Things going on around here

A quick update on the happenings in this house:

Liam had his first respiratory infection, complete with a trip to urgent care and three prescriptions.  Of course, I spilled one of them all over the kitchen floor yesterday, so technically, four prescriptions.  He seems to be feeling better, but he still isn’t clearing up quite like I would like.  We’re also having issues with Baby Vapo rub….we have a jar somewhere in the house, but I can’t find it.  So Andy went to Wal-Mart to get a few things Monday night and was supposed to get a new one.  He left it in his cart, and realized it halfway home.  So he went back to buy it.  Then somehow the bag with it in it got thrown away (we think…we can’t find it anywhere).  So I went back to the store today and bought one.  Ridiculous much?

Andy has been working mad hours lately because he is launching a new business with some friends.  You can check out their website at www.atvefx.com.  They sell vinyl graphics for ATV’s.  He’s been working so, so hard lately.  At his regular job and at this…he’s burning the candle at both ends.  But that hard work has paid off, and some really awesome things have been happening lately.

We’re also in the process of cleaning out and fixing up our house.  We will likely try to put it on the market soon and upgrade to a house with a bit more space.  This house was always a starter house, and we’ve been here for nearly five years…and it feels like the right time to move on.  We’re excited to go house hunting and see what’s available in our area.  So I have been working my butt (random inappropriate comment…I have been watching seasons 1 and 2 of the Real Housewives of New York while I’m working…and Bethenny Frankel makes me want to use the word balls all the time…so I really wanted to type that I’ve been working my balls off…but that’s just not right) off trying to get things cleaned/cleared, etc.  It’s a big job…and since my husband is working so hard to support us, this is the area where I can step in and help.

And lastly, my sister is coming this weekend!!!!!!!  That needs seventy-five more exclamation points.  We’re so excited she’s coming…and she’s going to have to work her tush off here too :)

The lack of sleep going on up in here is incredible

This house is sleep deprived.  Every member.  And we handle it in different ways.  Liam freaks out and can’t sleep, thus making it harder for everyone.  Andy eventually crashes and hears nothing (no baby screaming, no wife crying, nothing).  Ollie finds a corner and hides to catch some sleep…and stares at you with the evil eye when you disturb him.  And I cry.  Why the no sleep?  Well…it’s a combination of things.  One…Liam just isn’t sleeping.  If I was guessing, I think we’re getting another tooth.  Tooth number one involved a really snotty nose for a few weeks and a lot of sleep troubles.  And this week we have a really snotty nose and a lot of sleep troubles.  And two, Andy’s been working late.  Like 1 AM and 3 AM late.  And when he isn’t home, I can’t go to bed.  I can doze off on the sofa, but let’s be honest, sofa sleep isn’t restful…not like bed sleep.  It’s not that I don’t want to go to bed…I really, really do.  But there’s the Ollie factor.  Ollie is a total guard dog, and he won’t go to bed if Andy’s not home.  And he barks like mad anytime there is a disturbance outside.  Like….a car driving down the street.  Or a car door closing three streets over.  Or a shift in the wind.  So….when Andy isn’t home, I have to stay in the living room so I can get Ollie outside quickly when Andy gets home….so Ollie doesn’t wake Liam up barking.  And, you know, I like to see my husband for a few minutes too.  So we have been going to bed late…and Liam has been waking up more. 

Here’s last night for you:

1 AM Andy gets home for a few minutes, leaves to go back to work…takes Ollie with him so I can go to bed…so I get to bed about 1:30 (there is a reason for all this….I will likely explain sometime in the future).

3 something.  Andy and Ollie get home and wake me up briefly.

4 AM Liam wakes up.  Andy just got to bed, so I do the night feeding (which we haven’t had in several days)

5 AM Liam is screaming.  I take him to couch and get him to sleep.  He shifts position every 10-12 minutes, so I’m up at least that much….but really, I don’t sleep for some of those time periods

7:30 AM  Liam is up for the day.  So I am up for the day.

So…yay for iced coffee!  But I do have two funny Liam stories to counteract my sleep complaining.

1. Yesterday, Andy decided to give Liam a bath while he was home for lunch (we did see him for about 45 minutes during the day yesterday).  Andy turned on the water to run the bath, and Liam crawled into the bathroom and pulled himself up on the tub so someone would take his clothes and diaper off and he could get in.  We were both dying laughing….I think the boy likes bath time.

2.  Also yesterday, Liam and Ollie truly played together.  They have been playing some off and on the past few weeks…but Liam tried to chase Ollie around the loveseat yesterday.  Ollie took one of his toys…and he went after it.  And Ollie thought it was so fun….he kept coming back and prancing as Liam tried to keep up…clearly, Liam’s crawl is no match for Ollie’s run at this point.  It was the sweetest, funniest thing.

For Aunt Lauren

Lauren asked me last night what is on Liam’s birthday wish list.  I had a few thoughts…the first is that my son’s first birthday is entirely too close for my liking.  The second was that I had no idea.  But I thought about it some more, and here’s what I came up with:

I think he will shortly be to the stage where he likes things with wheels, like trucks or cars or dump trucks.  Like some of these:

From Target

From Amazon

Musical instruments are always a hit…he has a drum, and he’s getting a xylophone, and a guitar, but something like this keyboard might be fun.

