Big & Little

Liam, as most kiddos his age, is going through an explosion of learning, absorbing and of course language acquisition. In his current bag of tricks are Opposites, the most popular of which is Big & Little. To encourage this I usually try to point out big and little things so he can reinforce his knowledge, but mostly because I think its cute when he says things like "Beeeeeg truck" and Leeeetle Car". It makes me smile.

Today was no different when we left the produce store and walked past a plethora of pumpkins. I draw his attention to a bunch of tiny gourds. fully expecting a "Leeetle pun-kin" to spring forth from his lips. Instead, I got a very, very enthusiastic "oh! oh! OH!!! BABY pun-KINS!". And he surprised me again when I pointed to the large pumpkins next to them and he exclaimed "DADDY Pun-kins!!"

This made me one happy Mama :o)

Lego me Lego's

I think I've mentioned in the past I have a long storied history with Legos. In fact, I simply CANNOT wait until Liam gets old enough to have his own sets. Makes me all giddy inside. Along with that comes a slightly unhealthy obsession with Lego people. I really don't know what it is about them, but I LOVE them. Seriously. They are SO cute! Quite possibly one of the cutest things known to man. Dare I say, even cuter than puppy dogs and kittens (although, not as cuddly).

It has come to my attention that there area a ton of weirdos out there just like me, perhaps even more wacky. This has been a fun diversion over the past couple of days, because these people are easily findable on the great Flickrverse! The detail and precision that goes into photographing these little peeps is simply incredible.

I'll post a couple of my faves......

My kid is adorable

No, seriously. He is. Way more adorable than most children :)

His big gig right now is dancing. Well, its less like dancing and more like bouncy-type squats. It looks like he's working hard core his glutes and quads. Anyway, I was getting all "awww - he's so adorable and loves my singing" because in the AM when I go to wake him up, he started dancing in his crib to my songs. Rise & Shine and You Are My Sunshine - a couple of really snappy tunes.

Then, yesterday I was printing out recipes for Momfia recipe exchange.....and I look over to a cute little boy really breakin' it down. TOTALLY dancin' his little heart out. Except there was no music. Just the slow rythmic sound of the inkjet printer. Yes, Liam was dancing to the printer noises. *sigh* I guess that doesn't say much for my singing does it?

World's BEST pumpkin joke!

I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, but it never fails to make me laugh :) LOL even!!

Q: What do you get when you divide the diameter of a jack-o-lantern by it's circumference?

A: Pumpkin "Pi"

Liam Breakin' it Down

Liam really does crack me up! As much as I lament over him growing up and getting bigger, its soooo cool when he picks up a new skill! His latest and greatest.....dancing and clapping! He really only dances to Rock N Roll though - the other genres he could take or leave :) Ahhh, already showing his daddy's pickiness!

hahahaha.....

this is funny if you have a couple minutes to spare...

Shedd and a naughty boy

Its 8:30pm and definitely bedtime, and Liam does NOT want to go to bed. Does NOT. He just screams and screams and screams. This has only been happening since our return from our vacation. He also does the same thing from about 2:30am - 5:00 Am. So you can sense our *complete and utter* exhaustion. We can go in there and try to console him, but the second we leave the screaming begins again. I hate hearing him scream, but there really isn't any choice rather than to let him cry it out. Otherwise he'll just stay up with us until all hours of the night, and he can't do that. Trust me, we've tried umpteenth number of consolation techniques......and those haven't worked. I hope this is just a phase and he grows out of it.

As far as our aquarium visit, Liam was a very very good boy at Shedd today - we had a great visit with Mollyface and her friend Ani. His favorite part was the coral reef and shark areas.....he loved looking at the fishies :)

The naughty part of this post actually took place this afternoon. I was sitting at the computer, watching him play out of the corner of my eye. He creeps over to the hallway, near where the cat food and water is located. He's just kind of sitting, contemplating what to do next in his baby life....and the little stinker slowly turned his head and glanced over his shoulder to see if I was watching him (which I was) and then took off STRAIGHT to the cat food area and full speed. Cracking up the whole time KNOWING full well he's not supposed to go over there. What a stinker. But oh so cute :)

I'm headed to CHA tomorrow - and we've got another showing in the AM. Then we're headed to IN to bid adios to Pat's parents! Have a great weekend!

We're here!

