Vegetables make me happy

This weekend we were back in Indy.  I didn’t finish writing out Friday and Saturday last week because they kind of ran together.  It was lots of driving and me being alone with the dogs and the baby, just in a different house.  And worse sleeping than normal.  And no food.

Since my father-in-law has basically spent the month of October in the hospital, my mother-in-law has as well.  So the food choices at their house were pretty limited—frozen brisket one of the aunt’s made before all of this started, cold meat ham, bananas, and dark chocolate covered pretzels.  That’s basically it.  There was some yogurt, but I’m currently opposed to the texture of yogurt.  There may have been one or two other things, but I didn’t eat them.  My stomach was so unhappy with me.  When I got home, I felt gross.  All I wanted were vegetables.  And that’s when I remembered a habit I wanted to pick back up—green smoothies!

I actually really like green smoothies—fruit and vegetables all mixed in one.  Mine aren’t always (or even often) green, but they have lots of greens in them.  I mixed up one this morning—it was a little dairy heavy (hi not going to the grocery store), but it was still refreshing.  It had: Greek yogurt, milk, peaches, blueberries, and spinach.  I usually use unsweetened almond milk or soymilk (I kind of want to try light chocolate soymilk and banana/strawberry). 

After that breakfast, I had the good fortune to stumble upon a great idea on Pinterest—green smoothie ‘pucks.’  Mixing up all the good stuff early and freezing it in muffin tins…then just add fruit and whatever liquid and blend for the smoothie.  So I did that this afternoon—I mixed lots of spinach, turnip greens, collard greens (I think those are the two…I just bought a bag of mixed greens last week and I don’t remember for sure what’s in it), cucumber, orange hunks, mango, and water.  Then I put it in muffin tins, and ended up with 18 “pucks.”  I’m so excited for my smoothie tomorrow!  I think I’ll do blueberries, strawberries, a puck, and water or milk.  And the best part, besides all the yummy good stuff, is that I can grab sips of smoothie while hanging out with Liam—it’s a great playing with baby breakfast!  And when he’s old enough for all of the foods in it, he can have it for breakfast with me! 

Happy Halloween!

First Up—Family Pumpkins

The Liam Pumpkin—I traced his hand and cut it out…then traced it with puffy paint and covered it with chalkboard paint.  His name is also a puffy paint/chalk combo

The Andy/Ashley Pumkin—I attempted to recreate our wedding monogram (pictured).  It mostly failed.

 

The Oliver and Keegan pumpkin—their names were done in puffy paint with a bone.  Then covered in chalkboard paint, and traced over with chalk.

And now the main event!

Somebody loves his dino-brother

What a cheerful dinosaur!

Spikes!

 

Dinosaur under attack!

 

Preparing to attack (or fall down, cry, and be put to bed for a nap)

Dinosaur Down!

Ollie says: Woman, I need a da%^ haircut.  Because Ollie has a horrible potty mouth.  He curses like a sailor.

Keegan says: I cannot believe you made me wake up for this. 

A Week in our lives: Thursday

7:00 Liam slept in!  Woohoo!  Andy fed him and put him back down, which I was certain would not work.  But it eventually did.  He fell asleep, and didn’t wake up until 9.  I got up at 8 and did some stuff around the house (dishes, straightened table, etc)

9:00 Liam woke up, and he and I played.  I read him a few stories and putzed about the house.  I think I might have swept the kitchen floor? 

10:00 Liam’s back down after a bottle and diaper change.  I shower and get ready, then read my library book for a bit.

11:30 Liam’s back up.  He eats some oatmeal.  We hang out some more, I take the dogs out,and we get ready to go.

12-2 Lunch with Mary Jo and Mandy and their kids.  We have a great time being out, and Liam comes home sleepy.

2-3 Liam naps.  I read some more, vow to finish said library book today.

3:00 Liam wakes up.  We hang out some more, have a dance party and play with toys.  He is now reaching for toys and playing with them while on his stomach.  He won’t roll over, but he’ll play with toys until he’s tired and puts his head down and screams.

4:30 I try to lay Liam down for a short nap, he won’t have it.  Even after a bottle  So we keep hanging out, and I become the tired bad mom who turns on the tv.  We watch Jimmy Fallon and Revenge while playing with toys.

5:30 Andy’s home.  He plays with Liam while I finish dinner (I put it in the crock pot during an earlier nap time).  We eat.

6:00 Liam goes down for a brief nap.  He sleeps about 20 minutes.  We watch Breaking Bad, and finish all the Netflix episodes.

7:00 Liam gets rinsed off in the bath, his pajamas on, and put to bed.  He fusses for a while, which is somewhat uncommon for bedtime.  Andy and I hang out until about 8:30

8:30 Andy’s off being a dork, I watch Running Wilde and Parks and Recreation.  I make a Christmas list for Andy (I have all of his gifts purchased…mine will arrive the day after Christmas….this is the norm :)).  I put the second coat of spray paint on our pumpkins out in the garage….I’m cutting it close on these…I’ll have to let them stay for a week or so into November just so we can enjoy them.  I also ordered a personalized Christmas ornament for Oliver off of Etsy..it’s a little bone with his name on it, and it was only 8 dollars WITH shipping and handling.  I haven’t decided about Liam’s yet.

