Indiana Jones

Liam decided that he wants to be Indiana Jones for Halloween this year. I'm not sure why since he has never seen an Indiana Jones movie, but I think Indiana Jones might have been featured on a Cheerios box one time...plus he carries a whip. (that sealed the deal.) And when Liam found out Indiana Jones is an archaeologist, it totally confirmed his decision. (Not a paleontologist, mind you, but close enough!) This morning, he was outside doing his fancy Indiana Jones moves on the swing set.

Darling, I think I might be fabulous

Emma is still loving her pretty necklaces. Today I found her in Liam's room, getting into his stash of Mardi Gras beads (again). She just loves getting "pretty." Whenever somebody tells Emma she is "pretty," she will either try to put something around her neck or on top of her head. It's so funny to me how different she is from Liam already at such a young age! Her emotional side is starting to emerge, too. Last night at dinner, Brendan told her in a stern voice to not throw her food on the floor (her favorite dinnertime activity). She looked at him, then looked at me, then looked at him, then looked at me....then her lower lip started quivering and she started bawling. Needless to say, Brendan felt awful. She needed some big hugs to get over that one, poor thing!
Here she is earlier today, being glam with her pretty, pretty necklaces and talking to her girlfriends on the phone:

Never a dull moment

For whatever reason, Liam seems to be especially prone to Emergency Room visits. I honestly cannot count the number of times we have had to bring him there, from the time he was a very little baby. Out in the big bad civilian world (haha), we discovered that that really gets a bit costly! YEOOOWW!! So boy did it feel good when Liam had another emergency this morning to be able to go into William Beaumont Army Medical Center and walk out without a bill and with a bag full of free medicine. Hallelujah! I always took for granted the many benefits of military life, but now that I have seen for myself that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence, I feel blessed in many ways to be "owned by the army" again.
For those of you worried about Liam, he is doing much better. He had a sudden onset of bronchitis last night right before bedtime. He had a very difficult time breathing all night long, accompanied by loud wheezing. It was scary. I didn't sleep much at all and neither did he. The nurse line I called this morning advised me to get right to the ER so my good friend, Jill, was wonderful enough to take Emma so Liam and I could head out for the hospital. By the time we got there, his breathing was much improved. There was no wait (amazingly!). The doctor ordered an x-ray to rule out pneumonia. Liam was absolutely giddy about the fact that he was getting an x-ray. I guess he thought it was really neat to get to take a picture of his insides. We left the hospital with some medication and an inhaler in case he has another episode of difficult breathing.
Liam and Emma are both napping right now, which has probably only ever happened once before. They both had a busy morning.

The history of the world, by Liam McShea

I volunteered at Liam's school today at the "Panther Den," which is the school store that is open 2 days a week during lunchtime. They sell pencils, erasers, stickers, etc, etc. Just fun little items that the kids like to buy and the money goes to support the PTA. Liam was really excited to see me there and pointed me out to his friends on his way into the lunch room. It was so cute..."That's my mom!" I wonder how long that enthusiasm will last. Will he eventually slink away into the corner when he sees me coming? I don't know, but for now, he seems to love it, which, of course, I love, too.
So after he finished his lunch, he came to find me and picked out a small spiral note pad he wanted to buy. He called it a journal and when we got home, he dictated a story to me and asked me to write it down in his journal. I was so amused by it, I thought it might amuse you, as well. Here is an excerpt:

