BIG MORNING

I believe the look on Liam's face would be, "Let's Get This Party Started!"

LIAM MADE CHRISTMAS COOKIES

REQUEST HAS BEEN PLACED

Liam told Santa that he wanted "yabba wuggle yah blah" so we'll see how that works out for him.

FRIDAY NIGHT WITH THE CREW

Cookie Monster, Wild Thing and Booger.

FROSTY AT THANKSGIVING

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ DANCE

Katherine and Liam know what to do when they hear music.

SEED/LEAF REMOVAL

This task was a lot less fun when you had to take the seeds out yourself. Liam is really earning his keep this season.

And it only took him 287 hours to clear the yard. What a boy!

MONKEY BOY

Monkey Boy and his kangaroo cousin visited the animals at the zoo a few days before Halloween. Then on the big day Liam supplemented his costume with a banana which didn't last that long because we had a hungry monkey.

PUMPKIN PICKERS

Katherine and Liam choosing their pumpkins last week.

PILE ON

Remember to bring a paper weight to hold down your piles when you're out there raking up your leaves this fall.

TODDLER ART

Recently Liam has been leaving what we call "Modern Toddler Art" around the house. These are the first two items in his exhibit.

HARVEST

Liam may not have been a huge 'help' during the 2010 harvest, but he was still super cute.

"Which one should I eat first?"

"Can I keep it?"

"What are these green ones?"

I CAN SEE

Liam took his first forward facing ride in the car today.

A problem diaper earlier in the trip had led to a situation in which he was "riding unprotected."

Naturally, he had to release some liquid again shortly after. I'm not sure if that happened because he was scared riding forwards or he was so delighted with his new view. Either way, he was pleased with himself afterwards.

LITTLE COUSIN

Dylan, Bryan and Aunt KK visited for dinner on Sunday. The boys played and ate, and played.

PLAYTIME AND NAP TIME

My mommy is good at playtime and my daddy takes good naps... but I normally prefer it the other way around.

MY FIRST TRIM

Mommy cut my bangs.

INTIMIDATION

"You are soooooo lucky Grandpa is holding me back right now!"

VISITORS FROM FAR AWAY

Liam and his Auntie Yoon Jin visiting from Canberra. She left him with a little polar bear backpack so he can transport his toys in style.

LIAM IN A TUX

Liam made his "walk" down the runway at the wedding with help from Aunt Mairin.

ORIGINAL WORK

This is Liam's first drawing. It's done on white board as commentary on corporate America but he wouldn't go into anymore detail.

I'm going to have this printed and framed because when he becomes President of Mars in 2068 this could be worth like,... 3 million space bucks.

SECOND COUSINS

Liam and Dylan have two new second-cousins this week.

Xavier and Hannah

The two boys are now part of a 10 member gang of second-cousins. Hannah from the Schermerhorn side and Jake, Mackenzie, Zurie, Taj, Pheonix, Emerson and Xavier from the Merna side.

PB&J

I said... STRAWBERRY JELLY!!!

FINAL

We are heading to penalty shots!!!

Wait! Uhoh!!

Offsides!?!? Handball? umm.. Traveling?

Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WALKING ABOUT

Warning for the casual viewers out there. This video is really not exciting in any way.

I think you really have to love Katherine and Liam to enjoy this one. I'm posting it because I know that there are some of you who would love nothing more than to watch these two just walk around for 10 minutes.

So, here you go...

Fourth Of July

Liam playing on 4th of July weekend. Hey, it's the only way to get an even tan!

I'm really just posting this to keep him humble later in life.

And YES, he had is 350 SPF sun block on.

Liam's Birthday Photos

I finally have a link to all of Liam's birthday photos to share with you all.

http://picasaweb.google.com/112829532196460639592/LiamSFirstBirthday#

MY BIRTHDAY

Liam hosted a jungled themed first birthday party. We have lot's of great photos to share thanks to the photography of the Fioravanti ladies. Here is a preview of a few birthday photos. I will share more when they are all sorted out.

This would have been the saddest photo ever if no one showed up for the party. As it turned out we had a very wild jungle full of crazy animals in our house.

One year complete, moving ahead full speed!

ABOVE THE RIM

I can't wait until Liam is old enough to play me 1-on-1 with the mini hoop. I can already picture how annoyed Jamie will be with how loud things are going to get in this house.

I couldn't dunk until I was much older so obviously I'm very proud of how athletic Liam is.

GODPARENTS

As of last weekend Liam has two new godparents. I believe these two were always were there for him even before it was official.

