Dubais

Liam has started using lots of words in the last few months, and we've been having a lot of fun compiling a list of the words he says and how he actually pronounces them (coming soon to a blog post near you). One of the funniest things about doing this is trying to translate a repeated word or sound. It took us, for example, weeks and weeks to understand that "Taice" meant "Thomas" (as in, "The Tank Engine").

One such case was captured on video on Tuesday night while our friend Tyler was visiting.

"Liam just showed me his
foot which had a Cheerio
stuck to it. It fell on the
floor, and he promptly
picked it up and ate it."

Baby advice, part un

This post is going to be a 2-part-er. And this part starts with a little bit of explaining.

After being the only person my age I know very well at all with a kid, two friends of mine are, more or less, expecting. One of them, Jessica, lives in the same city I do and is pregnant and expecting her first child in November. The other, Stephanie, is a good friend from college who now lives just outside of Memphis, Tennessee, and is actively working on adopting her first child.

Both of these ladies told me their news at about the same time, and so of course I started making a list of things I wanted to tell them that I’ve learned since having Liam. A couple only really apply if you’re pregnant, and a couple only really apply if you live in this area, but I thought I’d post my list here with some explanation, and give them (and anyone else who may be reading) the opportunity to become acquainted with some of the knowledge I gained as a mom.

I am so excited for both of these girls and their families. Jessica is going through something I have already been through (though, thankfully, she is having a MUCH less dramatic time with it all than I did), and Stephanie is going through something I may jump into in a few years when we are ready to give Liam a sibling (if you take a gander over at the right-hand side of this here blog, you will find a link to Stephanie’s blog, Blessed to Be, and learn a little about her journey to motherhood).

Anyway! Here is the list:

Your son

Has the most remarkable
ability

To sense when I am just
falling asleep

And then start yelling

For "Daddy."

He's a bumpkin!*

Because it is August and because his birthday is in August, and because he was an excellent date to our dear friend Bethany Kent’s fantastic 30^th birthday soiree, and for a bunch of other reasons (some of which, I suppose, you are about to read below), I would like to tell you, today, 10 reasons that my friend John is great.

Toy cars

My grandfather was in junior high during World War II, and to save money, the town he lived in--Mamaroneck, NY--shut down the junior high school and arranged it so that the high school kids went to school in the morning, until about 1 p.m., and then they would leave the building and the junior high kids would come in and go to school all afternoon and evening. He and his friends would meet at Walter's, a now famous hot dog stand, eat lunch, and then flip a coin to decide whether to go to school, or to go to New Rochelle to see a movie. When his father found out about this, he sent my grandfather, about 14 years old at the time, to military school.

Boy Cat, Girl Cat

He may have kept us up until around 1:30 in the morning, but he was so cute about it...the trials and tribulations of parenting, I guess :-)