our month in photos

Time for a monthly update :)

Since it's been so long, why don't we just skip all the writing part

I'm not good at the writing part anyway,

and we'll move on to the pictures.

That's why you're here anyway, right?

Since I've been gone....

It snowed!

I know, that in this photo, there happens to be more grass, than snow.

But Liam looked too cute in his snow suit to resist posting this!

This year, we decided to take some family photos to

send out in a christmas card (ha! Perhaps a January card?)

As with most family photos taken by an amateur,

we had a whole lot of outtakes:

First we thought we'd do one with Jasper:

hmmm... living room a little too small to get my camera back

quite far enough to get Jasper in the photo.

Incidentally however, this is Jasper's most prominent feature- his cone head :)

Then we thought, we'd do one of the two of us:

Yeah, Kyle looks pissed, I left my glasses on,

and oh right, totally not in focus :)

Then Liam just got silly

Notice, how I'm also flipping my hair in this one.

Definitely not going on a card.

This one was saved from outtakes by cutting

Kyle out, sorry Kyle. Liam was done with photos by now,

and was trying to be rescued by his Mommy

Coming soon to a January card near you

Finally! At least we're all semi-smiling (as much as an

almost 2 year old does for photos anyhow) and mostly happy.

Thank god for digital cameras, and the ability to delete!

I did get a couple of others, with Liam being super cute

Please forgive the exposure on this one, I tried to fix it, but it looked worse fiddled with, so I left it be, and it was just too cute not to post.

Liam is incidentally allowed to sit, but not bounce on Jasper.

Jasper doesn't seem to mind either way, but I am a little concerned

Liam may one day be heavier than 22lbs, and actually do some damage!

We also have been to Ohio, although sadly most of those photos

seem to still be on my camera, so will have to wait for a blog post soon.

While in Ohio, it snowed! (A real snow) At least we had

something to show for the 20 degree temps :)

And we got to play with cousin Christopher in the snow too!

wait for me!

My all-boy child is going to make his first debut

as a cross dresser. He first just has to get his shoes adjusted

So, I lied, I am going to type a bit. Liam loves, I mean loves wearing my shoes. I have no idea why. He often has me take shoes off my feet, so that he can put them on his feet instead. He has been known to spend, many, many tens of minutes (which in almost 2 year old world might as well be hours or days) at my closet putting on high heels, boots, flats, clogs, whatever he can reach. It is pretty hilarious. Especially for the fact that he is only very mildly interested in Kyle's shoes, and as you all know, he is 100% b-o-y. Perhaps he will one day be driving his hot-rod/tractor/recycling truck in stilettos :)

Just to reiterate his boy-ness, here is his new, tractor covered bathrobe,

sewed for him by his FarMor

Hopefully, with school out for a few weeks for me, and many adventures to

come in the interim, another blog post will be appearing soon.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas!!

Swings

We have two cousins, one who likes to smile for pictures, and one who does not. They both, however, love to swing

this may be my all time favorite picture of Ava

One guess which one doesn't smile :)

Look at her!

Sitting in the big kid swing already!

He may not smile for pictures, but he does have fun!

New and improved: Hello?? Is there anyone out there?

My dog ate my homework, so I couldn't update the blog

I was just about to update the blog, and then a tornado blew away my computer

My computer crashed, so I couldn't post

I got caught in traffic, and my cellphone died, so I didn't get home in time....

:)

Would you like any more excuses, real or ahem, otherwise?

So, yes, as it turns out, yes, I have been a delinquent blogger. But... I am going to change that now with a lovely post with pictures of the little one and our adventures over the past few weeks, and of course, of Halloween.

What? Halloween was almost a month ago, and christmas decorations have been out for weeks you say? Just a reminder about where we've been, and that yes, time does go quickly. Halloween does just seem like it was yesterday, and yes, Christmas will be here before we know it. Now, on to some photos :)

You may recognize this outfit from last year:

(last year)

But it finally fit this year! (although he was more

compliant with the photos last year, this year, he wore the hat!)

Both my boys, on the lawn for Halloween,

with Liam grasping the true meaning of Halloween: candy!

The Halloween gang, minus Talia and myself

After the lawn, we went back to Mary's house,

where Talia captured some lovely photos of myself

And of Mary and Chris

And of course, of the beloved Tractor

Aside from Halloween, we've been enjoying this wonderful fall weather.

