The Gift of Gab

  The older Liam gets, the more obvious it becomes that he has an uncanny ability to win hearts with his words. He moves seamlessly from hilarious to courteous to precious. In order to really keep track of all of the awesome stuff he says I would have to carry a small notebook and pen with me at all times and accomplish nothing else. Or, better yet, a mini-recorder. So, I can't keep up with everything, but here, in no particular order, are some recent favorite conversations/comments:

  Josh and I were talking about someone getting married and Liam announced, "I'm getting married." When asked who he was going to marry he responded, "I'm going to marry a mommy like you, Mommy. But she will be a plain mommy because she will not have long hair like you and me."

  He's become Cora's biggest fan ever since she started crawling last month. He talks to her and tries to cuddle or wrestle her all the time. He picks up on little names he hears us call her and adopts them as his own nicknames for her. Like this morning, when he called her "sweet princess" all throughout breakfast.

  For Easter, Josh and I gave Liam and Cora a book called Humble Heart: A Book of Virtues. We usually read one of the little stories every night during our bedtime reading/cuddle time. Liam loved the story of Barnabas Bunny and has really latched onto the idea of encouragement. Now, every time Cora starts crying in the car he will say something like, "It's okay, Cowa, I'm right here. We'll be there soon!" He follows up these comments by stating, "I'm encowaging her, Mom!" It's so great.

  Recently, at dinner, Liam held out his hand to daddy and Josh showed him how to shake hands and told him that when we meet people we shake their hands and say, "it's nice to meet you!" We didn't think anything of it and didn't mention it again; but a couple of days later we were at a crawfish boil at our friends house, and upon arrival Liam walked right up to our friend Nick, stuck out his hand and said, "it's nice to meet you!" He has repeated this 3 or 4 more times and we can't get enough of it!

  Speaking of meeting new people ... he loves it. He will often initiate conversation with strangers, and usually it goes like this: "Do you have a dog at your house? What is your dog's name? I have puppy Jack. He is a great dane. (Then I remind him that Jack is not a great dane) He's a golden retriever." Then, if they continue asking him questions he'll generally end up talking about baseball, because that is his area of expertise.

  When speaking with a man he deems extra cool, Liam will sort of scowl and talk in a deep voice. He also uses more hand gestures than normal, and it's hilarious. I think my favorite part of these scenarios is the fact that he talks about the same things he normally would - puppies and baseball - just with a manlier demeanor. Currently, some of his favorite men (aside from his daddy, grandpas, and uncles) are Mr. Tripp (a good friend of ours), Mr. Kelly (who owns the donut shop we go to on Friday mornings, Mr. Tim & Mr. Jason (who work at the donut shop), Dr. Alex (a friend in our community group), and Mr. Max (who works for the church and has been helping fix our drywall following a burst pipe incident).

  When Liam can't be playing baseball, he announces baseball games. It is not uncommon for me to hear something like this coming from the backseat as we drive down the road: "Now batting for the Razorbacks, Joe Serrano (or Tyler Spoon or Jacob Mahan - the favorites this season)! And its a swing and a miss. Two balls, two strikes. And a foul tip!" And on and on it goes. He also randomly bursts out singing, "Everybody clap your hands!" or chanting, "ball four, ball four."

  Although most of his imaginative energy is focused on baseball, he also spends a lot of time pretending he is a dog or talking to imaginary puppies. The puppies tend to show up on the way to church, so I generally spend our trip from the car to his classroom explaining to people what he's talking about when he points behind himself and starts telling them about his dogs.

  Gosh, I wish I could think of more at the moment; but the stories are so unending that it's hard to keep them all in my head. Liam is usually still chatting, even as we tuck him into bed. We've had to start just leaving the room and closing the door mid-sentence because he would keep talking indefinitely if we didn't. We're so thankful for our personable boy!