Midnight: I’m still up, looking at Christmas trees and looking up a few other things.  Andy decides he wants McDonalds, and I stupidly agree to eat a McDouble.  And I spent the rest of the night trying to sleep with a stomachache.   

A week in our lives: Wednesday

Wednesday was rough.  Really rough.  Liam did little sleeping and lots of screaming.

6:00 Liam wakes up, eats, goes back to bed.

8:00 I get up, and waste an hour.  I start looking at Christmas card designs for our card this year.

9:00 Liam is up for real.  We hang out on his activity mat, and I start laundry and pick up.  We play with the dogs and take them out.

9:30 Liam eats, but he won’t eat a full bottle.  He fights a whole lot and is really cranky.

10:00 Liam’s first nap.  I shower and get ready, start a batch of pinto beans in the crock pot

Basically from here until 1:00, our whole day is Liam screaming and me trying to help him calm down.  He did eat his oatmeal happily, but that’s about all he did happily.  At about 1, he finally settled down, and fell asleep around 2.  I read my library book, and he woke up at 3.  More of the same commenced.  It was the longest day we’ve had in a long time.  I was worn out.

After Andy got home, I gave Liam another bath (he usually gets 2 a week, but he has a yeast rash that’s lingering, and it seems to help it to clean him completely at the end of the day.  Liam fussed a lot when it was time for bed.  He was lying in his crib with his eyes closed but still screaming, so we gave him a few more ounces of formula to help him settle (since he hadn’t eaten well during the day, I thought he might be hungry.)  We had a parenting first that I would have loved to avoid—I accidentally hit his head on his dresser and he cried and I was a wreck.

Once Liam went to bed, I just spent some time on the internet looking at Christmas cards again.  We’re going to design our own, and I was looking for some designs I liked to come up with ideas for our own.  After that, I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread and turned the pinto beans into un-fried refried beans.  I went to bed around 11, and for the first time in a long time, slept a whole night while snuggling Ollie.

Liam in Pictures

A Week in our lives: Tuesday

Tuesday was fairly uneventful, as many of our days are.  So here it is:

6 AM: Liam is up.  Andy feeds him, puts him back to bed.

8 AM: Andy leaves for work, Liam is up for the day.  I get up, get him, and take care of the dogs.  Liam and I play for a while, and I try to feed him at about 9

9 AM: Liam takes his first bottle, and drinks about 3/4 of it before refusing to finish.  This becomes the theme of the rest of the day.  I put him down for a nap.

9:25 I shower, start laundry, do dishes, and pick up the living room/kitchen.  I really want to stay in my pajamas today, but I force myself to get dressed.  I don’t allow myself more than one pj day a week, and I put my jams back on Sunday after church, so that’s out this week.  Type out the Monday post and catch up on the blogs I read.  Start to read my library book.  And have my coffee (with peppermint mocha creamer)

11:00 Fed-Ex drops off the sewing machine I ordered.  I really want to re-learn how to sew.  I was never really great at it because my mom usually got aggravated with me and ended up finishing my 4-H projects (shh..that’s a secret), but I want to be able to do basic stuff.  Oliver and Keegan lose their ever loving minds and wake Liam up.

11:15 Liam plays on his floor while I clean up his bedroom.  We play peek-a-boo while I fold laundry.  Then we read his library books again and play with toys.

11:50-12:30 I attempt to feed Liam.  He screams and refuses to eat.  He gets maybe 3 ounces.  I lay him down for a  nap.  He screams.

12:50 Andy gets home.  He decided he wanted donuts for lunch, so he went to Marzipan, the bakery at the end of the street.  I eat two donuts…lunch of champions.

1:00 Andy is able to get Liam to drink 4 oz. of formula and he puts him down for a nap.  Liam falls asleep after about five minutes of protest.  I prep 2 pie pumpkins for the oven.  The seeds get sorted out and rinsed and the pumpkins get roasted.

1:30 Andy heads back to work, and I finish making sure the house looks decent before Tiffany comes over to borrow a sweater.  I also watch The Good Wife on cbs.com during this time.  The mail came and Liam got a package from his grandparents—a book, a letter and a homemade sleepsack!!

2:00 Liam’s up.  We play a bit and at 2:30 he’s acting hungry, so I’m able to get him to take a bottle.  We continue to play for a while, and I put him down for a nap at 3:15.  We also talked to my dad during this time.

3:15 I watch 2 Broke Girls on cbs.com

3:50 Tiffany gets here.  Both dogs lose their ever-loving minds.  Keegan loves her instantly, Ollie is more hesitant.  After a few minutes, he warms up to her.  We hang out for a while.

4:10 Liam wakes up, again.  No good afternoon nap for this boy.  He comes and hangs out with us.

5:30 Andy gets home, I’m still hanging out with Tiffany.  She leaves about 5:45 and I start dinner while Andy feeds Liam.

