Celebrations

Let's lump up the year's end activities in one post, shall we?

That horrendous flu back in the beginning of November took a lot out of us. I was still in recovery mode when my birthday rolled in. Thankfully, my birthday came and went rather quietly. We celebrated with Junior's Cheesecake which didn't exactly help my cough and congestion, but I was craving all sorts of comfort foods. Finally recovering from that monster flu was enough reason to celebrate.

We managed to rake and clean up the backyard nice and tidy. We put up the blinds in the living room. We also got to work full speed on the dining room a week before Thanksgiving. We wanted it ready once and for all, especially for our holiday dinners. I wish people could have seen us running around like chickens without a head to try to get the dining room ready just in time for Thanksgiving dinner. Bill and I looked like we could have been on a reality TV show with a time clock ticking away. Between bastings, I was vacuuming and helping to remove the painter's tape. Bill was cleaning up, moving furniture, and trying to install the baseboards. Thank goodness Welita was here to help me with Thanksgiving dinner.

We kept it really simple: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and my long-overdue birthday cake from my favorite Latino bakery. We had plenty of leftovers since we ended up having dinner alone with my mother, so we bagged the leftovers and set aside the carcass for turkey soup the next day. A tradition in my family since childhood. Yummy!

He started with dessert, but upon seeing his daddy with a turkey leg, he immediately requested the other one and went to work on it.

I had to tickle Liam to keep him from digging his little fingers into my cake again.

Liam helping Welita make turkey noodle soup
(I got the fake smile. Clearly, he didn't want to be disturbed.)

Two weeks later, we picked up our Christmas tree. 

Liam is holding one of two baby trees that we got as a bonus.

Welita also came over for Christmas Eve and stayed over till the next day. We had turkey dinner (frozen from Thanksgiving) and pumpkin pie. Boring, I know, but my husband is crazy about pumpkin pie, little Liam too (but a la mode). I wanted to make my husband's family's traditional Christmas lasagna, but I just didn't have the time nor the energy to embark on such a project. Actually, I didn't have my late mother-in-law's recipe. Next year, I will make sure to have all of the ingredients to make my mother-in-law's best loved dishes for our holiday dinners.

We decorated graham cracker houses with premium candy (instead of the yucky dollar store candy), so we nibbled away at them carefree for days after Christmas. Liam made out like a bandit with some great toys and clothes. We got a great deal on a game cartridge and he loved his truck. He also got some great clothes from a dear friend, and my aunt and cousin sent him a box full from Texas. We stashed away the rest of the toys we bought on sale before the holidays to give it to him for his birthday the next month.

Our Christmas family photo. 

Liam was in the middle of his wardrobe issues and we couldn't wait any longer. We took a break from decorating our tree and took the pic.

Our window decor

Hooray for our new windows!

 

We were given these glitter pine cones and two baby Christmas "trees". I gave a baby tree to our next door neighbor. Once they are bigger we can plant them outside in our backyards, respectively. We were told they would grow as tall as the Christmas tree we brought home.

Daddy helping Liam play with his new video game cartridge 

(that I bought for $6.49, tax free and free shipping, yipee!)

His hips are so slender that he actually fit in it.

Liam was thrilled to see that Santa ate the cookies and drank the milk.
("Santa" was in such a hurry that he accidentally misspelled reindeer.)

Welita's cool Christmas sweatshirt

Modeling a few of his gifts. 

(The other cute clothing was slightly bigger and has been put away until it fits him comfortably.)

We tried really hard to put Liam down to bed on New Year's Eve, but he knew something was up and wanted in on all the action. He fought bedtime tooth and nail and so the little stinker stayed awake to ring in the new year with us. (Picture me rolling my eyes now.)  To his delight, we rang in the new year with his tambourines and maracas. We even heard fireworks around our neighborhood. Super fun!

"Cheers, Welita!" He finished his sparkling apple cider before I was finished pouring the last glass. (And yes, he peed in bed that night. Happy New Year to me. Grrr!)

We watched Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on the tele and Liam danced the night away.

He wasn't tired at all as evidenced in this pic. I just might have to sedate him next year. Kidding!! Or feed him tons of turkey (Tryptophan!!).