Liam has thoroughly been enjoying his tractor,

aka the best hand-me-down present that a boy could possibly receive, ever

It's the perfect toy while Mom's hanging laundry on the line

And for playing with on a sunny afternoon

Liam also had an opportunity to help his Poppy

while burning some brush. A very safe, toddler activity, I assure you

See? He brought his boots. He was ready for anything

Fall

Fall is here! We've been decorating (and eating!) fall cookies, drinking apple cider, and seeing "pum-pins" everywhere we go. The weather is crisp and cool, and the leaves are starting to turn. Summer is officially over.

Liam thought today was perfect weather for sweaters

And for showing off his tail! :)

Happy Fall!

Crozet Music Fest

A couple of weeks ago, we all took off for the Crozet Music Fest accompanied by Mary, Chris and Talia. It was a super fun night, filled with great food, great people and great music. Talia and Liam had a great time together, and she took him off for most of the night.

What a little mother she is!

Don't you think they're going to be great friends?

Liam got plenty of time to run off on his own too..

And time for airplane rides!

And for sitting on trucks

He really liked the sitting on trucks part :)

And just to prove that there were grown ups there...

One day I'll photograph all the other grown ups too... :)

Happy weekend!

Wee Ooos and Aah Ooos

Some days, I just want to pause time. Days like when we roll down our window as an ambulance passes by and Liam yells with sheer glee: "Wee Ooo, Wee Ooo, Wee Ooo!" And when he sees his favorite monkey towel and he squeals "Aah Ooo, Aah Ooo!" I know his little phrases will soon all be gone, and only real big kid words will be left in their place, and his high pitched sweet little voice will be all grown up. But for now, we still have our Wee oos, and Aah Oos.

What we've been doing when we haven't been blogging

Blog posting seems to be tricky to get tricky lately, so I will be brief :)

Kyle's boards (the 3rd of his 3 boards) are coming up week after next, so he has been spending much of his time studying. He will celebrate the completion of boards by spending 11 days in the MICU. Yay.

I am continuing my clinicals and work and looking forward to christmas break, a mere 2 months away ;-) This past week was slow as the clinics have just started their new electronic medical record, making getting clinical spots tricky. This has meant 4 days in a row at home with my little one, which makes me very happy.

Liam had "surgery" today. Surgery would be in quotations because this did require general anesthesia, but it lasted about 10 minutes, and there were no scalpels involved, thank goodness. He had a clogged tear duct, which has now been opened. The anesthesia was the only scary part, but luckily he did just fine, and woke up starving like I have never seen him before. He has barely managed to stay on the weight charts, but he woke today and downed 9 ounces of milk, ate 2 cereal bars, graham crackers and many, many bunny grahams. One hour later he ate a huge lunch. I guess Liam, although he did not complain once the little sweet heart, did not like being NPO until 11 am. He was subdued until after his nap time, but woke up rearing to go, all signs of subduedness (is that a word?) were left in his crib.

I have pictures to post from our latest adventures, but those will have to wait until tomorrow. I just got photoshop (a real yay this time!), so I will need to do lots of practicing editing and lots of posting after. Photoshop will have to wait beyond tomorrow as I will be in clinical or work for the next 4 days... But for the mean time, soon, I will post my unedited pictures from our weekend.

Goodnight!

Crozet Fireman's Parade

Kyle, Liam and I went to the Crozet Fireman's Parade last weekend and had a blast. Luckily, Liam did not learn that what was being thrown by the parade participants was candy (nor does he really ((yet)) no what candy is) so we were able to just sit back and watch, rather than fight off the 6 year olds around us :) Here are a few photos from the day.

Somehow none of my photos of the fire engines

were blog worthy, so here is one that I found,

very similar to what we saw at the parade

and another, likewise stolen from the Crozet

fire department's website :)

The actual fire engines were pretty loud, so this is how Liam

spent some of the time, while waiting for the "Wee Ooos"

Oh but how excited, if not just a little amazed we were!

There were plenty of his favorites...

In a variety of colors

and even some horses too

We saw lots of old cars

And an ambulance or two

(see all the 6 year olds, ready to pounce :) )

I couldn't get away with posting a CARS ambulance

and not a WARS one,

so this one is courtesy of the WARS website

And just because I couldn't resist,

here is Mr. Independence himself, headed home

after a great time at the parade :)