End of the Quarter

At the beginning of Michael's billable year, which is December, his law firm changed from a yearly bonus system to a quarterly bonus system. This meant that Michael needed to make up for the four days he missed in January for our family vacation by the end of February. These last six weeks have been long for him but the quarter is over and he made his quota. I sure do love and appreciate my hardworking husband.

Umbrella

Liam always wants Michael's umbrella but since Michael uses it on a daily basis we don't want him to ruin his. So, today I caved and let him play with mine for a little while. I know, I should buy him one but the only kid umbrellas I've seen have been around $10 to $15 and I'm not willing to pay that for something that will realistically only survive a day or two.

Pickles

Glad to see that Liam doesn't take after his daddy and absolutely loves dill pickles.  I finally cut him off after he ate five.

Might Might

We recently acquired a free toddler bed for Liam (thanks Ross and Jana) and have set it up in Liam's playroom since we have no place to store it and he's or should I say we are not quite ready to transition him to this bed.  He loves to climb in it and cuddle and when he first got it I climbed in with him a couple times.
Now, this has become my spot in the playroom.  Whenever Liam and I are playing in their he'll ask me to help him with something for instance build a tunnel for his trains and when I've completed the task he then looks at me and says, "Mommy might might." and will repeat this phrase to me until I comply and lay in his little toddler bed until my help is needed again.  I must stay in the room however my participation is not always needed.

Riding the Horsie

Don't they just look so cute? Yes, I know I'm bias.

Look Alikes

My family, some of Michael's family, people in our ward, basically everyone is always telling me how Liam looks sooo much like Michael. When I hear this I always look at Liam and then I look at Michael and just think, huh? I guess I just don't see it. I don't necessarily think he looks like me but I just haven't seen the similarity between them either. However, I do recognize that they looked similar in their baby pictures and then Michael's dad sent me this picture yesterday and I totally can see the similarities. I can see it in the cheeks, the mouth, the eyes and I have to agree that this little boy looks like his daddy.

Dinosaurs

I know, I know I cheated and I back dated this picture! However, I want you to know that I did take the picture on Thursday I just totally flaked posting it since the last two days have been kind of crazy and I don't think I need that information on my blog.
Anyway, here's Liam toting around his little dinosaur. Michael shoved the dinosaur in Liam's shirt and Liam quite liked the spot for his little friend. He left him in his shirt like that until he decided he wanted to take him out to share his cookie with him.

I also need to say (I hope I don't jinx myself) that Liam has been REALLY good these last few weeks and I'm actually enjoying staying home with him. I know that sounds terrible but for a while there I was not enjoying my sweet little boy because it seemed like he threw a fit over everything, hitting, screaming, scratching, and was constantly disobeying. He's talking more and more each day and understanding more all the time so I feel like we are compromising and communicating and for the time being it has made life a lot better. And yes I know it won't last forever, but I'll enjoy the moment. :)

Children's Museum Again

Since Grandma Allen was here and we'd been dragging Liam around to many stores we thought we should do something for him and with the rainy weather we decided to take another trip to Children's Museum. Liam had a wonderful time in the water room and got completely soaked. Many parents were warning their children to keep their distance unless they wanted to get wet. However, as much fun as the water was his favorite spot was the vroom room where they had trains. I know, he has plenty of trains at home but that's what he wanted to play with. Sorry the pics are so blurry I only had my phone with me so they aren't the best quality.

Another Project

Here is my latest project.  I painted these shelves black which I got for $20 a while back.  Then, I used several items that I already had and a few new ones.  My lantern was a $4 find at Goodwill and the books were also from Goodwill along with my green vase which was $3.  However, the green vase started out as a bright blue but with a little spray paint and voila it matches my new dresser perfectly.

More Visitors

Grandpa Quillen left this morning and this afternoon Grandma Allen came for a visit!  Liam is get oh so spoiled with more birthday presents.  Here he is snuggling in his new sleeping bag.  I don't know what I'm going to do after my mom leaves and we don't have anymore visitors to help entertain Mr. Liam.

Hammer Man

Liam got this fun little tool set and since Grandpa gave it to him yesterday Liam has been adamant that the hammer is for Grandpa to use and Grandpa only.

