Hanging with Family

Haven't written much lately since it has been fairly quiet here. The past couple of weekends have been spent hanging out with cousin Ben and family. Two weeks ago, Ben, Katherine, and Judd came over for a nice lunch and the boys got to play in Liam's playroom. It was the first time that Ben was old enough to interact a bit more with Liam and play, although mostly they still played side by side. Also, Liam got some good playtime with his aunt and uncle, which he hasn't had a lot of until now. As you can see, Mr. Ben had fun:



Last weekend, we met up with the Weltons again for some superbowl fun (well as much fun as you can have with a large screen TV and three kiddos under 2 1/2 years old). It was really nice to see them again and Taylor got a start on brainwashing his favorite nephew:



Liam and Ben also had a blast playing together once again:



Liam had a physical last week and we found out that he has hit the rearfacing limit of 33 lbs for his carseat. We turned him forward facing. Liam believes that we threw out the old carseat and got him a new big boy carseat. He seems to really like it and continuously asks Daddy to "spin the wheel." Who knew all that action was happening all this time?! I'm a bit sad about it since it is just sooooooooooooooooooo much safer to rear-face, but he has hit the limit and there is no arguing with that.

Tomorrow marks the start of Liam's first day at Goddard...his new school. I took Liam last Thursday to an open house that they hosted and he LOVED it, which is good. It is a brand new school and their first day tomorrowso, as always, I'm a bit nervous for him, but I really believe it is a good change. His teachers are highly qualified and the center is brand new and has smaller classes. Plus, Goddard has an impeccable reputation. One new thing is that Liam will be bringing his own lunch, so I'm going to have to get creative on what to send for him. When does that new mom feeling go away? LOL!

Anyway, I will update tomorrow to let everyone know how his first day went. Until then, here's a big smile from Mr. Trouble:

Big Boy Beds, Make a Mess, and Breaking Uncle Bryan's House

Well, life has been busy in the Basye household and many changes are afoot. The first is that last weekend we went to visit Taylor's parents in Virginia Beach and found that Mr. Man had grown to the point of having netting prints on his face after a night in the pack and play. He's just getting too long for it. While he did not complain, Taylor and I decided that we needed to figure something out. A friend of mine had recommended the Kids Aerobed and said that it was on sale through Amazon, so we bought it. It arrived Wednesday night and Liam was sooooo excited. He insisted that we set it up immediately and begged to sleep in it that night. To our surprise, sleep he did with absolutely no trouble at all. He slept the whole night and stayed in bed when he woke up until we came in his room. When I told him what a big boy he was to sleep in a big boy bed, he said. "I LIKE it! It's nice!" Needless to say, it was a huge hit. Here are a couple of pics of the big boy and his new travel bed:



First night sleeping out of the crib:



The bed takes literally 30 seconds to set up and comes with a cozy fleece coversheet. I highly recommend it if you have a little one who travels. It's also a good size and will last him years and years.

This weekend, we traveled up to New Jersey to break Uncle Bryan's house. Well, actually, we helped him replace all the windows in his house. Liam wore his Home Depot apron and brough his hammer so he could help out.





He was soooo good despite all the craziness and cold weather. He mostly just walked around and talked to everyone and watched all the work. We thought that there was no possible way he would nap with all the noise, but he managed to fall asleep on Uncle Bryan's bed, thanks to a heated room and an Ipod for music.



It was so much fun to see everyone and break stuff. Ha ha! All windows were replaced and a lot of progress was made on the basement. I even got to use a power saw and break down a wall. :)

Today, we drove back to VA and found this waiting for us:



This is pretty much Liam's first realy snow that he is able to experience. He kept thinking it was raining, but eventually got it when we went for a walk to get the mail. He seemed to like it until he fell in the snow and got REALLY mad when he hands got cold. After that, it was straight back inside. I did manage to get a few pics before that, though:

Walking to the mailbox

Checking on Mama

After the fall, but before the screams

It is still snowing and sleeting outside, so we are hoping for our first snow day. Not much else going on this week. We are in the process of looking at a Goddard school opening up, so may look at that for him. Taylor also goes back to school this week. Looks like it's just Liam and me again!

Don't forget to check out all the pics posted at Liam's flickr sight and video site. There's a really hilarious video where Liam tells you what a fish says and more pictures of this past weekend.

My Very First Gift!

Okay, Liam totally made my day today. I have taught him (of course :) ) to say "Mama rocks!" Well, when he went down to the park with Taylor today, he picked up a rock and said "Mama's rock." He insisted carrying it around the whole time and then bringing it home for me and kept telling Taylor "Mama's rock."

This is the first gift that he has picked out for me all on his own and is already sitting on my desk in it's own special spot. I included a picture of him showing me the rock he picked out. :)

To top it off, we were playing tonight and I pretended to make a sad sound and he stopped dead in his tracks, ran over to me, and began rubbing my back saying "You okay? You okay?" It was the first time he has done something like this.

And as a finale, he sat in the rocker with me and let me read him two books beginning to end. He NEVER does this with me...which just about kills me as a teacher. It was the best end to a day ever!!

My Mr. Man is just so sweet.

Quiet Weekend

Not much to report here as we stayed home this weekend. Yesterday morning, all three of us headed out to the garage for some organizing fun. We sorted out a bunch of Liam's baby toys and contraptions to sell on craigslist and put aside several bags of clothes for cousin Ben to go shopping in. It's always a little bit sad going through some of Liam's baby things as I miss the newborn stage so much! While every age is fun and new, in some ways it was nice when Liam was tiny and cuddly.

Mr. Man spent the rest of the weekend keeping us on our toes. One habit that I am really happy about is that Liam is really using his manners A LOT! He says "Thank you," "Your'e Welcome," "Excuse Me", and sometimes "Please." What's really cute is when he doesn't want to do something (like go to bed) is now he'll say "No thanks!"