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs ruled the earth. A meteor crashed to make them die. The only dinosaurs today are birds. Thousands and thousands of years ago, reptiles ruled the earth. And they were before the dinosaurs. The first animals were really, really small and they lived in the water. And then the second animals of the world lived in the water, too. Some were very huge and some were very small. The third animals in the world were huge himongous (yes, he makes up words like his mother....) bugs. They were much larger than they are today. Then after those bug-like creatures, there was something a bit small. They were the dinosaurs. The first dinosaurs in the world were small. And there was a kind of dinosaur - one of the first dinosaurs - called ceolophysis. Then after the dinosaurs, there were wolly mammoths and saber tooth cats. And then there were also megaloceroses. They were a huge deer, as big as today's moose. And there were also cavemen. Then after the cavemen, there was Adam and Even, and then Jesus. And also there was Noah. Then people - long, long ago. People like George Washington ruled the earth. Then a kid named Liam came alive. Five years after Liam was born, Emma, a little girl, was born. And then after Liam died, his kids were very old. Liam's kids had kids. And Liam's grandchildren had kids. Then Liam's great-grandchildren had kids. Then Liam's great-great-grandchildren had kids. Then there was something happening in the world. After all people had died, the future came. In the future, there were octopus-like creatures. The ones that were big had feet. The ones with feet were the big ones. Then the small ones just grabbed on tree to tree like humans swing on vines. And there were some bird-like creatures in the future that looked like birds and they were as big as ostriches. But they had some feathers on their head. When they were frightened or scared or mad, they would put those feathers up like they were scared or mad or terrified.

If you have gotten this far, congratulations. There is actually more, but I will leave it at that. I didn't realize it was so long until I wrote it all out! I have no idea where he came up with all this stuff. He definitely keeps me entertained.

New's flash!

EMMA TOOK HER FIRST STEPS TONIGHT!!! We were all in the kitchen after dinner and she decided she was finally ready to show off. She stood up all on her own and looked at the three of us with a smirk on her face. Then, she wobbled ahead three tiny steps and fell to the ground. I think I may have scared her because I started jumping up and down and clapping! But then she realized we were all smiling and clapping for her and she got a big smile on her face. We tried to video tape her taking more steps, but she was done for the night. She has been so close to walking for so long now, so it was very exciting. It makes me a little sad, though, that she is starting to make the transition from "baby" to "toddler." Time goes by too quickly.

A Saturday Evening Potpourri

The kids had the sillies tonight, as you can see! Liam spent all afternoon building a "three story house" out of bricks in the backyard. It was harder than it might look because the bricks were really heavy. He was quite proud of himself. Of course he couldn't just smile when I was taking his picture. What a goof ball!




Now here is Emma, who was also very proud of herself tonight! "Look, Mom! I can stand here all day long, but I absolutely refuse to take a step!"


Emma also had the sillies tonight. She is obsessed with these Mardi Gras beads that Liam has and she knows exactly what to do with them. She loves putting them around her neck, and then taking them off again. I'll say, "Emma, you're so pretty!" And then she will put her necklace on and smile. Well, tonight, she got a hold of the Mardi Gras beads right in the middle of a diaper change.
**Naked baby alert!**

Trip to Albuquerque, Part 2

On day 2 in Albuquerque, we went to the Natural History Museum. As we pulled up and Liam saw the huge dinosaurs outside the museum, he said "I think I might faint." That is just his way of saying he is really excited! This was a dino paradise for my little aspiring paleontologist. He couldn't get enough of it. He would look at a couple of funny looking skeletons and say confidently, "Those are dire wolves." Ok, Liam, I don't know if..oh wait...you're right. Then next it was, "That's an arthropleura. Paleontologists aren't sure if it was a centipede or a millipede." (But they are sure it was around 8 feet long! *shudder*) We also took in the Imax movie, "Dinosaurs Alive." It was about the amazing discoveries paleontologists have made in the Gobi desert since the 1930s. Pretty neat stuff.
But the most exciting thing of all was the ENORMOUS replica of a Seismosaurus skeleton. Seismosaurus happens to be Liam's all-time favorite dinosaur. And guess where the very first Seismosaurus fossils were discovered? Right outside of Albuquerque!

There's the Seismosaurus below (it was too big to fit the whole thing in the frame of the picture).

Liam posing by a stegasaurus

I can't even remember what this dinosaur was called, but it wasn't a T-Rex. It was some relative of the T-Rex. If Liam wasn't asleep right now, I'd ask him because he knows.

Same for this guy! I would have called him Triceratops, but it's not. Maybe Protoceratops? In any case, Liam was one happy little boy on Sunday! He didn't want to leave and come home.

