May 18 = Favorite Video Ever Day

First I saw this on facebook and laughed out loud and then sent it to Zachary.

Next I'll share some pictures of some of the preschool work we did today.  We worked on the letter A which Liam pronounces like the letter E.  There's a subtle difference between the pronunciation of his A and his E so I can tell he knows but it takes a discerning ear to hear it!  This picture shows the first time he has attempted to actually color something instead of just indiscriminately scribbling all over the page!

While Liam and I were working, Malia sneaked off with a marker and did some artwork of her own. 

As a side note- I typed in snuck before changing it to sneaked because spell-check says snuck isn't a word.  I then googled it and in case you were wondering, sneaked is the traditional past tense of sneak but snuck is an American word and is an acceptable alternative.

Anyways.  Here's a video that I'm so so glad I captured.  How cute is she?!?!

January 28 = Catch Up Day

Well... I haven't taken any pictures since the baby shower.  Oops!  But I do have some notes to share.  I have this really awesome calendar- This one- so there's a column for each day and then rows for me and then 5 areas of my choosing.  The top one I have dedicated to Liam/Malia.  Malia doesn't have too much on her schedule at this point so they can share a row.  Zachary gets the next row so I can keep up with his classes and meetings.  Then I have a row for planning our meals and then another row is devoted to planning out exercise whether it be a time to aim for to go to the gym to do cardio and/or weights or when a yoga class is.  I've been leaving the last row blank but decided this week that would be a good place to write down cute things Liam and Malia do or milestones they reach.  Here's this week's pages so far:

I put everything in pencil because I am very aware that things change... pretty often.  I'm tempted to start using colored pens so I can add some color to my life but... I like being able to erase and rewrite things so I'll probably stick to the pencil.  So on Monday, Malia ate some scrambled eggs and Liam let me read him a whole book (This one) for the first time ever!  Also, I have been working on getting him to clean up after himself.  Believe me, it would be much quicker for me to put his things away but teaching him to clean up after himself teaches him a little bit of responsibility and also helps with our routine.  So he will take out his blocks and pour them out on the floor but before he moves on to the next toy that he will undoubtedly just make a mess with, he has to put his blocks away.  He's been doing a great job and I'm thinking it's starting to stick because we got home from the gym and he took his hat off while standing in the middle of the living room but walked to the closet where his hat goes and waited for me to open the closet door so he could put it away.  Success!

Tuesday, Liam had speech at 10 am and one of his therapists from the county school system came at 2:00.  His speech therapist excitedly told me that he has started saying a lot more two-word phrases which is the main thing we are concentrating on in speech and that one of them was "all done."  We have a sign for all done but I've never heard him say it before so I told the therapist that came at 2:00 about it and she got him to say it!  So now if we do the sign and say "Alllllll..." and wait for a second, he'll say "Done!"  He also continued his new interest in books by bringing me a book, letting me read a page or two and then disappearing to bring me another book.  He brought me four books total- I'm loving it!  I also wrote down that Malia ate some ham!  I wrote this down because it's fun to remember what foods she's been eating but it'll also help me in case of an allergic reaction which I hope she doesn't have.  

Today was Liam's last day of preschool- his teachers don't know that yet because I'm going to let Zachary do the dirty work- he's going to go in Friday and talk to them.  But I also wrote down that Malia ate some kiwi and Liam brought me books again today!  I love that he makes me sit down and then gets in my lap before we can read- it's really the only time he shows me affection (unless his Daddy bribes him with food in exchange for giving mommy a hug or kiss) so it's now my new favorite thing to do!

So that's what's been happening- I hate that I have no pictures- I'll probably overcompensate these next few days!

December 17 = Christmas Party Day

Similar to the Thanksgiving party a few weeks ago, Liam's preschool class had a Christmas party today!  We got there early and waited eagerly in the hallway.  Two of the parents were ten minutes late because their baby had a dirty diaper on the way out- been there, done that.  So by the time the parents were able to come in, the kids were a little restless.  Liam saw his Daddy and it was over.  He came and sat with Zachary in the audience and while some parents were pointing out to the teacher that they were missing one of the students, they started without him.  He did enjoy the cookies afterwards though!

December 15 = MRI Day

When Malia was in the hospital for her seizures, before they discharged us, we had to get a routine x-ray.  When they got the results, there was an abnormality- one doctor said there was a space between two of her ribs on one side.  Another said there was a mass and scared us pretty badly and then a third said that there was extra space between the two sets of ribs.  So we had no clue what was going on but we were glad to be getting an MRI to check out what was going on and get some answers.  I wrote about Liam's MRI experience a bit ago and this one was similar- no milk after 4 a.m. and Zachary and Malia had to be in Bethesda (45 minutes away with no traffic) at 7 a.m.  The anesthesiologist got stuck in traffic and was very, very late.  Zachary spared me from most of the details but they ended up having to put the IV in her head but he said she did pretty well with it.  They told him the same thing they told him with Liam- that when she came back from the scan, they would give her two hours to wake up and if she wasn't awake by then, which she probably wouldn't be, they would have to wake her up to make sure everything was fine.  Like her big brother, Zachary heard her chattering on the way back to the room instead of being knocked out like the doctors expected.  The initial results showed nothing to worry about- who knows how three different doctors had three different opinions and apparently none of them were right.  But we are just thankful everything is fine and that our baby girl is healthy!  While Zachary and Malia were in Bethesda, Liam and I had a normal Monday.  I took him to preschool and got some child free shopping done- much, much easier that way.  Then I picked him up and we had a long overdue Chick-fil-a date, just the two of us!  We came home and he got a nap and Zachary and Malia came home soon after that!

