happy campers

Today the boys opened a present from their Uncle Matt in California. They were delighted to enjoy a mid-winter camping excursion in our living room.



Mike got in on the action too!



And then Max shouted, "Let the wild rumpus start!"



And the wild things rolled their terrible eyes, and gnashed their terrible teeth, and roared their terrible roars.

where there's a will...

We keep things on top of the dresser. Things the boys aren't supposed to have, like library books, bills, markers, and pacifiers (which they get at bedtime). Aside from the top of the fridge, the dressers have been our last bastion of safe-keeping. Well, not anymore. A few times this weekend, we've heard distressed cries of "Help! Help! Help!" coming from our room, and we arrive to find this:



Yes, that's our little daredevil hanging by his fingertips. He drags a chair over, climbs up to get what he wants (in this case, a pink highlighter that he used to write all over a bill that was waiting to be mailed), then loses his footing on the chair and is left dangling for his little life. We've moved our valuables to a different, higher location now. We'll see how long it takes before he figures out a way to get to them there as well...

let's put this one to rest

a silly commenter left a message that used max's command of the english language to talk trash about the bears. obviously, this commenter didn't feel too strongly about his or her convictions, as he or she posted as anonymous and didn't sign his or her name. who might have done this?

so let's put this one to rest, shall we?

this is a colt. oh, how cute, with the flowers and everything:


from wesellart.com.

this is a bear:


from first people.

'nuff said.

go fish

Sub-freezing temperatures, single-digit wind chills, snow-storm forecasts, and impending nfc championship games. i don't know about you, but in this situation, all i can think of is tropical fish.

thus it was that saturday morning we found ourselves at the shedd aquarium, the biggest aquarium outside of...the freaking lake, which is right next door. shut up. after bundling up the kids and hustling downtown, we arrived at the shedd just as it opened. unfortunately, we neglected to bring the necessary $6 in quarters to park in the plentiful metered spots along the lakefront between the shedd and the alder planetarium, so we had to leave the car under soldier field and hoof it. neigh.

we finally made it in, and we immediately had words with the shedd employee covering the centerpiece caribbean reef exhibit. he was kind enough to turn off his mic before ordering us away from the glass, so liam spared him a humiliating beat-down this one time.



after he had his fill of stingrays, jacks, bonitos, immature sharks, and other assorted pretties, liam expressed his interest in the pacific northwest wing of the aquarium. while the coral and anemones of this area were beautiful, some of the fish were not.

lovely:



not lovely:



we then entered the amazon rainforest exhibit, which i rather enjoyed. while it may be hard to tell from the pictures (due to the low-light environment of the aquarium, we had to fiddle with the exposure settings of the camera to make anything visible), many of the fish featured in the amazon exhibits have been residents in my fish tanks at home. liam didn't appreciate this fact, however, as he found it much more entertaining to yell at the turtles and scare the fish by hitting the glass.



oh, did i mention that we brought max along too?



at one point, liam started getting out of control, so he had to take a break by sitting in (strapped into) the stroller. what did max think of this development?



speaking of max, his favorite animals (aside from the pacific octopus, whose tank was too dark to take a picture of) were the king and spider crabs. mmm, is red lobster open on sunday?



and yes, i know some of the pics are fuzzy. i could tell you that it is the result of the increased exposure times necessary due to dark ambient lighting conditions, but instead i'll say it is because of artistic expression. snobs.

by this point, the boys were getting hungry, and we were ready to sit down for a while. so we headed for the food court, and by some stroke of luck, genius, or shedd attendant inattendence, we found ourselves in the oceanarium watching the dolphin show.

we went downstairs and picked a seat next to the underwater dolphin viewing area. liam had a hard time choosing between concentrating on his food and watching the dolphins, but he finally chose one. his food. duh.



by the way, yours truly took several videos of the dolphins swimming, and if you are interested, you can watch them here.

after eating, watching the dolphins from below, and checking out the beluga whales (sorry, no pics), it was time to go. however, it was such a beautiful day, we couldn't resist accosting an innocent passerby and getting our picture taken in front of the magnificent chicago skyline (not that the kids cooperated, but you get the idea):



then we went home.

TOTALLY UNRELATED UPDATE:

max isn't walking yet, but he's so so so close. when he isn't thinking about it (like when we get him to clap), he stands with no problem at all:

yay, liam!

Tonight we made great strides in the potty-training arena. After his bath, Liam used the potty! He did it once before, a long time ago, shortly after Max was born, but I think that was a fluke. This time was definitely not a fluke. He told me what he was going to do, sat down, got very quiet, and concentrated. Needless to say, he was very excited by the resulting applause. It's enough to make Mommy and Daddy very proud!

Update: Saturday night, Liam proved that he could do both types of "bizness" in the toilet! And yes, we shamelessly bribed....er, gave him incentives. A Hershey's kiss, in this case.

brotherly love?

