Sock It to Me, Baby!

So there is this:



Liam loves his socks. There is usually a small pile of his dirty socks sitting in front of the laundry baskets, waiting to go into the lingerie bag to be washed.

When he is in our room, Liam invariably finds those socks, grabs two big handfuls, and carries them around the house.

Which also means there are stray socks laying about the house... Like in front of the fridge, and under his high chair, and stuffed into the sofa.

Please excuse our socky house!

These Boots Are Made For Walking

The baby doesn't crawl anymore. He can even stand up by himself, without pulling up on the furniture.

Aaaagh!

Cabin Fever

Merry Christmas, Great-Grandma Mary!

That Grandpa Peeber, he is a crafty one!

It all started on Saturday. "Hey, Ruthie... Would you and Liam like to go up and see my mom this week?" Grandpa asked. It took all of ohh, 3 seconds for Mommy to decide.

"Yes! Get me out of this nut house!" (Ok, she left out that last part.)

On Tuesday the three of us drove all the way to exotic Naperville, Illinois, to Great Aunt Celeste's house, with a quick stop at Great Uncle Denny's house.

Great-Grandma Mary was already at Celeste's house. She knew Grandpa was coming up north to join them for dinner, but she didn't know Mommy and Liam were coming. Surprise!

Dinner was lovely, of course, as it always is with Celeste. And Liam got to sit in Great-Grandpa Bill's high chair to eat.

The next morning Mommy sat with Celeste and Grandpa, looked at old family pictures and listened to stories. Celeste and Grandpa need to make late New Year's Resolutions to write down or record these stories! Because otherwise this wonderful history will be lost!

We all (Grandma Mary, Mommy, Liam, Grandpa, Celeste, Roger, Jake, and even Denny) got together for lunch before we three headed back south.

We detoured through Klaasville and Brunswick, the little towns that... Great-Grandma's... mother's... ancestors founded. Did I get that right? They were teeny tiny, but they were sweet.

Of course, no DeWell trip could be complete without a stop at an ice cream shop (though we didn't eat any). We stopped at Fair Oaks Dairy, JUST IN TIME TO SEE A CALF BORN! It was a little painful to watch that poor mama cow labor with a whole bull calf. (Ooh, that poor mama cow!) But seriously, how cool was that?? We also took the tour through the dairy barns, and although they seem to take care of the cows very well, it would be a depressing life....

"Mooo... Time to get milked... Mooo... Time to go back to my sandbed in the barn... Mooo... Time to get milked... Mooo... Time to go back to my sandbed in the barn..."

But we got to see a cow being born! And then we drove home.


Oh look, a Jawa... doing karate?...

Rock 'N' Roll, Baby!

Liam knows how to work the rocking chair... but the dismount still needs a little work.

Our Own Personal Tupperware Consultant

Don't eat anything from the plastic containers at our house. Unless you don't mind a bit of dog hair. Then by all means, eat our leftovers!

All I Wanna Do is Zoo Zoo Zoo!

Mommy loves zoos. There are no two ways about it. She and Daddy spent 5 of the 7 days on their Babymoon at zoos in San Diego. It must be in the genes because now Liam loves zoos, too.

On Wednesday Mommy, Daddy, and Liam went to the Cincinnati Zoo's Festival of Lights with Grandma and Grandpa DeWell and Aunt Lauren and Uncle Nick. It is a three hour car ride either way, but since we all rode together in a rented van it went quickly and was a nice time to visit.


Aunt Lauren and Uncle Nick picked out a restaurant on the river - the Montgomery Inn. It was pretty delicious! They are known for their barbeque (and it was indeed yummy), but Mommy and Liam shared some macaroni and cheese and the second best salmon she'd ever had. Liam even ate bread! There are few things Liam doesn't get excited about eating, but bread is one of them.

After dinner we drove to the zoo, found a parking spot, and bundled up. Liam was probably the warmest of all of us, even though he didn't have mittens and just sat on his bottom the whole time. The zoo was absolutely gorgeous. The only animals out were the polar bear (huge!) and some reindeer. But there were so many lights! Mommy thinks that as soon as they are done taking down lights after the show, the next day they must have to start hanging lights again for the next Christmas.

After the zoo it was time to warm up and head home. And what better way to warm up than to stop at Dairy Queen? Yeah, we're DeWells. Liam had a quick drink of milk and a diaper change and proceeded to pass out cold for the entire 3 hour ride home, including a stop at Nick and Lauren's and a car seat change at Grandma and Grandpa's.

Of course, Liam woke up when we got home at 1am and stayed up playing until 2am. Because of course he did.

Liam says he is looking forward to going back to the Cincinnati Zoo light show with his new cousin when he or she gets here. And Mommy just wants to go to a zoo! But she can wait until it's warmer.

Question of the Day: What is your favorite zoo animal?