Mommy's Super-Secret Name

We were at Red Robin last night. My darling little child figured out my real name, and casually dropped it into conversation. He wanted to sit in the highchair, like his friend Suri, who was with us. Normally, he sits in the booster chair.

mommy: if Liam wants to sit in the highchair, he has to stay still.
liam: ok mommy.

mommy: no moving between the booster and the high chair. pick one, stay there. ok?
liam: ok lisa.


mommy: lisa: did you just call me lisa?
liam: yeah, lisa.

lisa: **nothing, totally speechless**
liam: **super huge grin.**

So I thought it would pass. We get home and he tells daddy about his discovery of mommy's code name.

daddy: what's mommy's name?
liam: um, lisa
daddy: what's daddy's name?
liam: daddy

This morning, he have me a kiss and a hug. Then he repeated "bye-bye ee-ssa" over and over.

My reaction? First, it sounds strange for him to use my super-secret name. Though I suppose it's normal.

Second, he says my name in such a cute way. He can't even say the 'L' in his own name, so calls himself Me-am (me +Liam). Without the 'L' sound, Lisa sounds like ee-ssa. I suppose he might combine Mommy + Lisa and call me Misa.

To use one of Liam's favorite expressions, "No! No! Nuh-uh. Not allowed."

One other item of interest; Red Robin has a life-sized bird mascot who walks around and greets the children on Tuesday nights. Me-am was petrified of the bird. I thought for sure we'd hear about the scary bird, like the scary bunny, for days, if not weeks. So I guess the upside to him figuring out my name is that he has entirely forgotten all about the scary bird.

Welcome Party for Suri.

On Friday, we celebrated a very important day: Suri now has a full-time Mommy and Daddy. She now lives with Joya and Wiley, and the cats. Joya and Suri came to our house so we could celebrate the special event with friends... D and Kaile and Baby Caitlyn (and their parents).

I went to Top to get the cake on Thursday, and the bakery lady spoke only a little English. She must have seen me at the grocery store with Liam before, so she suggested the black and orange Harley Davidson cake up front. "Vroom-vroom," she said, making handle bar motions with her hands. Then she added, "You like no motorcycle?"

"It's for a baby girl." I tried to explain flowers and pink. Why didn't I learn Russian in college?

She showed me the birthday cakes. One was green with an electric guitar. She then said, "Baby? No eat cake." I had to leave and come back the next day.

The regular cake lady was back on Friday and she made a beautiful pink cake with butterflies and flowers.

Liam Mummy Day

A few people have asked what we did for Mother's Day.

Given the general proximity to my birthday, and my true belief that Mother's Day should reflect kindness and respect, not Hallmark cards and lavish gifts, we downplayed Mother's Day.

This year, we started the day by going to church. Liam was really tired, so he wasn't as focused as usual.

--Aside #1--
Lately Liam has been sleeping in shifts: part of the night on his bed, some on the floor of his room or in the hallway, some of the night in Mummy & Daddy's room (either on the floor, on the mattress on the floor, on a pillow, or *gasp* on the dog's bed). I don't know what to do about this. He panics if his bedroom door is closed. I think it's that his bottom molars are breaking through. (I'm brave, and I check the toothy status... Liam has yet to bite me, not even once.) Liam never lets us know when he's in pain, but I'm starting to catch on.

Back to Mother's Day... Liam likes church, though squirming is standard protocol. He sings, mostly random letters of the alphabet, while everyone else sings the hymns. Frequently, he points out the obvious, "Windows!"

This Sunday, he doted affection on Mommy. I received kiss after kiss. He loudly whispered his slurred "Ah-wah-ooh" over and over. I think it was all the talk about Mothers on Mother's Day. He understands a lot now. Despite his sudden interest in Mom, Liam didn't get through the whole service, so towards the end, he visited the nursery for the first time.

After church, he took a nap. When he woke up, we all went for a picnic at a local park where a girls softball competition was winding down. We ate our lunch and Liam played with his soccer ball. Then we went up to Seattle for a trek to the REI store.

When REI has a sale, it's worth the extra drive to get to the Flagship Store downtown. Liam had a blast climbing through all the tents, setup in a small camp village in the middle of the store. In the end we decided to buy a new tent, with hopes of testing it out soon. Lester used to do a lot of camping back in England and Ireland, and New York. Eventually, I'd like to take a trip to Wisconsin and Michigan, driving around Lake Michigan.

--Aside #2--
Last summer Liam and I visited Wisconsin, and I realized how much the state has to offer a young, adventurous family. (Milwaukee's Lakefront, The Dells, Door County, etc.) Then I watched the old movie Somewhere in Time again, and remembered the fun of Mackinac Island (in Michigan) where all transportation is by foot or horse. The only problem with this mythical vacation is hotels: they are hard to come by during the summer, and in most of the tourist areas, they are overpriced and dreadful. Our solution? Camping.

