Visiting with Grandparents

The past couple of weeks have been really busy. School has started for me, so all three of us has started to see less of one another :( The good news is that we've been able to visit with lots of family. Last weekend, Grandmichaele and Papa came down. We went to DC for the day, which Liam seemed to really enjoy. We visited the new WWII memorial as well as Liam's future residence:



We also went to the Holocaust Museum, which I would highly recommend to anyone. It is an extremely humbling and life-altering experience. Liam was so, so good and after viewing the exhibit at a more rapid pace with Grandmichaele, was very patient hanging out in the lobby with her while Taylor, Papa, and I took a bit more time.

This weekend was spent down at VA Beach, visiting Mimi, Pops Basye, and Momma, who has come through two surgeries in the past week. We had a lot of rain on Saturday, so the day was spent indoors...something that just about kills Mr. Man. He did find some ways to entertain himself though. He took his cool ride for laps around the downstairs:



and managed to check out Momma's cool new toy (she let him borrow it):



While Taylor and Pops Basye were busy running errands all day, we were able to gather the Basye men together for a quick moment:



Last, but not least, no day would be complete without a bath and snuggles with Mimi:



Today was much nicer and Liam and Pops Basye especially took advantage of the great weather. After a hearty breakfast of Mimi's french toast:



Mimi and Pops Basye showed Liam the train set that Taylor used to play with when he was little (yes, they kept it, along with many of Taylor's other toys. Pretty neat, actually):



Liam really enjoyed it:



Afterwards, Pops Basye took Liam to play in the park for awhile in a wagon that he acquired for Liam. Liam had never been in a wagon and loved it! After their trip to the park, they spent some time in the backyard picking up leaves:





All in all, a great time was had. Being out east has been so great so far. I think one of my favorite things is that Liam is finally able to spend a lot of time with his family. He is such a sweet little boy and I hate having him miss out on so much when we live far away. We are taking every opportunity of this move to allow him and us to be with family and are really enjoying it. As you can tell, Liam is adjusting well and loves all his family members.

Mr. Smartypants

Well, I started back to work this week so have hardly seen my little man. :( Therefore, not much to report. However, I did get to spend the entire day with him yesterday while Taylor was at his orientation. While shopping at a teacher store, I bought Liam some bean bags that came in 8 different colors. Mostly just bought them to toss around. When I pulled them out later that day, I was surprised when he told me the colors brown, red, and yellow all on his own without me even asking him!!! This totally came from his new school since we haven't worked on colors at all. We usually focus on other things with him. I was so excited to see that he has been learning some things and in only 2 weeks. His interest in reading books has also skyrocketed since starting at his school and his vocabulary shows. He is trying to say sentences, but mostly comes out in a jumble of words. It is so super hard to be away from Mr. Man so much, but I'm happy to know that he's having fun and learning too. I can't wait for the year to start so I can be home a bit more. Promise to take some pictures this week. We are heading to VA Beach at the end of the week to see Mimi and Pops Basye!

Mr. Talkative

Liam has really taken off with his verbal skills. He picks up new words everyday. Unfortunately, they do not always come out the same as how we tell him. For example, Jonas is "Dory." And the newest one is Uncle Bryan, who has been named "the Bunny". For whatever reason, Liam hears "Bryan", but says "Bunny." It's pretty cute, actually.

The past two weekends have been spent visiting with family which is AWESOME. He seems to love getting to know everyone and knows most names, even if he can't say them exactly right. The one member he still hasn't shown much interest in is his cousin Ben. He knows Ben is a baby, and will point at him and say "baby" every now and then, but mostly just ignores him. He will, however, take the opportunity to utilize all of Ben's cool toys:






We were able to go visit with everyone and have a barbeque at Aunt Katherine and Uncle Judd's house last weekend. Unfortunately for Liam, this visit resulted in a swim in their fish pond in the backyard. While patting the water, he fell head-first into the water and made it in waist deep until Taylor grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him out. At this point, Liam seemed surprised, but happy (he LOVES water) and just kept saying "I sorry."

