Soccer Disaster!

Some days are tougher than others in terms of being Liam's mom.  Today is one of those trying days when I wonder why on earth my kid is wired so differently from others.  We went to soccer practice which is always entertaining with three year olds.  Liam insisted on playing goalie and yelling out "Not Today!" as he blocked the other kids attempts.  Then when they practiced dribbling the ball around the field he would race back to the starting line and scream "I Win" over and over again.
The most amazing moment came at the end when they decided to have the kids play a little 3 on 3.  All Liam heard was take the ball away from the other team and score a goal.  In his head this translated to take it at all costs.  He ran over to this little boy and grabbed his jersey with both hands, threw the kid out of the way and took the ball down field to the goal.  The other little boy just sat down and cried.  His dad came over and I ran to apologize and to have a little talk with Liam about the rules.   I could not get Liam to apologize.  His dad told me that it was okay and that his kid needed to toughen up.  I was mortified!
I know that the next 15 years are going to be quite an adventure with my crazy kid.  Based on his behavior you would think that I spend everyday teaching him to talk trash and that there are no points for second place, but I swear that I am not that parent!  Please excuse me while I go read some more parenting books...

An Exciting Trip to Exotic...wait for it...Louisville!

 So a week ago I came home from an hour of kickboxing on a Saturday morning to find Bill preparing us to drive to Louisville.  He had concocted a scheme with his buddy Mike to take our families down to the science museum and to spend the night.  We found a last minute hotel deal and two hours later we were on the road.

Liam enjoyed the ride with the fabulous new DVD player I received for Christmas:

We had a great time at the Science Center.  Liam spend a lot of time driving the bus:

Charlotte had a good time in the "Baby Crater":

We headed out to dinner for pizza and then back to the hotel for swimming.  Unfortunately the hotel pool was cold.  Never have I been to an indoor hotel pool that was cold.  Swimming wrapped up quickly and Liam and little Michael watched Finding Nemo in our room.  So cute!

The next day was a little rainy so we headed to Puzzle's Fun Dome.  There was a little kid indoor play area for Charlotte and Reagan:

The boys had fun jumping in the bounce house and playing cosmic bowling until we finally made the trek back to Cincinnati.  All in all a successful weekend and we will have to do it again sometime!

Moving and Playing

My friend Leslie is in town with her two little boys Kent and Davi.  It has been such a great visit.  If they lived in town I know Liam and Kent would be great friends.  Its so fun to watch them play together and think about all the fun their mommas have had together over the years.  Here's a picture I took of them all sitting and playing with the baby toys.  So many toys in the house and they all wanted to play with Charlotte's little toys!  This moment of calm didn't last for long and soon the boys were riding in spaceships and finding aliens.

  Charlotte has really started moving now.  I finally bought a new rug for the family room and that little bit of added traction was all she needed to gain confidence and speed.  In the past two weeks she's gone from slow crawling and swimming across the hard floors to speedy crawling, standing and the beginnings of cruising!  

Let's See How Far We've Come

To make up for the fact that I am a very negligent blogger I am going to employ the Hollywood trick of using a montage to catch my blog up to present.

At home with Liam and Dad on day 6.

Charlotte's first bath at home when she was nine days old.

Eight weeks old

9 weeks.  Chillin' in my bouncy seat.

10 weeks.  Sunning at the pool.

11 weeks.  A bath in Grandma's sink.

3 months.  Just jumping around.

13 weeks.  Why does Mom always put these toys so far away?

14 weeks.  Happy as a daisy.

4 months.  Here I am with Opa at my first wedding.  I tried to be happy for Valerie and David but it was past my bedtime.

4.5 months.  My first time in a restaurant high chair.

5 months.  I'm a pumpkin!

5.5 months.  I love food.  Spoons are kinda my favorite thing.

 

 

 

 

6 months.  Ready to meet Santa.

7 months.  What am I doing?!

7 months.  These are my people!

The day after Christmas playing with all my new toys!

Playing with Dad.

I'm so happy all the time now!

7.5 months.  Now I'm getting somewhere!

Here she is now - a talented pianist. She is eating finger foods and starting to crawl with her tummy off of the ground.  This week she is working on pulling herself up on things.  When she starts cruising I may never have time to post again until she is three!

Another Snow Day, Ugh!

I woke up to find that preschool was canceled and the outside world looked like this:

So I decided to start our snow day off right.  I baked some lemon poppy seed muffins and made eggs and bacon.  Liam did drink he cup of hot cocoa (translate to warm ovaltine) but would not eat anything.  He finally settled on a handful of blueberries and some yogurt.  Apparently he can go all day on a solid hundred and fifty calories.

Did I mention that he dressed himself?  Yellow pirate shirt with red pants, check!

Snakes and snails and drywall repairs!

I've said many times that parents of boys need to know how to repair drywall.  Every man I've ever met has confirmed that they have caused a hole in the wall at some point in their lives.  So for those keeping track - this is Liam's second such accident and he is only three.   All I did was let him go to the bathroom by himself and then seconds later I heard a loud crash.  Apparently he was trying to swing from the towel rack:

Drywall chips on the floor

Damaged Towel Rack

Hole in the wall left by anchor

 

 

 

I thought this video was really funny because Liam sat down next to her and they were watching tv together.  It was such a cute image and then she reached over and grabbed his hair and just yanked!  I can see now that Charlotte will hold her own.

Miraculously - second born children survive!

After today I have decided that it is amazing that any of us second (or third) born children have ever survived our older siblings. I don't mean that the first born are on a mission to kill off their younger sisters and brothers. I think that its just coincidence that most of their daily activities happen to create a myriad of death traps in the way of small pieces of toys strewn around the house. Liam almost succeeded today when he pulled these metal hooks out of my wall that are meant for holding back curtain sashes and placed them in the oven of Charlotte's laugh and learn kitchen. Did I mention that the other end of these hooks are pointy like nails and that they are easily small enough to be swallowed? Luckily I happened to hear the metal clink as Charlotte opened the door and reached for them.

Liam is now awaiting parole from his room.

The hidden message in all of that was - Charlotte is now on the move:




Its still an army crawl, but slowly she can get her little hands on anything at floor level.