6:00 I cannot cook pork chops to save my life.  They have been cooking forever and still aren’t finished.  This has been a common occurrence lately, and I am getting frustrated.  I pureed the pumpkin and put some in the freezer for Liam, and save some for pumpkin bread (Andy requested that I give Liam the larger amount because he wants him to have the “real” stuff instead of the canned/jar stuff).  I let Liam lick a smidge of puree off my finger—he seems to like it.  Certainly more than he liked the taste of banana I gave him last week.  I toast the pumpkin seeds.  And just generally get aggravated with the pork chops.

6:15 Pork chops are still cooking (shoot me now).  They start to burn, so we have to start the vent fan and pull them off the stove.  Andy and I give Liam a bath. 

6:45 Liam’s out of the bath, and I work on getting his pj’s on.  Oliver poops on Liam’s rug (seriously, he never does this…and he’s done it twice this week).  Andy finishes with Liam, I clean up Oliver’s mess.  Liam goes to bed.  Then I get dinner finished and the pumpkin frozen.

7:15 We finally eat dinner.  I want to throw my pork chop out the window I’m so mad at it.  We also taste test the pumpkin seeds—yum!  Andy gives Ollie one and he tries to dive into Andy’s bowl to get more.

7:30 Andy falls asleep on the sofa.  I watch Big Bang Theory online and email Andy’s dad.  At about 9:30, I go to bed for the night…Andy’s still on the sofa.  He makes it to bed sometime in the middle of the night.  Poor Ollie ends up sleeping alone on the sofa because Keegan took up so much room in bed.

A Week in our lives: Monday

Totally typed lies instead of lives the first time…that post would have a very different feel to it.

4:50 Liam wakes up. This is really unusual and very rarely happens. It seems as though he hit his soothing giraffe on something and turned on the play sounds and woke himself up. I held him while Andy fixed his bottle. Andy fed him, I went back to bed. Andy kept asking questions, so I may as well have been up. I have really awful heartburn at this point. Once Liam’s finished, Andy puts him back to bed.

7:50 Andy gets up for work. He leaves at 8, and Liam promptly wakes up. I get up with Liam and the boys. I feed and change Liam. Then I take the dogs out and feed them. Liam and I play on his activity mat for a while. When he starts acting tired, I put him down for a nap.

9-11 Liam’s morning nap. I play on the computer, take a shower, get dressed, and pick up the living room during this nap. I was having a very lazy morning.

11:00 Liam wakes up. I feed and change him. He comes with me to our bedroom, where we make the bed. The sheets had been in the laundry, and the bed needed to be made. Ollie tries to play hide and seek in the sheets. Liam is on the floor on his activity mat, and he’s having a blast chatting with me. I go ahead and pick up our room and hang up wayward laundry as well.

11:50 Into the kitchen. Liam is in his Bumbo and watching me work. I puree his green beans in the food processor and put them in the freezer. I also start a pot of black eyed peas. I take the butternut squash out of the ice cube trays and into a ziploc. Then I do all of the dishes.

12:30 Feed the dogs, take them out. Get Liam ready for Bible study.

12:45 Leave to go to Bible study

1:00 Arrive at Bible study, find out it’s cancelled. Stand and talk to Kellie for about 35 minutes in her driveway. Liam was asleep, but woke up. Stayed content in his car seat.

1:35 Leaving the cancelled Bible study, decide to go to the library since we’re close. Liam was asleep when we arrived, but he woke up on the way in. I pay an overdue fine and check out two books of my own. Liam checks out three, his very first library books!! He got Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Skippyjon Jones goes Up and Down, and Thomas and Friends: A Crack in the Track

2:30 We finally got home. I feed and change Liam, and put him down for a nap.

2:30-4:15 Liam’s nap. During his nap, I spray paint two pumpkins (Andy and Ashley pumpkin and Ollie and Keegan pumpkin), decorate Liam’s pumpkin, finish the black eyed peas, start a vegetable beef soup for supper, and type out the Sunday blog post. I ate two handfuls of almonds..my first food of the day. My stomach was off from the food yesterday and I wasn’t hungry.

4:15 Liam’s up, and gets clean pants. We read his library books, and then have a dance party using the Pink station on Pandora…because every little boy needs to listen to Pink, Avril,and Rihanna. My dad calls and I talk to him. Andy got home really shortly after 5, which never happens. He went out to blow leaves and cut the grass. Liam and I stayed inside and hung out. I tried to put Liam down at about 5:45 for a short pre-bed nap. He wasn’t having it. I think he’s giving up his early evening nap in favor of just the morning and afternoon naps.

6:30 I feed and pajama Liam and put him to bed at about 6:54. Andy finishes the lawn at 6:45 and takes a shower. At 7 we both sit down and eat while watching an episode of Running Wilde. I got really sick to my stomach after dinner, and felt awful for about an hour. After that, we watched an episode of Breaking Bad, and then Andy went to his office.

