Liam is 6!

I can't believe I have a six year old!

I realized that this is the first year since he was born that his birthday is on the same day of the week as the day he was born. So we've come full circle. 

I don't think that I have adequate words to describe how much I adore this little boy. He is silly, kind, curious, smart, energetic, helpful, and so, so loving. 

Anytime Liam randomly decides to help out around the house, he lets me know that it's because he loves me. He also likes to tell me when he's done something kind for someone else, like playing with a kid that no one was playing with, or doing really well at taking turns on the slide. It's so sweet to see him recognizing good things that he's done and being excited about it.

Helping shovel out a spot for Daddy
to park in when he got home from work

Helping Grandpa rake leaves

Liam can be very determined. We made a fire recently to burn some fallen branches and broken down boxes. Liam decided to pull an entire tree branch to the fire by himself. He was fully aware that help was available, should he want it, but he was determined to do it by himself. He had to stop every few feet, but he eventually made it all the way! Part of me was a little bit exasperated that he wouldn't accept help, but another part of me was really proud of him for not giving up.

Liam loves his family a lot. While he can definitely be a bit of a butt with his sister, he is often very loving towards her, even when she's being crazy (which is often). He loves spending time with my family in Pennsylvania when we're able to visit, going on trips with grandparents and cousins here, playing board and card games with me, and doing tickle armpits with Jonathan. He often tells me that tickle armpits is his favorite thing.

This year he's started saying that he loves me "infinity infinities" 🥺

He also loves being outside, finding bugs, collecting rocks, playing old Nintendo games on the Switch, making pillow forts, painting, climbing, doing puzzles, and "flipping" (flipping while holding onto rings, vaulting onto my bed, doing somersaults on the bed, etc).

This and the next picture are actually from today,
with him using one of his birthday presents

Finding rocks near the sink is a very common occurrence
 these days as he likes to wash all of the rocks that he collects

He was very proud of himself for finishing
all of the dog puzzles from Grandma Laulusa

This is (apparently) his "regal" face.
Since he was sitting on a throne of pillows

Liam would have lived outside in the snow if we'd let him. He LOVED being out in it; sledding, making snowmen, throwing snowballs (mostly at me), and making snow angels.

Our first big "snow" this year was actually tiny balls of ice.
So we couldn't make snowballs, but
could grab chunks of ice to ninja star at each other

Liam's favorite color is still purple this year. He likes all animals except for zebras (and can't tell me why), though his favorite thing to do at the zoo is pet the manta rays. His favorite meals are salmon and rice (the way Daddy makes it. Jonathan is REALLY good at salmon) and shoyu chicken with rice (doing the Kretchman side proud). He really likes anything Spiderman related.

He's gotten really into Tom and Jerry and Looney Toons lately, which has been a lot of fun. He likes to go "Meep meep!" and then run across the house and flip onto our bed.

This year, he went through a phase of only wanting to wear his Paw Patrol rainboots everywhere. 

I think that one of my favorite things about Liam right now is when he says that something is beautiful. I don't know what it is about hearing a little boy call something beautiful, but I love it 😍

Something else that I really love about Liam is that he is fully confident in the things that he likes. He loves purple and rainbows. He likes having his toenails painted sparkly gold (and is extremely conscientious about making sure that they are totally dry before he does anything). He loves searching for cool rocks and finding worms and making sure that they're in a moist place. He is confident that he is excellent at the things that he does, whether that be painting or building with Picasso Tiles (which he IS extremely good at). He still loves vehicles and gets excited about shirts with construction equipment on them.

I KNOW that I have more pictures of his creations somewhere, 
but this is the only one that I could find at the moment.
He seriously comes up with the coolest things

We went to Walmart last week to pick up some stuff for his birthday party and I couldn't help but laugh a little bit about what we ended up with. We had maroon and purple balloons, blue and purple plates, and he picked a burgundy food coloring for his cake, but it ended up bright pink and he loved it (even though he's not usually a fan of pink). My niece was trying to figure out if there was a color theme and I told her that it was "whatever he wanted at Walmart at the moment". 

One of the only pictures I took at his birthday party
because I always get so caught up in the moment that 
I forget to take pictures 😅

We actually thought that the one pack of balloons was brown and I was highly questioning that decision, but he was sure, so we (thought that we) bought brown and purple balloons.

I hope that he can find a way to always be confident about who he is, because who he is is absolutely amazing.

I like to think that we have the best six year old around <3

PS- Some notable things that Liam said this year:

• "Darngit!" Not darn it, not dang it, but darngit
• For a while everything was a verse or an aisle (ex- "I'm on verse two!" instead of level two. "Where's the clothes aisle?" while looking through my storage in Animal Crossing)
• "Queem" in stead of queen (we played a lot of Sleeping Queems for a couple of months)
• "Mila, that was not the greatest helpfulness"
• "I was thinking about Jesus and he told me to keep cleaning"
• Liam is amazing at naming things. One of his Picasso Tile creations was called a "Drill train smasher spiker burble" another was an "Upside down flipper gimber". One snowman was named Scootle, the other was named Beebabeebaba. He got really into playing cafe. One day I asked him what the name of the cafe was and, without skipping a beat, he said "Saltines Rip-Race Cafe". 
• Me: This level is driving me crazy!
• Liam: It's driving ME crazy! It's driving my cheek!
• *In a singsong voice* I want to smell these up! (about candles, we've been really into smelling candles lately)
• Liam said that I'm a weasel because I "sound like a weasel... like a leaf falling from a tree... like a dinosaur"

And now for some extra pictures!

Visiting Daddy at work after finishing
up at the library's Grinch themed
pajama party