We made it to St. Ignace! Liam and Pat are wrestling around on the bed next to me laughing....I'm pretty sure Liam is ridiculously happy to be out of the car! It was 6 hours yesterday, and another 3 today. He was a very good traveler though, and I'm thankful for that! I'm trying to be mad at Pat since he's pretty much being a Big Giant Jerkasaurus Rex, but seeing the two of them play together pretty much makes my heart a big pile of goo. I'll try to be hard here for a few minutes longer, but I don't know how long I can hold out.

Today commemorates Liam and Pat's first trip across Big Mac! She's such a beautiful bridge...I can't believe it was Pat's first time across. Who is from Michigan and hasn't been across? Pat O'Brien, apparently.

On the drive up here I remembered how much I love this area. Nothing but trees as far as the eye can see....rolling hills of green against the beautiful blue sky....dotted with smooshy white clouds. Pretty much the essence of peace and beauty for me. For Pat....not so much. To him, it represents....um......nothingness. And hillbillies. And Beef Jerky.

So now we're just waiting for the rest of my family to get here, then we'll head out to the Mayer Family Reunion at my cousin Todd's home. Until later....

Huzzah!!

We had a fabulous night last night!!! We were actually able to keep a surprise from my mom, and presented her with her birthday present, a trip to see Wicked and stay one night in a swanky hotel downtown :) She was pretty impressed, especially since it was all my Dad's idea. He's so cute sometimes. Anywho - the girls all loved it - not sure if I can say the same for the guys......but still a must see in my book. Here's the crew on the way out of the Oriental Theatre:


Then today was a pretty huge day because we got new countertops finally!!! I was kind of nervous that the color I picked wouldn't go well with the floor and the cabinets, but it looks INCREDIBLE!! The people did a great job, and I will be sure to recomend them to all my friends :) We ended up going through Costco, and I'm so glad we did. Great experience! Here's what it looks like (sans faucet - the plumber is on his way to hook up that and the garbage disposal).


The only bad thing is that Pat had something come up for work, so instead of shopping on the Mag Mile with my family I stayed home with the contractors, but worse things could happen.....

Keith and Heidi are on their way over as well tonight, so it will be a full house. Funny story about that - Keith bought tickets to what he thought was the Tigers / White Sox game at Comerica Park - last Saturday. But they were actually for tomorrow, Here, in Chicago. It works out OK because everyone will be here for my Mom's actual 50th birthday, but it looks like its going to be a giant suck fest as far as weather......the forcast is 40 and snowy/rainy. Poop-ola. I was able to snag my company's tickets last minute though - so if nothing else we can hang out in The Stadium Club and stay warm. Hey man, we can't let the tickets go to waste if our customers don't want them!

K - time to go pick up the boy....who, by the way has two front teeth now!!! They are so cute :) I haven't been able to take a pic yet, but trust me when I say they are the cutest teeth you've ever seen. And I'm not at all biased. Here's a couple photos of him anyway....sitting up like a big boy and chillin' in his sweet shades. *sigh* what a doll :)

When Superfluous Spending Pays Off

So we're in Target buying necessities, when I pass through the cat isle on my way to finding the Shout Stain Remover and see "Cat Hats" - or maybe it was more like the Cruel and Unusual Punishment isle, really. I see a cute "Hat" for $3.00 and really, just have to, HAVE TO, have it. Seriously.

All for this.


This is a prime example of when buying something you don't need pays off. Because sometimes, you just have to laugh your ass off. Even if it is the expense of your own cat, and even if it only lasts a few minutes.

HOWL-O-WEEN

Saturday, I had grand plans to head out to the Wheel Mobile and find my fame on the Wheel of Fortune…but I was also very lazy :) And, we thought we might be able to meet with a prospective nanny. She posted that she would be at a local dog Howl-O-Ween parade, and we thought that was a cool way to meet! Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to meet her, but we did get some great exercise, and see a plethora of fabulous little pups. The coolest of which had a costume of his kid, Michael, on (i.e. T-shirt) and Michael, subsequently, wore a costume of Bernie, the Bernese Mountain Dog. Oh – and the Bull Dog Bee was cute too. Here’s a photo montage – be sure to note the dogs dressed as Larry Craig and MSP Police – in their respective bathroom stalls :)

Christian Humor :)

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer.

They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering.

Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job."

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.

They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments.
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs.
They did some genealogy reports
They did every job known to man.

Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.

Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld.

Jesus just sighed.

Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: "It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work.

Satan observed this and became irate.

"Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?"

God just shrugged and said,

JESUS SAVES