Accidental Oriental or Oriented Occidental?

Yes, Dwight Shrute*, we know lots of cultures eat rice, not just Orientals. But FACT- Liam is now part of one of those cultures. QUESTION- Does he like being part of one of those cultures? Definitely.

Along with wearing most of his cereal (despite Dad's squeegee attempts), Liam is also sporting a personalized shirt crafted by Krystal and Hailey.

*Dwight can be viewed on one of our two TV channels.

She's a Real Knock Out

This is our newest edition to our collection of 'things to do for fun around the house'. Last year, we were babysitting some kids of Dani's friend and they asked if they could come to our house. Sure, we said. What do you have there to do? they asked. We had to think real long and hard about that. Well, we responded, we've got lots of books... and a computer... and some air soft guns... How about a Playstation? Nope. An XBox? Uh, no. Maybe a Wii? huh-uh. Do you even have a TV? Well, we almost, uh... no, not even one of those. Still want to come over? Maybe you can just play with us over here, they concluded. SO- we are slowly working our way up with things to do other than play with our baby, bikes, bunny, and books- boxing seemed to fit in with at least one alliterative theme. We even have a TV now (sometimes we even watch it... we try to rotate evenly between the two channels that we receive). Brady is now Dani's personal boxing instructor (we haven't committed to a first person or third person account on this blog). She's planning on teaching a kickboxing class in the future.


Also this week- Dani hosted her first book club here in DeWitt. They read a Thousand Splendid Suns by Hosseini. Issues that were raised: womens rights, domestic abuse, nasty food recipes, and the US obligations to Afghanistan. Dani found a few jogging/nature trails nearby with a friend- she was wondering if they existed. They exist, but 'They're weak. Grrr.'

Funny Fella

This one's worth watching for sure. Have you heard a cuter laugh?

Liam loves watching what happens when he kicks stuff. Watch for his ninja-style wall kick when he flips over.

He even rolls on command for mom.

We're still loving the Michigan life. Liam gets funnier and more active every day. We're grateful for such a great place to be and for the opportunities that are presenting themselves for our family.

Posts to come: Our Knock-Out New Toy; Michigan's Idiosyncrasies.

Milestones

Liam just had a doctor check up. He still isn't happy about how many times they poked him, but was glad to hear that he's a healthy kid.

He now weighs 17 lbs 10 oz and stands a regal 27 inches tall.

Hot Off the Press

Headlining Events of the Week

Brady and Liam both happen upon amphibious friends

Danielle discovers scrapbooking dollar store and acquires free sewing machine (!!!)

Intramural flag football game dominated by Brady and his teammates

Old Town Blues Fest a jammin' success: Local cultural diversity was entertainment galore

Mom/playgroup hosted at Firth home: Gabe was all the rage

Stats test no contest for Dani- only the final remains to be vanquished

updates

Well, Dani's almost done with her online stats class- this Thursday she'll finish the course work before taking the final later this month. We're proud of her for sticking through on it. Her focus on that, my increasing school load, and Liam's propensity to freeze on stage (see video below) have slowed down our posting.

Liam likes to jabber all the time, especially when mom and dad are talking to him, or when he's talking to any of his ceiling-fan buddies (which is what he's doing here), but as soon as he sees the camera, he clams up and goes into investigative mode. This should serve as evidence that it's hard to film him doing cute stuff. We're lucky when we can catch him in the wild like this...

As far as news in the Firth family goes, here are some updates:

Dani has been called as a Primary Presidency Counselor and Secretary AND Pianist in the branch.

Brady has been called as a counselor in the Young Men presidency.

A young man we've been helping the missionaries teach has committed to be baptized.

Dani will be teaching a Women with Weights class at her work. She's taken the liberty of adding the subtitle Grandmas at the Gym, as that more accurately describes the class demographics. She continues to be the DeWitt Fitness Girl Extraordinaire.

Firth Action

Let's just get this out on the table, just so nobody is confused or anything- there aren't any real mountains in Michigan. That means no proper mountain biking or hiking. But, being the resourceful people we Michiganders are, there are still some pretty fun playgrounds around here regardless of the conspicuous mountainlessness. We went to Birchfield Park, which has a system of trails surrounding a small river and a few lakes. Not a lot of elevation change, but a lot of man-made toys and obstacles, and it was really pretty.

Brady had fun on his bike going over some skinny, rickety bridges that were all over the park.

Dani and Liam even put our powerhouse stroller to the test.

Here's what Liam had to say about it while we were there. Danielle was able to get an exclusive interview, but only under the condition that Liam could speak comfortably on his side...

(Any translations are welcome)

Eating johnny jump-up

For those of you who have seen Liam in action on his dad's lap, you know this is not on account of muscle deficiency or leg strength. He's a pretty funny little guy. He just likes to eat. Looks like his cousins could give him a few tips about how to get the most out of his toys.