Here Daddy, Keep this Kid Busy

Mommy and Liam tried making cookies again on Monday.  Mixing up the ingredients actually went well and the mess was minimal.  We had to chill the dough for a couple hours, so when Daddy got home she assigned them the final steps - roll the dough into 1" balls, coat in powdered sugar, place on cookie sheet...

Sounds easy, right?

Riiiight.

Liam decided to play with the cookie dough as if it were Play-Doh.

Also, shove his hands in his mouth.  Also, coat them in sugar.  Also, throw sugar on the floor / dogs.

Still, a few of the cookies made it past THE KID.

The dogs were loving this.

Snickers, you look delicious.

And you... need a bath!

Item: One Nasty Bathroom

We started a new project.  Because we are masochists.  Also, it's time.  And we want to sell the house.  So we started demo on our master bath.

Behold... BEFORE:

Gorgeous, right?

Minus the shower surround.

This is why you don't put a WOOD FRAMED WINDOW in a shower, people!  Seriously.

  

Minus drywall.

Minus toilet.

Between the rotten wood, rusted screws, and unsealed PVC piping, the toilet just lifted off the floor.  How does that make you feel, Daddy?

Really!?

Yeah, looks about right.

Minus vinyl flooring.  All that wood is rotten and will have to come out.

Yeah, like that!

After all that, Daddy took a break to spend some quality time with Liam.

And now, some new floor.

More pictures to come soon!  Ish?

11 Days

Liam loves babies.  There is a little one that goes to our church.  All through Thanksgiving Eve service: "Beebee!  Beebee!  Beebee!"  *squirmsquirmsquirm*  "Beebee!  Beebee!  Beebee!"

As it turns out, Liam's little cousin is a baby!  Whom he loves.  When Cousin is not sucking on his face, that is...

Trade?

Look Kid, this is how you play Star Trek.  You be Captain Kirk, and I'll be Spock.

Trick-or-Treating at Great-Memaw's house.

Obligatory messy food picture.

Liam got a new shelf.  He finds it very useful for storing his toys and books.  Can't you tell?

Three weekends of deer hunting, and no deer.  Except for this one in the backyard.  And all of the deer Mommy saw on the way to and from the cabin.  Garrr.

She can't complain too much though.  This is the view from the deer stand.  Also, she is reading Atlas Shrugged and can get through about a hundred pages in a weekend.  You know, between all the naps and chocolate bars.  Yeah, it's almost worth not seeing any deer.  Almost.

And when Papaw watches Liam at the cabin, she can come back to this at lunch time... And yes, that would be a sticker on Liam's head.

The Early Baby Gets the Deer

We survived opening day of deer season... and so did all the deer.

Liam, Papaw and Mommy went to deer camp last weekend.  Daddy stayed home to relax (aka, play golf), since he had been on travel all week. 

We met Papaw at the cabin on Friday night, unpacked the truck, and ate dinner.  Papaw and Liam looked at tractor books while Mommy read her own book.  That night Mommy and Liam shared a bed, which meant Mommy didn't get a lot of sleep.  Liam wanted to play rather than sleep and took a long time settling down.  Then about 4:30am he woke up and decided to kick Mommy in the throat.  Repeatedly.  The quiet of the deer stand was a nice change from that.

Mommy heard about 5 gunshots first thing in the morning and then NOTHING the rest of the day, except for one deer grunt on top of the ridge.  She stayed out all day until 4pm.  Papaw told her when she went back in that he was getting worried he would have to go out looking for her.

While she was gone, Liam and Papaw had fun playing together.  They walked down the hill and played on the 4 wheeler, looked at that danged tractor book AGAIN, listed to Liam's Sesame Street tape ("MON-TER!"), swept the cabin, and killed wasps.  (There are wasps that hibernate in the cabin and they wake up to fly around drunkenly when the heater is turned on.)

We came back in time for Daddy's birthday lunch on Sunday.  We met our friends downtown at Le Petit Cafe.  Liam was pretty excited about there being other little boys there with us, and it was getting on towards naptime... that is to say, he was a handful.  Hopefully they let us come back again, because it is Mommy's favorite (affordable) restaurant here in town.

The rest of the week has been uneventful.  Daddy's been home, but left again today after lunch.  He'll be back tomorrow night, just in time to have a weekend to himself again, since Liam and Mommy are leaving tomorrow morning to go hunting again.  We'll be back on Saturday night... maybe Sunday morning.  (Someone tell Daddy, ok?)  And now, to clean the house (ha!), pack some warm clothes, and make a grocery list.

What Day is It?

Today is Tuesday, right?  Ugh, this week is never going to end.

On Sunday we all went to Great-Memaw's house to make Thanksgiving noodles with Cousin Grayson, Aunt Lauren, and Uncle Nick.  Mamaw and Papaw were there too, and Liam spent the day playing with Mamaw's toy cars and tractors.

This is the third year we've made noodles, and each year seems to be faster - more streamlined, maybe - than the last.  However, Mommy forgot to put food coloring in three of the batches.  Shhh!  Don't tell Great-Memaw!

Yesterday was Monday - Daddy's birthday.  Happy birthday, Daddy!  We didn't get you a card or make you a cake!  And you had to fly to San Diego for work on your birthday!  Sorry your birthday was awful.

Papaw came and visited again yesterday afternoon while Mommy went to Indy with a couple friends.  Ah, sweet respite.

