Conversations...

On the way home last night...
Me: "Liam what should we have for dinner tonight"
L: "I don't want to eat dinner."
Me: "You don't? You'll be hungry"
L: "I want to be hungry. Its Mommy and Daddy Time."
Me: "What's Mommy and Daddy Time Liam?"
L: "Mommy and Daddy play with me!"

Before bath last night...
G: "Liam, time for a bath."
L: "I don't want a bath, I was a shower."
G: "No Liam, you're having a bath tonight."
L: "No Daddy, a shower...(turning to face him) and I mean it!" (I hate when my own words come back to me!)
G: "Liam, you're taking a bath tonight, Daddy's rules."
L: (whining) "Not Daddy's rules, Mommy's rules!"

As we struggle with potty training...
Me: "Liam do you need to use the bathroom?"
L: "No, I have a diaper, I don't care."

As we transition to the Big Boy Bed...
Me: "Time to get up in your big boy bed!"
L: "No I don't want to."
Me: "You don't want to sleep in your big boy bed?"
L: "No, the beetle will pinch me." (????)

Pizza

This weekend a friend asked Liam what he would like on the pizza we were ordering. He thought for just a moment and replied, "hot sauce."

Last Week's Wake Up Call

"Mommy...come here...Liam's room...right now!" (Man, he's getting pushy!)

The Third Man

I was struck this weekend by the fact that we have a third person living in our house. A person with his own agenda, likes, dislikes and favorite TV shows. Since Liam's vocabulary is expanding and he's able to talk in (somewhat) complete sentences, it's changing the dynamics in our house. No longer is he content to sit by while Dad watches football - nope, he wants to play Wii so move on over! If he's hungry, he'll march in the kitchen, open the pantry and rummage around until he finds something interesting. He'll get his own ice and water from the fridge. He'll turn lights off and on. He's an independent little person who likes to "do myself!"

Backseat Driver

Liam is a terrible backseat driver...or maybe a great future navigator! Every time we're in the car he always points and says "Go dat way!" Which, of course, is the opposite way we're headed. When I try to explain to him why we're headed the right way he says, "NO! Dat way!" He even remembers some of his favorite things that are the direction he wants to go, namely Mail Trucks.

Last week, we were headed up the highway on an errand. That errand happened to take us past our usual exit to home. Liam pointed to the exit excitedly and yelled, "NO Mama, HOME!!" Later that week, on our way to school, we passed an exit and he said, "go dat way!" I said, "Liam, we can't go that way, we're going to school. School isn't that way." He then replied, "go zoo!" That exit is the way to the zoo!!! How does he know that?!?

Random stories

I haven't been keeping up with my postings lately so I have a backlog of random stories that I find entertaining....

Geoff recently hung Liam's swing from the tree in our yard and he LOVES it! I mean seriously has an obsession with swinging. He loves to "swing high!" Apparently only Daddy can swing him high enough. Whenever I take him out to swing he always says, "Get Daddy, swing high!"

Liam has been fighting getting dressed lately so I started a silly ritual of pretending not to know which body part to put his clothes on...pants on his head, shirts on his elbow, etc. He thinks it's hilarious and explains to me where things go, always ending with, "silly Mommy!"

In Liam's class at school, he's now one of the oldest children in the room and has begun to take on a leadership role. Last week, Liam located a can of Pringles that his teachers had set aside for their personal snack. While the teachers were busy changing diapers and preparing children for the next activity, Liam grabbed the can from the counter. He then proceeded to pass out a chip to every kid in the room!

It's funny when I realize there are certain things I haven't thought to introduce Liam to or teach him. Just recently I realized he didn't know how to give kisses! Whenever anyone asks for a kiss he sticks his cheek out and waits to receive. I've been trying to teach him how to give a kiss. At first he would go in for a big open mouth smooch. Now he purses his lips together, places them on your cheek and then makes a little smacking sound when he pulls away.

Just tonight, I was watching Liam play in his sandbox when he said, "Mommy sandbox." I told him that I couldn't fit in the sandbox. He thought about it for a minute, then got up, removed all the toys from the box and stepped out himself. He then took my hand and said, "here [you] go Mommy." So sweet! When I got in the sandbox he proceeded to hand me all his toys back saying "here go" each time.

Talking

I just can't get over how quickly Liam is learning to talk. Now even strangers can pick up some of the words he says. A friend and I were marveling at the ability of our 2ish-year-olds to learn words so quickly. We were also mourning the loss of baby talk. Some of my favorite baby talk words that have been replaced by grown-up words include: Mama and Dada - now Mommy and Daddy; and neigh neighs and baa-baas - now horse and sheep. He does still call a seahorse a "ee-orse" in a strange nasally voice. Not sure how that happened.

Last week I was awestruck when Liam was able to tell me about an incident at school and that his tummy hurt. Liam was bit by another child at school one day and Liam told me all about it in the car on the way home. He even named the perpetrator! His first tattle! He also told us over dinner one night that his tummy hurt - which should have been fair warning for the clean-up we had to do later that night. It really is amazing how his language, memory and self awareness are developing!

No.