When Grandpa Comes

Michael's dad is here for the weekend and Liam is enjoying his Grandpa time. The three men went to Children's Museum today and Liam had many strangers compliment his coordination and his height.

Also, Liam loved the birthday present that grandpa brought with him and spent quite a bit of the evening playing with it. He liked it so much he chose to eat his dinner in spurts since he couldn't stop playing. Now I need to get a picture of the grandpa for tomorrows picture.

Silly Boys

These two thought playing in the cupboard was hysterical today. I have to admit, it made me really nervous that somebody was going to end up with stitches or losing a finger but they both came out with just a lot of laughs.

Segregation

As you all know Liam loves his choo choos. Well, he got two dollars from his great grandma for his birthday and another dollar for Valentine's Day from his grandma so I decided to take him to Target to let him pick out a new choo choo with his money. We came home with the new train and I very soon realized that my two-year old whole heartedly believes in segregation. This new choo choo was far superior to the others and in Liam's eyes was far too good to be attached to the others. So, most of the time this choo choo is played separately from the others. And when I try to encourage integration of the choo choos whining and sometimes screaming occurs. Liam on occasions has even been on the other side of the room will look over and see that I've combined them and will yell and come running over and fiercely rip them apart.
I find it hysterical and he is starting to open up to the idea of integrating them if he's in the mood.

Thank You Jack Stephens

Michael and I celebrated Valentine's Day tonight and we had a wonderful evening. We went out to dinner and then were able to go see the broadway show of Beauty and the Beast. It was amazing! I loved it and thanks to Michael's best friend's big brother we were able to enjoy the show for free! Anyway, thanks to Jack, the company manager, we were able to enjoy seats in the fifth row smack in the center and a private tour afterwards. We couldn't have asked for better.

Family Pics and Liam

Ok, I need to blog about Liam but before I get to that I want everyone's input on our family pics that my friend took for us. 

Now for Liam, we had his two year checkup yesterday and when he got his shot he didn't even cry!  That's right he's a tough man, a little whimper and look of hurt was all we got.  Also, I was told he has a double ear infection.  Yeah, I know, he's been eating normal, sleeping well, hasn't been overly cranky, or playing with his ears.  Now all I want to know is how on earth am I suppose to know when this boy has an ear infection if he doesn't complain about it.  Anyway, here's an update on the little man.

weight:  27 lbs 13 oz (50th percentile)

height:  36 1/2 in (95th percentile)

head:  19 3/4 in (88th percentile)

(Side note after the nurse took his measurements she asked me if my husband was tall and skinny.  I think he's going to take after his daddy's side.)

Favorite food: hot dogs and pizza

Favorite fruit: blueberries and bananas (kind of funny that at age 1 he hated bananas)

Favorite vegetable: carrots (also ironic that he was allergic to these when he was a baby)

Favorite toy: trains (he loves anything to do with them, videos, toys, clothes, whistles, riding on one)

Favorite show: Probably home videos

Favorite thing to do: Playing outside (this is probably the only thing that can distract him from his choo choos

Finally, to sum Liam up at age two is he's always a mess, loves to get into everything, has little to no impulse control, but he is always quick to smile, has an amazing laugh, is a real tease, and a great sense of humor. 



Choo Choos for Bed

Liam was not interested at all in going to bed tonight until I broke out his new choo choo jammies from Grandma Quillen.  When he saw them he happily ran to his room to get his diaper changed and to put the choo choos on.

Two!

I know I can't believe it either but our little man turned two today! So, I wanted to make sure he was busy and happy all day. We started our day by leaving the house since Liam loves to go places and headed to Chuck E Cheese with his friend Tyson. We would have just taken them to the park but rain was in the forecast so we wanted an indoor activity. Just a recommendation if you're considering going sometime be sure to get their early like we did. We almost had the whole place to ourselves for quite a while.
Then, we came home and Liam took his nap and woke up to opening presents and birthday cake. He was oh so excited with what he received but the one thing that really caught his attention was the choo choos. This boy LOVES his choo choos and we finally got him some with tracks and he was in heaven. He played with it for about two and a half hours! I never knew a two-year old could focus on one thing for so long. We had to bribe him to eat dinner and I was able to coax him away long enough to eat some cake, but after taking a couple bites he got up. I guess he didn't approve of the piece I cut him so he proceeded to pick off everything he was interested in eating off of the rest of the cake.