...or is Liam just trying to get (and eat) every last fruit puff and/or cheerio that Max dropped in his high chair?? You decide.

a day at the museum

Saturday we took the boys to the Museum of Science & Industry. All week, we prepped Liam, telling him about the big train set he would get to see. He was in a very high state of excitement when we got there...and found out that the trains were closed for renovation. Of course they were! We did manage to find a couple of trains for him to admire, and we ended up having a good time overall. Here's a pictoral essay of our exciting morning:

First, we hit the chamber of bubbles (some oil exhibit--I guess that's the
"Science" part of the museum)...

Then, we went upstairs to admire the planes up close...

Liam walked through a giant beating heart...

And that was so appetizing we decided to stop for lunch.

The boys pose for mommy...

And then begin a rousing game of peekaboo:

And finally, at long last, a TRAIN!

Among the other highlights, we visited the fairy castle (a big hit with Liam because there were "phones" he could listen to), saw some antique fire engines ("Papaw's truck! Papaw's truck!"), and went through the exhibits on ships and racecars. Overall, a pretty great way to spend the morning, even without the trains.

more dinnertime fun

So last night at dinner, Max was whining. Incessantly. For no apparent reason. Finally I told him, "Max! Unless there's something actually wrong with you, you need to stop. Just stop!"

And my little angel looked at me, gave me a hundred-watt grin, and replied, "STOP! STOP!" And kept saying it. So now his word list is up to four: mama, dada, uh-oh, and stop.

Tonight, we decided to try to get him to say it again. No problem. He's actually quite proud of himself, as you can see in these videos. And as an added bonus, Liam wanted a video of himself too, so there's one of him singing the ABCs clearly and without all the jumping. Hope you like it!

ready for the playoffs

What can I say? We're a football family.

liam expresses his feelings at dinner

"I'm VERY mad. GRRR!"

Let it be known that it was NOT the sweet-and-sour turkey balls I slaved over for dinner that made him very mad. On the contrary, he ate three helpings of those (guess it was worth it to grate that apple!). Nope, he was mad because he unfolded his paper napkin and couldn't figure out how to fold it back up. But it's noteworthy because it's the first time he's ever told us how he feels, without prompting.

monkey see, monkey do

Max is developing into quite the little mimic. He'll copy anything that Liam does, within his (ever-broadening) abilities. Now, if Liam does it first, Max will:

1. clap his hands

2. shake his head

3. say "yum yum yum" (usually during dinner but occasionally when he sneaks in a piece of cat food)

4. repeat any kind of simple sounds (like mama or dada)

And of course, when Liam starts to cry (and that's when, not if!), Max turns on the waterworks too.

P.S. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you'll see my favorite part of this picture--Liam lurking in the background. He's probably trying to make sure Max doesn't touch, play with, look at, or otherwise covet anything that's "his," which pretty much includes everything in the building.

ABCs

Check out these videos of Liam singing his ABCs. Sorry if the video is all shaky, but he couldn't stop jumping in his excitement at knowing the song.

the bells are ringing

First sleigh bells, then wedding bells. Mike's brother Johnny got married December 30th. The whole wedding weekend was lovely, and in some ways even better than we expected. We ended up taking the boys, who were astonishingly well-behaved. And who, by the way, were almost unbearably adorable in their little suits! Johnny and Erin just seemed to be glowing every time we saw them, which is the way it should be. We hope the glow never fades a bit.
Here are a few pics of the four of us on the big day:

more firsts

Just in time for Christmas, Max has said his first non-mama or -dada word. He dropped his beloved zero (part of a number puzzle) and said "uh-oh!" And when I asked him to say it again, he did. We have language!

Also today, Liam wore big-boy underwear for the first time. They lasted about 15 minutes. It's a start, right? We also discovered that he can sing the entire ABC song. We knew that he knew all the letters by sight, but we had no idea he knew the song until he started singing it to us.

And a final music-related note. My birthday was last week, and Liam, true to his sweet-loving heart, sang "Birthday cake to you, Mommy" to the tune of Happy Birthday. That's my boy!

a taste of what's to come

The boys are ready to celebrate Christmas! Here are some pictures that didn't make the cut for our Christmas card (which will appear soon in mailboxes all over the country).





Only 12 more days!

something new

Both boys have done some new things over the past few days. Three days ago, Max started clapping his hands. And now he does it all the time! His new favorite game is patty cake. Two days ago, he stood by himself. Granted, it was for about five seconds and then he gave the classic cartoon look around. The expression on his face clearly said, "Hey wait! I'm not holding anything!" and he promptly fell down. He hasn't tried it again, but I'm sure it won't be long.

Meanwhile, last night was Liam's first night in a big-boy bed. No more crib for him! He's got a new bedroom with his favorite things (used to be our office) and he was excited to be there all day yesterday. He kept telling us all about his new room. We were a little worried that he would just get up and walk around instead of sleeping, but he stayed in bed all night long. This morning, he woke up, and I called to him from bed to ask if he was okay. "I'm getting up," he said, and got up and came into our (also new) room and climbed up to give me a hug.

And now they're playing nicely in Max's room. Full disclosure: I just broke up a giant screaming fight because Max stole one of Liam's beep-beeps, but they're playing nicely at the moment. For now.

