumble cousin Owen who is almost 3. The two of them together cracked me up! They'd chase after each other and play copy-cat... and they even found a way to make an air purifier a toy! haha

Checking out the view with Kaylan

Liam also got to play with his friends Kaylan and Dylan and give them their birthday presents. Thanks for letting Liam play with the kitties! He got the coolest Super-Mario themed goody bag, complete with lots of sweet treats (for Mommy! heehee) and a "?" box with chocolate coins! I should have taken a pic of it before I ripped it apart to get to the candy... I mean before Liam ripped it open... eh, who am I kidding...  haha

On Saturday, Liam went with me to take the birthday presents over and then make a stop at Lowe's for some house stuff. He took a really early, short nap in the car, so needless to say getting him down for his REAL nap was difficult. We tried everything, from playing his trusty lullaby that I put on my MP3 player for the trip (Chopin's "Aeolean Harp" - I love it), to walking around with him, reading him his bedtime books... until nothing really worked and Joel and I just got exhausted and gave up. We all plopped down on our severely-missed queen pillow-top mattress and I dozed off. Apparently Joel said that Liam started rolling around and all of a sudden he just stopped mid-roll and fell asleep - for TWO HOURS! (a rarity!) I guess we were all pretty tired.

Sunday, I decided to do the gardening right after I woke up to beat the sun and heat. Liam woke up pretty early so we dressed him and we all went outside to do yardwork. Liam got his FIRST skinned knee! While I was trimming a hedge and Joel was messing with the car, I guess it happened when he was walking back and forth between us. He walked toward me and didn't look happy and was grabbing/pointing at his knee. I checked it out and sure enough, it was skinned! My big boy didn't even cry! This was the first time I had him in shorts outside (after he was able to walk on his own). It also seemed like he had gotten a rash from something in the yard or from the heat - he got little red bumps/dots all over and up the insides of his arms. :( Bought calamine lotion to relieve any itching, although he didn't seem really bothered by it.

The start of Liam's rashy/buggy breakout :(

Sunday afternoon, we had dinner at Joel's parent's house. While dinner was getting ready, we all played outside. Oh how I missed the Savannah sand gnats... NOT! They pretty much had a picnic on Liam's head and face. :( Poor guy. We didn't really notice how bad it was until the next day when all the bites turned red and bumpy. His heat rash (or whatever it was) had spread to his cheeks and chest and back. I was thinking about what it could be - Joel's mom's Boston Terrier had been licking his face, maybe it could have been a reaction from her? But then Snorty and Mac lick Liam all the time and that doesn't happen. I didn't think of heat rash until my mom mentioned it. I called the Aetna nurse hotline for peace of mind on the way back up (his ped wasn't picking up my calls). They basically said if it looks infected, he's got a fever, acting any differently since then, or if it looks like its getting worse, to take him to the doctor. Otherwise, just do home treatments - continue calamine lotion, no soapy baths, cold compress. It looked REALLY bad when we got back home Monday afternoon. Especially with all the bug bites. It's been a few days and he looks a LOT better. The redness is all gone, but the bug bites are still noticeable and he's scratching at them more. Why'd he have to get my sensitive skin!?

This weekend I need to find an Easter outfit for Liam, as well as start putting together his basket. Woohoo!

Photos from the weekend have been added to the Shutterfly, so be sure to check them out!

The 'Almost 16-months' post

Testing out furniture @ Ikea

Watching Auntie Jessica eat some Noodles & Co.

I can't believe April is here already! This month brings a bunch of April birthdays in my family. We celebrated 4 people's birthdays this past weekend already!

Liam and the birthday girl

Messin' with dad's face

My Auntie Letty's birthday was today, and she invited us out to have an early dinner at her favorite Chinese restaurant. Liam's favorite dish was the one with the beef, noodles and bean sprouts. This guy LOVES bean sprouts. He eats them like noodles. He first had them when we brought some Noodles and Company udon home last week when my dad just got released from the hospital. Out of all the veggies in the udon bowl, he couldn't get enough of the bean sprouts!

Yesterday, Liam went to his first MLB game! Our good friend Mary Ann invited us to come with her and her boyfriend Alex to the 2nd game of the Nationals opening week, where they happened to be playing Joel's home team, the Atlanta Braves!

See the ominous rain clouds in the distance?

Unfortunately for us, the Braves lost (even though they won the first game AND the game that was played today) AND the weather was not the best. It was so COLD! There was a short rain delay at the beginning of the game and a longer one after the 3rd inning. It was hailing on us at one point! We decided to leave after the 7th inning since Liam was getting a little cranky and our team was not in a position to come back at that point. Despite the Braves loss and the crappy weather, we had a fun time hanging out with Mary Ann and Alex!

This past week, Liam has figured out how to open doors all by himself, as well as unlocking the dishwasher and figuring out how to turn on and off the bath faucet. Yikes.

I just finished uploading a bunch of photos to the Shutterfly from the last part of March to the beginning of April. Check them out

This week we are traveling down to Savannah! I hope he does well in the car. Long car rides are not fun for any of us. Especially with a crying, cranky mom, er... kid! I'm sure I will have plenty of pictures from next weekend to post soon. Until then!