Tag Archives: Liam

December 27th, 2017

Picking up the kids after mom and dad’s date night, the cousins are engrossed in a full-contact round of Hungry Hippos

Some primo lego action going on

Eleanor getting in on activity time with her new crayons, though mom assisting with the mechanics of coloring

Christmas 2017

Walking downstairs Christmas morning to see that Santa had arrived

…and ate the pretzel left out for him the night before. And the reindeer somehow ate most of each petite carrot, but left just enough crumbs behind to remind the faithful of the plate’s original content. Christmas magic.

Eleanor, either happy about the orange in her stocking, or just excited to be awake

“Mom, can you open both of these like right now?”

R2-D2 and Stormtrooper plushies for the win (in hand going to sleep most nights since)

Desmond presses forward, Eleanor pit stops with a pouch

TWO oranges? Woah!

Pretzel break.

Desmond opening his first gift from Santa, a barn puzzle!

Sister opening her very own set of crayons

Beyond excited to tug at bows and rip paper

Sometimes you just need take a breather

Brother and sister opening Chutes and Ladders together. These two <3

Des modeling his new Cars robe

This time, the injustice was her inability to get her new forks out of their packaging instantly

Trial run with the new spoon- it works.

Desmond surveying the pair of new LEGO Junior sets (brilliant product, by the way)

Des and his new big boy camera

Christmas lunch with great-grandma Kathy

Cousin Viv supervising the first lego build, Des happily the assistant builder

Viv carefully studying the build instructions

…though occasionally pausing for a photo shoot as Liam puts Des’ new camera through the paces

Upon returning home for nap time, Desmond felt his new Lightning McQueen lego car need to be tucked in for a nap as well

Desmond and Cal continuing the Christmas cheer

Eleanor walking over to mom, and judging from the look on grandma’s face, the first time she saw Eleanor take more than three steps. At 13 months, Ella is practicing more persistently than her brother, who after initially discovering his walking ability, shelved it until a few months later

Squeaker/shaker toys… for babies!

Grandma and Des, reading his new book Here We Are

Aunt Kellie, grandma Anne and dad’s first Christmas together in seven years!

Grandma offering structural engineering advice

Snoopy Bob Cratchit watching after the house, it was so fulfilling to enjoy the first Christmas together as a foursome. Complete.

December 23rd, 2017

Eleanor more than happy to rip into the wrapping paper, with the help of Buddy and Callie

Ella is ready to mash buttons, though this one won’t dial 9-1-1 

Pa helping Desmond figure out his fancy new water bottle

The Christmas ornament from ma just happened to have Darth Vader’s voice at the press of a button- his new favorite, clearly

“Talking” on her new phone is fun, but just not enough to let go of that empty lens filter box

Cousins and ma figuring out the new game. It’s like a horizontal, spring-loaded jenga?

December 15th, 2017

Celebrating aunt Megan’s BSN graduation

Yum corn!

Cousin hugs

Birthday girl

Playing with Viv and Grace. Shirt: “It’s my birthday!”

Ella, big fan of balloons

Des watching the first-year slideshow

Not knowing what was going on with the crowd staring at her, needless to say, Eleanor was taken back by the spontaneous singing

With prior cupcake training complete, Eleanor knew to eat the cake

…one tiny, non-smashing pinch at a time.

Desmond eating his cake and ice cream, with a side of Halloween candy. Someone found extra treats…

Even with demonstrating a lot off effort towards self-restraint, Desmond flirts with doing a majority of the unwrapping

Ribbons don’t get any easier later in life either

So happy

Opening her presents from mom dad- a tent/ballpit

and a new winter/indoor tricycle (there are days dad thinks Eleanor isn’t looking out the window at the trees or cars, but rather pining after brother’s blue tricycle on the front porch)

Frogs!

Liam, Viv and ma deliver a very special gift- Desmond’s first pet(s), frogs!

More specifically, two African Dwarf frogs

With minimal latency, Desmond proclaimed their names were “Stick” and “T-Rex.” Growth milestone: Des connects favorite things with favorite things, unprompted by explanation how one goes about naming pets.

Yeah, he’s pretty excited

Eleanor equally enthused, though likely more with sticking leaves in her mouth

Discovering what the tiny fork is for at Amsterdam

Unsurprisingly, frog paraphernalia surged in popularity

August 26th, 2017

The annual start to Dundee Day with pancakes (and pouch)

Since the last parade, Des is freshly aware of the potential for nabbing candy at these shindigs. Which made it that more dramatic that the first few groups did not have candy to offer.

Oh yeah, now we’re talking!

High-fives for tigers (Des may one day be a Dundee Wildcat)

Liam and Viv offering cousin Ella the softer blocks to stack

Hanging out with Mark and Penny

Cousins aligned for dinner

Wishing pa a happy 60th birthday

At the realization there was homemade ice cream too:

Generations…

August 11th, 2017

Eleanor representing the Omaha Jitterbugs

Cousins in middle of an intense lego build

Ok, a bit more classic mario as well