Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
We were lucky enough to have a white Christmas this year - the week before it started to snow and ended up being more than a foot over a few days. The temperature has mostly stayed below freezing and our street looks very pretty with all the Christmas lights and snow men on the front lawns, exactly what I picture a Canadian Christmas to be like. We took Liam out a few times but he did not seem to be overly enamored with the snow and mostly cried - the only place he would walk was the path way that Ian shovelled, other than that he would fall in the snow and cry until we took him back inside. We did manage to get some nice photos in the short period of time he did go out and inbetween cry sessions. We also tried skating for the first time at a children's Christmas party held by Grannys company - he seemed interested the first few laps and then had a meltdown - mostly because his giant Elmo bike helmet was covering his eyes. He definitely enjoys eating icy things more than he does playing with icy things.
Christmas morning we woke up, had our coffee and milk and headed upstairs to unwrap our gifts with the rest of the family. Liam got thoroughly spoiled and was entertained for hours with his new tow truck, yellow Tonka dump truck, yellow school bus, African animal drum set, animal farm and books to name a few. We saved his big present for last; a singing Elmo tricycle - he totally loved it! We hid it in my parents bedroom and brought it out with a big red bow on it. His face just lit up and he went straight for it. As soon as he sat on it he wanted to go "fast" and would yell out "fast!" up and down the passage. It was great! Ian and I both got spoiled too but it is so wonderful to watch your child's excitement when they open their presents. Granny got Liam practicing on how to unwrap presents by putting cookies in gift wrap for him to open. By the time he got to his real presents he was a pro! After presents we had a late brunch and then turkey dinner -yum! All in all a very relaxing day.
Our month started out with another bout of the flu - both Liam and I got quite ill but Liam ended up getting gastroenteritis (viral stomach bug) and after a nasty vomiting episode and 7 diarrhea diapers, we took him into the hospital to be assessed. He was a bit dehydrated but otherwise ok. We had to wait for 2.5 hours to see a doctor which was immensely challenging - although Liam was sick he was still active enough to not want to stay in the waiting room and so he proceeded to take off down the hallways in his Elmo pajamas and white socks while holding pedialyte popsicles that the nurse gave us to get him hydrated. By the time we left he had collected goodness knows what from the hospital floors and had a face covered in various popsicle colours - he ate 3 of them while we waited. The nurse was really nice and did his best to keep him occupied with gadgets - Liam particularly liked the ear thermometer. Most of the other patients were older so Liam was definitely the minority but old folks loved him and didn't seem to mind his outbursts when we tried to keep him contained. Good thing too - the kid has lung! A few days after the hospital visit he had another vomiting episode and while he was in the bath told us his tummy was "tight" and then said "poo" after which he shot diarrhea into the bath water. That was fun to clean up. It seems that his system was doing it's final clean up since he has been healthy & happy again. Till the next flu bug hits of course. Stay tuned: As the World Turns with the Wards Health will continue.
We are on another verbal & mental growth spurt - Liam can now count from 1 to 14 and knows when he has two objects in his hands (e.g. says "two sucky's"). He also knows the shapes rectangle, square, circle, oval, diamond, star and triangle. He has also expanded his colours to red, green, orange, yellow and blue. He had an aptitude for wooden puzzles and puts all the shapes, animals and objects into their respective slots at lightening speed. Time to move onto something more difficult to keep his brain stimulated. We are reading like crazy and the length of the books are now increasing - he still loved flap books, but has moved on from touch & feel type books to ones with longer sentences like "Red Fish Blue Fish". His two favourite books at the moment are "Digger Man" and "Big Fire Engine" - we read them every night before bed. It's nice to have reading as part of our bed time routine now - it relaxes all of us, especially Ian, the stories put him to sleep. Liam is still riding the late night party train and usually won't go to bed before 11:00pm - even then it's a huge struggle. The only saving grace is that he sleeps through the night and doesn't wake up before 8:30am. He is also still sleeping in our bed but we are trying to change that. We have become lazy since we are sleeping so much better, but 3 bodies in a queen sized bed is not very comfortable, especially when the middle body turns sideways and kicks you in the head!
Fire trucks are Liam's big passion this month - he still loved buses but is intensely interested in fire trucks. We bought him a fire truck and he plays with it constantly. Ambulances are also high on the list - he calls then "Neeners" - just like Ian did when he was little. Too cute. I can't even begin to tell you how many toys with wheels we have in our house. Little cars, big trucks, dump tricks, lego trucks, you name it. Everything and anything with wheels. Typical little boy.
We are still into Wheels On The Bus - I have resided myself to the fact that this phase will not be over anytime soon. Liam now sings lyrics from the song in his tiny high pitched voice - it's dead cute. He also sings the alphabet and can do the whole thing except for "QRSTUV" - he does all the letters till that point and then skips to "WXYZ". I'm convinced we'll have him spelling out letters by the time he's two and maybe even starting to read.
We have become creative with having to listen to Wheels on The Bus all the time in the car and have now downloaded various songs interspersed with Wheels On The Bus. Makes us a little more sane while driving and Liam doesn't seem to mind. As long as we can get him into his car seat we're golden. You Tube has also expanded to include videos of fire trucks and diggers so we are not always listening to nursery rhymes. Bonus!
It is hard to believe that another year has gone by and we are into a new year. I finally completed a DVD of Liam's life from birth to now for all of my family for Christmas. It made me cry the first time I saw it completely done with music. It's hard to believe I was once pregnant, gave birth to a beautiful little boy and have watched him grow up from a tiny baby to a gorgeous, bright, wonderful toddler. I cannot wait to see what adventures lie ahead for the Ward family in 2009.
Happy New Year!
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