Happy Halloween!
This was Liam’s first official “trick or treat” experience as he was only 6 months old last Halloween. This year the boys went with the Curious George theme with Liam being Curious George and Ian being the Man in the Yellow Hat. Ian’s outfit was so bright you could see him from a mile away in his matching pants, shirt & hat. The two of them spent the afternoon at Mall-O-Ween which involves walking around the mall and trick or treating at the stores which give out candy to all the kids. It’s mainly geared towards younger kids so they don’t have to walk out in the dark. Apparently the boys outfits were a hit & they came home with a large bucket of candy. Since our street has lots of families & is on a quiet cul-de-sac they went out for round two with Homer Simpson (Grandpa Derek) and Vampire Queen (Aunty Caylin). By about the third house Liam had caught on to the whole concept and would walk up to the door of a house holding out his bucket and say “treeeet” when the door opened. The neighbours just ate it up!
The weekend before Halloween we took a trip out to Galey Farms which is a farm nearby our house that has a large pumpkin patch, corn maze, haunted house, petting zoo, train & hay rides. After a nice train ride around the farm we hung out with the animals, played in the kids park & then took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our Halloween pumpkin. Liam went straight for the dirt & thoroughly enjoyed poking the squishy rotten pumkins while I madly chased him around trying to get the perfect “pumpkin photo”. By the time we got back to the car Liam was totally wiped from all the fresh air & promptly fell asleep on the way home. In the evening we got out our carving tools and the boys went to town – while Daddy desperately tried to keep the pumpkin guts out of the pumpkin, Liam would dump them right back in. Luckily I had covered the entire kitchen with newspaper, by the time the carving was over there were pumpkin guts splattered everywhere. Liam was most annoyed with Daddy that he wouldn’t let him handle the knife – good thing the guts kept him busy.
Big news in the walking world: Monday October 13th was Liam’s first official “walking” moment. We were lyng on the floor playing with him and all of a sudden he simply stood up and walked all the way around Ian to me. We were stunned for a few seconds and then started screaming “yay!” and clapping – he was most pleased with himself. Now when he does his short walking spurts we say “yay” and clap automatically – to the point where he’ll stand up, start clapping and then walk. Oh well – it’s all about the repetition!
In word world Liam is into his “oo’s” – he’ll point at the living room floor and say “wood” & if you ask him how he is he’ll say “good”. He has become a huge fan of You Tube videos and constantly requests “Wheels on The Bus”, his absolute favourite song. We cannot get within an inch of the computer without him screaming “Wheels, Bus!” – it’s almost as bad as the on and off light phase. In addition to the Wheels on The Bus, he also loves Old Macdonald (calls it “ee-ya-yee-ya-yo”) and Elmo singing songs with celebrities like Andrea Boccelli.
Liam has proved recently that he is Daddy’s boy with his new love of pizza. When we ask him what he wants for dinner he automatically says “pizza!”. We have figured out a healthy version to keep him happy & it gets some cheese into him – he still does not like pieces of cheese but will eat it in melted form. He is also nuts for ice-cream (calls it “icy”) which is Ian’s favourite food. I can see how having a toddler can be challenging from a food perspective although Liam still eats almost anything and loves vegetables. My acquisition of training cups has paid off & Liam is sippy cupping like a pro, no more straws for the moment. I don’t miss the days of sucking up the straw & spitting right out at all. In the morning we have our juice or “dooth” as he calls it or sometimes the request is for milk (we have progressed from saying “moo” to “milk”). He is also saying “yoghurt” instead of “gagu” and “badananana” instead of “yayo” for banana. Got a few more nana’s to cut off there still!
In toyland it’s all about the wheels ie: buses, cars, aeroplanes and trucks. Anything with wheels is cool. When an aeroplane is flying over he’ll point at the sky and say “plane!”. We’ve also been doing more arts & crafts as he loves to paint & draw. I’ve stocked up on construction paper, brushes, paint & art smock – it’s a seriously messy business. I made the mistake of leaving a brush & tub of black paint in front of him while he was working on his Halloween masterpiece & he ended up painting his face & hair black – even his teeth were black. I had to scrub him down for 20 minutes straight – fun!
Fall is officially upon us – the weather is colder, the days are shorter & so are the clothes. Weed boy is now 33 inches long & weighs 24 lbs. So the entire closet has been overhauled & Liam has been fitted with new Winter duds. I swear he grows an inch overnight sometimes. Even his feet have grown to a size 5. To continue encouraging the walking we got him a new pair of Spiderman runners that light up when you walk – he loves them except that he constantly looks down to see the lights – I’m praying he won’t smack into a wall due to my “creative” thinking!
So I figure I'm now officially a toddler mom since my lipstick is accompanied by goldfish crackers in the bottom of my purse, I'm humming "Wheels on the Bus" while doing my 4th load of laundry & I'm constantly pelted with toys while trying to take a shower.
Aahhh yes - we have reached the one and a half year mark for sure!
