a year and a half

Liam is 18 months now and we get to see more and more of his personality each day. He's such a sweet, laid back guy, with a good sense of humor. At his check up he weighed 29 pounds putting him in the 95th percentile and he measured exactly 3 feet putting him in the 100th percentile. Overall, he is healthy and we are grateful. We love him so very much! 

Here are some things about our baby boy that make him, him.

• He continues to be attracted to all things with wheels: tractors, trucks, construction equipment, etc.
• And he has found a new love for shoes! He puts on any shoes he can find, including pink and purple, sparkly ones.
• Liam's crazy about the great outdoors and gets very upset when the sliding glass door gets closed. His favorite things to do in our backyard are eating tomatoes from the garden, playing in the sandbox, and hauling rocks in his dump truck.
• He's gotten a little picky with eating lately but enjoys strawberries, tomatoes, goldfish, fruit snacks, hot dogs, mac and cheese and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
• I still can find him in his room just looking though books and his favorites remain the Little Blue Truck books or any books about trains, planes and automobiles.
• Liam loves to dance and finds rhythm in almost anything, like the bumps we go over in the grocery cart or the sound of the beaters mixing the cooking dough. 
• Although he has met every milestone, especially the fine and gross motor skills, speech has not been his strong suite. I'll post more about this later. 
• Last, he loves his sister. He shows great concern when she's upset, joins her in timeouts, gives her morning hugs and is always trying to join her for a playdate in her room.

there he is!!!

Liam gets the biggest kick out of this and as a result, so do we! I didn't want to forget.

P.S. I take no credit for the way he was dressed. I'll just say him and Daddy were watching a little NASCAR that day. 

bentley

Bentley and Auntie Pam.

On Monday morning when I was driving Addie to preschool, I knew that the topic of the week was going to be pets. So I started to engage her in conversation about pets. I asked her what pets we have and the first pet out of her mouth was Bentley.

A year ago, when we found out Addie had an allergy to dogs, we asked Aunt Pam to take him for a trial to see if that would improve her eczema. It didn't. But ironically what did improve was Bentley's skin. Long story short, Bentley is no longer the miserable, itchy dog with nasty little bumps all over him. And he is even off his medicine that was used to control the skin flare ups. We all concluded that there is something in the air up here that isn't down in Southern California. So Kevin, Aunt Pam and I made the decision that Bentley would stay with her permanently and as I was driving Addie to school that day, I realized I hadn't explained this to Addie yet. 

I had spent my own time grieving about this decision but I admit, I wasn't prepared for my little girl's reaction when I told her that Bentley was going to stay with Aunt Pam for good. I started to explain that we could go visit him and that's when I heard a lump in the back of her throat as she said, "But we need Bentley back! We can get Auntie Pam another little white dog." I will never forget her four year old voice pleading with me about our dog and before I knew it I had a lump in the back of my throat and we both had tears in our eyes, as the realization set in that Bentley was no longer considered our pet.

And now I'm crying writing this...Bentley we love you. As I've said before, you were my baby and source of comfort, when I didn't know if having babies was going to be possible. Loving and caring for you, trained and prepared me for the day we brought our first newborn home. And now she loves you. You taught her that dogs can be gentle and loving companions. You made her giggle countless times. You tolerated (for the most part) your hair being pulled, smothering hugs and many, many changes, that were not always in your favor, as we welcomed two new human beings into our home. You are a good dog Bentley. We miss you terribly but we are so grateful to know that we will get to visit and love on you again!