Mother's Day, My Birthday, and Beyond!

For Mother's Day this year, we hosted a brunch at our house.  All the non-mothers cooked an array of food while we moms watched, sipped mimosas, and played with the littles (once they're old enough to help, we'll put them to work too.)

The boys delivering flowers to me

Aunt Kat about to flip Robin over

Mid-flip

Wearing Lego glasses

We chopped down some dead trees in our backyard recently.  Robin wanted to "help"

Helping to chop the felled tree into pieces

Robin using his body to show me the length that the logs need to be

Dean decided to make a log cabin out of the chopped-up trees...

...which Robin LOVED!

Liam enjoyed it too, and it made a fun, impromptu play pen in the yard (although we had to stay with him becuase it wasn't sturdy)

All my boys having fun!  This is a great picture!

I resurrected the sensory bin recently, and decided that Liam could join in for a brief time

It couldn't last, of course.  Beans straight into the mouth!

We had a party to celebrate my 31st birthday, since we weren't in the mindset to celebrate last year when I turned 30.  Dean made me castle-shaped cakes with our fancy bundt pans, and we had family and friends over to mingle and enjoy.

In other news, Liam has started talking!  He clearly says "uh oh," often before dropping something on the floor (yeesh.)  He also says "fish," although you usually have to be in his room and see him pointing to his mural to realize what he's saying there.  He says words that sound like "this" and "that," usually when he's pointing at osmething.  And, of course, he says "Mama" and "Dada" a lot, though pretty indiscriminately.  He also babbles a lot and much of it sounds like words, just not clear ones yet.

Liam has started drinking whole milk, and he's sucking it down.  We never really got him to use a bottle and sippy cups are still iffy, so we just give him and open cup at meals and hold it for him.  After the first few meals, he took to the cup and milk like a fish to water and has started drinking significant amounts.  Our nursing sessions have dwindled in response, and I expect him to wean himself pretty soon.  We've cut back on the number of nursings, mainly for convenience, but the amount of time he nurses at his remaining sessions is getting much shorter.

He still isn't walking yet, which surprises me considering how early he cruised--and the fact that he cruised before he crawled.  He'll walk behind Robin's push truck now, but hasn't ventured across a room by himself yet.

Robin is getting a lot more social.  He's now comfortable going up to other kids, talking to them, and playing with them.  He still takes a while to warm up to a new situation, but after he's acclimated he'll plunge right into the thick of things.  We've found a playgroup that seems to be relatively stable, so I'm happy about the friends for everyone and the chance to get out on a regular basis.

Avon Vacation and other fun

We decided Liam needed a trim.  The hair over his ears had gotten out of hand.

So in late April, I took the scissors to his head.  Just over the ears.  One side was perfect, and the other was okay.  But nobody's very critical of baby hair. 

This happened a lot sooner than for Robin, by the way.  Robin didn't get his first haircut until after 18 months.  But then, Liam kept a lot more of his hair after birth, so it makes sense.  Liam now looks like he needs a trim at the back of his head, but I'm waiting until after his birthday party, just in case I butcher it.  I'd rather he not look frightful in birthday party photos.

We bought some new lawn chairs and then realized that we didn't have a good way to get them home.  Rather than work out a complicated way to run back and forth several times, we decided to use the jumper cables as rope.  You might be a redneck if...

It's Mr. Pancake Head!  Robin is crazy though.  He doesn't like whipped cream.  Even with this fun presentation, he didn't want to eat it, and we had to scrape it off before he ate his pancake.  I don't know where he's learning this from, because it certainly isn't from me.

We took our traditional trip up to Avon again this spring, although at a different location.  There's a new Westin up there, so that's where we stayed this time.  Something else different was that Mom went up with us for a few days.  Dad was visiting his mom, so Mom would have been all alone at home anyway, so we invited her to join us.

Liam did quite well riding on the luggage cart.  Much better than I expected him to do, actually.  He's starting to really have some coordination!

The first (and probably last) time I wore Liam in the backpack carrier.  We purchased this at a garage sale before Robin was even born, and it has a HORRIBLE design.  There's a piece of metal that ends right in the middle of your back.  I'm amazed Dean's worn it as many times as he has (and he hasn't used it much.)  We'll have to do something else for future hiking.