We will probably hold off on this National Lampoon's Cheeseland Adventure until Liam is old enough to really appreciate it (maybe next year). But at least now we have a good tent.

Mother's Day ended the way every good day ends: with all three of us exhausted.

In his two-year-old, "Mine Mentality" Liam decided that "Mommy Day" is for Liam's Mommy only. I tried to explain that everyone had a mommy. To demonstrate this point, we matched up his friends and their mommies.

Who is D's Mommy?
"Shannon," he said.

Who is Suri's Mommy?
"hmmm," he thought, and then figured it out. "Joya Suri Mommy!"

Who is Mommy's Mommy?
"Mommy?" He was confused.
"No, not quite," I said.
"Nana?" He tried again.
"Yep. That was a hard one!"

Who is Daddy's Mummy?
"Hmmm...." Which means he has no idea. He changed the subject.

Two hours later, at bedtime, he figured it out.
"Mummy Mummy Nana. Daddy Mummy Gwanny."
Translation: Mommy's Mommy is Nana. Daddy's Mommy is Granny.

I reminded him that all moms celebrate Mother's Day. I suggested that we wish all of our Mommy friends and Nana and Granny a happy Mother's Day.

"No, Mummy. No. Nu-uh. No Mommy Day Shannon and Gwanny. Liam Mummy Day only," he said, very sure of himself. Then he gave me a hug (on both sides, like he always does) and he gave me a big kiss. Finally, I finished rocking him to sleep.

Two and Tulips

Liam is so very two right now.

He protests everything, even things he wants. He won't share, unless it was his idea first. He loves some of his possessions enough to throw a full-blown, fists clenched, wailing-and-thrashing tantrum if he can't have them (and the possessions he loves change daily).

He doesn't want cereal. "No, no no. No cereal. Toast mommy." (Whining begins.)

"Daddy Jam." Means he wants Marmite... why, I don't know. It looks like British lip balm for coal miners. It tastes like axle grease.

I am not British, so I didn't learn Marmite application in the third grade, so I put it on too thin, or too thick.

"No mommy, more Daddy Jam."

I slather on more Marmite and give it back to Liam.

Liam sees it and wails, "Broken." Now I've put too much on and he won't eat it.

He screams until he realizes he's not getting more toast. Then he quietly asks for cereal. I comply... pour the cereal, then the milk. He digs in, literally. He ignores the spoon and sinks his hand into the milk, where he grabs a mini wheat and shoves it in his mouth. Milk runs everywhere: down his chin, shirt, pants, chair, table floor, dog.

I shouldn't complain too much though; most some of the time he's a sweet, adorable child.

Yesterday was supposed to be the nicer of the two weekend days, so we drove up to Mt. Vernon to see the tulip fields. We went for the first time when Liam was a few months old. We met Joya and Suri for the adventure, seeing as they live pretty close to the area best known for it's tulips. When we went two years ago, parking was free. This time, both lots we tried required $4/car to park, and of course, we hadn't considered this possibility back in the land of ATMs. Between us, we had $4 bucks and change, and two cars to park, so no deal.

We also had screaming children. Liam was upset that Suri was not in his car. Suri was in Joya's car, perhaps just melting down because she was in the car. We needed to let them run around. Luckily we found a little market, got some cash, and found a much better place to see tulips... Tulip Town! (The irony being that Tulip Town has free parking and takes debit card.)

Tulip Town had a beautiful display of red, yellow, orange, white, purple and pink tulips. The flowers are planted in wide rows, with a valley in between each line of flowers, accommodating the passage of a curious two-year-old. The farm also had a barn and pasture of horses, which fascinated and frightened Liam. A tractor circled the field, giving rides to Tulip Town visitors. (Liam especially liked this part.) The tracor bumped along past the kite display, where the wind carried all kinds of bright kites. Despite the rain earlier in the day, the ground was dry and packed. Suffice to say, we had a lovely day.

That was until the ride home. Liam was hungry, tired, bored and we tried something silly: we stopped at a grocery store. In the grocery store, Liam spied a toy that he wanted (a hockey stick just like Devin's). He carried it around the grocery store, and then totally lost his abilty to carry on with life. We didn't buy the hockey stick, and Liam took it personally. He screamed 'ah-key-tik' over and over and whined the whole way home (well, until he fell asleep somewhere in downtown Seattle). It occurred to me that he might have been sad that the fun day was over... or that he was overtired.

Sure enough, he forgot about the whole thing by the time we got home, just after his bedtime. So today we went back to the grocery store where Devin got his, and Liam was so pleased to have a hockey stick just like Devin's. The only problem? Devin's on vacation until next week.

Life is tough for everyone.