8:40 I look up some baby food stuff online, try to figure out a feeding Liam travel plan (since we are on the road so much right now, it’s a valid concern). I also watch a few episodes of The Office.

10:00 I head to bed early, because I have been so miserable lately. The dogs do a passive agressive fight to figure out who sleeps where. Basically, Ollie tries to snuggle with me, which is normal. Keegan crowds Ollie until he gets mad and leaves and pouts, and Keegan swoops in to snuggle. It takes them a long time to settle down at night.

1:50 Liam wakes up. Again—it has been WEEKS since this was happening. There was no discernable reason for him to be up, but he was. I fed him and diapered him and put him back to bed. Both dogs decide to wake up and want to go out. I take them both out, then get back to bed. At this point, I was awake, and didn’t fall asleep until after 3.

A week in our lives: Sunday

I have seen several blogs that do a detailed week in the life post, and I always think they are fun. I thought I would document this week so I can remember it later, when Liam starts walking or we have a second child, and I can look back and reminisce about how easy life is right now.

6:30 Liam wakes up, Andy takes the first feeding. I stay in bed. Oliver and Keegan both find ways to snuggle with me. Ollie crawls on my pillow and puts his face in my face. Keegan curls up under the covers into my stomach. We stay there until Andy gets back. If Liam wakes up before 7, he will generally go right back to sleep after eating.

6:50 Andy comes back to bed for a while.

7:30 The alarm starts going off. Andy is leading worship at church this week, so he has to be there early. He doesn’t get up until 8:00.

8:00 We both get up. Andy showers and races to church. I feed the dogs, take them to the bathroom, and shower/get ready. I get the diaper bag packed, the tithe check ready, and everything at the front door.

9:05 Liam wakes up for real. I change his diaper and dress him for church. He then takes a bottle and we are ready to go.

9:40 We leave for church. As we’re driving, Andy sees Titan, his boss’s dog, running behind Walgreens. We pull over and call her to let her know where he is.

10:00 Church starts. Andy’s up front leading. Liam ends up sitting with our dentist for a while, and he has a blast. About the time the sermon starts, though, he begins to fuss, so I take him to the nursery. I told them to page me if he got angry like last week, and I ended up sitting just outside the sanctuary for the remainder of the service in case they paged me. They didn’t—he did just fine. He played with the nursery worker and had a good time with his future best friends. After service while we were visiting, Ben tried to crawl into the carseat on top of Liam. Then he just rocked Liam’s carseat back and forth.

11:10 We grabbed a quick lunch at Taco Bell, which ended up being a mistake for my digestive system.

11:15 We got home, Liam was asleep in his carseat. We ate quickly and I went to Wal-mart to get our groceries and some Halloween pumpkins.

11:30 At Wal-Mart—I ran into SEVERAL former students, the store was busy, but not uncomfortably busy.

12:45 Get back home, unpack everything and put it all away. Liam has just gone down for a real nap, he woke up right after I left earlier and hung out with Andy and ate. I also peeled a sweet potato and put it in the crock pot to make sweet potato puree baby food for Liam. He starts solids in a few weeks, and I’ve been working to get the freezer stocked.

1:30 Take both dogs to the bathroom.

After that, Andy and I settled in and watched some television for a while. I cleaned up the living room, started painting Ollie and Keegan’s pumpkin, put some black eyed peas on to soak and blended the sweet potatoes during this time. Liam also woke up and hung out with us for bit. I did a fall photo shoot with Liam outside with pumpkins and leaves.

5:00 I decide to also make green bean baby food using the crock pot.

5:10 Clean the kitchen, fix Liam a bottle. Andy feeds him while I work on the kitchen. We play with Liam and the dogs for a while. We all crowded onto the activity mat and hung out. Liam is flailing his arms and hitting Andy all over.

6:30 I realize I didn’t plug the crock pot in. Plug it in now. Order pizza from Pizza Hut, using up the last of my gift card from Mariah from when Liam was born. Also a bad idea digestive system wise. Feed the dogs.

6:50 Liam gets his last bottle, puts on his pajamas, and heads off to bed shortly after 7.

7:00 Andy and I watch Parks and Recreation on Netflix and wait for our pizza to arrive.

7:25 Our pizza arrives, we eat. Andy leaves to go play video games online with some friends.

7:40 I put a butternut squash in the oven to cook for Liam food.

8:00 I start working on Liam’s Halloween costume. I have a few missteps, but it is coming together. I do this while watching more episodes of Parks and Rec because it is a sickness. Also, the dogs go to the bathroom.

8:40 Turn off the crock pot and pull the squash out of the oven.

9:00 Liam wakes up. This never happens. His fan got unplugged and he didn’t have his white noise. He is hysterical, and can’t settle in easily. I give him another bottle and change his diaper and eventually get him to settle back down.

9:30 Puree the green beans and squash. Freeze the squash in ice cube trays. Put the green beans in the fridge…they need the food processor, but it’s too loud.

9:40 Back to the costume/Parks and Rec

10:30 Finish the costume—the bitty boy can be a dinosaur.