Well, its happened. Our sweet baby has officially launched into toddler-hood (he's 18mo and quickly creeping up on Two - not the age, the disposition) with a new favorite response. "No." Not a screaming, angry no. Just no. A matter of fact, I'm responding to your question, and I know my own mind. Thanks, but no.

Liam's been able to say no for quite a while but it seems that just this week, its become the end-all-be-all of communication. I've gathered that he is now answering anything he believes to be a question with no, even if he really means yes. After getting "no" as a response to about 4 questions in a row, I asked, "are you just saying no to everything?" Liam responded, of course, "no."

He likes things the way he wants them. A perfect example of this behavior happened last night. Aunt Lisa gave Liam two new trucks (WOW!!!). Liam insisted on holding them both in the car on the way home. Both these trucks are as long as his arm so it was quite a sight. I tried to capture it on my camera phone. He got very offended if I tried to hold one of the trucks or help him.

Mouse

Nose

Liam and I were looking at pictures of animals the yesterday (of course) and I started telling him about noses - elephants have long noses, bird noses are called beaks, etc. A little later in the day, Liam saw me getting a tissue and he points to my face and says 'noos.'

He's obsessed with naming things these days. Every time we read "Good Night Moon" he has to find the mouse ('mm-ow') in every picture. When we sit an eat, he points to his drink and then mine. He's not satisfied until I say "Mommy's drink" and "Liam's drink" repeatedly.

Whoa

Liam is going to be 16 months old next week. He's already smarter than us. We're in big trouble. A few stories...

Liam has a favorite book with pictures of animals. He can identify most of them when asked (even a chinchilla!?!) and point many out unprompted. He knows almost all the animal sounds, at least the ones Mommy knows. I have no idea what sound a guinea pig makes. He's now to the point where he matches pictures. If he finds the picture of the elephant on the Zoo Animal page, he then closes the book and can locate the same picture on the cover of the book.

Yesterday I was carrying Liam as I was trying to get us out the door for school/work. He kept pointing to our catch-all table and saying 'wa-wa.' I had no idea what he was asking for. After repeated grumpy refusals of the items I offered, he finally leaned over to the table, reached in my purse and took out my WALLET! What!?!

I already told the story of how Liam identifies the steel-deck bridge we drive over every day. As soon as he sees the bridge he yells out "bri! bri!" and then starts to hum - the sound the tires make over the steel deck. The other day we crossed a different, non-humming bridge, and Liam went through his same routine. I was surprised he could identify it as a bridge and categorize it as such. A few weeks ago, we drove past an area owned by the electric company where the transformers (I guess) and such are kept in a structure of steel. Liam spotted it and yelled "bri! bri!" I hadn't even noticed how similar those structures were to the bridge!

We're pretty much at the point where Liam hears a word once or twice and can understand its meaning and will try to repeat it. He could name almost everything he had for dinner tonight as well as ask for something he wanted that we didn't offer.

I think he said 'cheese!'

HOT!

This morning, as I was washing Liam's hands for breakfast, the water from the tap started getting a little warmer. Liam pulled his hand out and yelled "ot! ot!" We've been talking about 'hot' for a few weeks now, and he was connecting the word to steam coming from pots on the stove but hadn't shown an understanding of temperature until this morning. Pretty smart!

Speaking of...

Liam said his first 2 word "sentence" yesterday. We were watching three deer in our front yard, eating our flowers and pumpkins. As the deer wandered away Liam said "bye-bye deer!"

We're getting excited for Halloween! Our little monkey is going to love being outside with other kids begging from strangers. Pictures to come....

More Words

Liam is picking up words all over the place, here's a sampling of some of his latest ones:

Light (lie)
Down (dow)
Up (uuh)
Milk (miiiil)
Spoon (spoooo)
More (mo)
Raisin (ray-in)
Cookie (ooh-key)
Cracker (ack-er)
Juice (jui)
All Done (da-du)
Open (pen)
Elbow (be-bow): as in 'elbow-elbow-knee-knee' - how we climb the furniture
Shoe (ish)
Bath (baa)
Truck (uhh)
Bus (buh)
Duck (duh)
Zebra (be-bra)
Bird (bir)
Fish (ish)
Turtle (tur-tu)
Bug (bu)
Butterfly (bu-fi)
More animal sounds: cock-a (rooster), guba-guba (turkey), esss (snake)

I'm sure I'm missing other ones. I think he had quite an impressive vocabulary (about 30-40 words) for being 15 months old!

Communication

Liam is picking up language very quickly. So far he says (with the Liam to English translation):

Da-Da
Ma-Ma
No
Uh-Oh
Da (dog, duck)
Mow (what a cat says)
Woof (what a dog says, of course)
Ba (ball, bear, box)
Ba-ba (what a sheep says, bye-bye)
Bu-ba (bubbles)
Nana (banana)
Gurt (yogurt)
Ma and Ry-Ry (two of his favorite cousins!)
Ga (GOAL!, GO! - as in ready, set, go!)
Rouw (what a lion says -he just did this one this past weekend)
Bir and ka (bird and cat, I think, I've only heard them once or twice)

Liam also knows a bit of sign language: more, milk, all done, drink, hat, bird, please, he just did the sign for eat today, he also waves hi and good bye and blows kisses (this may also be the sign for thank you, I'm not sure).

He's the best!