halloween, part 2

Here's a side view of Max in costume at the Halloween party the boys went to on Sunday. Their friends Ella and Sadie hosted the party, and the boys had a great time.

happy halloween!

Liam is an expert at this game. So far he's been a frog and a bear. This year, he decided to add a layer to his costume, so he went as Uncle Johnny as Walter Payton (the costume was Johnny's when he was a kid.)












But it's Max's first Halloween, so we wanted to get him a costume that seemed to suit his budding personality. I think we did pretty well. So check out Dragon Max, and have a great Halloween!

green bus

We went and saw Grandma and Grandpa Saturday. It was the first time we'd seen them since they got back from Ireland. They had gifts for everyone--wool hats for Mike and Max, a lovely scarf for me, and a double-decker green bus for Liam. He adores it. He hardly lets it out of his sight, and has insisted on sleeping with it every night. "Green bus, GREEN BUS!" he cries. And heaven forbid Max should touch the thing. "No, Max! My green bus. Nooooo Maaaaaaxxxx!" Anyway, he loves it. Here he is, proudly showing it off:




The same day, we went to Morton Arboretum so the boys could see the pumpkins, walk along the scarecrow path, and play in the children's garden. Sadly for us, it was frickin' freezing, so we stayed less than half an hour. The boys seemed to have a good time, even as their little hands and cheeks were turning into blocks of ice. Here's Max playing with some pumpkins and enjoying the scenery:

many happy returns

Sunday we celebrated my Gram and Grandpa's 50th anniversary. The boys made it almost halfway through Mass, which I think is pretty good at their age. The luncheon and reception afterward were at Occasions, so it was a nice opportunity for us to remember our wedding day too. After he got over his initial shyness, Liam ran around the place like the King of the Wild Things until it was time to go home. Thankfully, his many cousins were there to make sure he didn't run out onto the highway or do too much damage inside. He made it through the day with only one injury, too--he fell and hit his head pretty hard on a chair. Max had a great time too. He spent most of the afternoon crawling around and pulling up on various chairs, but he also got his first taste of an actual green bean (as opposed to strained green bean baby food) and he seemed to really like it. Here he is, enjoying it Groucho Marx-style.

if liam ran the zoo...

One of our favorite things to do with the boys is go to the zoo. We went Saturday morning, and since Liam has been really into learning about animals lately, we thought he'd like to visit the petting zoo/farm at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Turns out that seeing animals up close and personal was a little scary for him at first, so we moved on to the exhibition barn. Here's Max hatching out of an egg:



After that, Liam started to warm up a little.





And a little bit more...











He was doing so well that we thought we'd try a family picture on the bridge that leads from the farm to the main part of the zoo. As you can see, Liam didn't like that idea much, but I think the picture is pretty cute anyway.

bemy, finally...

Some names are easy for Liam. The first name he really understood and said was the name of his favorite person in the world, Klaudia (seen here at Liam's birthday party). Among the names he knows without hesitation are Max, Yammi, Papaw, Grandma, Grandpa, J, Loni, Jo-Joe, and Johnny.

We've been trying for months to get him to say my sister Bethany's name. I figured that three syllables shouldn't be too much since he could say Klaudia with no problem. But no. When asked to say Bethany, he would just laugh, or run away, or stare blankly.

Then today, a breakthrough. I got some pictures that I ordered online and Liam wanted to look at them. When we came to the image below, I asked him without much hope who the person was. "Beh-mee!" He replied excitedly. Bemy, indeed! I just hope he's still saying it when we see Bemy on Sunday...

the difference between geese and ducks

holli left early this morning, so i was able to get in some quality solo hang-out time with the boys. the only thing that stood between chaos and slightly more chaos was me, and we made the most of the opportunity by watching sesame street, banging on metal mixing bowls with an ice-cream scoop (our new neighbors must love us), chasing the cats, and crying for various reasons. getting the boys ready for day care by myself can be challenging, to say the least, but i managed it today without screaming any bad words. i was sure thinking them, though.

on the way out the door, liam pointed up in the air and said, "birds!" i looked, and sure enough, a gaggle of geese was circling the park and making a glorious racket. now liam knows all about ducks, but where i see geese, he just sees more ducks. perfectly understandable. i won't even try to explain swans and loons to him until he's 12. in his animal book, the goose and swan are ducks, the gosling is a baby duck, geese say quack, and so forth. so this was a chance to set him straight, because no son of mine will spend his 2's thinking a goose is a duck.

"those are geese," i said. "do you hear what they're saying?" and liam said, "honk honk." we talked about the differences between geese and ducks ("duck quack quack quack"), and how geese (at least these geese) were different from the ducks that tried to kill us for our stale bread at indian boundary park:


anyway, while reading the animal book before bedtime tonight, liam remembered that geese (we don't have the singular down yet) are different from ducks, and with a little prompting, he gave a good "honk honk." victory! the damn swan is still a duck, though.

and just so max doesn't feel left out, this is what our 8-month-old looks like when he's overtired, frustrated, and suffering from the infant hell that is teething:

we'll take it...

