Spotlight on Liam

I would like to take a moment to put the spotlight on Liam. Yes, this blog has turned out to be mostly about him anyway, but before I get to his most recent stint, I wanted to include a couple of memorable events from his baby years that I had failed to mention before.

Mommy and Liam (7 months old)

(Photo courtesy of Kristen Somody Whalen/Parenting.com. All rights reserved.)

When Liam was only seven months old, we were invited by a dear friend from Church to participate in a photo shoot by Parenting. The photos would be used as stock photos for that year. To our knowledge, only two photos were used (see below). One of Liam's photos appeared for an ad in Parenting magazine and another photo was used in Baby Talk magazine for their monthly advertisement section (meaning, the same photo appeared every month). It was such a fun experience.

The above picture of Liam (mommy "photoshopped" out) was featured in "extras" advertisement section of Baby Talk magazine throughout 2008.

(This is a scan of the magazine ad.)
(Photo courtesy of Kristen Somody Whalen/Baby Talk Magazine/Parenting.com. All rights reserved.) 

 This picture of Liam (from the same photo shoot) was used to advertise the "Beautiful Baby Week" from the Live with Regis and Kelly morning show. This ad appeared in the February 2008 issue of Parenting Magazine.
(Photo courtesy of Kristen Somody Whalen/Parenting.com. All rights reserved.) 

Also fun, (more for me than for Liam because he was only 4 months old at the time) was a TV segment on a live morning show. We were modeling a snap n' go stroller for a Mother's Day segment and we got good air time. We are featured up close starting at 1:08.

Fast forward to December 16, 2011- Liam's second photo shoot ever . We heard about this one through my husband's job. They needed some models to pose with toothbrushes that look like mini light sabers. Knowing Liam's fascination for all things Star Wars, we gladly accepted. We were informed though that the ads (with the volunteer models, Liam included) are NOT for regular commercial use but intended for "internal" purposes, meaning they will only be seen in dentist offices. Still we thought it would be a fun experience and it certainly was! The commercial ad features a professional child model.

So, these are all of the photos that I took that day. The professional shots were taken with a green background so that the ad agency's "photoshopping" process would be easier. I can't wait to see the finished photos. I do hope that at least one of the photos he was in got picked for the ads.

Liam was shy a first, but warmed up a bit when he saw the other boys having fun. I brought his Darth Vader costume along for the photo shoot just in case they would need it which in fact they did.

dum dum dum      dum  da  dum      dum  da  dum...

 Liam overheard that Darth Vader would come by later for a few photos and he could hardly stand the wait. After every round of photos, he would immediately race to the door to see if he was coming. When he finally appeared with a Stormtrooper, well I thought Liam would just burst with excitement. He ran and grabbed a light saber to "battle" with him. Then, he begged me to slip his little Darth Vader costume and I could not have put the costume on fast enough.

 Moments later when it was time to take pictures with them up close, Liam couldn't help but stare, making the picture taking somewhat challenging at times. When he was asked after the photo shoot what he though of these adult-sized Darth Vader and Stormtrooper, he said that they were "a little bit creepy". Yeah, it's one thing when you see them on TV and quite another when they are there in person towering over you, just a little too close for comfort.

While we are on the subject, I have asked him about his fascination with this particular villain and his militia. He says that he thinks their costumes are really cool, which makes me wonder. They really should make the heroes costumes better looking than the villains costumes!

By the way, the GUM Star Wars toothbrushes are now available in stores everywhere. We really like the light saber toothbrushes that light up for a whole minute to indicate when the child is done brushing. Excellent feature. The spin brushes and the other standard brushes with the Star Wars characters are also a huge hit with my little Liam.

Homemade pancakes: take two...

A few posts ago I wrote about my bad experience at making pancakes. They were too brown and not at all flavorful. I used the standard boxed mix and I should have known better. The pancakes stuck to the molds, too. It was basically, one inedible mess. My husband and son ate them though because they love pancakes and they are so ridiculously easy to please. They will applaud any and all of my efforts at baking anything sweet or otherwise and they will eat the end product regardless of how bad it turns out. Bless their hearts. Anyway, I had to make it up to them and prove to myself that I could do it. So, I'm happy to say that I redeemed myself.

Here are the pancakes, made from scratch, with a recipe I found on the food blog of one talented baker who used to live in the same neighborhood as we did in Brooklyn. She got it from MyRecipes .com.  We topped them with a pat of butter and warm maple syrup. Oh, and I used molds and a pancake batter "pen" (an exclusive tool that my husband picked up from W.S., though I'm sure a squirt bottle would do just fine).

Ambitious little Liam thought he could actually eat both pancakes. I think he was just excited about the shapes.

  Liam picked out the Jedi Knight’s X-Wing Fighter
and Darth Vader’s™ Tie Fighter

I went with Han Solo’s™ Millennium Falcon ™ 
and daddy had all three (plus Liam's leftovers).