This past weekend, we took a drive up to NJ and visited with everyone there. As mentioned earlier, we were able to go visit Bryan's house, which was a lot of fun. Liam had a blast watching Mama, Daddy, Jason, Mike, and Alex play horseshoes in the backyard and cracked up with every throw. Who know horseshoes was so hilarious?! Most of the rest of the weekend was used for some much needed relaxing. Liam spent much of his time rocking and coercing anyone and everyone to take him "outside."



I am back to work this week, so Liam has started at a new preschool. While we've had a bit of a rough start with the school, the principal is awesome and is quickly getting things in hand. She is new and also not happy with all of the staff and is replacing those who do not have degrees with teachers that do. Liam, of course, is having a bit of a sad time being dropped off, but overall seems happy. He is in the two-year old room already so he doesn't need to be moved again in two months and keeps up fairly well. When we went to pick him up today, he was sitting happily on the carpet with the other children listening to his teacher read a book. I think in the end we will love the school as we do the principal, but is both sad and exciting to see my baby in an actual preschool. They are even switching to uniforms in a couple of weeks!

The other big thing that we've learned is that Liam did, in fact, qualify for therapy. We have been told that he has a sensory integration disorder which accounts for many of his delays (most of which are becoming minor). He will start therapy next month with an OT and we are excited to be getting help. Our little boy is so sweet and it is so nice to see him get the services that will make his life easier.

Apparently, I'm in the wrong

So I thought that Liam's tantrums were a bit uncalled for, but apparently, I'm mistaken.

Today's horoscope for Liam:

"You've earned the right to be unreasonable once in a while. Loved ones want to please you, but they don't know how until you dare to ask for what you really want."

Hmmmmmm.....

Our Little Man is Growing Up

The past week has been super busy and it is becoming more and more apparent that Liam is not a baby anymore. Little things have really been striking me, like how much his language has taken off. It will be so much fun for Taylor and I to come up with a list of how many words he knows for his evaluation on Thursday. Needless to say, he will not need Speech Therapy anytime in the near future.

Mr. Man has also become a lot more responsible and independent lately. Some of the things he is doing more and more is putting his dishes in the dishwasher or sink, throwing away the trash, brushing his teeth, saying "Bless You" when someone sneezes, and....his absolute favorite right now...washing his hands (which we must do several times a day).

My parents came down for my birthday this past weekend and Liam seemed to have a blast. He has decided that "Papa" is much easier to say than "Grandpa Chuck" and took to both of his grandparents instantly.

Hanging out with Papa at Clyde's:



Relaxing after a 1/2 mile walk around the neighborhood with Grandmichaele and Papa (yes, he walked the entire way himself):



Of course, Liam tells me that the only reason he was able to walk that far on his own was because of his cool new light-up firetruck shoes that Grandmichaele bought him:



It is so nice after living far away for so long to see Liam getting to know his family. He recognizes people now and will go to his quilt in his room and show me Papa, Grandmichaele, and Mimi. He will get to see Mimi and Grandpa Basye when they come up this weekend.

Liam's other big thing right now is just exploring and getting into all kinds of trouble. Part of it is his age and part is that his schedule and routine is thrown off now. Either way, it's fun and exhausting at the same time. One night, the only way I could get him to calm down and stop fussing was to put Rachel Ray's 30-Minute Meals on (and this is a kid that doesn't like to watch TV). We're thinking he may take after his Grandfather:



The other thing that Liam LOVES to do and will always calm him down (like his cousin Ben) is to go outside. Taylor and I took him to a park today and he had sooo much fun just running around in the open spaces:





Tomorow and Friday, I will finally suck it up and bring Liam to his new school to meet his new teachers and class. Taylor and I have both been dreading this, but he starts next week and know that it's better to help him transition if we visit there with him this week. He also has his evaluation on Thursday, so we should be pretty busy. Mimi and Grandpa Basye will come down this weekend and we are really looking foward to that.

Time is running out until Taylor and I start our respective jobs and we are just loving having this time with Liam (trouble and all). We are going to take the next week or two to soak up all the time we can get with him. And when times get tough, we just remember that he's only this little once.

