Miscellaneous January

Well it's time to catch up, yet again! I was on a roll there for a while. Compared to the frenzied rush of the holidays, January was relatively uneventful. Mostly we just tried to remember what normal life was like. Liam got back to his own room...and back to sneaking out of bed to play until falling asleep on the floor. Every once in a while he ends up in the chair in his room. It's the highlight of our night to sneak into his room and see where he is. This night was too cute! He found a towel and curled up on the chair...even managing to actually cover himself with it. A feat he rarely masters alone:)

More fun creations with daddy

For about five minutes I was waking up early and going out for morning walks before Dan left for work. It was SO nice! I guess not more nice than sleep though...because I think it's been about a month since my last morning walk! The morning fog was really beautiful though.

Liam has been SUCH a big boy lately (more on that in following posts...ie: potty training). It was really nice to come back to some of our old routines. Liam LOVES the library and especially story time. Usually only the big kids sit in the front without their moms, and the rest of the kids stay farther back on their mom's (or nanny's) laps. Out of nowhere Liam stood up off of my lap and marched straight to the front, plopped himself down, and stayed there for the rest of story time. I was so proud...what a big moment in his life:) He is the one in the green jacket and red hat.

This might have been the greatest day of Liam's young life so far...a trip to open hour gymnastics! It was a toddler's dream come true. Twice a week, the gymnastics gym on UBC campus is open for young kids to come and wreak havoc for one full hour! It was AMAZING! And so relieving for me to just let him run, jump off of things, climb, and throw himself to the ground without having to worry about him cracking his face open or breaking something. He just ran free for 55 minutes straight. The last five minutes he was so exhausted, he made his way to the waiting room and basically just sat there trying to recover!

One of the instructors walked by while he was running across a balance beam. She said he was a natural gymnast and told me to put him in lessons! I'm sure she never says that to anyone else, and I am planning his olympic career already.

The last big news for January, which I'm pretty sure you have ALL heard about one too many times...but I'll blog it just in case...is my art show! I had entered a painting into a juried group exhibition and I got in! I was so excited because I haven't had my work show anywhere since 2009. The opening reception for the show was in January. It turns out they give three awards, and I took first place with my painting, Eugene, and I won $300! I was SO shocked! It was such a great feeling to be validated for my hard work.  It's been really hard to keep the motivation to continue painting over the years. But I have stuck with it...barely at times. I'm feeling really good about my art right now, and working frantically to get a lot of painting done before the baby comes in May. I have another show in October of this year, where I will get a 30 foot wall to display my work. I have a LOT of painting to do before then!