Learning Letters

"Hi everyone! I'm still here!"

It all started about a month ago with the letters at our mailbox. They sit in a whole row, A to G, right at the eye level of a certain almost 18-month-old little boy. We would go by the letters in the stroller, or walk down to get the mail and he would walk from letter to letter and I would say them out loud. I noticed how excited he got when I would say them and he would try to repeat them.

The mailbox letters that started it all

Liam's new favorite thing - taking the keys and trying to open the mailboxes

Distracted by people with a basketball

I thought, "well, I can encourage this learning" and got out a box of darling letter flashcards a friend gave me before Liam was born. Immediately they became one of his favorite toys and he would ask to play with his letters. In the past few weeks he has learned how to recognize and say "B" (his favorite letter), "L," "T," "D," "Y," "I," "S," "P," "E" and "O." All the letters have corresponding pictures on the back and he now knows "doll" and "owl" and "tree."

"S!" I hope he always looks this happy about learning!

"B!" "Z!"

Another favorite thing to do is take the letters in and out of the box.

The other thing we do for hours a day is read. We read, read and read some more. Favorite books involve of course, the alphabet. Any book that includes a book and the alphabet is a gold mine.

Our favorite way to sit and read books. Usually Liam climbs up and sits with his fingers in his mouth and his ankles crossed. Apparently that is a comfortable way to look at books.

I know I'm a little biased, but he's a smart kid. Allow me to brag for just a minute and say that we drove by Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day and Liam called out "B!" from his carseat.

I swear it's because of all the walnuts I ate when I was pregnant. Moral of the story = eat nuts and read a lot and you'll have a smart kid. Next up: working on numbers and colors. He currently thinks all numbers are three and all colors are blue.

Honestly though, so much of learning just happens in our daily life. Pointing out things to him as we walk or drive, asking him to repeat words we say; it just happens naturally. It makes me think of something our pastor told us one time - as a mother I have the opportunity to teach Liam the universe. I am the person he spends the most time with and at this age, the person he will learn the most from. It is a humbling responsibility and one I need a lot of help and prayer to take on.

Spring Break

Three years in Bloomington, three completely different spring breaks. First was Orlando when I was newly pregnant with Liam.

Second was Rob cramming like mad at home for his master's exams and Liam and I basking in the sunshine in the Cayman Islands with Rob's family.

This year, our spring break was different with a quick trip to Iowa and a lovely week at home.

We started spring break on Friday by driving to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to visit the Talsness family. Lindsay was my roommate in college when I studied for a semester at Focus on the Family Institute. Their daughter, Eadie, is exactly five months older than Liam, and while they weren't best buds by the end of the weekend, they did well together. They are expecting their second baby in September. We try to see each other about every six months so it was our turn to visit them. We had such a fun visit, catching up, playing outside, talking, watching Psych and playing with the kids. We left on Monday afternoon full of fun memories.

The weather was in the 60s while we were there so we spent some time at the park

Liam finally learned how to go down the slide backwards! It was all he wanted to do.

Our only attempt to take a photo of Liam and Eadie together! Not very successful...

Playing in the backyard

Lindsay had a fun craft for us to do...here we are ironing and hot gluing...

Ta-da! Kitchen art. (I'm sure all you Pinterest people can find it there...)

The whole gang + baby Talsness

Once we got home, our fun continued. Rob decided not to do much school work this week and so we planned some local family outings. I also planned a lllooonnggg list of spring cleaning around the house. The week didn't end up being as much of a break for me, but now that it's all over I'm thankful I got done what I did. There were places I'm pretty sure hadn't been cleaned since we moved in. I will say there's something very satisfying about scrubbing behind a toilet.

Gross. Sorry for that image. Inspiration for you?

Moving on. What did we do this week? We went hiking, we went to new parks, we enjoyed the 70 degree, sunny weather, we tried new pizza in Nashville, Indiana, a cute little town nearby, we watched A LOT of basketball, we played and genuinely had a good time being a family together.

Bubbles!

"What? I can't take this bucket of soapy water inside mama?"

Hanging out with papa in the wilderness

Family shot

Signs of spring

Riding on papa's back makes you very thirsty

Our little park ranger

Sticks!

Love this little man

Basketball! Sometimes Liam stands in front of the tv and gives "commentary". It's hilarious to listen to him chattering away to the game.

Playing choo-choo's at home...

and watching a real choo-choo go by.

This is exciting life in Indiana

Playing disc golf with the Russells. (I guarantee you I was the absolute worst player)

Chasing after a disc

Disc golf champions

I think we have a future in this!

Our coming week is crazy with a capital C, but I'm thankful for a break this past week. I'm thankful for beautiful weather, good friends, a sweet husband and baby (ok, toddler -- I can barely bring myself to say it!) and for many good things in our life.

Springtime!

I usually associate March with dreary, rainy days that border on snow and spring. This March has been entirely different with several lovely days already. Yesterday was up near 70 and today is not far behind. All my tulips are up and my daffodils have buds, but no blooms yet.

Liam and I spent over two hours outside yesterday alternating between the backyard and our nearby park with friends. Unfortunately, my blog won't post the video I took of Liam playing outside in a bucket of soapy water with measuring cups, but as you can imagine, he loved it and was completely soaked from head to toe by the end. He loves water and bubbles. To dry off, we loaded up in the stroller and he dried in the sun at the park.

This was before the soapy water...still dry!

The soccer ball is also lots of fun in the backyard

Today I dressed him in a new t-shirt (currently the only one he owns that fits! Shopping anyone?) he just got from Boppy and Mimi that makes me laugh. They got it in Florida and it has a picture of a lobster saying, "I get snappy without my nappy." This shirt was printed with Liam in mind. Something about him wearing a t-shirt makes him look so much older! Maybe because for the first time in months I've seen his arms while he's wearing clothes?

Sporting his new t-shirt and bubbles that he already dumped out

Running, running!

Whatever the reason, I'm really looking forward to more t-shirt weather, especially with an older boy. I think we're going to have a blast this spring and summer being outside, playing and playing and playing.

Liam's 1st Haircut

How does time pass so quickly? Not only has it been weeks since I blogged last, but it seems like only yesterday that Liam was sporting a dark baby cap of hair. Now, he's almost 17 months(!) and sporting a new big boy haircut.

Yes, it was finally time to cut off the darling baby curls at the nape of his neck and grow him up a little bit. We found a nice salon in town that gives free first haircuts to babies under two. Nice business move for them because I think I might be switching salons for my own hair...

Believe me, my heart melted a bit when Liam walked up to the chair at the salon and the hairdresser put the little cape on him. He's not my baby anymore! He did pretty well during the cut, mostly because we kept giving him cookies. Treats are crucial for times like this. The main problem was he kept getting distracted by everything around him and jerking his head right when the hairdresser was about to make a cut. She did a good job overall though in getting quick cuts in and not getting the scissors too close to his head.

I definitely think he looks more grownup and less like a baby and more like a little boy, which he is of course. He also looks much cleaner and not like he's growing a mullet anymore.

Before picture -- shaggy baby!

Getting started

Asking for more cookies of course

Working on the back

Almost finished!

New big boy haircut from the back

And with papa again at home