Liam has HAIR! (not much and not dark--but MUCH more than in the past!)
And so it begins--this is Liam's first official "camera smile". It's awful in the way that all fake smiles are awful and adorable in the way that any kiddo trying to make a "cute face" for the camera is. I could do worse than years of this face in school photos!
Now if only we could decide what color it is: blonde? strawberry blond? light brown?
Liam is obsessed with this "tie" (it's actually my belt!) He will NOT let us take it off and puts it on in the mornings before he even chooses a shirt!
But Liam sure does love his accesories! I never imagined I'd have a kid who insisted on a tie before he was even one and a half!
Eebee and Mae-Mae had to help us make Grandpa's cake.
Liam LOVED the ear-protection muffs Chris used while sanding the deck. Chris loved that Liam looks like a pilot in them.
Liam is obsessed with tracing his hands. I decided it would be fun to trace our whole family. As usual Liam is the center of everything: Mommy and Daddy above, Oma below and Duff and the cats off to the side.
(Yes we held Duffy down and traced him and NO we did NOT subject the cats to such a thing)
Liam inhereted this swing from Josie, down the street who has graduated to a big girl swing. Liam LOVES it. Which is hillarious to me because he used to pitch a hissy if I tried to put him in a baby swing at a park and has been swinging on big kid swings for months!
blurry perfection
bad self portrait
How fantastic is it that I have a kid who's old enough to stick his tounge out and pose for a picture on command?
Liam is begining to enjoy older kid toys. Here he is gassing up a fisher price car. I remember spending hours playing with this exact same Fisher Price city in this exact same room.
Liam says "draw" now and loves to spend time in his new art corner coloring, playing with play-dough, and working on sewing cards and bead-stringing. (Bye Bye crib--make way for the art center! So weird a small boy has replaced our baby!)
The world's smallest sous-chef.
Liam loves to help Daddy in the kitchen (You can ask him if he wants to help you cook and he'll drop almost anything else and run to the kitchen, pull over his stool, and climb up chanting "ook!" "ook!")
First real knife skills lesson.
H has a wooden knife and fruit set (the fruit is cut but attached with velcro and you can "cut" it by driving the knife between the velcroed sections) and he loves it. Today we tried him out with a bread knife and some cheese. He was entranced by the rocking technique and really seemed to enjoy working with the knife. We joke that he'll be do all of daddy's prep work by the time he's 10.
"Where IS?"
Wearing Daddy's shoes. (Funny how they don't look that big at this angle)
walking in Daddy's shoes (he can do it without help but it's a better visual picture with Daddy included)
Liam's best guy friend Yuri just turned one (and is enjoying exploring Liam's nose). I'm so happy he has someone to be rough and tumble with!)
Liam has figured out where the lens cap is supposed to go and will chase me down with it when I'm trying to take his picture. I'm sure it'll get old but for right now it just makes me laugh (and pretty darn proud. My book says paring lids with containers is an 18 month skill--this totally counts. Right?)
Full on rain suit--one of the best purchases we ever made!
Liam LOVES to be outdoors--he pretty much demands it actually--so we were overjoyed when we came across a new REI rainsuit (with tags still on) at our local kiddo consignment shop.
A year ago we planted this tree (as is custom in Jewish families) to honor Little Man's birth. Now he's trying to climb it (I think they both have some growing to do before that's possible!) I can't get over what a difference a year makes.
One of Liam's new things is "show me" or "need help" --when he's upset or looking like he wants something we'll use one of those phrases and he'll smile, walk over and grab our finger and lead us to the promblem/desired thing/etc. He also fetches us in this manner a hundred times a day when not prompted.
Real SNOW--the kind you can leave footprints in!
Liam was NOT a huge fan of the snow (at least as long as we made him keep his coat on--once we let him take it off he was much happier)
Baby's first snowball
The part of the snow Liam DID enjoy was Daddy and I throwing snowballs at one another.
too much--too cold--too strange (he ran inside and then stood at the back glass door crying to go outside again--He seemed to be hoping that it wouldn't be as snowy in the backyard)
Shreiking at the back door: Liam was NOT happy that his usually pleasant backyard was replaced with a winter wonderland (thank goodness it was just for one day!)
poor Duffy!
Liam and Daddy covering the new apple trees in the backyard (better late than never!)
Liam had fun in the snow after he shucked his coat and found his balls.
I can't believe this is our backyard!
not so fun after you fall!
Liam's new favorite toy--an awesome truck Grandma got him for his birthday (it's made of recycled milk cartons and reclaimed sawdust! It makes cool sounds/music/animal sounds when you push it, and it has a great handle so he can push/pull/drag it anywhere he wants).
a pretty representative glimpse into our everyday life at the moment. Liam exploring his "Vroom Vroom" and Duffy exploring Liam.
He loves to help in the yard--today he and I mowed the lawn while Daddy painted the shutters.
One of my favorite things about Liam at this moment is that he takes us by the hand to show us things, get help, etc.
In this instance he'd found a flower in the backyard and had to go get Daddy so he could share his discovery.
Liam LOVES to smell flowers (and candles and soap--he starts sniffing when you pass the candle displays in stores--it's adorable)
peek-a-boo!
Liam had his first taste of ice cream (Amy's of course) for his first birthday. He was decidedly unimpressed (video later I'm sure).
Liam is not a very messy little guy--he wasn't interested in digging into his cupcake the way we'd hoped. In fact he spent at least 10 minutes using the toothpick on this candle as a make-shift spoon (until we got him a fork). Anytime he'd get some on his fingers at he'd hold his hands out to be cleaned up. I wonder how long this phase will last?!
Daddy had to acvtively encourage Liam to partake of the baked good sitting in front of him!
Reaching to Mommy--to be cleaned up or to share? I don't remember now.