I've been using two cameras these days.  My new point-and-shoot lives in the diaper bag, so I'm always ready for shots on the go.  It also shoots videos in widescreen.  I still use the older camera too because I think it takes better indoor shots.  I decided only to bring the newer one to Avon because I didn't want to lug two cameras around.

The main reason I purchased the newer camera was because it is WATER RESISTANT!!!  I've had it since August of last year, but for one reason or another I hadn't tested its water resistance until this trip.  So not bringing the second camera was a bit of a gamble.  What if it were faulty and stopped working after its first plunge into the pool?  Well, I'm happy to report that it functioned as it was supposed to.  And I love this camera!

Robin sitting on the step and squirting water at me.  (None of us wanted to put our heads under, it was quite windy on this day.)

Dean took longer to plunge into the pool with us.  Liam was napping during all this--one terrific advantage to having Mom along!  And no, she didn't want to swim.  She didn't even bring a suit!

Liam got his first taste of chocolate while we were in Avon.  Can you say "yummy?!"

On a family hike

One tired baby.  We tried to delay his nap on this day, so he would take one really long one instead of two shorter ones.

Liam's first visit to a pool

On the duck

He finally started smiling at the end, once he figured out he could splash

And slide

He really liked the slide

(And have I mentioned that I love this camera?)

We spent a fair amount of time at playgrounds.  In fact, this vacation was punctuated by pools and playgrounds.

See?  Yet another playground in the background

Up in Beaver Creek

We always stop in Vail on our way home, and for the past few years I've always gotten a picture of Robin on this rock.  Now I've got both boys.

Sometimes, trying to get kids to pose is just so darn hard

We always stop in Vail on our way home, and for the past few years I've gotten a picture of Robin on this rock. Now I've got both boys.

A brief stop at our favorite Vail playground--the Pirate Ship!

So those were the highlights of our trip!

Smile

More blogging binges.  Yeesh.  I was feeling so caught up on photos and then just stopped for a while.  Here's the beginning of the next wave.

We pulled out the Hoberman Sphere for the first time since Liam's birth.  Liam wanted to explore it cautiously, while Robin wanted to be crazy.

Liam crawled right in once I was inside

Then we draped it with blankets to make a hut

Robin helping his Poppa blow out birthday candles (this tells you how old these pictures are)

I thought Liam looked cute in this outfit

All three guys on an airplane

Making a human train on the slide!

Dean climbed to the top of the mobius strip and I helped Robin get up too, all while Liam sat on the ground, sampling wood chips

We went out for Kathy's birthday

Liam learned how to escape the seat belt on restaurant high chairs

Robin delivering his card

Liam delivering his card too

From a recent trip to Casa Bonita.  Robin LOVED Black Bart's Cave, and went through it a gajillion times

Beneath the waterfall with Liam

"In prison" in Black Bart's Cave

Liam just turned one, although we won't get to those photos for a few weeks.  Robin was a bit jealous of Liam's special day.  He's never acted out for Dean's or my birthday before, and he's been fine at kids' birthday parties that we've been invited to--but something about his brother getting birthday wishes turned Robin into an attention hog.  We didn't even do that much on Liam's actual day--a trip to the park, Robin helped me bake a cake, cake and presents after dinner.  Even the presents were minor, since we're saving most of it for the party next weekend, but even so...  Robin mainly had a severe case of the Grabsies, especially while we were making dinner.  He'd grab something from the counter and we'd be trying to get it back when he'd wail "But I want to help!"  Kiddo, it's much more help if you don't grab things first, especially when you don't know what they are!  Well, we diverted him as much as we could by giving him stuff to set the table with, but it was still a bit stressful.  Watching Liam smear cake all over his face made the evening worthwhile though.  And Liam ate a HUGE dinner.  Can little tummies really hold that much?  Robin also declared that he didn't want any cake, even though he helped to bake it.  He's been doing that a lot lately, for some reason he doesn't much like cake anymore.  Go figure.

Happy Birthday Liam!!!
Okay, just one more photo.  A teaser, as it were.