Fear and Loathing In The Diaper Pail

I had this record as a kid and I wanted Liam to have it too, so I bought the CD today. Just listening to the first song makes me feel good! Maybe it’s been awhile since you heard it too …

Free To Be You And Me

There’s a land that I see
Where the children are free
And I say it ain’t far
To this land where we are.

Take my hand, come with me
Where the children are free
Come with me – take my hand
And we’ll live

In a land
Where the river runs free
In a land
Through the green country
In a land
To a shining sea

And you and me
Are free to be
You and me

I see a land, bright and clear
And the time’s comin’ near
When we’ll live in this land
You and me, hand in hand.

Take my hand, come along
Lend your voice to my song
Come along – take my hand
Sing a song

For a land
Where the river runs free
For a land
Through the green country
For a land
Where the horses run free

And you and me
Are free to be
You and me

Every boy in this land
Grows to be his own man
In this land, every girl
Grows to be her own woman

Take my hand, come with me
Where the children are free
Come with me, take my hand
And we’ll run

To a land
Where the river runs free
To a land
Through the green country
To a land
To a shining sea
To a land where the horses run free
To a land where the children are free

And you and me
Are free to be
You and me

And you and me are free to be you and me.

Sorry, dear Reader. I know it’s been a little while since my last post. I haven’t had too much going on worth writing about. The regular day in, day out sort of business, mostly.

Liam’s vocabulary has been blowing up lately. He had his 18-month well-baby checkup several days ago and the doctor said his language development is ahead of schedule. I didn’t tell her, but frankly, it stands to reason, because Liam is a genius.

So he’s added some new words to his repertoire and started repeating words we say. So we have made it to “Watch Your Mouth” Land, where the F’s and S’s and GD’s will have to be put away. Sigh. It was a good, long run, assholes.

He’s also doing a few new things. For instance, he has a soft spot for schtick and physical comedy. He will turn around in circles and then walk over to a wall and purposely run his head into it and then laugh and point to his head. Like, “Get it? I ran into the wall with my head!”

His other new thing is kisses. I could not be happier. This past week I finally got my first real kiss from my baby. Not the open-mouth, drooly, slobbery, ending in a bite on the face kiss. But a real one where he leans in with his little baby mouth kind of puckered up. More like sticking out his lower lip, I guess. It is, of course, ridiculously adorable and its nice. I feel like the past year and a half of nights up, barfing, wee-hour bed strippings, ear infections, bumps, bruises, crying, tantrums and teething are paying off. I’m getting a thank you, finally.

So last night, in the time between his bath and bedtime where we play for awhile, we were coloring, and he took some time out from the Elmo picture I printed out from the PBS website to horse around on the chair he was sitting on. Before I could even put down my crayon, he turned himself backwards in the chair, leaned over and fell completely flat on his face, hitting the floor register.

I instantly scoop him up and his mouth is full of blood. He’s screaming and drooling blood all over his cheeks, chin and my shirt. I can’t even tell exactly what’s bleeding. Did he cut his lip? Did he knock out a tooth? I hold him and rock him and he just screams and screams. Adam brought him a cup of water to drink, which he did and it rinsed out his mouth a little and we could see that thankfully, all his teeth were in place, but his lower lip was severely cut. It was already puffed up and purple and just wouldnt stop bleeding. And we couldnt get him to calm down, either. Eventually Adam got him laughing by making some funny faces, and I was able to wipe off his face and blot his mouth. We gave him some Tylenol.

So ten, maybe fifteen minutes later, it’s time for night-night. I carry him to his room. I”m still wearing my bloody T-shirt. I hold him and sway and sing his lullabye and he rests his head on my shoulder and wraps his arm around my neck. When the lullabye is over, he lifts his head up, sleepily looks at me and leans in with his poor, sweet, puffy purple lip for a goodnight kiss.

God, how I love that kid.

Most mornings, Liam watches Mr. Rogers while I nurse my coffee and fold laundry. I love Mr. Rogers. I love the show and I love Mr. Rogers himself. Lately, at the end of the show, when Mr. Rogers sings the “It’s Such A Good Feeling” song, when he gets to the part about “I’ll have more ideas for you,” Liam points to his head. So all day yesterday I would ask him, “Liam, where are your ideas?” and he’d point to his head. It’s funny. He doesnt know what an “idea” is. But he know they’re in (or on) his head. It makes him look smart, doesnt it?

I leave you with a happy song:

It’s such a good feeling to know you’re alive
It’s such a happy feeling, you’re growing inside
And when you wake up ready to say,
“I think I’ll make a snappy new day!” (snap snap)
It’s such a good feeling, a very good feeling
The feeling you know that I’ll be back when the day is new
And I’ll have more ideas for you
And you’ll have things you’ll want to talk about
I will too!

You always make every day a special day. You know how. By just your being you. There’s no one else in the world exactly like you, and people can like you exactly as you are.