Merry Christmas!

Liam is sitting in my lap helping me pic out whichpictures to use for saying thank you.

he also  is helping me type this. i am holding his hand and helping him find the letters I want to use on the keyboard.

We opened the gifts from Dan's Family on Christmas Eve, and the ones from Mama and Dada and Mama's family on Christmas Morning. 

So here it is, our big picture heavy THANK YOU! for everyone who made Liam's Christmas amazing!

We started out with an Early Christmas with Grumpa Dave and Grandma Kathy

Liam was VERY excited

He got many amazing things, like a firefly lamp for his room...

...and a HUGE sticker book!

Evie got some pretty new clothes, and some books

Liam played with that sticker book for DAYS!

Evie fell asleep after all the excitement.

 Then, we had some Christmas Eve joy!

Thank you Grandma Glenda for the warm fuzzy clothes!

And the amazing Cars Puzzle and Book!

Liam HAD to put it together right away!

Thank you Aunt Mel and Uncle Kurt for the amazing wooden toys and the fun outfits!

And thank you for the outfit for Evie as well! Liam helped us open it.

He really liked his wooden bus!

Liam enjoyed the gift from our neighbors too! It was a Lightning McQueen photo frame.

We got a gift from an unknown source at the family breakfast, there was no name on it, but Liam ADORED the Hot Wheels inside of it!

He got a watch and a puzzle from The Mess Crew...

and a copy of Charlotte's Web, one of my FAVORITE movies that I can not wait to open and share with Liam!

Thank you again to Mel and Kurt for the books! Liam will have fun reading them and Evie will really enjoy her books soon.

Evie got a neat set of blocks from Great Grandma Glenda, she seems to like them already and soon enough she will be building towers out of them.

And Christmas Morning was full of MORE fun!

On Christmas morning, Liam's pile of gifts was HUGE!

he got a LOT of new Cars!

Evie loved her wrapping paper!

Had a stare down with a frog...

before deciding he was pretty cool!

The methods of packaging toys gave Dada a hard time!

Evie got a soft warm new shirt from Uncle Rob and Aunt Amy! She is going to look so GOOD in it!

and she got a pack of tactile balls which she already had worked on touching and licking.

Liam got a tool box from Uncle Rob and Aunt Amy, and he had a BLAST opening it and then measuring the box using his very own Tape Measure

Evie was rather captivated by the wrapping paper all morning

Liam waited patiently for help opening some of his toys

He was so happy to see some new Cars characters

Johnny had to come play with some bows and get his bum in a picture

and Liam enjoyed his stocking that Grandma Julie sent him last year, restuffed with new gifts!

His blanket from Grammy Wanda was an instant hit!

Evie pondered the pointy ball for a while

Both kiddos got fun gifts from Aunt Saskia and Uncle Bob

Evie loved her hat

and her scarf...

and both at the same time!

And to say it again, Thank you to everyone!!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!

Telling The Truth

I know I shouldn't read the news, there is nothing but horrible things in it. Nannies snapping and killing kids, people being murdered, puppies being left for dead in trash cans and now with the elections there is slander and mayhem and people being rude and... ya know, I don't even wanna get started on that route.

But this caught my eye today. A title for a blog by another mom, "Kid Suspended for Bringing Gun to School Would Have Been Better Off Hiding It". I read that, and then read the original article.

And it got me thinking.

This is why children don't tell us the truth. This is why for a lot of children it is easier to lie and pretend it didn't happen, because the punishment for telling the truth is too much. Schools have policies, yadda yadda, but this was not a case of the gun being brought to hurt someone or even just to show off, it was the case of an 8 year old being 8 YEARS OLD and forgetting where he put something.

If this boy had hidden the gun and it hadn't been seen, no harm done really. But if he had hidden it and someone saw it, he could have faced even worse punishment. But from how it looks to me, he noticed something that was wrong, he knew it was wrong and he tried to do the right thing. He is now being punished for doing the right thing.

I know that as a mom I will try to make the punishment fit the crime, and that when Liam tries to do the right thing he is rewarded for that. If that little boy was my son, I would make that 10 day suspension a vacation and give him a reward. We could go shoot that BB gun at some tin cans in an empty field, go out for ice cream, get a new toy that ISN'T a gun that he could take to school, and then I would get him a second BB gun to keep at grandpa's house so he never had to transport the gun again and not have the same thing happen again.

I hope my little boy grows up and is the kind of boy who will tell the truth no matter what, and I hope that he will never be afraid to tell me the truth. And when he is old enough and responsible enough, we'll get a BB gun and teach him how to be safe with a gun and that if he ever sees one where it isn't supposed to be, he tells an adult right away just like this little boy did.

Rainy Day Amusement

It's only been rainy here for about two weeks, but already we have run through a whole list of things to do inside. We are kind of in an awkward place with Liam, he wants to do things but loses interest fast, decides to do something else with the concept (example: fingerpainting on paper becomes fingerpainting on the floor/couch/window/dog), or is just plain not interested (like crayons... he will not color right now).

So, here are some of the things we have done, (and I am open to more ideas!)

Watched a movie and turned it into watching a movie from inside a rolling toy cart.

 Used stickers and blank postcards to make Halloween post cards to send to people. (reminder, send those out today....)

 Put boxes on heads.

 After Liam had such a blast playing with a balloon at a friends house I thought maybe he would like one of his own. He loved it for 15 minutes and had a BLAST with it, until he bit it and ripped the edge off and all the air came out. We sure were glad we only bought him the 3.99 balloon and not the 9.99 balloon at that point.

Play with Cars. He first started with Lightning, Mater, and Finn. Not long after that I found Holley. We added Francesco, Mack, Shu, and Raule over the next 2 months. Here he is getting Nigel. These are all characters from the movies, and we still have Rod, Fillmore, Ramone, Sally, Sheriff, Professor Z, and.... someone else.... tucked away for those days when there is nothing else to do and he is going insane. Before summer comes again I expect him to have quite the cast of Cars characters in his hands! The best part (and worst in some ways...) is that he knows them all by name and wants to keep them together. This is awesome because its fun, but bad because it means if we ever lose one of them or it gets left up in the bedroom and he is downstairs it can make for a sad Liam. And yes, Liam HAS TO have ALL his Cars to go to sleep. He knows if one is missing and will not sleep until he has them all. But they bring him such JOY! It also makes me smile to see him re-enacting some scenes from the movies with his toys.

 To amuse me and Evie while Liam is asleep I have been trying to get great pictures of her, but in between the really precious ones, we get the ones that I love the best... the funny looks!

And of course, we nap. Rainy days are good for naps!