Big Brother Updates

Liam continues to be the most wonderful and precious big brother. He's so sweet with Julia and has made a seamless transition. We are so grateful and feel so blessed.



He takes care of his baby (mostly) like mama does with Julia...He'll nurse her and burp her. He put her in his back pack like mama put Julia in the Bjorn. But, he's definitely a 2 year old boy - one minute he's loving on his baby, the next he's throwing it across the room and stomping on it!

He's such a happy little boy and we smile and laugh at him every day. Right now, he is so verbal and narrarates much of his life. He announces what he's doing, he asks tons of questions and is able to make requests (well, be the boss) and let us know what he does and doesn't like.

He's really into singing these days and sings the blessing, "God our Father" with great gusto. He tightly closes his eyes and puts his hands together and sings with all his heart. It's great. He also sings the ABC's a lot, too. He will make up songs, mostly with the words Mommy and Daddy, to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Baa Baa Blacksheep. He loves to sing along with his songs in the car.

If you ask Liam how he's doing, he enthusiastically response, "I do GREAT!" It definitely warms your heart when he does.

He loves Thomas the Tank Engine. Miss Barbie gave him a Thomas train set and he is in love - he loves to put the track together and drive the engines along. We watch Thomas DVD's every night before bed (unless we're watching the movie Cars instead). He also has some Thomas toys that he loves, too. He is also into Mickey Mouse and Lightning McQueen, but not as much as Thomas. We're hoping to go to the Day with Thomas in Calera in a couple of weeks.

He is great at playing by himself and entertaining himself. His favorite things to do are to play outside (of course) and especially in his sand box. He loves to run, run, run and jump and play with balls. He enjoys drawing and really likes to draw with a marker if he can get his hands on one. He's actually really good with it and doesn't make much of a mess at all.

He's also really started getting into trucks. He'll make roads with his blocks and drive his trucks and cars around. He makes truck and car noises and really prefers it when you play with him.

He's a great eater and still loves his fruit snacks. It's gotten so much easier now because he can usually just eat what we eat. The hard part is still getting him to sit at the table during all of dinner. He's gotten a lot better, but still wants to get up and down.

He's on his way to potty-training. He uses the potty every day before his bath time. We haven't really pushed potty training yet because of all the change with Julia and he's still pretty young. But, he is on his way.

He's a sweet and loving little boy. He is still cuddly and lovable. The other night he asked me to burp him (after I was burping Julia). So, I put him up on my shoulder and he just snuggled in and hugged me tight. That's still his favorite comfort spot, I believe. He still plays with my hair like he did when he was a baby.

Bedtime has really come a long way. Most every night he goes to bed without getting up and sleeps all night. Last night, he got out of bed and we didn't realize it until Will went back to our room and found him sound asleep in our bed. So sweet. Occasionally, he'll wake up in the middle of the night and Will will take him back to bed, usually getting in the bed with him to help him go back ot sleep. When he wakes up in the morning, he comes into our room and gets in our bed and will sleep some more. That's when he'll cuddle with me and play with my hair. Lately, though, I've been in the nursery in the morning when he wakes up.

Naptime continues to be a battle. Lately, the trick is to just wear him out in the morning and then have movie-time in the early afternoon where he'll pull out his Mickey Mouse chair and open it up to the napmat and fall asleep. The other trick we're learning is to make sure to not miss the window of opportunity for him to go to sleep. We've found if we wait too long, then he won't nap. But, even those days that he misses his nap, he really does well considering. We just put him to bed early. The hardest part of those days is not Liam being tired as much as it is us not having a little break in the middle of the day!

He is such a joy and so easy going. Spending the day with Liam is a wonderful time - he's so happy and enjoys doing so many things. He's engaging and just loves to have someone play with him.

He loves school, especially all of his sweet friends. They truly do love each other and get so excited to be together. They hug and hold hands and laugh and run together. It's such a blessing. His teachers, Ms. Roxie and Ms. Gwen are rock stars and provide so much love. They are also excellent teachers - Liam is learning so much and amazes us with all he knows. He came home counting to 15 a couple of weeks ago! And, he's learning Spanish and knows his colors in Spanish.

I'm sure there are more sweet and wonderful things to update about Liam and I hope to make sure to include those stories.