Getting Settled

Well, it has been awhile since the last post and we're feeling a bit more at home now. Liam seems to be LOVING his new house. The past few weeks have been spent trying to run around and get everything set up. We found a school for Liam and think he'll be pretty happy there. Taylor and I will be going to the school with Liam for a couple of hours for a few days just to hang out with him there and play with him so he can get acquainted with everyone and have a fairly smooth transition (we hope). He will be starting to attend on a regular basis the week of August 14th. Taylor will start school soon (although he has two night classes and one class Wed. afternoon) and I have found a job teaching kindergarten at a school right around the corner from our house. My principal is going to be tough, but I think I'm going to love it. I really enjoy being challenged.

Anyway, back to Liam. He is doing really well with the stairs and LOVES having a ton of room to run around in. If you have a chance, you should check out his recent videos. He loves to play "three" with Molly, which is just a tossing game that allows both Molly and Liam to run around like crazy and enjoy all the space. Too funny!

Mr. Man had his shots yesterday and we got a referral for an audiologist and an allergist. He is also having a full evaluation by early intervention here to determine if we want to continue services. All in all, he seems to be doing really well and his language is really picking up. He's saying a ton of words now and has decided to call Jonas (our cat) "Dory."

One of Liam's favorite things to do now is pretend play. Some of the activities he likes to pretend are:

vacuuming (both with the real vacuum and a hose that looks like a vacuum hose and is really a cover for wires:



shaving (he uses a toy car for this)

blowing up balloons:



and working at Home Depot:



Other fun (but real) activities, he has been enjoying the past couple of weeks have been:

relaxing in his new playroom:



walking to the local park to swing:



playing in the ball pit at IKEA (which is just 2 miles away!):



and going walking and running with Mama in our new Mountain Buggy:



Uncle Bryan came to visit for a night and helped switch mattresses and beds around, which was awesome and he's returning again tomorrow along with Grandmichaele and Grandpa Chuck for a weekend visit. I think it should be a blast and Liam will enjoy showing everyone around his new home. :)

We're Finally Here (and have been reunited!)

Wow! What a long two weeks it has been. All three of us survived the trip out to Virginia somehow. Liam was great on the plane with me and had a blast with Mimi and Momma out in Virginia while we waited for Daddy. He had a rough first night (understandably), but figured out quickly that the main floor of Mimi's house makes a loop and walking round and round in circles is fun! He was also sure to make his own "Ding!" each time the grandfather clock went off every 15 minutes. On Saturday, Momma and Mimi went to the Virginia Zoo with us and Liam enjoyed running around outside:



He also had a blast playing with Mimi's vaccum cleaner once he was shown the secret closet where it was stowed:



Last Thursday, we drove the 12 hours from our new house in Virginia up to our family reunion in VT. Liam was sooooo good in the car and had a blast playing with his new puzzle from "Mike" - a name he learned to say very quickly.

The reunion was great fun and Liam had a blast running around with his "cousins" Ian, Paige, and Emma. The weather was a bit hot, but Liam didn't seem to mind, especially when we went to Ben and Jerry's, where he got to enjoy a Berry Berry Extraordinary Sorbet. Yum! On Saturday, we went to a Farmer's Market, where Liam got to run around outside and meet with all the dogs there...and he met every single one. He was sure to keep cool by drinking lots of water.



Liam trying to look for yesterday:



Watching a concert with Don and Ian:



All of this was great fun, but I think Liam had the most fun when my cousin Erin pulled out a sheet, markers, and finger paints on Saturday afternoon for the kids to do an art project. Liam was by far the messiest and most excited about the entire process. I believe the pictures speak for themselves:

Getting started:



Jake showing Liam how it's done:



This is the MOST FUN EVER!!!



Oy, Mama, we need a shower!



All in the all, the reunion was a success and it was mad fun to see all the family and get reunited. Hopefully, we'll be able to see more of them now that we're on the East Coast. We are back at the house now and slowly trying to get everything set up. Will post more once things look a bit more put-together, but I can say at this point that Liam is really enjoying the new house, his new playroom, stairs, etc. I can already tell he will be very happy here!