Shared Interest

Sometimes I wonder if Hilary feels like she lives with TWO 11 year old boys.  Liam and I have quite a few common interests.  Our current obsession interest is Star Wars, and more specifically Star Wars Lego.

I love Lego.  I had it growing up, but of course back then it was simple rectangle pieces in 4 primary colours.  Now sets come with such oddly shaped pieces, that I can't tell which way is up.  The new sets are pretty awesome though.  Liam and I have been coveting some of the bigger Star Wars sets for a while now.

Last week we headed out so that Liam could spend some money that he got for Christmas.  He really, really, really wanted the Millennium Falcon set, but only had half the money needed.  So he started his sales pitch.  "Mama, you love Star Wars as much as I do."  "Mama, wouldn't it be fun to work on this together?" "Mama, haven't you always wanted this set too?"  "Mama, don't you have some Christmas money that you got?  You could put it towards the Millennium Falcon."  I'm pretty sure this kid is going to grow up to be a con artist... he can talk his way into a lot of things.

So I pooled my Christmas money (and then some) with his and we came home with a 1200+ piece Lego set.  We worked a lot on it on Sunday, and surprisingly, we finished it tonight!  Now the only question is where to keep it.  It needs to be played with (check out the detail!) but we don't want it to get smashed or broken.  Hilary doesn't seem to keen on my suggestion that we box up some of our antique tea cups and use the sideboard as a Lego display case..... I'm not sure why, it seemed like a perfect solution to me!

Oh No, It's a Muffalo

Liam's school play is next Thursday and he is playing one of the "Muffalo's" children.  He looks pretty scar to me with his big bad claws!

7 pounds

These days most of my blogging is about weight loss, not weight gain.  But today we are celebrating a gain of SEVEN pounds!

and no, I don't think all the weight gain is hair.

Liam went to the doctor today for his regular checkup and we are happy to say that he has gained 7 pounds in the last 6 months.  This is a huge accomplishment.  Usually we leave these appointments celebrating a gain that is measured in ounces.   His last "big" gain was more than 2 years ago, with a whopping 33/4 pounds.

He continues to be in the 10th percentile for height but today's gain has pushed him over the 25th percentile for weight.  He's never going to be a tall kid - his parents were 5'2 and 5'11, but he does continue to grow and thrive.

Food continues to be an adventure, with the repertoire of things he enjoys remaining fairly limited.  We have noticed in the past few weeks that while the kinds of food hasn't changed, the quantity of food he eats has been growing.  In Liam's case, every calorie is a good calorie, so we go with it, even when it's meant making Transportation Noodles at 9:00 at night.

Art Cards

Every year Liam's school undertakes the huge project of having each child produce a piece of art that is then scanned and printed onto blank note cards that we then sell as a fundraiser. Today I was looking back over the 8 cards that Liam has made so far.

This is by far my favorite fundraiser (even being on the committee who spends hours producing the final product). Liam only has one more year of elementary school so I will only have one more card to add to my collection.  I think I will need a taller chair next year to stand on if I want to fit them all into one picture.