Thus ended 2010 and a decade that brought us:
- the good  
(Bill's wonderful conversion, our marriage, our baby boy, Bill's calling as an LDS Bishop and our new house)
- the bad
(September 11th, and the passing away of dear family members: my wonderful mother-in-law Bette, Bill's sweet grandmother Mary, and my favorite uncle Gonzalo)
- and the ugly  
(the beast of a flu that Liam and I caught at year's end).

This decade, so far, is starting out happy and hopeful too, especially as we continue to celebrate our little Liam's many milestones.

It's official...

It's official! It's a done deal! We are finally homeowners! Can you believe it?!

We had been looking for a little over a year and now our house hunting is well and truly over. It is a cute semi-detached colonial located in one of the best school districts in NYC. Liam finally gets his own bedroom, my husband gets to have an office and I get to have a larger kitchen than what I have now. We got ourselves a fun fixer-upper and that will mean many before and after pics. So stay tuned!

I would have to say that the biggest selling point for us  was the backyard. After circling the yard, Liam came running to me and said "Mama, I love this garden!". (He clearly meant yard.) Soon, baby boy, soon. We will reserve a space in our yard for the roses and the lilac tree, just like in the song that you like so much.

Sunday best

Some might think that I like to overdress my little boy for Church. The truth is that both my husband and I enjoy seeing him in a shirt and tie. Some days, I put a bow tie on him that was made especially for him by our dear friend Sister Alice Lo. Other days, he actually requests a tie saying that he wants to look "just like Daddy."

My sweet baby boy, I pray that you always have a strong desire to take after your wonderful Daddy.

(Liam always loves standing at this window to watch the elevated "Brooklyn train" go by.)

Note: The above images are of Liam posing with a painting that depicts the LDS Prophet Joseph Smith's first vision. Please refer to the link for more information.

The red car

 Boys love cars and my little boy is no exception. If I would let him, he could watch the Cars movie all day long. He loves the music, his favorites being Life is a Highway by Rascal Flatts and Real Gone by Sheryl Crow. But it's those talking cars that he loves. One day a couple of weeks ago, while we were visiting Welita, we came across this car.

 While it is certainly not an 2001 Porsche 911 Carrera, it looked like it and this brought on squeals of joy since it looks just like the car that mommy got for him last year for Easter. It is mommy's all time favorite car (in real life).

 And while we are on the subject of cars, we also ran into this car ride, or "cab" ride, I should say. You know, the kind that you put a couple of quarters in for a ride that lasts exactly 20 seconds. What a rip off!

One week later...

...our white winter melted into Spring, so our favorite thing this day was to spend as much time outdoors as possible. This one day while we ran our errands, Liam decided to warm up to our local law enforcement and paramedics. (He usually gets annoyed very easily by the noisy sirens, so I always have to explain that maybe someone is in trouble and needs help.)

The police officer invited Liam into the three-wheeled patrol car. (Liam was already inside before the police officer could finish his sentence.) He could not have been a happier little boy.

No amount of coaxing could get Liam to take a peek inside the ambulance though, no matter how much these two paramedic ladies begged. Maybe he thought they would sound the siren the moment he would step into it. Anyway, he graciously declined and we took this photo instead.

We just love his friendly, little adventurous spirit. We hope that his charisma will open many doors for him in the future. (I just hope that his tantrums start calming down soon. Sheesh!)

Snow, snow and more snow!

Growing up here in NYC I have experienced snowfalls that have just about paralyzed NYC. With all the meteorological advances through the years, the city now has ample opportunity to prepare early for the snow by ordering plenty of salt (because we ran out of salt one year), filling up the trucks, getting the plows ready and canceling schools. Mind you, it sounds sort of silly canceling schools before the first snowflakes appear, but now that I have a child of my own, I agree that it is better to err on the side of safety.

This winter season we have had plenty of snow, but this last snow storm was special for us because it was the first one that Liam really enjoyed. Inconceivably, we have been sick for all the previous snow storms. We also missed a lot of last year's snow because we were in Australia walking around shorts and wiping the sweat from our brows. (Aaaaah! Nice!)