This week should be a quiet one. Liam has therapy this week and we'll be finding out about transitioning him to the school system since they do that at 3 years old (although I don't know that we'll go this route since we're putting him in private schools). Taylor will enjoy his last week off and I'll be busy teaching and meeting like crazy (I have 5 meetings and an assembly this week...ugh!)

Anyway, not many new photos, but thought I'd share a couple of Liam and I out walking tonight and blowing bubbles. Have a great week!

Happy New Year!

The past few days have been spent celebrating Christmas with the Basye side of the family. Taylor's parents and grandmother came up on Wednesday and Thursday we headed out to his sister's house for some good Christmas fun. Katherine made a great brunch for us complete with french toast and party poppers that had fun hats in them.



After eating, it was presents time. Liam fell in love with a present that Ben had gotten from Katherine and had been playing with it as soon as he walked in the door, so when we put it away to open presents, he began a fun game of throwing his fist in the air and screaming "MINE!" Ah yes, Liam is very much two. He really liked the toy because it is actually really, really unusual for Liam to behave that way for any extended period of time. It was kind of cute. It was really nice to see everyone and have everyone together as that does not happen often. Liam seems to like Ben although he is still a bit young to play still at only 8 months old. The boys were able to play a bit and then break for a photo shoot with the happy grandparents.






On Friday, Taylor and I got a bit of a break to go shopping while Liam spent some time playing with Taylor's parents. They went walking around the neighborhood, which Liam LOVES. He would live outdoors all day if he could.







Today was a nice quiet day with just Taylor, Liam and I. Much of the day was spent at home just relaxing and setting up Liam's new playroom.





We have one day left until I go back to work and it will be nice to just be home and be together as a family. It is amazing what the past 2 + years have brought us and we are so grateful for all that we have. We are so lucky to be able to bring in the New Year together when so many in the military are separated. We hope that all of you have as wonderful a New Year's and that 2007 is as great as ever!

Liam's 3rd Christmas

Well, this year's Christmas has come and gone and it was a big hit! My family came down on Saturday and much of the day was spent lazing around and relaxing. Saturday night, we were able to make it out to a Festival of Lights nearby, which was a lot of fun. On Sunday, we took a trip out to Mt. Vernon. Liam couldn't really handle the mansion tour, but loved running around on the grounds. His favorite parts were probably the "cool cars" (or wagons) and the sheep. Sunday night, we all went to church. Unfortunately, Liam and I had to spend most of the service in the car as he couldn't handle sitting still or semi-quiet at all. Afterwards, my dad made an excellent multi-course meal that included crab, sushi, shrimp, etc.



Christmas morning was full of lots of surprises and fun all around. Liam really enjoyed all of his gifts. He was still a bit young to understand everything, but had fun playing with all the new toys and visiting with everyone. Here are a few pictures from the day:















Taylor made us a great dinner while we lazed around, watched football, and decorated Christmas cookies. This morning, my parents left very early for work and then the rest of us went to Starbucks for a post-Christmas breakfast. After a fun time with Playdoh, it was time for Mike and Bryan to be on the road and for us to reast up for the next Christmas wave...Basye Christmas.

1 Week Until Santa!!

It's been awhile and there is a lot to report, so I'll break it down by category.

Walter Reed: We finally got a call back on the blood test and much to our surprise the test said that Liam is NOT allergic to dairy (or anything else food-related). While this is very confusing and somewhat frustrating, we did decide to test it on Sunday by giving Liam Easy Mac (thanks to Uncle Bryan) and so far, no immediate problems. So, we are cautiously optomistic. He still does have his Eczema and we have a follow-up appointment on Jan. 10th, but we are hoping he has begun to outgrow this nightmare.

New Friends: Last weekend and this past weekend were spent up in New Jersey. Last weekend was Joanie's 50th birthday party and Liam had a blast. While she wasn't there the whole time, Liam's hands-down favorite part of the party was my cousin Billy's daughter, Paige. He instantly took to her and harassed her the entire time she was there. The poor girl must have been nearly dragged to the washing machine to visit, since Liam thinks that it's the coolest thing and truly believes that everyone loves looking at it just as much as he does. From Paige's expression, I'm not sure she's on board with this latest obsession:



"This boy is crazy!"




Yesterday, Liam was able to meet Ryan Rose, my cousin Michael's daughter. Ryan is 4 years old and so there was a bit of an age difference, but they were still able to play very well together. Liam would follow Ryan around for awhile and she taught him everything she knew about Barbies and dolls. This is the first time Liam has seen Ryan and I think they'll be good friends through the years. We are hoping to spend a week this summer at the beach house with them so they have more opportunities to play together.



Growing Up:

Liam has really been changing soooo much lately. I'm sure I always say that, but I am truly always amazed by it. He has mostly given up the paci for sleeping, but still tells us "I need paci" during the day. The past week, he has also really taken to his Grover doll that he's had since he's two months old over pillow. He has been doing a lot of advanced play with Grover, such as having Grover wave "bye bye", holding his hand, hugging Grover, or having him sit at his table and "eat" with him. Liam is also really starting to use his manners a lot more, saying please, thank you, bless you, I'm sorry, and you're welcome. He'll also crack you up with his expressions such as "I'll be right back." "Oh my goodness." and "See ya later!" Too funny! Liam can drink out of an open cup just fine, but we still use the sippy a lot for reasons of ease of use. His therapist is very happy with his progress and says that he is advanced in several areas, such as his play habits.

My family will be coming down Saturday for the Christmas holiday and we are very excited to have Christmas at home this year as we've never had that. Afterwards, the Basye Family will be coming up for second-Christmases. Countdown...7 days until Santa and all preparations are full-force!