it's the little things

When I came back from putting a certain somebody in their crib, in hopes that a nap was on the agenda, I found this sitting in "my spot" on the couch:

It was put there by this happy, smiley little boy:

Unfortunately, a nap was NOT something he planned on today, so we're currently standing in the middle of the living room floor, shifting our weight from one foot to the other, holding our Po, watching him on TV. Thank the good Lord above for my DVR and Kung Fu Panda. Except that Liam is so used to the DVR version of the movie, that whenever we go into the On Demand or DVR menu, he gets really excited. Sorry kid, not every time.

I am currently waiting not so patiently for this to come:

I'm eager to get started on "things" for Mr. Man's birthday party. I plan on using it as more than just a cookie cutter- think stencil, fondant... these cute little crabs are going to be all over the house! I just need it to COME so I can get started! It would have been the perfect way to spend this rainy afternoon.

Speaking of a birthday party, today when we got home from lunch at Japaneiro's, this was waiting at the front door:

It's the "guestbook" for his party- with images from birth to now, and I'm thrilled with the way it came out. Honestly, the books you make with iPhoto are fantastic. I'm so glad I went ahead and did this, I'm very pleased with it, and I think it'll be a special element to our boy's special day.

Little man has taken to playing in Jethro's bed every chance he gets. On this particular day, he decided that Detective John Kimble, his Webkinz Ferret needed to play there too. It cracks me up.

And speaking of things that crack me up:

Liam learned to do this when he was crawling, because he'd want to get from point A to point B with his bottle, and realized quickly that crawling is not conducive to carrying things around. The habit seems to have stuck a little bit, despite the fact that we are now bipedal.

I am going to introduce you to my latest snack flavor obsession, and I'm going to blame it on the beautiful (newly-engaged!) Betsy @ Miss Monogram and sweet Ashley Brook of Ashley Brooke Designs. Their discussion of these prompted me to seek them out in HEB, and rapidly become addicted to the combination.

However, since I feel like my waistline doesn't benefit from the 160 calorie indulgence every time I feel that snack attack, I found something I like just as well, that makes me feel a little (LOT!) less guilty:

Somebody else has discovered snacking as well:

AND he finally learned how to pick up his little Gerber graduate puffs and put them in his mouth- and he was feeding himself squares of bread last night! Hallelujah! I kept telling him I couldn't feed him his birthday cake, and he finally seems to have understood what I was trying to communicate (speaking of which: I finally settled on a design for Liam's smash cake, settled on chocolate buttermilk sheet cake with rich chocolate pecan frosting for the adutls and I'm going to make small individual cakes for the kiddies that look like crabs. I'm so excited about the plan for Liam's cake- and so excited to make it for him!).

I think that's all for now -- I'm SO excited to share Liam's latest BIG news with you all, and my big QUARTER CENTURY birthday plans- but that can all wait for another day! Hope you're all staying cool and dry today!