So, here are some pictures of Liam and Daddy playing out in the latest snow storm. (Actually, as I write this, we are in the middle of yet another one!) Daddy came home early from work just for the occasion. Liam couldn't wait to touch the snow with his bare hands. After we convinced him to put his gloves back on, he finally went to work with Daddy on building an igloo with a snow brick maker that we bought a couple of years ago for less than a dollar from a toy store that closed in our neighborhood. It was easy enough to make the bricks, but we just couldn't figure out how to make the igloo, so we ended up with some kind of an enclosure. People passing by thought the brick formation was pretty cool and wished us luck. In the end, he would much rather frolic in the snow on his own. I even managed to teach my little angel how to make a snow angel. So much fun!

Mama's private property

Why is he fascinated by my handbag? He will run to it and rummage through it frantically in search of any one of the following three electronic devices I carry: phone, camera, and i-pod. When he doesn't find any one of the desired items, he proceeds to destroying my cosmetics. Then it's on to my wallet where he claims the Metro, debit, credit and ID cards all for himself. He finishes up by digging into my change pocket in search of pennies, because as we all know by now, he literally cannot walk out of the house without a penny in his pocket. I usually hide my handbag from him, but one day, while I was on a very important phone call, he got to it. Thank goodness I had pulled out all of the electronics.

A tree rescue

For a couple of weeks or so, the view of our windows was one that is considered one of the biggest eye sores in New York City, right up there with graffiti, a brick wall and your neighbor's window. Our view was of a tree that needed rescuing from a pesky shopping bag hanging from one of its limbs. Luckily, the trees on our block needed pruning and the hero of the day thankfully turned out to be the New York City tree pruner and not the wind and time. (Yes, they really do exist. If there is a tree in the neighborhood that has an awkward or low-hanging branch that is threatening to fall on an unsuspecting pedestrian or damage cars and other property, all we have to do is call 311 to report it. It's that easy. Sooner or later, they will get to it. The same goes for clogged sewers, potholes, and noise pollution. ) After the tree pruner rescued the tree, he turned around and gave us the thumbs up. Liam, of course, was enthralled by the whole tree pruning process along with the removal of the shopping bag. He yelled out, "Thank you, sir!" See the story unfold in the images below.

Letting go of a favorite Holiday

Liam can't believe it's all over, as in the Christmas season is well and truly over. He still wakes up in the morning sometimes saying Happy New Year. It was the first time he had been able to somewhat understand Christmas and the whole gift-giving concept. He kept saying, "Oh, mama! This tree is so beautiful!" We will never forget the elated expression on his face when we first lit up that tree. So, to say he had a pretty hard time letting go of our Christmas tree, especially the Nativity, is to put it mildly. After all, he had helped set everything up. When it came time to taking it all down last week, he was one truly sad little boy. Surprisingly though, it was not manifested through one of his famous tantrums, but it was met with a couple of silent tears streaming down his cheeks.

"But mama! It's Liam's tree! And baby Jesus, Jesus mama and Jophes!"

So, I had to give him a run down of all the upcoming holidays this year from Valentine's Day, to all of our birthdays, to our plans for the summer, all the way to next Christmas season. He was surprisingly quiet for a while, but all the same he helped me put everything away in bags and boxes. Liam wouldn't be Liam, of course, if he didn't try to pull a fast one by taking the Nativity over to his toys, but I informed him that we need to keep all the Christmas stuff together. He reluctantly surrendered the Nativity and put it away with all the other Christmas gear to bring down to the basement for storage.

Just when I thought he had finally accepted the change, I come out of the kitchen with our afternoon snacks only to find the tree back up, the Nativity in its place, and Liam struggling with the little lights. Maybe the thought of the sweet baby Jesus and his beloved Christmas decorations down in that basement was not a thought he was willing to entertain in his little head. I guess it is a frightful thought for a child his age, but more unfathomable is the thought of the Nativity rolling around in his toy box or on the floor as it would inevitably would be. Some things have to be kept sacred. After some coaxing, he once again helped me put everything away, just as before.

Don't worry, my boy, Christmastime will come around again real soon. You are growing up so fast, my love. For now, just let us enjoy YOU and your wonderful little self.

Our disco-ball Christmas tree and "Liam's" Nativity

Over-sized "disco" balls and small disco ball keychains
adorning our little tree

This little boy can't seem to give me one of his heart-warming smiles in time for the camera. So, this will do.

(Mama still loves it!)

Liam reeeaaaly wanted to wear the Christmas stockings at "Welita's house".

Where is the baby Jesus? He is sitting on his lap.

 

Oh yeah, it's going to be a fun 2010.