Trip to Albuquerque, Part 1

This past weekend, we took a short trip up to Albuquerque. We have been promising Liam we would take him to the Natural History Museum to see the new dinosaur exhibit for months now. And as luck would have it, we weren't the only ones planning a trip to Albuquerque this weekend! Our close friends, John, Cindy, Sarah, and Todd met up with us there, too. ;)

We attended the McCain Road to Victory rally at the Albuquerque convention center on Saturday evening. It was quite an event. We waited on line for about 2 hours to get through security but it was fun because everyone was all a buzz, particularly about the chance to see and hear Sarah Palin. When we finally got in, we had to split up because Emma was acting fussy. Brendan and Liam stayed near the podium and had a really great view. Emma and I walked over to the side and stood right next to the partition wall, which ended up being the perfect location....



Robert Duvall was there, too! Liam was excited because he remembers him from "Newsies." (He plays Joseph Pulitzer.) Liam was confused about where his long beard went. And then he wondered, how do you make a fake beard? And then wondered, why he didn't have hair on the top of his head anymore? Geesh, I'm surprised he recognized him at all with all those questions! :)


Then in dramatic fashion, the gigantic flag was lifted up and in drove...The Straight Talk Express.


Can you see through the glare? Cindy, John, Sarah, and Todd waiting to get off the bus.


There she is!


Heeeeeeere's Todd, who I think might be a rock star in his own right.



At this point, I couldn't really get any more good pictures because the podium was too far away from me. After the speeches were over, there was a mad rush to get near the perimeter because the McCains and Palins were meeting and greeting. Lucky for me I had been standing on the edge the whole time. I couldn't see what was going on, but finally a secret service agent walked over and told us to make sure we weren't holding our cameras or our flags when "he"came by. Next thing you know, John McCain was right in front of me and he reached out for my hand and thanked me for coming. What a thrill. Obviously, you can tell I a am McCain supporter, but even if I wasn't, what a great honor it was to get to shake the hand of a man who has sacrificed so much for our country...a true hero. Cindy was right behind him, and let me tell you, she is even more stunning in person than she is on tv. She shook my hand and also thanked me for coming. Then she looked right at Emma and said "Aww, what a cutie!" My goodness, do we need any further evidence of her good judgement?! kidding, kidding, of course...lol. But I will always remember that she said that to my little Emma. Sarah and Todd stopped shaking hands just short of where we were standing to talk with some local politicians before getting back on the Straight Talk Express.

Finally, after the crowds started leaving, Mommy & Liam stopped for a photo op.


Liam also got the autograph of Congressman Steve Pearce, who is running for the Senate.


The next stop on our trip was Albuquerque's Natural history Museum! Liam was in heaven...that will be my next blog entry, so stay tuned....

Tough as nails and sweet as a rose

Emma's been inspired by all the strong women she's seen on tv the past few nights. She knows she can be anything she wants to be when she grows up (isn't she smart for her tender age?!) Maybe someday she'll be heading to Washington to shake things up, too. Who knows! One thing is for sure. She's had spunk from day one. Here's the latest proof of that:

13 Months Old!

I have really been negligent of this blog the past few weeks. I blame it on kindergarten and how it has forced me to go to bed at a decent hour. (Well, I've been successful most nights, but I'm still working on making it a routine.) Night time is the easiest time for me to get online, so I'm going to have to get creative about this blogging business.
Anyhow! Today is Emma's 13 month birthday! Time continues to fly and she is growing up so fast. Just look at all her big girl expressions in the following pictures. Life is different with Liam at school, but she is also settling into a new routine. She takes her morning nap much earlier now (around 9:30) and a second nap sometime in the afternoon. She is still not walking, but she will just stand up and look around for a good 10-15 seconds at a time. Today she actually took one step from her standing up position and fell to the ground. But it's definite progress! One of these days, she'll just decide to take off. I'm still cherishing her time as a non-walking baby, so I'm really in no rush for her to start running circles around me!
In honor of her 13 months, Emma did a little swinging in our backyard before her morning nap. Boy does she love that swing.