Back to School

Liam is really cute these days. Though don't get me wrong, he has his moments.

He went back to school on Monday. His teacher, Mrs. Ally was very happy to see him. He was supposed to start in the two-year-old room, but he's not happy there yet. So he goes back to Mrs. Ally's room for most of the day. Devin is at home -- he's not feeling well. I hear he has pinkeye and a sinus infection. We're keeping our distance.

Since we have been home, we have started watching the old Pink Panther cartoons. They each last about 6 minutes, which is the perfect length for Liam. I don't know if he gets all of the humor (some of it is absurd, which he laughs at) but he LOVES watching "Pink" as he calls it.

Liam also now counts. He likes to count steps, up to four. We are convinced that he understands numbers, but I know children can't usually do this until after two. He also has a thousand words; some are big words for a little boy. He puts them together in Liam sentences: out cold in hot (means he wants a jacket or he wants to go inside), car mama drive no Liam (which means he wants to drive the car instead of me). He learns a new word every day. Sometimes he even uses the new word correctly. So yesterday's word was crash. As we drove by the trains along C street, he asked if trains crash. Then later, watching Pink Panther, he saw a crash and used the right word.

He also has new friends. Big Penguin arrived as a Christmas gift from Devin. This bird is as big as Liam, but it goes everywhere with him. He 'teaches' Big Penguin about trains and outside and the dog. Zoe sat on the floor ripping the head off her stuffed duck, which was her Christmas present. Liam sat beside Big Penguin, at a distance from Zoe, instructing Big Penguin: 'no, no, No, NO Dog'.

As mentioned, we're going through a stage where he's so cute most of the time. But he's starting to test the boundaries. At the grocery store, he neither wants to walk or ride in the cart. He'd prefer to ride on the front, which he can't do for very long. So then he falls off and gets run over. Obviously, he doesn't like that for very long either. It's a challenge.

We also struggle with bedtime. He won't sleep in the crib, won't even look at it. But there's too much freedom with the toddler bed. He's like a jack-in-the box; up every ten seconds, standing at the door, like maybe we changed our minds and now we WANT to play with him for a few more hours. I know these are good problems to have, but still, it balances the wonderfulness of the almost two stage.

More soon, as always.