all the good words…and the bad words too…

I used to long for the day that Liam would speak in constructive sentences, telling me what he wanted to eat, where he wanted to go, etc. In my head these sentences sounded like this: “Mama! I would like to go to the park after I finish my kale and blueberry smoothie! But can you pack me some of those flax-seed crackers in case I’m still hungry?”

Months later and my little butcher is indeed speaking, though he still doesn’t ask for much in regards to food except meat and fruit and tortilla chips. But the sentences are mainly still unintelligible, a cross between what sounds like Italian and Cantonese. There are many distinctly clear words in these foreign sentences, a few of the most popular being, train, truck, bubble, ball, baby, Yolo (our cat), water, hat, wine, backpack, walk, and boat. There are words only Mark and I understand such as “woo-woo” (fire-truck,)”ee-cee” (airplane,) and “la-la-la” (guitar or piano or music notes.) And there are a few understandable sentences as well. “I love trains!!!!,” is very popular right now, as well as the always useful: “Oh NO,” “No WAY,” and “What’s THAT?” Repeat the last one 400 times in one minute for full effect.

Recently Mark and I realized we needed to perhaps work on our own language since Liam’s is developing so quickly. Specifically, I realized it would be really embarrassing for me personally when Liam starts going to preschool and is telling his friends to get off his motherfucking tricycle. So we are trying to replace all the words you can probably imagine we say, far too much, with the word “cuss.” This was not our brilliant idea, by the way, we stole it from the film version of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which was indeed fantastic and lived up to the book I grew up reading. More on that HERE. Anyway. Here’s an example.

Me:  Liam! Don’t throw your cussing train at the cat!

Liam: Yolo! YOLO!!!!

Me: I will play with you and your trains, but Yolo does not want cuss to do with your cussing trains, Liam.

Liam: “I love trains! I LOVE the trains!! CHOO CHOOO!!!!”

Everyday as Liam’s speech progresses things get a little more interesting. His inflections are truly adorable, and I’m pretty sure I would think that even if I wasn’t his mama. His mannerisms and passion while babbling are commendable. And though I am aware he isn’t at the head of the pack in verbal ability, I still think he communicates what he wants better than most adults, so I couldn’t really give a cuss about it. Witness the little guy in action below….I’m doing most of the talking but Liam makes his point very clear.

very rational fears…very rational friends…

It seems to me, in these days of toddlerhood, that our little one is constantly hurdling himself into situations we deem death-defying without a care in the world. He climbs tall objects and stands on the precipice of huge ledges and then laughs at me when I rush over. He not-so-slyly eyes 100 lb. possibly tippable pieces of furniture then shoves them with his fist while standing directly below them. He trusts me to catch him when he falls, and on the rare occasion I’m not there or paying attention, he’ll still go stepping off in his haphazard fashion anyway. Falling, crying, and then recovering in about 10 seconds because, I guess, it’s teaching him something. In the same minute he can be completely shut down in fear by our blender, the old grumpy man in “UP,” or the creepy puppet Mark is for some reason keeping on our bookcase.

Toddlers think alike, at least some of them. Liam’s best buddy is a sweet little guy named Enzo who is just 4 months older than him. Enzo and Liam think alike, talk alike, walk alike, cry alike. When they are together the rest of the world disappears and things sometimes get very quiet.  Because they understand each other, and communicate wordlessly, and long periods pass where Enzo’s mama Ozzie and I will have enough of a break to start enjoying our beers before we realize from the silence that something might be terribly wrong. We rush to find out what’s going on only to discover they are working together to move furniture across the room or make some insane sticky mess with an apple on the floor.

I was tempted to title this posting “Irrational Fear of Santa.” But now I see it. Santa is seriously scary. We didn’t tell Liam we were going to the mall to meet Santa, but if we had, and if Liam had discussed what that meant with his buddy Enzo in their garbled toddler talk, he would have flatly refused to get in the car. Here’s what I think Liam’s interpretation of our Santa experience went like:

“I am with my mommy all day long! I love mommy. Some days daddy is home too and that is even better because I love daddy too! Today we are going to a mall with lots of people. I saw a bird on the way over here, that was so great. I love birds! There are a lot of people here! We are lining up outside a little red house and there are other little people and we are next to a playground and this is SO FUN! And now the door is opening! Yay!

Wait a second. They’ve shut both doors behind me and also in front and my daddy is handing money to some guy with a big flashy bulb. Where is my mama? And there is a fat man in a red suit on some kind of pedestal and he is holding out his arms and wants to TAKE ME! Why isn’t my mama picking me up?? Oh no!! My daddy is selling me to Santa Claus! MAMA! MAMA! How could they do this? I am so cute? How could mommy not see how cute I am?!?! Now I am remembering all the babies that went in one door to this little red house and never came back out!! And why is mommy not saving me? Everyone is laughing and this big scary man is trying to tuck me into his giant belly where he will surely EAT ME! OH GOD! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!”

Exhibit A: Liam with Santa (2011); Enzo with Santa (2010)

Hallowinn 2011

This was Liam’s second Halloween. We opted out of the first one, citing extreme sleep deprivation and apathy. A year later, we regretted our choice. With Liam so small and immobile, we could have had many creative costume successes like baby banana-slug, baby-walrus, baby-sloth…you get the idea.

This year we were less remiss. Mark was a nerdy bigfoot, I was a pig/lamb hybrid, and Liam was the butcher.

Family Winn

I’d like to explain our case to anyone wondering why we’d possibly dress our toddler up as a butcher. After weeks and weeks of watching our baby ignore fruits and vegetables and instead devour bacon, lamb, steak, chicken, duck, pork, beef stew, etc, did we really have another option? This baby loves meat.