Also, Megabloks (I think I saw these cheaper at Wal-Mart and Target…so no link here)

Also…any kind of ball (he’s a big fan right now…we roll them back and forth and throw them around).  Or anything he can use outside or in the bathtub or in his baby pool this summer. 

Easy wooden puzzles, like this:

Or new board books…we read between 4-10 a day, so it’s always nice to get some new ones in the mix.

But seriously.  Lauren.  Whatever.  He will like whatever.  Because he’s a wee boy who just likes playing…and playing hard.

Video Post

These are all a few weeks old.  Basically, Liam is doing way more stuff than I have recorded…but I’ll work on remedying that soon.  Also, these are all ridiculous and not terribly interesting.  So I am sorry if you don’t heed my warning and find yourself bored :)

Seriously….only watch this if you’re my mom. It’s stupid long.

 

 

Picture Post

No sleep, mo’ problems

Liam Cook is in a sleep crisis.  It might not be a crisis for him, but it is for me.  His sleep has been horrible for the past few weeks, and when I think it can’t get worse, it does.  This weekend was one of the worst….I stood sobbing, holding Liam as he wailed inconsolably at Andy’s parents house in the middle of the night…Andy stood by repeating, “Stop, both of you stop.”  I ended up sleeping with him Friday and Saturday night…which we’ve never done.  I was so paranoid about it, and he was so restless that I was lucky to get maybe three hours of sleep each night.  As a result, this desperate exhausted feeling has caused some sorta funny things to happen.  So here is a list of sleep desperation stories:

--This morning, I tried to put Ollie in the pack and play.  So I could take Liam out to pee.

--I cannot speak a full sentence.  At least not in proper English.  My speech has gone straight to hillbilly land.

--Yesterday Andy and I listened to some of the worst music of our life because Liam wasn’t screaming during it on the ride home.  That’s true love…and desperation.

--I’m so tired that the Taco Bell taco with the Dorito hard shell sounds good to me.  I’m so ashamed of myself.

--There was a conversation that Andy and I had this morning that made me laugh.  It was the whole reason I started this post.  But I’m so tired I can’t remember it right now.  If it comes to me later, I will edit and add.

Liam at ten months

Liam,

This past month has been wild—you are fast approaching toddler and leaving baby in the dust.  You wear a size four diaper, and 9 month and 12 month clothing.  You have your first tooth.  You crawl everywhere.  You pull up on anything that will support your weight.  And you’re trying to figure out how to stand up on your own.  I can’t even believe the things you have learned this past month.

You are a great eater—you will honestly eat anything we put in front of you.  No food has been turned away.  You like the flavor of curry powder..and you like brown rice and all of your vegetables, and ground beef.  You love Goldfish crackers and veggie sticks.  Gerber crunchers (or the Target/Meijer/WalMart/Kroger version of them) are always a hit.  You like fruit, but I think you like vegetables more.  You were a fan of cornbread, and you liked pancakes.  You are an adventurous little eater, and I’m so excited for that.

You do crawl all over.  I have been doing some serious baby-proofing.  We had a large metal pot on a low shelf in the kitchen—that’s been replaced by tupperware containers that you pull out and play with every day.  You want to play with Ollie’s food and water every chance you get….I am constantly pulling you away from that part of the kitchen.  You pull up any chance you get…but you don’t know how to get down in your crib, so you just scream for a really long time until I come rescue you….which has to stop soon.

You love your Granddad…you know that he does rocket ship with you, and you flap your arms when you see him so he will do rocket ship with you.  You cry when he leaves the room.  You also cry when your daddy leaves the room or your eyesight…you love your daddy so much.  You cried every time your Grandma Cook put you down this weekend.  You wanted her constant attention…but you also really loved playing with your Grandpa.  You love to drum on things….Anything that makes a loud noise is a drum to you.  Luckily, you do have a drum, so we pull it out a lot.  You want remotes and telephones any time you see them.  You like to pretend to drink from a cup, but you don’t really want to do it.  You also don’t really suck on your sippy cups…you just put them in your mouth.

Tornadoes

Our little portion of Indiana was hit hard today by multiple tornadoes.  One hit in Chelsea, a small town just south and west of Hanover.  There are reports of either 3 or 4 fatalities in our county…the three being a four year old and her grandparents.  The news keeps saying that there are whole houses missing in Chelsea.  Henryville and Marysville (both about a half hourish from here) were hit…Marysville is said to be wiped off the map.  The Henryville high school was hit…with students inside.  In Milton, the town in Kentucky right across the river from us, a tornado wiped out one of their fire houses.  There is damage and debris everywhere….There are pieces of sheet metal in our neighborhood….and they are definitely not from our neighborhood.  The local paper put up this video with an interview from a bus driver and some shots of the funnel cloud and damage.

We are fine.  We were blessed abundantly….Liam and Ollie and I took shelter in our hall closet for about forty-five minutes this afternoon, and that was it.  Ollie was scared and sat in my lap shaking, Liam thought it was really funny for the first thirty minutes, and then screamed the last fifteen.   Andy ended up in his boss’s basement…the building he works in is not safe, and he couldn’t get home (the roads were closed in our direction…likely because of the tornadoes). 

We are all fine, but I want to ask you to pray for the families who aren’t fine tonight.  My heart is breaking for these families, and Andy and I have been praying for them….so please, if you think of it, pray for these families and these communities.