11:00 Andy and I start to watch an episode of Breaking Bad. It’s painfully boring and I fall asleep.

Midnight—Finally to bed.

Random Snippets :)

Things with Andy’s dad are about the same.  He’s been awake a small amount this past day or so for the first time since Tuesday.  Things are basically holding steady at this point—still serious, but probably not critical.

Keegan has settled in to being at our house.  It’s likely he will be here for quite a while.  He will definitely be here until Andy’s dad is home from the hospital at the very least.  He seems to be enjoying his time, and he and Ollie are getting along well.  He’s getting more used to Liam, too, which is good.  He started trying to get into Liam’s toys this weekend, so I’m training him to leave baby toys alone the way I had to train Oliver.

Speaking of Liam’s toys, I was reading this month’s issue of Baby Talk (yay for free magazine subscriptions) and they had their “best of 2011 toy list in it…there was some seriously cute stuff.  This Poppity Pop Musical Dino, the way cute Rusty the Robot from Lamaze—Liam loves both the Lamaze toys he has, this Hug and Hide Activity Owl (if only they made a giraffe….just kidding, Andy keeps making fun of the number of giraffe toys Liam has….I think he’s up to four or five), and this Roll and Chase Bumblebee for when he starts crawling in a few months were my favorites.

I bought the stuff for Liam’s Halloween costume today.  It cost me a whopping forty cents.  Technically .60, but I didn’t need one piece.  He’s going to be a dinosaur.  I found a tutorial online that I’m going to adapt.  Liam as a green and navy blue one piece outfit from Old Navy that has a hood, and I’m going to loosely sew red felt dinosaur spikes down the back..and after Halloween, I can just pull the seam out, and remove the spikes.

I also got our pumpkins today.  I am going to decorate one for Andy and I, one for Keegan and Ollie (I decided since Keegan will be here, he is part of the family too), and one for Liam.  I’ll take pictures when they are done.

I also did a fall photo shoot with Liam today…once Andy edits the pictures, I’ll post them too!

Christmas List

Since Lauren already posted her wish list, I thought I’d go ahead and do mine (technically ours, I guess, since I’m doing Andy and Liam too).  I like to give more options than my sister, who chose toilet paper and socks to go on her Christmas list.  This was way fun to figure out during naptime over the past few days…just don’t look at the floors or laundry in my house right now :) 

ANDY—I already gave my sister two ideas for Andy that I won’t post here

A programmable thermostat, like this one.  It’s currently listed about 16 dollars higher than it was a week ago.  It’s price seems to change every day on Amazon, but it has primarily been in the 60 doll-68 dollar range.

Season Six and/or Season Seven of The Office.  We have the first five, but I dropped the ball on buying the last two, and Andy doesn’t like having an incomplete collection.  Also, Target usually has these on sale once every few weeks/months or so.

 jeans (34 x 32—the dark wash or the gray)

New shirts…slim cut size large dress shirt.  Plaid or striped…some sort of pattern.  Old Navy has some that are nice…also, Kohls.

LIAM—Doesn’t need a blessed thing. 

But I know that won’t fly, so here are some ideas :)

Board books (his favorite right now)

Music (he’s a big fan of kid’s music things….he has a Clifford cd that he adores)

Blocks, wooden puzzles, balls—things he will be able to start enjoying in the coming months

And a few IKEA links for good measure….in case you’re visiting my sister in Chicago and make a trip :)

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20195775/

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40085455/

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20183876/

And any of the puppets they have there as well

ASHLEY—like Liam, I really don’t need anything.

But there are always things I like :)

Ceramic egg crate for jewelery 

SNL Best of Amy Poehler—because I love her

Paper shredder

Any of the belts at Charlotte Russe—I like wearing them to pull in shirts at the small part of my waist to hide the part where I’m still carrying baby fat—I especially like the skinny belts

Any of the following jewelery—I like them all…one or any would be great :)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/81132976/antique-gold-leaf-cut-out-earrings

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70552786/vintage-style-floral-pattern-oval-locket

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80002512/tiny-circle-with-vintage-style-circle

