The Fiona and Liam Chronicles

Here are a few short videos of the kids opening their Christmas presents from Grandma and Tom.

As the weather kept us from visiting our family in Wisconsin this Christmas, I’m putting up a series of pictures for Grandma Cherie so she can see the kids opening their presents. Thank you so much, Mom! Everything was just great! (Click on the photos to see a larger version. Then hit the back button to return.)

Thank you, Santa, for sending Liam this baseball shirt, which gave us a chance to capture one of Liam’s new favorites. Enjoy!

Uncle Lantz gave Liam ‘Kung Fu Panda‘ for Christmas. Liam… um… yeah, he kinda likes it.

So sorry that it took so long to resolve our technical issues.  Here is the long awaited laundry video, enjoy!

Liam received a hat for Christmas, made by my mother, that he refused to wear on even the coldest days.  However, come April or May he found the hat again and began wearing it every single day.  When it was 90 degrees outside, you would find him with sweat dripping down his face, hat on.  I recently shot some video of Liam and Kevin doing laundry and, as soon as I find the cord to transfer it on to my computer, it will be posted.  In the meantime the two concepts, Liam’s hat and Liam’s laundry help have combined into this lovely Kenmore ad-enjoy.

Well the summer has flown by and the last time I posted I was just recovering from being in bed for a week…now I am on day six of my second round of “down for the count” this season. This time due to some wisdom teeth removal and consequential complications. Enough of that though, on to our mighty duo! The kiddos have been growing like weeds and learning so many cool new things, two of which are highlighted in today’s video segment. Those skills, you may ask? Bubble blowing and chasing. It has been awesome to watch the two play together. As they each grow they seem to have developed more ways to relate to each other and wrestling and chasing seem to be the favorites. Liam is amazing with Fiona. He is intuitive and, although he can still get upset by her grabbing him at times, he seems to find a lot of pleasure in her silliness. Daddy and I love watching the two of them and hope you will enjoy this little slice of their night tonight.

I went to Disneyland for a conference and was sent home with a gift for Fiona from one of our dearest friends, Amber. Here are the cutest Winnie the Pooh ears you have ever seen!

Nana with ears

Close up Fi with Pooh Ears

Sorry we have gotten so behind on the updates…by we I mean me, because Daddy is WAY too busy taking care of everyone to blog.  Mama has been down for the count, flat on her back sick for almost a week.  Narrowly recovering in time to start her summer internship yesterday (which is oh so fabulous by the by).  Unfortunately now our heroes have faced some setbacks.  Liam had a fever yesterday and Fi an ear infection so they were home with Super Daddy all day. 

As a general thing the mightiest of children are doing great!  Liam is working on more words every single day and (Amber, you had better appreciate this) has started using a wand.  Although I believe that it is more Abby-Cadabby from Sesame Street inspired than Harry Potter, but a super hero has to start somewhere if he is to save the world from evil.  I was laid up and Mr. Liam comes into the bedroom and starts going through a box of random things Daddy had collected while trying to clean.  He pulls out a little white adapter cord for my Mac and says, in a most wonderfully surprised manner, “My wand!”  How I wish I had that first exclamation on tape-the joy in his voice as if he had been searching for it all of his long two years of life.

I also wanted to give a shout out to two amazing people one being Grandma–rock on with your brilliant Sesame Street Live tickets for Liam!!!  He loved the show so much and kept trying to rush the stage because he was sure that his friends couldn’t see him when he was in his seat.  That was the greatest idea in the world.  And also a huge thank you to Nancy Fortney for all of the cool Sesame Street Live gifts—Liam got to relive the whole show right there in the living room when they arrived.  How unexpected and generous.  Liam wore his t-shirt to school the next day and told anyone who would listen all of the character’s names.

Love to all from Liam, Sesame Street rocks and so do all of you!

So I have a dozen or so blogs I subscribe to and one of them is written by a mother, Lisa Leonard, whose son, David, has a genetic condition called CdLS. I love her candor and obvious love for both of her children. With all of Fiona’s challenges, it is encouraging to see a mother who is so together. She inspires me to take more pictures and keep writing about my family. Read more about her family and CdLS at it’s the little things.

Well she is an amazing jewelry artist and there is another parenting blog, Simple Mom, that is giving away one of her custom necklaces. Everyone should enter, her work is beautiful!