Waiting for the anesthesiologist to get there.

Nothing like a mommy/son Chick-fil-a date

She makes everything look cute!

Resting after a long, tough day with her praying teddy bear they gave her at the hospital

November 19 = Thanksgiving Party Day

Liam's preschool class had a Thanksgiving party today!  I dropped him off at the normal time but came to pick him up thirty minutes early and we parents were treated to two songs and muffins that they had made.

I've been trying to post the video but it won't upload correctly- so I'll have to summarize.  All the parents filed in to a tiny space and you can see Liam scanning the crowd but he didn't see me.  He's thrilled with all these adults watching him and so as they start singing "The Leaves are Falling Down," Liam starts walking across their "stage" with a huge smile on his face.  One teacher tries to get him to sit in his seat but proves to be no match for him and he makes it across the room where another teacher grabs him and puts him in her lap and tries to get him to participate in "Hello Mr. Turkey, How are You?"  He resists again and breaks from her grip.  At this point, he finds me, makes eye contact, flashes his beautiful smile and proceeds to make his way through the crowd of parents to me.  He definitely was the star of the show!

After the show, the teachers served muffins the kids had made the Monday before.  Liam shocked me and started eating the muffin by just taking a bite instead of needing it to be cut up into bite size pieces!  It was such a great opportunity to watch how much he is growing!

October 29 = Preschool Halloween Party Day

Liam's school had a Halloween party today- they all wore orange and black and had yummy snacks.  

September 22 = Preschool Family Night

Liam has been doing such a great job in preschool!  He's doing so much better with following directions, holding hands, and staying with one task for longer than 5 seconds.  Tonight was family night where we got to see their classroom a little more closely and Liam showed us all his favorite toys.  It was at 5:00pm so Zachary and I were expecting snacks but that didn't happen...

 

One of Liam's favorite things to do is empty containers- either by throwing everything in said container on the floor or by transferring everything in said container to another container- which often leads to emptying that container as well.

September 10 = First Day of Preschool!

Liam is doing so well in all his therapy areas- he's at age level in many areas in physical therapy and is catching up in occupational therapy.  In speech, he's making really impressive gains.  With all of the appointments we have, I haven't found a way to get Liam around other kids his age on a regular basis.  We take him to the YMCA's "stay 'n' play" but most of the kids there are much older and we take him to the church nursery on Sunday mornings but he and Malia have always been the only two kids there.  I really thought that giving him time with other kids age could help his development in all the different areas so when we came to Maryland for the first time, trying to find a place to live, we looked at some preschools but the vast majority of them required the child be two by September 1st.  Liam's birthday is September 5th.  So I kind of put that on the back burner while we were planning for and then welcoming Malia into our family.  However, on Monday, I was trying to get Liam and Malia inside and Liam refused to hold my hand.  Thankfully we live in an apartment where you park in the circle out front and the circle is very close to the front door and the only traffic consists of residents either pulling into parking spots or leaving parking spots- not high speeds- but I still would like him to learn to hold my hand when I need to have a handle on him.  I got inside- put him down for his nap- and immediately started looking for preschools.  I thought it would be good for him to participate in lining up, circle time, routine things that require a tad bit of obedience and that if he saw other kids listening to directions maybe he would too.  I also thought it would be really helpful for him to hear other kids using age appropriate language- words that he probably understands but isn't quite able to articulate yet.  So I called Anchors-A-Wee on Monday and they had actually started that day but it was an odd day where all the parents were invited to stay so everyone's real first day would be Wednesday- he would fit right in and not miss a beat.  And since separation anxiety is not something we have had to deal with I wasn't worried about him needing that first day with me within his sights.

Here he is in the car on the way to his first day!

I really wanted to get a good picture of him in front of the classroom door but he was too excited to go in and get started that this was as good as it got:

The teachers were giving me advice on how to lessen the difficulty of the separation- I refrained from telling them it wouldn't be a problem for him and went back to the car.  I had a few moments acknowledging that it would probably be understandable if I cried a little- I thought of how far he has come and how precious he is.  I thought of how this is one of those defining moments- it may not be kindergarten but he's heading in that direction.  But then I remembered I needed to go grocery shopping, feed, change and dress Malia, pump and be back in just over two hours so I took a deep breath and went on with the day.

When I picked him up that day, his tote bag with his new t-shirt was waiting for us on the hook outside his room.

The last activity they do before the end of their day (11:15) is outside play.  They have this room with a window from which you can see them on the playground but they can't really see you looking at them.  I got there 15 minutes early to spy on him and he was right there with the blonde teacher.  She was rubbing his hair and helping him play in the sandbox- I think he's won over another heart.  He was pretty exhausted- he's used to getting up around 8:45 but that's when school starts now so he has to get up before 8:00.  So we came home, had lunch and went right to bed- he didn't fight me a bit.

And here's an unrelated picture of when he thought it'd be cool to throw every individual piece of his snack on the floor and heck- why not throw all the napkins down too?!