I will be honest with you, it freaks some people out when I tell them how much my baby loves meat. But it really is true. After I made lamb chops the other night, Mark handed him the rest of the chop and this was the result.

More visual details on the chop incident are below. I would like to publicly state this was not my idea, although I do find it oddly great. I’d also like to use this opportunity to apologize to all my vegetarian/vegan friends whom I’m sure I will never talk to again.

I am raising a tiny caveman.

Kid-Friendly Businesses…

The other day I took our darling toddler to Cibo, our best local coffeeshop. My husband works in walking distance of this blue-bottle brewing, milk-art steaming refuge and probably frequents it 4 times a day. And, since I have yet to find the place nearer us that will give me coffee that is at least comparable to what I can make at home, if I’m needing a caffeine fix, or want to just get a tasty sandwich and beer, Cibo is on top of my list.

Unlike any normal sort of place, Cibo celebrates and encourages healthy play among children, and therefore their lovely waitperson suggested it was just great that Liam should remove every baby pumpkin from the premises and place it inside the old antique milk-jug in the corner. “Of course! Why not? As long as he is having fun! And as long as you are eating your sandwich!”

Visit Cibo in Sausalito for amazing coffee and my 5 star rating for kick-ass kid friendly establishments. And watch my video below to see Liam in action at Cibo.

I-Phone Photography Winners

Recently the revolutionary Apple came out with yet another Iphone. And Mark and I, wanting both to stimulate the economy and and our apple stock, decided for the better good to go ahead and both invest in new Iphone 4gs. I agree, it was so selfless of us.

To celebrate my now retired 3gs, I am putting up the best of the best of my IPhone photos (of Liam) from the last year. The combination of babies and technology is amazing. The ability to capture all their little babyisms.. and the genius of Steve Jobs to make a device so simple that a parent can use it with one finger while sleep deprived never ceases to amaze me. And so, even though I am a Brooks Institute Grad (I-Photo Degree?), some of the best shots I’ve taken since he’s been born would never had been captured on any other machine. Viva Apple and Viva Babies!

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Hiking different corners of the globe…

Recently the family Winn visited Europe and one of our many stops was the fabulous tiny town of Monterosso in Italy, one of the famed “Cinque Terre,” or five villages. When we arrived Mark announced he would like to hike the Sentiero between the Cinque Terre, which is 11 kilometers, roughly 7 miles. The informational guide at the tourist station pronounced in very good English that it would be “impossible” to do this walk with a baby. With this new challenge we had to try it, so the next morning we awoke and began our walk.

Above Vernazza, Liam fell asleep!

Near the 3rd village, still sleepy Liam.

After Liam had a nice long nap and resisted putting on a hat for many sunny miles, we all stopped in Corniglia for some food and drinks. Shortly before that Liam staged a protest against the Ergo that resulted in his liberation.

Freedom

The final part of the walk is called “Via Del Amore.” Liam fell asleep again. It was supposed to be the most beautiful part of the walk but we felt the more rugged terrain really had the most beautiful views.

Amore!

Finished

After we came home to Mill Valley, we started feeling weird about the fact that we traveled halfway around the world and did this big hike even though we’d never hiked the Dipsea Trail, which at approximately 7 miles goes through Mill Valley, Muir Woods, and down to Stinson Beach. So two weeks after we got back we woke up and started that trek.

made it to muir woods from our house

Muir Woods

above stinson beach

End of two hike analysis? The first most obvious thing would be that one must appreciate is the natural beauty surrounding your home.  We travel far and wide for a taste of the exotic and we end up right back where we started.

A few milestones in video…

DISCLAIMER: To all my friends that are not yet parents: Some of this stuff may or may not seem like not a big deal to you. Trust me when I say that sometimes rolling over or sitting up can be pretty badass.

ROLLING OVER!

HANGIN on the MAT:

LITTLE DRUMMER BOY:

CRAWLING!

WALKING!

Tracking the evolution from Grouper Fish to Little Lion…

When Liam was just born and very tiny, we used to call him the grouper fish, or “groupy” for short. In retrospect, this wasn’t a really nice nickname, since grouper fish are so ugly.

Maybe if I hadn’t been so sleep deprived I would have thought to have called him something cuter like  a clown fish. Either way, of course all children are amazing and beautiful at birth, but as far as I’m concerned they do get a lot cuter as their personalities emerge and they start doing things like moving and making noises. Rolling, sitting up, crawling, walking, talking, all these milestones have been amazing, and one by one they have transformed our grouper fish into the little lion he is today.

First things first…

Once upon a time Mark and I decided to go on an Italian vacation. We visited Rome and the island of Ponza. We drank amazing coffee, ate amazing meals, and drank delicious wine. Lots of delicious wine! We swam in the sea, rode scooters on windy roads and played music with the most famous musician in all of Ponza. Suffice it to say we had a really, really good time.

We had such a good time that two weeks after we got back from Italy we discovered I was pregnant. Though we didn’t expect this souvenir from our trip, we realized it was a complete blessing and embraced the future. I had a healthy pregnancy and Mark and I decided to get married shortly (very shortly) before Liam was born.

On June 1st, 2010, after about 12 hours of labor, I gave birth to our little guy. Having a natural birth was very important to me, and I was so proud of myself and appreciative of the support I received that made that happen. Liam was 5 days early, incredibly healthy and strong, in short we couldn’t possibly be more grateful.

And so our new life began. A life where we functioned on less sleep than I ever thought possible. A life where much of our time went into childproofing a cabin on a hill with two unfinished decks 25 feet above the ground. We still go out to restaurants, we still play music and paint and write, we still go hiking and we still travel. Since we just got back from a 20 day jaunt in Europe, it seemed like the perfect time to start this blog and tell the world about Liam’s adventures.