Getting to Know You

Since we will be moving back with family soon, this seems to be an prime opportunity for a little fact sharing on Mr. Man.

Liam LOVES bananas. He can eat up to two a day and would eat more if we let him. It's truly amazing! He also loves toast.

Liam loves the cats and thinks they are hilarious. He is terrified of the carwash and doesn't think it is funny at all.

The vacuum is an obsession. He believes everyone should vaccum 24/7 and that he should be an immediate supervisor of the process. There are times when you are vacumming that you may not be doing a fine enough job....Liam is more than happy to take over at this point. It is so bad that when they vacuum the classrooms at his school everyday, he has to follow them from one room to the next and watch or he screams at the top of his lungs. He will also get down on the ground and try to peek under the closet door to see if the vacuum is still there.

Liam has inherited my anal retentiveness and perfectionism. Even his therapist has picked up on this. Everything has its place and must be put back there. If he sees something that is not his, he will bring it to the person it belongs to and no one else. All pens go to me. All car washing items go to Daddy. That's just the way it works.

Liam loves the baby gate and thinks it is his own toy. Enough said.

If Liam thinks that something tastes good, he will tell you by saying "Mmmmm" in a very "What About Bob?" fashion.

Liam loves cars. He will scoot around on his bum (he will still do that) for hours just driving the cars.

Liam can say 31 words that I can understand (some of them I need the sign also to understand). Probably 2/3 of those Daddy can understand. He knows 21+ signs and has made up some of his own. He LOVES his signing and it really helps him communicate. You will learn more signs than you ever thought you knew.

This is a daily conversation between Liam and I --
Liam: (grabbing his diaper) "Yuck."

Me: "Did you go pee pee?"

Liam: "No."

2 seconds later --

Liam: "Yuck."

Me: "Did you go pee pee?"

Liam: "No."

This will continue on forever just so he can avoid a diaper change. It's pretty funny, actually. He knows and wants to tell me when he needs a change but wants to avoid the actually changing of the diaper at all possible costs. He HATES having his diaper changed.

Liam believes that all hats should be worn in front of your face so that you can't really see. If you try to fix it, he moves it back to its original position.

Liam loves dancing and loves going into Abercrombie and Fitch to hear the music.

Liam says "Hi" to everyone.....I mean EVERYONE. Typical Army brat.

Liam sleeps still from 6:30/7 p.m. until 6 in the morning and takes a 2 - 3 hour nap everyday.

Liam is the best thing that has ever happened to me. He is my best friend.

Some recent pics:

Guadalupe Mountains Camping Trip

Well, we survived and actually had a fun, but tiring, time. We woke up early Saturday morning (around 4 a.m.) and made the two hour trip early hoping that Mr. Man would sleep most of the way and wake up at his normal time of 6 a.m. when we got there. However, Liam stayed awake the entire trip, but was happy so it turned out okay. The first thing on the agenda was to set up camp. AFterwards we planned a short hike.

The plan was to avoid any serious mountain climbing and just do a 3 mile hike. Enough to get the heart going but easy enough to carry Mr. Man along. The first 2 miles or so of the trip were not bad at all. About halfway through, we stopped at an old ranch and visited with some horses. Liam was more shy of the horses than they were of him.



After our break, we decided to take the Frijoles Trail back. Baaaaad idea. Do not take the Frijoles Trail! Most of it was uphill when you didn't expect it to be and went straight up vs. left (in the direction we needed to be heading.)



Liam found the hike VERY exhausting.



After we FINALLY got back to camp it was time for a quick rest and some lunch.



Since we had totally worn ourselves out hiking 6 miles in the sun, we decided to drive 30 minutes to Carlsbad Caverns, NM to enjoy the 56 degree weather that you can find in the underground caverns. It was another 1 - 2 miles of walking, but Liam was such a trooper and didn't complain at all about spending another 1 1/2 hours in the pack.



Well, if we weren't tired before, we were now. Taylor and I had hiked a good 8 miles that day, but Liam had been relaxing all that time in the pack. So it was time for Mama and Daddy to sit and rest while he walked in circles around the tent.



Eventually he did get a bit more tired and decided to take a rest and then have some spaghetti with Daddy.





Having been up since 4 a.m. and hardly napping at all, you would think that Mr. Man would be exhausted but nothing would get him tired out. I spent almost 3 hours with him in the tent trying to get him to sleep in his toddler bed, but he mostly just played around. Eventually, we broke down and set up the Pack and Play and he was asleep within minutes.

A lot of fun was had by all and we are all definitely tired today, but it was well worth it. All in all, a successful first camping trip!

Keeping Cool in the Summertime Heat

It's getting hot here and we've been doing our best to try and keep Mr. Man nice and cool. On Sunday, we took him to the other side of post where they have a water park. When we got there, it happened to be time for a 15 min. break for the lifeguards, so there was a bit of waiting and watching and putting on suntain lotion:






Can you tell how thrilling it was?! Eventually, it was time to get in the water. Liam was a bit nervous at first and insisted on sitting on my lap, but eventually realized that it was mad fun and decided to have at it.



Afterwards, we all dried off and went to play on the playground.



Liam loves slides and anything with the outdoors, so he really enjoyed that.

Since it has been over 100 degrees each day, I bought Mr. Man a squirt bottle thinking that I would spritz him every now and then to try and keep him cool while he played outside. Liam obviously had other plans and had took control immediately.





Needless to say, he kept himself quite cool. This weekend, we'll continue the "try not to melt in the heat" gameplan by heading off to the Guadalupe mountains for our first real camping trip with Mr. Man. He already has his own lantern, canteen, and a spiffy new camping chair. Please pray for us. :)

Hiking at Hueco Tanks

Well, it's been a busy and interesting first week at home with Mr. Man. He's a lot more active than he was last summer, but I'm loving every second of it. Yesterday morning, we went to the park and Liam rediscovered his love of slides. In the afternoon, he went swimming in his pool out back and discovered all sorts of new tricks, like not sitting in the pool:



or even staying in the pool (which obviously is hilarious):



After a good hour of "I'm in the pool, I'm out of the pool, I'm in the pool, I'm out of the pool, etc.", it was time to dry off:



We headed inside, where I realized that maybe Liam had had a bit too much sun:



He had discovered this Bob the Builder helmet and insisted that this was how it was to be worn. Amazingly enough, he never walked into any walls or anything.

This morning, we all had a hearty breakfast and headed off to Hueco Tanks State Park and Historical Site. "Where?" Liam asks:



Hueco Tanks. It's not far from El Paso and known for its great rock climbing. Most of the park is by tour only (which we did not do with Mr. Man) since there are so many old, old, old Indian artifacts and paintings all over the rocks, but we were able to do a bit of hiking anyway. Mama hiked with Liam all the way to the top of one of the mountains (okay, they're not the Alps, but he is 26 lbs):



We took a rest at the top where Liam drank more water than either of us, since hiking in the heat is hard work and paused for a family photo before heading down.





All in all, a great time was had. Liam LOVED being outside with us and hiking. Hoping to do a lot more of that when we are out East in a month!!!