Liam-isms

Life if flying by at warp speed these days.  You know, I say that and it feels true, but at the same time it also feels like the days until we meet Stella are creeping by.  How is that!?  I am 35 weeks pregnant today which makes me SOOOOO close yet SOOOO far away.  Anyway, the purpose of this post is to jot down some of the things that are going on with Liam lately.  Funny things he does.  Silly things he says.  Habits, likes, dislikes, etc.

- Liam fell into the pool the other night.  We were at Paul and Joyce's house (grandparents) for Mother's Day, and Liam and his Geegaw were hanging out by the pool doing man things while Amy, Joyce, and I prepared dinner.  Suddenly we could hear Liam screaming hysterically, and Jonathan casually walked over to the back deck, looked down over the pool, and said, "He fell in.  Don't worry, Geegaw got him.  He's already out, but he fell in."  My reactions: I laughed.  Now, if I had been downstairs and witness to the entire unfolding event, or if I had been the one responsible for pulling his big little body out of the water, I probably would have had a panic attack and would be scarred for life having nightmares with my son's life flashing before my eyes.  Thankfully, however, I didn't hear about the event until he was rescued, and as my mother-in-law so wisely said, "It had to happen."  Liam LOVES to throw things in the pool.  His tennis ball, his Spider Man ball, Nora's Nemo kick board.  And he thinks he is big enough to bend down and retrieve these things without help even though we constantly tell him to back away from the pool, that it isn't safe.  So, this time, it was the Nemo kickboard he was after, and he went in head first.  Thankfully, Geegaw was right beside him and rescued him within a matter of seconds.  So, I hope the child has learned his lesson.  I doubt he has, but I can hope.

- Speaking of Liam and things water-related.  Liam also likes to play with the toilet.  He likes to flush the toilet.  He likes to flush toys down the toilet.  He likes to dip toothbrushes in the toilet and then suck the water out of them.  Yes.  It is disgusting.  I cannot tell you how many toothbrushes we have thrown away, and I can't tell you how many times we have corrected this boy for doing such behavior.  The lightbulb still hasn't gone off in his head, people!

- Liam is talking SO much these days.  He speaks in full sentences sometimes, and he is really good at articulating what he wants when he wants to.  There are times, however, that he will be repeating something and I have NO idea what he is saying.  I have noticed lately that Liam is turning one syllable words into two syllables.  Now, I know we leave in East TN, but I am from New Orleans, his Daddy is from Mississippi, but we don't have a very thick Southern drawl.  Nora speaks mostly like we do, with maybe a few Southern drawl dynamics to her speech, but Liam is hilarious!  He sounds like a little country boy.  "Tha-yat", "Dow-un", " "Thi-yus", and so on.  It's so funny to hear him, and I just know my parents are going to give us a hard time about this!

Some other funny things he says include:
- He refers to himself as "Miam Piam"
-"Miam do it."
-"Where" is pronounced as "Wur" (like fur)
-His favorite expression to date that he says almost all day long:  "Mommy shooed you."  (He wants Momma to hold him all the time.  Not an easy task).

-Some of Liam's favorites these days are Thomas the Train (he got his first figure-8 set for his birthday), Legos, and building blocks.  He still doesn't watch much television (which is totally fine with me), but I can manage to get him to sit still for a few minutes if Yo Gabba Gabba is on, or if it's the Backyardigans or Little Einsteins.  He likes Elmo and Mickey Mouse, but he just doesn't care about it long enough to sit still to watch.

- I love riding in the car with the kids because we have created some games to play along the way.  We always look for Jeeps!  Everyone of us LOVES Jeeps, and so when we spy one, we call out "JEEP!"  Liam always looks for tractors and dozers, and he is rarely disappointed when we are out and about and finds them often.  I find myself looking for these things even when I am driving by myself!

- Liam and Nora still have a love-hate relationship.  They argue a good bit, struggling over sharing and over Momma's attention, but they definitely have more and more moments where they play really well together.  I pray that as Stella gets here that they will cling to each other more and more.  Having a sibling so close is such a blessing, and I pray that they realize the gift they are to each other.  However, Liam is quite the instigator when it comes to getting on Nora's nerves.  He certainly knows which buttons to push, and when one of Nora's baby dolls or toys is missing, often if I ask Liam if he knows where it is, he will say, "Uh huh," and then walk right up to wherever he has hidden it.  (The rascal).  Just this weekend, Jonathan witnessed Liam take Nora's little Rapunzel doll, walk up to Nora, wave the doll in her face as if saying, "Nanny nanny boo boo...look what I've got" and then he ran off in the opposite direction.  Naturally, Nora started crying and the rest is predictable, but isn't he such a mess!?  I mean, no one taught him that!  He just knows how to be a pesky little brother!

- Our boy can be quite the ladies man if he wants to be, and it appears that Liam has a thing for girls with dark hair.  I don't know if it's that his sister, momma, aunt, and grandmothers all are blondes, so he likes the contrast, but he will flirt like crazy with a dark-haired girl.  He loves McKenna (our close friends' little girl) who has really dark hair!

- Today as I was getting Liam ready for his nap, he started talking about Baby Stella.  He asked where she was and I told him she was in my belly.  I asked him if he wanted to hold her when she got here and he said yes.  I then talked to him about how we'd have to be gentle with her when she got here because she would be so little.  I talked about how we'd have to be quiet sometimes if she was trying to take a nap, and then I went on to say that sometimes Momma would have to feed Stella.  "Snack," said Liam.  "Yes, Stella might need some snacks sometimes.  Momma will have to feed her a snack."  "Stella eat Bar."  "Yes, sure, Liam. Maybe Stella can have a bar some day when she gets here."  (Bar means cereal bar...one of Liam's favorite things to eat).  "Liam have a bar, too," he said.  "Yes, Liam, you can have a bar too when Stella gets here!"  Sweet boy.  His world is going to be rocked.  I think he will love Baby Stella, but I pray his adjustment goes easier than I am anticipating.  Either way, it will be good for him to adjust to having someone else in the picture (besides Nora).

Those are just a few of the things that I am chronicling about Liam right now.  He makes us laugh daily, and is just so darn cute.  We love him bigger than space and are crazy about him.....chaos and all!