Charlie Harper & the Beach

Traveling for work this week, but going home tomorrow. My work, if you can believe this, is actually right on a beach on the west coast of Florida. I am spending most of the days hours in the hotel meeting rooms, working, but did get to walk out to the beach tonight to put my feet in the sand and watch the waves. Also, have been sleeping with my hotel windows open and waking to the noise of the ocean.

I have the Charles Harper poster of the Alpine NW in the back of my car (still) trying to be on the way to be framed. I'm reminded he did a bunch of posters for the US National Park Service -- including one on the barrier islands, very appropriate for my current situation. Also, the Rocky Mtns. -- I love the colors. Updates on Liam and Will this weekend. The report is that both are fine. Liam is trying to convince his grandparents that I've been whining about nothing and he really does go straight to bed and sleep through the night every night. Will continues recovery from the most recent pneumonia; his energy is slowly returning, I think.

Dog Bone Phone & Inauguration

Finally today. . .Liam has decided that Mollie's green toy dog bone is a phone. If you look at it, you can see how he might have got this idea. It is shaped sort of like a phone. Anyway, he grabbed it from her toy basket the other day and has been running around using it as a phone ever since. We think he's calling Grandma KM and Grandpa DM in California.

We feel so happy and hopeful tonight about the inauguration and this chance for change. It was reported that Liam watched the address with GG and clapped along whenever the crowd on television did. So sweet.

Bad Teddy Bear

Liam thinks it is really funny when other creatures in his world do naughty things. For example, when Will's parents' cat gets scolded for pushing papers off the table (or being on the table) or whatever, Liam thinks it is hilarious. This has recently extended to Teddy Bear who simply cannot seem to get hold of the rule that your bottom has to stay on the bottom step unless Mommy or Daddy gives you permission to go up the stairs and is with you. Liam understands this rule well and follows it pretty well, rarely going past the second step even when he "forgets." But Teddy Bear, well, he just doesn't get it. He always goes up to at least the third step. These (blurry) photos capture Will and Liam discussing this problem with Teddy. You should have heard Liam laughing.

High Tech Temperature Monitoring

We made fried chicken last night. Well, I started it and then became so impatient with the cooking that Will finished it. Ten minutes a side my. . .butt. This is Will checking the temperature of the cooking oil with the laser infra-red temperature taker that Auntie C gave him for Christmas. Who knew it would be so useful? The chicken tasted okay once it was (finally) done, except it lost some of its crispness on account of being finished in the oven. Wrapped in tin foil. (The tin foil was my idea---not a good one---not Will's.)

Still diapering all the stuffed animals around here, you?

Liam is not sick of having us put diapers on everything yet. He insisted today that Will had to diaper Teddy Bear on the kitchen table. The floor or the coffee table would not do. He watches very, very closely. Note Liam's new hair cut. We trimmed his bangs today. His hair grows like a weed.

The baby loves his broccoli

Isn't that something. He likes to eat the stems and spit out the florets and hand them to me. (Thank you!) We're working on some version of: okay, you don't have to eat it, just set it aside. When you eat steamed broccoli with that much enthusiasm, it is exhausting.

Will & Liam's Ragtime Band

Liam received a number of musical instrument toys for Christmas and he and Will have been playing with them. Liam loves anything he can shake or pound, but he is reasonably careful with the musical instruments. He wants the striker for the drum to go with the drum and the striker for the xylophone to go with it. He doesn't generally hit the drum or the xylophone with things other than the strikers (we have encouraged this). He will play on his own with these things, but he prefers if someone plays with him. We have got to cut Liam's hair, it is a mess and always in his eyes.

Will continues to slowly recover. Some days are better than others. He's off most of the antibiotics (except the ones he takes all the time related to the transplant), and his oxygen saturation has been going up and is now pretty reliably in the low 90s as measured by his little home o2 reader (I can't remember if that reads higher or lower than the hospital meters, but it's close either way). He has a check-back with his regular pulmonary doc on Tuesday, so that should tell us more about how things are going.