The boys may have been in bed before last night's Bears game started, but that didn't keep them from being happy(ish) when they saw the highlights this morning. They seemed in shock that A) the Bears were playing such crappy football, and B) the Bears actually won.

"My Bears," proclaimed Liam.



Max just smiled and blew a raspberry.

cruising!

It seems like Max is hitting all the milestones much earlier than Liam did. He was a little behind in birth weight (2 ounces), and it seems like he's spent the time since then trying to surpass big brother in all other respects. He's 8 months old now, and has 3 teeth (Liam had none at this age), a nice head of hair (Liam was bald), he's crawling, can pull himself up to standing, and now he's cruising along the furniture! It won't be long until he's walking. And once that happens, Liam had better watch out, because his days of taunting Max into crawling after him, only to move out of range at the last second and do it all over again, will come to an abrupt and bitter end. I can't wait! Mike took the boys to stay in Naperville Saturday to give me a night off, which was absolutely appreciated. Thanks to Barb and Kevin, for being their unwitting hosts (they were away in Ireland while Mike availed himself of their facilities). Here's a picture of Max getting ready to cruise at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

another cook in the kitchen

hey there.

i've been invited to post on this blog, which is only fair. i've had some small part in the creation and upbringing of these monsters.

on the other hand, i think holli's doing a great job, so i don't know how much i'll be able to add. plus, i don't have a whole lot of free time, what with my philanthropy and white-tie events and such.

so how about a picture of a lunar eclipse in progress?

the good, the bad, and the unyee

Yesterday was the first really cold morning of the season, so we busted out the winter gear. Liam wouldn't cooperate for photos, but Max seemed happy enough to pose with his father.


Tonight after we got home, Liam decided to rummage around in the fridge for a snack. After a minute or so, he came in holding a Bass Ale in one hand and a Miller Lite in the other. "Daddy's beer," he informed me. He offered the beer to Mike, who declined on account of he had one already, so Liam put them back away and rummaged around again. This time he came back with a Sprite in one hand ("Mommy's water") and a tupperware container with an onion. "Liam's unyee, Mommy! Liam's unyee!" What else could a mother do but ask if he wanted a bite? So I gave him a small piece, then he kept demanding "More unyee, Mommy! More unyee!" and I gave him increasingly large pieces until he ended up with this:



Oh, delicious unyee!

meanwhile...

Max is learning a new trick of his own:

scary liam and the blown-out candles

The birthday celebration went well. We thoroughly enjoyed the pizza, and when it came time for the cake we were all full, but only Liam had the sense to refuse his cake. Mike and I had a few bites of ours and spent the rest of the night overstuffed. Check out these videos from the celebration. The first and second are of Liam blowing out the candles--he insisted on doing it as many times as we would light the candles for him. And the third is a new game we like to call Scary Liam.

In other news, on day 3 of the sterilize-everything ordinance to keep Max's thrush from spreading, we discovered that the following things do not boil well: a plastic Elmo car, which ended up with funny curving axles, and the lid to the boys' shape sorter, which now has charred edges and a trippy warped shape. The Big Bird plastic car, however, survived the boiling and lives to be slobbered on another day.

happy birthday!

Today is Mike's birthday. He's a wonderful husband and father, so we wanted to make him a nice birthday cake. Liam has recently and mysteriously acquired the concept of "birthday cake." On his own birthday at the end of June, Liam just stared at the cake until it was time to eat it. But in the last couple of weeks, he's started identifying every cake as a birthday cake. So we decided to make one. Liam helped with all the preparations. Last night we made the batter and baked the cake:




Then this morning we frosted it. Liam even surprised me by blowing out the (imaginary) candles. So tonight we'll enjoy a nice piece of cake, and Mike's traditional birthday stuffed pizza (kind of like a cake, but with pepperoni!), and then Mike can open his gifts. He deserves all of that and more. Happy birthday, Mike!

the cure is worse than the illness

Max has been taking antibiotics for his ear infection, and now it turns out he has thrush (yeast infection in the mouth) from the antibiotics. Go figure. The doctor was kind enough to phone in a prescription without seeing him...but I think it will be interesting to see how easy it is(n't) to apply medicine with a q-tip to the inside of an 8-month-old's mouth. Should be good times here at the Fort!
In other news, the weekend pumpkin trip was a bust. We looked at a couple of houses in Walkerton in the afternoon, and by the time we got to the pumpkin patch it was closed. We'll have to try again soon.
The boys and I went to Klaudia's first gymnastics competition of the season on Saturday. She qualified for state (I'm told that's very good). Go Klaudia!

I rarely let my picture be taken. I'm always the one taking the picture while Mike and the boys do something entertaining. But this week I was inspired by my brave friend Val, who always has pictures of herself with Tyler on her site. Plus I'm practicing for the family picture later this month. Here's our first effort.