Liam relaxing in the grass with godfather Derek.

Liam trying to impress godmother Shelly with some table dancing. I told him to take his shirt all the way off but these kids don't listen.

And the best thing about the weekend? Liam's white suit!

TODDLING

Liam can now toddle.

(I don't get many excuses to play circus music so just deal with it or turn down your volume.)

WHILE I WAS OUT

I have been traveling in Europe for the last two weeks and while I was gone Liam learned to walk, he learned to wave goodbye with one hand, he grew a new tooth and he learned to clap his hands on command. In fact if you say, "Hooray for Liam!", he will give himself a round of applause.

Was I holding him back? It's as if my leaving caused him to sprout wings and fly around the house.

I can only think what we could accomplish I left for a whole month. When I got back Liam would be bench pressing 200 lbs, speaking Portuguese and probably would have already plugged the BP oil spill.

I will have a video for you soon of Liam walking around the house... and then falling down, I'm sure.

WATER SLIDE

Liam and Katherine (at the end of the video) both take a trip down the big water slide at swimming lessons. Liam's trip down was a bit reluctant but his wave "good bye, in case I don't make it out alive" from the top of the slide was cute.

GOTCHA

Liam is getting faster... but I can still catch him if I need to.

PARTY HATS

Liam was invited over for a first birthday party this weekend. Carter welcomed him by helping Liam put on a matching party hat.

NAP OR BOTTLE?

I know the joke that's coming my way...

"When Colin falls asleep with a bottle in his hand he usually spills it all over himself."

It's not fair! Liam has a nipple on his bottle!

(Thanks to Uncle Derek for the great videos here.)

THE LONE TOOTH

Liam has a tooth and he has had it for a few weeks now. It's a lonely tooth though, so far no signs of another coming through.

The odd angle that this photo was taken at has a bit of a story behind it. Liam is a great eater but he does not really like his face to be wiped after a meal. He doesn't like anything prying around by his mouth unless it is a spoon with food.

I was trying for several minutes to get a photo but this is the best I could do by sneaking up behind him and then fighting him to get his mouth open.

I do not have very high expectations when the first trip to the dentist comes up.

TOILET HUMOR

A few days back Liam had an epic bowel movement that I was unable to witness but came with such a great story from his mother that I thought I would give my second hand account of it here.

Liam generally has no problem with constipation. A few weeks back he went on about a 10 day bonanza where he was loading 5 diapers per day. Going back as far as his second doctors visit he was already showing signs of great things. When asked how often he was pooping, "so is he going twice a day? once every other day?" our reply of "no, three to four times per day" got a nod and whistle from the doctor as if to say, "mmmm, that's some good poopin'!"

All too often, as is with many people, eating a big meal can trigger some action. It's very common that Liam let's fly while sitting in his high chair eating. That makes for great viewing because he is sitting up right at our level and can't really hide any expression on his face. Despite not being constipated he seems to expend an extraordinary effort to get things started. When it is time to release...

• He clenches his fists
• His face turns a bright red
• He moans (it is more like a roar)
• He leans back in his seat
• A few times I have seen either a bead of sweat on the brow a tear forming at the corner of his eye

Obviously he doesn't realize that you can take your time with these things. He wants immediate action once he knows what is happening.

Well, on this particular occasion he was having one of his first cheese and cracker meals. He had part of a mozzarella cheese stick in one hand and a baby biscuit in the other hand when he felt the rumbling down below.

As his mother tells the story, his face reddened he clenched down his fists in order to push as hard as possible. The baby biscuit started to crumble and then he crushed it to dust in his hand. On the other side his mozzarella cheese stick started to squish and then like a rocket it went shooting out of his hand sideways because of the pressure. If he had been sitting on the toilet with a magazine he probably would have ended up with confetti.

Hopefully by the time he is reading magazines in the bathroom we will have convinced him that this should be a relaxing time, not a pressure situation.

THE LION

Liam loves his Lion walker. Jamie and I love the music it plays and we usually end up doing some terrible form of a salsa dance as he comes walking past us with it. It's much better music than you find on most baby toys.

The combination of the kitchen floor, footed PJs with no traction and trying to wave led to a wipe out. Yes, I was laughing when he fell on his face. If we can't enjoy these magic moments what's the point?

MANIA

Don't worry about this. It appears to be fighting but really, it's all fake. They're very skilled athletes with years of training. Don't try these stunts at home.

SUNNING

Napping in the sun with great-grandpa Bump.

Did you really need to wake me up?

.... and I'll finish with a stretch.