O Christmas Tree

Sunday morning we packed up the boys and braved the freezing cold (no snow, though) to go to Hensler's Nursery and "help" my parents and sister get their Christmas trees. The boys seemed to enjoy looking around at everything. They each met Santa, but only Max would smile at him. To be fair, this Santa is particularly scary. Kind of like Bad Santa, but older and with a real beard. Liam wanted nothing to do with him, even when OBS (Old Bad Santa) offered him a candy cane. After meeting Santa, we explored the grounds. Liam and Klaudia bought some grain and fed a pony, which Liam really liked. We saw wild turkeys, a cow, horses, and reindeer. And then we trudged out into the field and chopped down the trees. Well, we watched my dad and brother chop them down. After the chop, my brother J gave us a primal example of man's domination over nature:



After we came home, we were inspired to start our own holiday decorating. Liam helped us with the tree...



...while Max did his part by "helping" with the stockings.



Happy holidays!

block party

Max has discovered a new favorite game: knock down the block tower. Fortunately, Liam loves to build block towers, so it mostly works out well. Until Liam gets frustrated because all his towers get knocked down. Tonight, they had a full half hour of shrieking, crashing joy playing with the blocks. It's so much fun to watch.

First, Liam painstakingly builds a tower...



Then, Max approaches in baby stealth mode...



He destroys the tower...



And vanquishes all his block foes. Triumph!!

a trip to the dentist

Taking a two and a half year old to see the dentist is an interesting experience. I'm glad we only have to do it twice a year. Today was Liam's second-ever dental checkup. We take him to a pediatric dentist, so before every appointment they take the time to show the kids all the equipment and let them play with it. Six months ago, Liam just stared while the hygenist demonstrated with the water squirter, the sucking tube ("Mr. Thirsty"), and the tooth polisher. Today, he squirted the water into a cup, drank some, squirted some more, used the sucker, and when shown the toothbrush, promptly put it in his mouth. Then asked for more water. So when the dentist came around, Liam was in a pretty good mood...which dissolved as soon as the dentist started looking at his teeth. But we got through the cleaning, and once his tears were dried, Liam got a Thomas sticker and one proclaiming him a member of the "No Cavity Club." Then he got to pick a toy from the toy chest (a beep-beep, of course). I'm pretty sure by now he's forgotten the agony of the cleaning, which is good. And his little teeth are so shiny and white! Next time, it'll be time to bring Max along too. Double the fun!

happy thanksgiving!

This year we packed up the boys and went for a nice dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The boys had a great time. Max at a heaping helping of Gerber's best Turkey Dinner with Vegetables, and Liam stuffed himself full of all the good food Grandma made, then topped it off with a big piece of "birthday cake." On a side topic, all cake is "birthday cake" to Liam--even pancakes, which he calls pan-birthday-cakes. Anyway, fun was had by all. The boys got to spend tons of time playing with Grandpa, including some time spent playing the piano. Check them out:



In other news, Liam is starting to speak in sentences more and more. While I was typing this post, he climbed up on the desk and started messing with all of our papers. I didn't mind too much until he started on a path of destruction, after which I told him to get down. "No!" he replied. Then Daddy came in and told him to get down. His response? "Okay, I'll get down." Figures.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I know we've got a lot to be thankful for.

a fine specimen

Max had his 9-month checkup this afternoon. He is happy, healthy, and a nice shade of orange as a result of his love affair with vegetables. The doctor was very pleased with his progress, and said that he's doing wonderfully. He's big stuff, but we knew that already. His weight is 21 pounds, 13 ounces (a little over double his birth weight), which is the 75th percentile. His height is 30.5 inches--above the last line on the chart. He's tracking exactly the same as big brother has so far, and he's showing no indications of stopping.

Here's a shot of our big boy with one of his favorite people: The baby in the mirror.



And one of him modeling his new Irish wool hat. (Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!)

a portrait of the artist as a toddler

I'm starting to feel a lot better and doing a lot more with the boys and around the house each day. The bruises are healing, and next week I go in to get my stitches out. Yay!

Liam's newest obsession is waiting until we're distracted and then going for the camera. He's figured out how to turn it on and take pictures (nothing gets by that kid!), and his favorite subject is...himself. So without further ado, here's Liam's first photography show. I think his work shows insight and great promise for such a young age. Wouldn't you agree?

post-surgical report

OUCH!!!!

(I would include a picture, but I don't want to offend the more squeamish members of our readership.)

get a leg up

I'm going in for some vein surgery on my right leg Friday morning. I'm excited because I've had pain in that leg for a long time now, and it's gotten worse. The surgeon is going to go in and close off all the bad veins (they have busted valves), and then other (healthy) veins will take over the job of getting the blood where it needs to go. I'll be glad when it's done, but of course I'm not looking forward to it. It's outpatient, though, and with any luck I should be back at work on Tuesday. So that's good. Another silver lining: I can't lift anything over 10 pounds for a while, so Mike is going to have the bulk of the childcare duties, and I might get a full night's sleep. He says he doesn't mind, since he shares equally in all the household/child duties anyway. But still, I think the man deserves all the credit in the world. The boys aren't easy, even when both of us are up to the challenge. They're a lot of great things (sweet, funny, generally happy, often surprising), but easy isn't one of them.