http://www.etsy.com/listing/83690320/personalized-necklace-hand-stamped

http://www.etsy.com/listing/76850366/modern-double-curb-link-necklace

http://www.etsy.com/listing/74212419/starfilsh-nautical-necklace

Andy’s Dad

Things with Andy’s dad are going.  I wouldn’t say they are going well, but they are going.  Since his original surgery, he has had two more for infection.  The first was last Friday, a week after the original surgery.  He was running a fever, and they rushed him back to the IU Med Center.  He went in for surgery that day to clean out the incision and to see where the infection was.  Then Andy’s mom called at midnight two nights ago, and he couldn’t breathe and they believed the infection was worse.  At that point, they did something, but I honestly don’t remember what.  Andy went up to the hospital at midnight and came back home about 6 in the morning with his parents’ dog, Keegan.  Keegan is staying with us indefinitely.  Yesterday Andy’s dad had another surgery, and they increased the size of his incision, so he currently has an incision that is 3 inches by 7 inches in his back, and they are packing a special gauze in it to keep air from leaking.  They removed part of two of his ribs to get where the needed, and will eventually be removing two more and using them to create a kind of vertical cage.  There is a lot of bad stuff going on, and a lot of bad stuff that can happen, so he’s staying put in the ICU for now as they try to get the area where his right lung once was to fill with fluid….he’ll also eventually have a surgery where they will take some of his own body fat and put it in that area to help it fill.  But all of that is down the road, once the infection is gone, and the danger is lessened.  The pathology report came back yesterday, and of the 22 lymph nodes they tested, one of them was cancerous, which means that it had spread out of the lung that was removed.  So once he is physically able, he will undergo a round of chemotherapy to attempt to remove the cancer.  The doctors are still positive on his eventual outcome, and keep repeating that he is young and he is strong, and both of those are working in his favor.  At this point, we covet your prayers!

Liam at 5 months

Liam, sweet thing, you are five months old.  I’m not really sure how that happened, but it did. 

--You are wearing sixe 3 diapers and mostly 306 months clothing.  Some of your clothes are bigger, but that is just because most of your warmer clothes were purchased in a larger size.

--You are way fun—you like to smile and laugh and play a lot.  You love reading books and grabbing them and putting them in your mouth.  You also like to grab anything you can get your hands on—toys, hair, jewelery, Ollie, Ollie’s toys…really anything.  You just like to grab and taste.

--You take six ounces of formula about every 3 hours.  You are either incredibly easy to feed or incredibly difficult.  When you are easy, you just take your bottle like a champ.  When you’re difficult, it takes forever.  You like to use your hands to pull the bottle in and out of your mouth.  Sometmes you get excited and start smiling while we’re feeding you, and you end up spilling everything in your mouth all over.  You also had your first solids this month—oatmeal.  You seem to like the taste of it, and once I got it thick enough, you seem to eat it really well.

--You rolled over once a few weeks ago, but you haven’t repeated it.  You look really close, but then you get agitated and lay your head down and start screaming.

--I spent my first amount of time away from you—the first time I left you for more than a trip to the grocery store.  You stayed with Grandma and Granddad and Aunt Lauren and Daddy while I went to pick out a bridesmaid dress for Mariah’s wedding in April.

--You were a real trooper in a difficult month.  We weren’t home much, and you handled the chaos well.  You have been a light for us through a rough time, and we are so thankful for you.

--You also have a new favorite toy—an on-the-go Gentle Giraffe—it’s a stuffed animal giraffe that has sounds…a play sound, a calm sound, a relax sound, and a sleep sound.  The sleep sound is a waterfall that is a white noise.  It plays for 45 minutes, and you use it at every nap and bedtime—you LOVE IT.  It was an impulse buy at Target, and it’s your favorite.  Most mornings when you wake up, you talk and laugh and play with the giraffe until one of us (usually Daddy) comes to feed you.

Random Sampling

So remember like two days ago when I told you that Andy agreed to start dressing like Ben Wyatt?  Insert sampling of Ben Wyatt inspiration images here:

Well, it turns out that Andy is more gung-ho than I realized.  He asked me tonight if he needed some new pants, because he was pretty sure that his pants weren’t right.  Also, they are all falling off large, and he needs new ones anyway.  But the point is, he asked what kind of pants he needed to keep his Ben look in line.  And he asked if he should get a jacket like the one Ben has.  And I got so tickled.  I didn’t honestly mean for him to change every bit of his wardrobe, but he’s pretty into it right now, so we’ll go with it.  This just means I should probably start getting dressed and not wearing yoga pants every day.  You know, so we can look like we belong together :)

Also, this is just something that made me happy.  On Tuesday night’s Jimmy Fallon, they were doing shout-outs.  I noticed right away that one of the guys who was preparing to do a shout out was wearing a “babette ate oatmeal” t-shirt, and I recognized it from season 3 of Gilmore Girls.  Well, it turns out, that guy was giving a shout out to Gilmore Girls for being the best #$%ing show on television.  And I wholeheartedly agreed. And was totally tickled.  And while on the subject of Lauren Graham—last night’s Parenthood made me laugh a huge gut laugh and cry, both more than once.  That’s good television.

Our children

I adore these boys.  I think they are both way fun, and I cannot wait for the day when they can play together.  I have often wondered how Ollie will play with Liam, and we got our answer a few weeks ago, when Oliver fell in love with Theodore and played with him for a long time.  So many thanks to Shannon for allowing her son to be a guinea pig for our dog…again :)

Liam and Ollie have a weird relationship right now.  Liam basically only grabs things and puts them in his mouth or yanks really hard.  Ollie doesn’t understand that, and inevitably ends up with a yanked beard or some of his hair inside Liam’s mouth.  He’s sweet about it, and tries to gingerly step back to GET THE HECK AWAY FROM THE KID WHO KEEPS YANKING HIS HAIR.  He will still lay down next to him, or, as you can see here, bring his toys to Liam and lay them down with him.  I think he’s trying to share his toys so that maybe he can play with Liam’s, but I’m not sure about that.  And he’s still not allowed to play with Liam’s toys…and he knows it, he just doesn’t always obey.