Friday Fun

While mama gets everything ready for the usual Friday afternoon summer BBQ, my boys play with their "light sabers" out in the backyard. Our little Padawan is getting pretty good. It's hard to tell which one is the master and the apprentice. What's even funnier is that whenever either of them start to feel cornered, they do the "force", meaning they put their hand out in front of them in a claw-like manner and then the other person is suppose to writhe in pain. It's a Star Wars thing. Very entertaining, though. They do sometimes play with their sponge swords. You know, to give daddy a break. ;)

Behold the battle!

Birthday weekend wishes

My husband got his birthday wishes granted this past weekend. He got the BBQ, homemade cookies and the next morning, he got his pancake breakfast. It was completed with a trip to an inventor's event. Big deal, you say? Read on.

Day One - Friday Evening

Firstly, we grilled Australian lamb on Friday (The meat had been marinating all morning in a mix of grated garlic and onion, lemon, rosemary and thyme, and freshly ground black pepper. I also brought the meat almost to room temperature before grilling to ensure tenderness. The salt was added just before grilling so as to not toughen up the meat.). I served it with succotash on the side. Odd pairing, but tasty combo.

I made the succotash from grilled veggies: corn, zucchini, red bell pepper, onion, unsalted butter, salt and pepper. It was adapted from a R.R. recipe I found in this month's magazine.

We had Star Wars themed cookies for dessert.

The dough was terribly sticky and I'm pretty sure I followed the recipe exactly (actually I halved it). It felt like it needed more flour. Decorating them was tricky. It required time, the right equipment, and much needed common sense, all of which I didn't have. I made a glaze instead of icing because I didn't want to use raw egg whites. That's probably where I first when wrong.

 They were meant to look like this. I cannot show you my finished product for fear of embarrassment. Hence the stock pic of the cookies.

These were, by far, the best ones of the lot.

Day Two - Saturday Morning

 On Saturday, we had a pancake breakfast with Star Wars themed pancakes. Again, I cannot show you the finished product for fear of embarrassment. Apparently, I can't even make pancakes right. The batter stuck to the molds making them difficult to come off and the temperature was too high, so they turned out a little too brown. So, stock pic here. Next time, I will spray them down with some oil spray for baking, even though the molds already claim to be nonstick.

Day Three - Sunday Afternoon

 Then on Sunday we took a drive over to Williamsburg in Brooklyn for the Red Bull Creation event.

It was an event where inventors had to produce a motorized vehicle of some sort (without using fossil fuels) in just 72 hours. Bill was in geek heaven. The winner was this enormous one-word text message printer (think dot-matrix printer). One of my favorites was an adult-sized see-saw or teeter-totter that spun around.

This was Liam's favorite.
You could drive while lying on a hammock!

Another favorite of ours was this 3D printer! Here Liam is holding a blue guy that was produced by this printer. Also available in red, orange and yellow. Each sold separately. Around $1,600

Taking in the sights and sounds of the event.

Did I mention how uncomfortably hot it was this past Sunday?

Here, with the Empire State Building in the background.

At this point, Liam was pretty much begging to go home...

...until he saw this big truck!

Liam and mama danced to the audio-visual mixings of these guys, Eclectic Method.

Liam and mama also stayed in the shade most of the time by this mural... 

 ...where he created this piece (with a little help from mama)...

...and I created this one.

Here he is hammering out the last details. There's even a you tube video of Liam at the mural! He is seen in the beginning at 16 seconds and then again at 21 seconds. He's the cutie in the red shirt, of course. 

 In the end, my husband and I both agreed that this little boy is our favorite creation.

Thanks be to God for our miracle baby boy!

 We ended that weekend with a brief visit with some old friends, the Herreras.

We stood in front of the door to our old apartment and reminisced for a few minutes.

Oh yeah, we also needed to pick up a package that was wrongly delivered to our old address.

All in all, it was a fun birthday weekend. Here's to many, many more birthday celebrations.

My pint-sized Star Wars fan

Bill is a HUGE Star Wars fan, mostly of the original movie. It is no huge surprise that Liam also became a fan of the movies and especially, the music. He stands on the couch with a stick acting like he is the conductor. Maybe following his grandpa's footsteps? He even has the Darth Vader breathing down. It kind of sounds like an old man snoring. The real question is, should I be worried that Liam's happy music is Darth Vader's theme?

My worries were quickly put to rest this week as I saw that Star Wars fans come in all sizes, even pint size. Just this past Wednesday, a fun You Tube video popped up of a Volkswagon commercial that is to appear during the Super Bowl tonight. It features a "pint-sized Darth Vader" walking around his house trying to use "the force". It is SO Liam! The mini Darth Vader in the commercial looks to be the same age as Liam and with the same mannerisms. We really got a huge kick out of it and have lost count as to how many times we've seen it. Liam had tons of questions, of course, (nothing new). "Why is he small? Where are his black gloves and light saber?" We're just hoping he won't ask that we get him the same costume. The one on the video looks pretty expensive.

