Happy 2nd Birthday, Liam!

I cannot believe that my baby is already 2 years old. I can't say enough wonderful things about Liam. He has totally and completely changed my life.

Look how much he's grown!

Birth

1 year old

2 years old

'Tis the Season

It's not quite time for Christmas music or Evergreen trees, but October is the official start of my busy season. Over the next few months I have: Liam's birthday, Halloween, Liam's birthday party, a mini-road trip, in-laws in town, Thanksgiving, our 6th wedding anniversary, my family coming to town, Christmas, a baby shower, New Years, a 2nd baby shower. By the time all of that is done, I will have reached my due date. Keeping so busy, I know it's going to be here before I know it.

I started planning for Liam's birthday party a few weeks ago. We are not having a huge party like last year, just family and my very best friends whose kids are around Liam's age. I think it will still be fun though. I love how the invitations turned out. I used the print and cut feature and pop up dots for the car, airplane and banner to give it dimension.

Liam has been quite the toddler lately. One moment he is the funniest, sweetest kid. A minute later he is having an absolute meltdown because I took the lid off of the yogurt instead of letting him. "My do it" is one of those phrases I hear all the time: brushing his teeth, buckling the car seat, cooking, brushing my teeth. It's right up there with "I help Mama" of phrases that I don't like to hear.

Can I brag? Liam says "thank you" without me prompting him, even to strangers. It's awesome. He has also started to say "bless you" and "please." His please is so cute that I can't resist it. I'm sure he'll eventually figure out that he can get anything he wants by using it and it will lose its charm.

We're still struggling with his eating a sleeping. This video was shot around 10:30 sometime last week. Most nights are like this:

I love my crazy boy!

Liam's Pumpkin

Our play group took a trip to a local petting farm on Friday. Liam wasn't really interested in the animals, but he loved the train, hay ride and pumpkin patch. He has a small pumpkin that he got in the hospital when he was born and we have some pumpkin decorations around the house for Halloween. At the pumpkin patch, Liam went right for a small pie pumpkin. He carried it around, put it down, picked up other pumpkins, but always went back to the same pumpkin he chose first.

He wouldn't put the pumpkin down while he rode in the stroller or in the car seat. 

He carried it all around the house when we got home. That was fine until he dropped it a few times, then it was not fine. Surprisingly, he didn't have a fit when I turned his pumpkin into mini pies. I gave him a baby spoon and his stuffed pumpkin and he helped me scoop out the pumpkins.

I used the Mini Pumpkin Pie recipe from All Recipes. Liam's little pumpkin was just the right amount of pumpkin for this recipe. I only made a dozen on Saturday. After refrigerating the filling for a few days, it was still good when I made the second dozen pies.

Pumpkin pie counts as a vegetable, right? :)

Nap Time Crafting: Pinwheel Quilt

One of my best friends just had a baby girl. After our group of friends had 4 boys in a row, it was really exciting to sew for a girl. I started on this quilt a long time ago, but morning sickness and exhaustion turned my "Nap Time Crafting" into "Nap While Liam Naps." I finally finished this quilt a few weeks ago and gave it to my friend this past weekend.

I used Sew, Mama, Sew!'s Pinwheels in the Park pattern. Her suggestion for taping down the backing was a great idea.

I was going to do a simpler quilt, but I am really glad that Dan talked me into the more complicated, but much more beautiful quilt. I strayed from the pattern just a bit and did a scrappy binding. I love scrappy bindings.

October Week 1

I started October, my month of focusing on Liam, with a trip to the zoo. We go pretty often, but hadn't been in a while. The weather cooled down just enough that it was tolerable in the early morning. 

so cute in Momma's hat

Liam is starting to get to the age where he has strong opinions. These opinions are not always convenient for me, but I try to let him have his way when it's not a big deal. He insisted on pushing the stroller without any assistance from me. "I do it! Let go!"

A litter of capybaras was born since our last visit to the zoo. They are pretty cute.

Me and Liam's favorite part of the zoo is the kids' discovery area. Liam likes to dig in the sandbox, play with the toys and see all of the little critters in their cages. I like that it is inside in the air conditioning.

It's nice to finish our visits to the zoo with some time at the splash pad. Liam is tall enough that he can wander the whole area, with my close supervision of course. I'm the mom sitting on the rock in the middle of the splash park with my pants rolled up and my feet in the water. There weren't a lot of kids out, so Liam had the boat to himself.

clean, dry & ready to go home

 Our play group has started weekly trips to playgrounds for the "fall." It's is still way too hot to be outside for very long, especially since my kid wants to be pushed in the swing in the full sun instead of playing independently while I sit under the shade. He actually did do very well this week. We hadn't been to this park in a while, so I was surprised at all the new things he could do.

As part of my goal to get Liam's room organized, Dan and I put up bookshelves in an odd corner in Liam's room. I still need to caulk them and touch up the paint, but they are functional for now.

On Friday, I had the opportunity to go to a painting class. My sister came over and stayed with Liam while I was gone. When Dan and I went to this class a few months ago, it took me weeks to finish my first painting. I was shocked that I did my second painting all in one class and I love the way it turned out!

When I got home, me and my sister made a cape for her Halloween costume. She said I could post these pictures as long as I didn't say her name or put them on facebook.

In other news, Liam is doing pretty well transitioning to his big boy bed. There are still nights when it's an hour and a half past his bedtime and he's still getting up that I put him in the crib and call it a night. Last night was kind of rough. He got up several times during the night. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I stayed up late watching football. Eventually, I let him sleep in the bed with me.

I do love that I wake up to him and his frog over the side of my bed and we have a big cuddle-fest every morning. I know these days are limited, so I'm trying to enjoy these precious moments.

I love this so much.