And today.  Today is Tuesday.  Liam went to daycare this afternoon, and Mommy ran some errands and did some work for an upcoming project.  He was in a good mood when she picked him up at 4:15 - he even fell asleep on the way home.  And then he woke up.  He woke up hungry and tired and angry.  Mommy was trying to make dinner while an inconsolable weeping baby was insisting on being held, fed Goldfish crackers, and crying for "Mon-ter!  Mon-ter!  Mon-ter!"  (The Sesame Street tape that has been on playing on repeat for the last two-weeks-feels-like-two-years.)  It is difficult to peel, cut, cook and mash sweet potatoes; boil noodles; and tenderize and fry a chicken breast while this is going on.  Unlike Wonder Woman, Mommy actually needs two hands to cook!

Kid finally went down for the night - probably passed out as soon as he was put in his crib - but not after being a pain all night and making Mommy seriously consider full-time daycare.  Or a straight-jacket.  Also, a muzzle.

Unrelatedly, Mommy and Daddy need to make a list of house rules.  For instance,

1) No throwing toys.
2) Toys must be put away before bedtime, and Liam must help.
3) No climbing onto the dining room table.
4) If you can't act like a human child, you can spend some time screaming your fool head off in your crib.
5) No drinking an entire bottle of cherry wine in one night - at least not while Daddy is gone and Mommy is responsible for the baby.
6) Wait, what?

And now Mommy is going to eat an entire chocolate bar and possibly eat the rest of that jar of Nutella she found hiding in the cupboard.  Because, see rule #5.

Never Eat Yellow Snow

Mommy gave Liam his bath tonight.  He didn't take a nap today, so when he wanted to get out of the tub two minutes after getting in, Mommy just thought he was being contrary.

This child went directly to his potty chair, picked out a book for Mommy to read, and let Mommy wrap him up in a towel.

We finished reading Little Red Riding Hood and Liam unwrapped himself and stood up.

There was pee in his potty chair.

THERE WAS PEE IN HIS POTTY CHAIR!

We cleaned up the potty chair, let Liam flush the toilet, and he climbed back in the tub....and went back to being contrary.  Oh well, we'll take what we can get.

Raised by Wolves...er, Snickers and Bounder

The kid really does start out the day with clean clothes.

See?...

You tell her, Kid!

Hey wait, where are you going?

See anything good under there? 

Ah, I see you found some dirt.

And the dogs' dirt nest.

Yeah, I think it needs a little digging out, too.

Hey, Pig-Pen - you missed a spot!

Oh good, you got it. 

And then there was this.

That's the compost pile, Kid.  It's not much cleaner.

Well, at least the stick isn't too filthy.

Oh, you like digging in leaves too?

Yeah, me too.

Good thing kids are supposed to get dirty.  Because this one sure does.

Happy Reformation! Also, All Hallow's Eve. Also, Halloween.

Halloween was this past weekend.  On Monday night Liam and Mommy met our dear friend Carrie for his very first trick-or-treating experience.  We met Carrie at her house and practiced.  He choked under pressure - he wouldn't knock on the door or say trick-or-treat or roar like the lion he was supposed to be.  Mommy wasn't really expecting too much - it's a lot for a little guy to remember!

Carrie gave him some candy anyway, and we let him eat a mini Twix bar.  He LOVED IT.  Also, he tried to eat the other candy bars through the wrappers and then screamed bloody murder when we took his bucket away to buckle him back in the car.  We have created a monster.

We went downtown to a lovely old neighborhood with painted lady houses, big droopy trees, and gobs and gobs of trick-or-treaters (like, lines that were 10 kids deep at each house - it was insanity).  Liam was... overwhelmed.  He made no noise for the next two hours, except to whimper when Mommy took him past a scary skeleton.  He got a fair little haul, though, considering he doesn't get to eat candy at home.

We ended the night at Penny's house, where he finally uttered his second sound of the night, when he saw Penny's cat in the door.  "Tee-tee!"  (Translation: "Kitty!")

Hey Carrie, wanna go again next year?

****

Last Saturday we went to a Halloween party at our friends' house.  Liam wore his lion constume.

Practicing his roar, and possibly scaring himself.

Mommy was a lion tamer.  She needs some practice.

Daddy didn't dress up - he went as himself.

"Hey, someone put some raw steak in here for me - I'm hungrrrrrry!"

"Mmmm... this will pair well with that gazelle I'm having for dinner."

We sent the little lion man home with Mamaw and Papaw, and there was Rock Band-ing late into the night.  Then at 7pm we took Daddy home for Matlock and prune juice.

PS, there are more costume pictures on Laura's blog: Happy Gatsbyween.

Reading

Liam loves many things:

1) Tractors
2) Diggers
3) Everything with wheels
4) His babies
5) Mangoes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, goldfish crackers

And now lately, READING.

The other morning Mommy came into the living room and found a little mess.  Liam had pulled all of the books off one shelf and was standing on the pile.  As Mommy walked in, he climbed down off the pile, picked up his Tractor Factory book, sat down and turned to the last page - the page with the pop-up tractor with wheels that turn.

Funny thing is, the tractor book had been on the next shelf up.

We also started listening to a cassette tape of Sesame Street songs last week.  (Cassette tape?  How OLD are we??)  When Mommy and Aunt Bethy were very little, Grandpa J recorded several Sesame Street albums onto a cassette tape, so we could listen to the songs in the car.  Liam and Mommy ran across it and began listening, and now Liam is in love...

One of the recorded albums is C is for Cookie, all songs with Cookie Monster.  Now Liam says "monster" - or "mon-ter" - in a funny little growly voice.  He sometimes signs "cookie" when the song comes on, and tries to sign the letter "C."  This week Cookie Monster is his cuddly friend of choice, even joining in with the reading binge.

By the way, Liam is 19 months old.  And he's starting the terrible twos.  His Muppet name could easily be Tantrum Monster.

Don't let this happy face fool you.

Question of the Day #1:  What were your kid's favorite books?

Question of the Day #2:  How did / do you deal with a tantrum?