 
Once in a while here at home he still wears the costume daddy bought him for that Star Wars concert we went to back in November 2009, even though he has outgrown it physically. He was still able to squeeze into it for Halloween and sported a really nice black cape that Welita made for him.

Here he is showing off his best "Star Wars face" at the "Trunk or Treat" in the Church parking lot.

OH, and lest I forget. There is a "Jedi Training Academy" at Disney Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World and he has been begging us to take him. If or when we do, it will have to be on our rewards points and it should probably coincide with "Star Wars Weekends". A trip to the Jedi Academy would be a dream come true for both the father and the son. Just don't count on me pinning the Princess Leia's buns on my head. (Shudder!)

I get the feeling that this love of all things Star Wars isn't a phase he will be growing out of any time soon, like maybe never, like his daddy.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

...well, actually not a long time ago and not that far away either.....this little family of three went to the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island to attend Star Wars in Concert.

Liam starring as young Anakin Skywalker (with a chocolate-covered face)

There was no way we were not going to this event. Only a serious fan would go to a concert to listen to the best of the musical scores of all six Star Wars movies (originally composed by the great John Williams), performed by the 86-piece Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Choir, while viewing a mix of clips from all six movies in perfect synchronization, and with a bonus laser light show. It was quite the production. To further remove any doubt as to what kind of fans we are, we even went as far as dressing up our toddler as a young Anakin Skywalker with a costume that his daddy picked up for him last Halloween, accessorized, of course, with a lightsaber that his mama got for him.

This very same lightsaber was wielded around by our little Liam (hoisted up on daddy's shoulders) as we tried to make our way through the pressing crowds. Anybody would have been annoyed to be on the receiving end of one of his jabs, but not any of the Star Wars fanatics we encountered. They thought it was all too precious to see our little Liam as the spitting image of little Anakin. I even spotted a few people taking pictures of our young "Padawan". Most of the crowd sported Star Wars t-shirts while others donned a full Star Wars-themed costume.

Oh, and did I mention we had floor seats?!, Uh huh, yeah, and right by the aisle, too, because aisle seats are a must if you have to drag your wiggly toddler to any kind of theatrical event. Yes, it is safe to say we are real Star Wars fans.

When the lights quickly dimmed, we knew we were all going to experience the best in sound when the THX trailer burst out from their high tech sound systems. It was quickly followed by the Twentieth Century Fox march theme. Then came the Star Wars opening theme with these famous words displayed on the largest LED screen, standing three stories high, that has ever toured:

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."

These unmistakable words were met with nearly deafening cheers, applause, accompanied by loud whistling (mostly coming from my husband) and the squeals of delight and non-stop applause from our two and a half year old son who at this point was standing on his seat. The voice of James Earl Jones greeted us and introduced us to the narrator, Mr. C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels.

It was interesting to see the different reactions of the audience. There were some humorous moments, mostly by the narrator whom at times flashed a gold vest whenever he went into C-3PO mode. At one point during Anthony Daniel's narration, an audience member near us let out the perfect wookiee growl after the mention of Chewbacca's name. For most of the time though, it almost felt like we were all at a rock concert. For my husband, who had seen the original Star Wars movie all of 15 times the week it premiered in Australia, twice on opening day, it was practically a dream come true. It was a spectacular show and worth every penny to see the expressions on both my boys, one of them who was teary-eyed. Guess who?

During the intermission, I walked with Liam a couple of yards up to the front to get a better view of some of the instruments. Then, he spotted some boys with illuminated lightsabers clear across the coliseum floor, so we maneuvered our way over there as fast as we could. As soon as Liam could make a clean break, he just ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, to join them in their "battle". So much fun!

After the show ended, we were dismissed with the Star Wars blessing of "May the force be with you." We made our way to view the exhibits that were positioned all around the coliseum, but the crowds made it nearly impossible to view them all. My husband, though, did not seem bothered since we had already seen a much larger and more detailed exhibit at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney when we were in Australia visiting his parents almost a year ago last December.

Here are some pictures* of our Star Wars-filled afternoon:

Having his fill of popcorn and cherry water (brought from home!)

Careful of the lightsaber-wielding Padawan!

It's C-3PO !!

"A guy can only be called 'Annie' so many times before he snaps!"
(Doesn't little Liam look a lot like this child actor, Jake Lloyd? -That hair!)

Having a little lightsaber fun during the intermission

I think Liam would rather go back to the children playing with the lightsabers. (A little smoke for the ambiance)

The grand finale!

Close-ups of the orchestra

Dirk Brosse, conductor extraordinaire

Our little Anakin checking out Yoda

Daddy is sporting a very cool t-shirt with Boba Fett's helmut made entirely of musical notes.

Liam was probably thinking, as we all were, "Dude, aren't you a little old to be doing this?"

So much Star Wars fun! Still curious about this spectacular event? Read about it here and take a look at this clip!


*My husband has some great shots, so when I do find them, I will include them later in this post.