Stories Feb 2022

I just wanted to write down some funny/sweet stories and quirks about Liam from the past however long so that I don't forget them. These are in no particular order other than what I thought of first as I was writing this.

-I was sick and just really feeling awful, but we'd been inside all day and I felt bad, so brought Liam out to play. He got in his little toy car and started rolling around and I just sat on a log looking and feeling miserable. Liam looked over at me at one point, left the car and came and sat next to me on the log. He only sat there for about 3.56 seconds, but it was still really sweet.

-I shared my ice cream with Liam during scripture study. A little later, he grabbed my mom's empty ice cream bowl and spoon and came at me with the spoon with his mouth wide open like he was going to feed ME some ice cream. I told him no thank you and he goes "AHHHHH" and tried again. It was SO funny!

-Liam forcibly pulled a blanket out from behind mom and then came and put it over my legs and walked away. This was completely unprompted by me. I was just sitting on the couch, reading a book.

-Anyone that knows my dad knows his famously long prayers. Well we're trying to teach Liam to sit quietly during family prayer, but during Dad's, I'm currently settling for him just being quiet, even if he kind of wanders around. Well the other day it was Dad's turn and in the middle of the prayer Liam goes "AAY-EH" to try to end the prayer early. 

-Liam has also started folding his arms while people are saying silent prayers over their food. Yesterday he did it while Dad was praying on his lunch, and even though he could clearly see me just continuing to eat my food, he kept his arms folded. And then tried again with and actual very clear "AMEN", which he repeated a few times before giving up and just waiting, arms folded, for Dad to finish praying.

-I got us each a cheese stick today, but mine was mozzarella and his was Colby. I only got us different ones because the Colby one was in a Ziploc bag, meaning he had previously indicated that he wanted it at some point and then immediately rejected it when I opened it. So I figured he could have that one, but I wanted a mozzarella. Well he ended up wanting some of mine, so I pulled off some strings for him and gave them to him. After he ate a couple, he started breaking chunks off of his cheese stick to give to me.

-He says dog, but still says MAOW instead of cat

-He officially got switched to a toddler bed two days ago because he's been climbing out of the crib, but can't climb back in.

First night "in" the toddler bed

-He's gotten in to watching birds at the bird feeder. Which is unfortunate because the window that show it are in the no zone that he can now get himself into by climbing over the gate. There's a chair facing the window, and one day he got into the no zone without me realizing at first and I was freaking out, trying to figure out where he was. I found him quietly sitting the the chair, softly clinking two pool balls together.

-He can identify body parts and kind of say their names. Today he got upset that I didn't turn my head so that he could point at my other ear after he pointed at the first one. Oops.

-He still loves cars. He's gotten really into playing with matchbox cars, loves playing in the front seats of actual cars, etc. He no longer waves and says hi to every single car that passes, but will still occasionally do so when he sees a moving car in a parking lot.

-He is VERY in to fist bumps. He recently started wanting double fist bumps. He will stick his hands out for fist bumps over and over and over again. When I tell him "I love you" he fist bumps me. Instead of doing a small wave at strangers, he offers his fist with a very serious expression. He will sit at the table with his fists extended to you forever if you don't fist bump him. Even if you are on the other side of the table from him. They're kind of a big deal at the moment.

-He will also lean his head in for a "noggin" (think Crush in Finding Nemo), but only to Philip since he's the one that taught it to and consistently done it with him.

-Liam has discovered both the joy of having pockets to put his hands in, and also the woes of fake pockets/clothes without pockets. He'll walk around with his little hands in his pockets and it's so cute! He also sometimes walks around with his hands on his hips and it cracks me up.

-Liam hoards things in his onesies and footie pajamas. It was become fairly commonplace to change his diaper and find a couple of cars down the leg of his footies. The first time I found something down the leg though, it was a full on bottle of baby shampoo that left a red mark on his leg. After I changed his diaper and put him in clothes, he immediately grabbed it and started stuffing it down the front of his onesie instead.

-He loves to climb into the dryer.

-He also loves to play with the shower, so much that he has occasionally dived in fully clothed or at least still with a diaper on. He knows how to turn the water on and then how to turn the shower head on. So the other day he turned both on, but the water was on cold, so when it his him he backed out. I then watched him try to get back over to the faucet in various ways, backing out coldly each time. It was hilarious. I think he would have started fussing at some point except that he liked that I was laughing so hard at him.

-He decided that it was time to clean the toilet one day, so instead of taking the brush away, I decided to go ahead and help him clean the toilet.

-One morning I was finishing up my breakfast when I realized that he had climbed upstairs, but I didn't hear him. When I looked he was silently sitting on the tops of the stairs holding his giraffe (his comfort item), waiting for my mom (who was still asleep) to come out of her room. I talked to him and he came downstairs with giraffe and sat back in his spot at the table. Every so often he would lean down and kiss giraffe on the head.

-He would also lean over and kiss my SIL's dog on the head every so often when we went to visit them.

-Liam has started to help me bake sometimes. The first time we did it I was grabbing an ingredient and when I turned around he had grabbed the Kitchen Aid beater and was trying to mix up the dry ingredients with it in his hand by kind of scooping over and over. The next time he saw me lightly tapping the bottom of the measuring cup after he dumped it into the bowl, so he started kind of hitting them with his hand after dumping. Today after we baked together, he kept trying to bring the chair back in from the dining room so that he could "help" with the dishes. He never did get it all the way back into the kitchen though.

-He will put dining rooms chairs away if they're not in the right place. He also pushed a chair in when he came into the primary room to find me and saw that it was out of place at the table.

-He's always been oddly good about getting his nose wiped when he's sick.

-He lost his voice for the first time recently and I couldn't help but laugh at his scratchy whining.

-He likes to climb off of the changing table and onto the couch to escape me. What cracks me up is that he'll often do it while I'm grabbing his pants to put on him, so then he'll grab a nearby blanket or pillow and cover up his legs as if I'll forget about his pants if I see that his legs are covered.

-He still loves lotion, but now will pump it all over himself and the floor if I don't keep it out of his reach. He's also started putting lotion and soap on his face instead of rubbing them on his hands for some reason.

-Liam has no concept of how to make friends because 1- he's an only child and spends 99% of his time only with adults and 2- the kids at church have kind of just adopted him, so he didn't have to do a single thing for them to play with him. Because of this, when we go to the park, he will follow other kids around or just sit/stand and stare at them. Like, to the point that they're giving me weird looks like "are you going to do something about him?" One day he walked into the middle of three older boys talking and just stared up at one of them. I kind of awkwardly laughed and told them that he thinks that that's how you make friends. A couple of days ago though I took him to a library and there was this older boy that kept trying to talk/interact with Liam and it melted my heart.

I'm sure there are more things, but that's it for now at least! I just want to make sure that I never forget some of these little things that make Liam Liam and make being his mom fun.