January 21

Time out. Naughty chair. Punishment. No matter what you call it, we use it with an ever growing frequency these days. Liam is a big fan of pushing the limits. He gets in trouble for two reasons, he's testing or he's bored. I can see his wheels turning as he does whatever it is he shouldn't be doing. Will I get away with it? Am I really not supposed to do this? What if I try it in another room/with another toy/on another person? The long arm of the law is pretty good at catching up with him. Our "prison cell" is an average wooden dining room chair. It gets pulled up to the wall and Liam sits for two minutes while he thinks about what he did (a mother can dream, right?). I've heard various things come from Liam while he's in time out. Most are requests to get up or murmurings about what got him in trouble in the first place.

Liam, from time out...fourth trip today: "I'm going to listen now, Momma. This chair isn't very comfortable, you know!"

January 20

Okay, this may not be as humorous as most things that come out of my little boy's mouth, but for my own sake this tidbit needed saving. I made one of Liam's favorites for dinner this evening; tacos, rice, and beans. After sitting down to his plate and eating for a full five minutes without saying anything (minor miracle) he finally comes up for air.

Liam: "This is a delicious dinner. This is the best dinner ever."
Mark: "You really love tacos, huh Bud?"
Liam: "You are the best cooker ever, Momma"

How sweet is that? I reserve the right to remind him of this once he's had the opportunity to be cooked for by more than like five people :).

January 19

While playing outside in our crazy snow filled yard Liam was able to get to his playhouse. The snow reached nearly to the top of the door so he had a hard time opening it. After struggling for a few minutes he decided to get in the easy way and just slid in over the side. The snow was so high it was as if he dropped down into the house instead of being on level with the rest of the ground. Once he got inside he got down to business, literally. One of his favorite games is playing drive-thru at the window in the back of the house. Even Connor gets in the game pretending to gather the order for Liam.

Liam: "Momma?"
Me: "Yes, Liam?"
Liam: "What can I get you, sir?"
Me: "I'm not a sir, I'm a ma'am or a miss. Men are sirs."
Liam: "Okay. What can I get for you, sir?"
Me: "Liam! I'm not a sir!"
Liam: "Do you want to order something anyway?"

January 12

We had a very special treat for dinner last night. I don't know who likes it more, Liam or Daddy. It was a "Breakfast for Dinner" night. We had the whole spread; scrambled eggs with green peppers, potatoes, sausage, waffles, coffee (well that part was for Momma) and juice. Daddy was so thrilled with his fare he started singing aloud. Normally the boys love when Daddy is goofy, which happens fairly often as I'm sure any of you who know Mark can guess :P. Tonight Connor was thrilled and laughing his head off as Mark went on singing about random things. Liam, however, was in a more serious mood.

Liam: "Please stop, Daddy"
Mark: "Stop what, bud? Singing?"
Liam: "Yes."
Mark: "Why? I like singing."
Liam points to his Red Sox cup: "Because Daddy, it says right here, No Singing. See? R-E-D-S-O-X spells no singing. Sorry Daddy, no singing allowed."

January 8

This morning as we were going through the usual morning routine I mentioned it was breakfast time. Liam hasn't been feeling all that well so his appetite has been pretty weak. I figured I'd surprise him with one of his favorites for breakfast, knowing he'd eat pretty well.

Momma: "How would you like some scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast?"
Liam: "No, thank you. I don't want eggs."
Momma: "You don't want eggs? Okay, I'll make waffles and sausage instead."
Liam: "Can I have a salami and cheese sandwich, please?"
Momma: "No, pumpkin, I've told you before, salami sandwiches are not a breakfast food. We can have a sandwich for lunch, okay?"
Liam: "Can we have lunch for breakfast, Momma?"

January 1, Happy New Year!

File this under 'yet another weird thing my son wants to be when he grows up'...

Liam: "Did you do that when you were a little boy, Momma?"
Me: "I wasn't a little boy, bud, Momma was a girl when she was little. Girls grow up to be women and boys grow up to be men."
Liam: "So you weren't a boy like me?"
Me: "Nope. Daddy used to be a little boy."
Liam: "Daddy used to be a little boy and now he's a daddy?"
Me: "Yup. You're a little boy now and you can be a daddy when you grow up if you want to be."
Liam: "No. I don't want to be a daddy. I want to be Chuck E. Cheese."

December 23

While on our way to a Christmas party this evening we were caught in some traffic. Gotta love Providence at 5 P.M. Liam is chatting away in the backseat and suddenly decides he wants to be a dinosaur.

Liam: "RAWWWWR"
He does this four or five times, at top volume.
Momma: "Liam, do you think you could be a quiet dinosaur? Daddy is trying to concentrate on the traffic and it's really distracting when you yell like that."
Liam: "But Momma, I'm not a quiet dinosaur, I'm a REAL dinosaur. I want to be a gen-u-ine REAL dinosaur."


The Christmas party was great. I got to see all my extended family; cousins, aunts, uncles and such. It reminded me of when I was young, the way Christmas used to be growing up. One of my favorite family traditions as a kid was my Uncle Dick dressing up every Christmas as Santa Claus. After all the other presents had been exchanged and dinner was over, we'd hear the jingling of bells and the familiar "Ho, Ho, Ho" and down the stairs he'd come. Santa Claus with a big cloth bag over his shoulder. One by one he'd call each cousin's name and we'd have a seat on his lap and get our last gift for the day. The best part is there would always be a gift for my grandfather in the sack as well, the eternal kid at heart, although I think my aunts just loved making my Grandpa sit on his brother-in-law's lap year after year.

Liam had the opportunity to meet this Santa for the first time tonight. He was so excited he was wriggling in my lap. Before Santa even made it to his seat, Liam was talking to him,
Liam: "Hi Santa! Hi!"
Santa: "Hello, What's your name? Liam?"
Liam: "Yeah, I'm Liam."
Santa: "What's your little brother's name?"
Liam: "He's Connor."
Santa: "And what's your mother's name?"
Liam: "Momma"

Santa took his seat and called each child up by name. Most kids were too shy or too old/cool to sit with Santa, but when Liam's name is called he went right up and sat on Santa's lap. He took his present and despite his excitement still remembered to say thank you. Made Momma proud. He came back to me with the gift in his hot little hands. He looked up with shining eyes and said, in awe, "He knows my name, Momma!" After all the gifts are handed out Liam asked to say good bye before Santa had to go. He remembered to thank him again and then Liam turned to Santa and said"Merry Cwistmas, I LOVE you, Santa!" Have you ever heard a room collectively 'awwwww'? I honestly thought my aunts would melt into a collective puddle of sap right there.