Today, though, something sweet happened.  Ollie was playing with the giraffe Jon and Carrie gave him.  He was doing his patented Oliver move, which is really just to put the toy in his teeth and shake his head violently until he gets dizzy.  Liam was doing some tummy time while Ollie was do the headshake….and Liam became enthralled with it.  Every time Oliver shook, Liam laughed.  Liam’s laughter made Oliver more excited, and he shook again, harder.  And Liam laughed harder.  They did this for close to a minute, and it was the sweetest thing.  Liam was totally in love with Ollie—he thought he was so entertaining.  And Ollie was thrilled to have an audience.  It made my heart so very happy.  I just can’t wait for them to grow up together!

My own fashion models

I like picking out clothes.  I’m a big fan.  Just not exactly for myself right now.  Because I basically hate the way everything looks—because growing and birthing a child changes things.  So I’m working to get things squished back to as close to the way they were as possible, but it’s slow going.  Though I can excitedly tell you that pants that were too tight in August now fit comfortably, if not even a bit loosely.  But for the time being, my boys are my fashion muses.  Liam is easy and fun.  Old Navy and Baby GAP are my BFFs when it comes to dressing little Liam—and they are always running sales so I can get things for cheap—like this outfit, which is a personal favorite of mine.

I like dressing the bitty in little boy versions of big boy clothes—I’d be 100 percent okay with him wearing this outfit when he’s five or fifteen.  Heck, if I could find that shirt or those shoes in Andy’s size, he’d have them.

As for Andy, his style is changing a little.  He had mentioned a while ago that he wanted to dress a little nicer.  I’ve been trying to help him out with that, and come up with a few suggestions.  My first was that we could see if Lauren could take a picture of Jeff every day, so he could see what a fashionable man looked like.  Then I thought maybe we should just move next to them, but neither of those seemed like they would work out.  Major sad.  Then I thought we could drive to Louisville and check out Jon Harris’s closet, but that seemed like it could be an awkward conversation to have.  (Hi Jon and Carrie—how’s Parker?  We need to come see him soon…and you know, look through Jon’s clothes:) Love you guys!)

But then I finally hit on the best plan of all.  Make Andy dress like Ben Wyatt.  A fictional character from Parks and Recreation. You see, for a long while, I thought Andy should try the Ted Mosby look from How I Met Your Mother….but Ted has a variety of looks, and Andy’s not really a sweater vest kind of guy.  But Ben Wyatt—Ben Wyatt can be done.  Ben Wyatt is my jam.  So last night while we were watching a repeat of Parks and Recreation, I pointed out Ben’s style—plaid or striped dress shirt with a slim cut, a skinny tie, and either jeans or chinos.  See below.  Perfect.  It’s casual, but dressy.  It’s put together without trying too hard.  And it would be great for Andy’s casual office.  There is no dress code at Andy’s office, which is great, except that sometimes it can run too casual.  And the best part?  Andy agreed—he liked Ben’s style and thought he’d enjoy trying to recreate.  Amazeballs.  Andy has pointed out that he would prefer to be dressier, but his dressy clothes were more like what my Dad would wear…or his own Dad.  There is nothing wrong with the way that either of our dad’s dresses….but they are 20-30 years older than Andy.  He’s in his 20’s, he doesn’t need to dress like he’s in his 50’s.  

So I’m helping a brother out.  I ordered two plaid shirts from Ebay this morning…one from the GAP and one from J. Crew (oh J. Crew….you steal my heart) and two skinny ties.  By using Ebay, I got them all way cheap.  So now I just need a few more of each….shirts and ties, and a few pairs of pants with a more modern cut, and he’ll be set for his new Ben Wyatt wardrobe…and I, for one, can’t wait.

Catch Up

My favorite days in elementary school were catch up or “ketchup” days…because I was never behind, so I got to do fun stuff all day long.  Today is a “ketchup” day in our house.  Only this time, I actually am a little behind….but it’s okay.  It’s nothing a day of pajamas and chores won’t fix.  So let’s “ketchup” here.

--Andy’s dad’s surgery was Friday.  It went really well.  He is recovering well—in fact, the nurses have named him one of the best patients ever.  He has been up and walking around the block (the hospital block..not a city block) and sitting up and generally impressing the hospital staff.  He should be moved out of Critical Care today, and he MIGHT even be able to go home tomorrow.  I got to see him for a few minutes yesterday while my mother-in-law and sister-in-law pushed Liam around in his stroller on the first floor of the cancer center, and I was surprised at how good he looked considering his lung had just been removed 48 hours earlier.

--We were obviously in Indy all weekend, and I cannot thank my mom and dad enough.  My mom took the day off on Friday and they came and hung out with Liam and I.  We ran errands in Indy and I had a blast with them.  Saturday and Sunday proved to be long days with Liam, and I am super thankful that Friday was not like that….totally thanks to my sweet parents!

--About now, I’m going to start getting goofy.  Just be warned.  It’s sleep deprivation.

--Liam is five months old today.  I seriously don’t know how that happened.

--Liam woke up twice with nightmares last night.  At least, that’s what we assume.  When he gets really worn out and sleep deprived, he wakes up in the night screaming.  Only he’s not awake.  His eyes are closed and he’s asleep and he’s screaming his head off.  The only cure for this is more sleep.  We usually give him a bottle (he took his bottle from me while still asleep….he never opened his eyes….I’m not sure about the one Andy gave him).  And so today, I won’t take him anywhere, and I’ll work to make sure he gets LOTS of sleep.  This is the only thing that helps.  So….I’m going to miss Bible study today,and I won’t get groceries until Andy comes home tonight.  But it’s okay.  I’m thankful that our schedule allows for things like this.  This would be so much harder if I was working.  It’s totally worth the whole no money thing :)

--Holiday creamers are out.  Oliver is as excited as I am, apparently. He just started licking the inside of an empty mug that had International Delight’s White Chocolate Raspberry.  Then he grabbed the mug in his teeth and took off with it. 

--My goal is to be finished with all of our Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving.  I’m right on track.  I have all of Liam’s gifts, except the ones I am making…and I plan to start them this week.  I have Andy’s sister and her fiance figured out (I am seriously excited about my idea for them…I just hope they like it as much as I do).  I have my in-laws figured out and half purchased.  I think I have my sister figured out…I just need to check my list.  I think I have Andy pretty well figured out….now I just need to figure out my parents.

--The best part about Liam’s gifts is that I have paid little for them.  I ordered a case of diapers last week from www.diapers.com, and since it was my first order, I got something like 15 dollars off.  So in order to get free shipping, I added a board book and a set of foam bathroom letters and it was still less than the case of diapers originally.  Then, I had gone through our bookshelves a few weeks ago, and sold back several things to Amazon that we weren’t using (some college textbooks, some books that we had read but wouldn’t reread, things like that….we are working hard to declutter our house), so they gave me a credit to use….and I spent part of it on the rest of Liam’s gifts.  Then, for his ball, football, and shapes I am going to attempt to make…I just bought two cheap bedsheets at Wal Mart that are cute and I will sew all of the toys out of them.

--If you are my sister and you need a study break this week, you might go to Target and check out the clearance racks.  They have some sleeveless tops that a little fancier that would work under sweaters/cardigans on sale for cheap.  I got a cute black and a cute white shirt for something like 3 or 4 dollars each. 

The past month

I really wasn’t exaggerating when I said that last month was an emotional whirlwind.  It really was.

Last month, Andy’s dad was finally able to get in to see the pulmonologist, and it was discovered that there was a tumor in one of his lungs.  He had it biopsied two weeks ago.  He was supposed to get the results of that biopsy the same day—Andy was at that appointment with his parents, and they did not get the results.  The results didn’t come back until that Thursday.  At that time, they were told that he had lung cancer, and that it appeared to inoperable.  Things looked pretty grim at that point.  We were all fearful, and worried.  It was a miserable few days.  There was one bright spot, though.  My sweet mother-in-law has faithfully prayed for her husband to accept Christ for the last 24 years.  He prayed that prayer the day after his diagnosis.  I can’t begin to tell you how happy that has made Andy and I….but we were still sick with worry.   

That Monday, though, something changed.  They went to meet with the oncologist, and the oncologist brought in a surgeon.  Andy’s dad is one of the rare cases of lung cancer that is operable.  His cancer is completely stationed in one lung, and has not spread anywhere else.  He has surgery this Friday to remove his lung, and he will have a round of chemo, and God-willing, he will be cured of lung cancer.  We have gone from the depths of sorrow to heights of hope and joy.  Our story will likely have a happy ending, something that not many families receive with a lung cancer diagnosis, and that is something we are not taking for granted.  We have been abundantly blessed by God and his mercy.

And lastly, Liam would like to show his support for Team Grandpa as he prepares for surgery this week:

October

I have lots to post about....as most of you are probably aware. September took us by surprise and was an emotional whirlwind to say the very least. I'll get to it soon, I promise. But for now, I want to make a list of goals for October because I want to be intentional with Liam and his growing up.

1. Go to a pumpkin patch--I want this to be a tradition every year, and I want to start this year.

2. Make applesauce. Liam had his first solids today--a very not solid oatmeal (he got about 5 spoonfuls in and started shouting because Andy wasn't feeding him fast enough....Daddy gave up and switched to a regular bottle). Early in November he will be six months old and ready for not cereal solids-I'd love for applesauce to be one of his firsts...and I'd prefer it be made by me.

3. Go somewhere to see the leaves. Even if it's just popping the bitty in the stroller and going to Clifty (you know....down the street), I'd like to take a leaf-seeing trip.

4. Play in the leaves. Obviously, this will be more appropriate at the end of the month, when they are falling....but I think Liam would love the feeling of crackly leaves in his hands. We'll just have to watch and make sure they aren't in his mouth. And I already know that Ollie loves playing in leaves--we did it with him last fall.