Adventures of a Cook

Liam at 9 months

2012-02-10T14:38:00.001-05:00

Liam Cook, you are no longer a bitty babe. You are, in fact, quite large. You weigh 23 lbs and 1 oz, and you are 30 inches long. You are in a size three diaper, but I may change you soon. It’s been leaving marks on your thighs and I accidentally yanked a tab off the other night trying to put one on you, so I may buy a small pack of fours and see if that works better.

You like to play and yell and talk all the time. You can say dada (or dadadadada) but you don’t really know that your dad is your dada. You also say baba, and something that sounds a little like hey. And you grunt. And shout ahahahh. You sit really well, and you go onto all fours and rock, but you aren’t crawling or pulling up yet. Your dad is freaking out about it. He thinks you’re delayed (you aren’t…you are fine) because you aren’t progressing as quickly as Madelyn, who is three weeks older than you. But Madelyn is a girl, and the sixth child in her family, so I’m not too worried. Daddy decided today that you have to start getting things for yourself. He will turn on your light up toys and put them where you can’t reach them to try to force you to get them. It’s all kind of funny. We do spoil you…picking up your toys and moving you, so that’s probably why you aren’t moving. So we’ll go with Daddy’s plan and make you work a little more.

You are a good sleeper, but a very sensitive sleeper. I think every baby has their own sleep personality, and yours is great…as long as you are at home, in your own routine, and we do everything exactly the same every time. You wake up, you take a nap two hours after you wake up…your next nap comes about two hours after you wake up from that nap, and you go to bed around 6. You may wake up at 4ish for a bottle, or you (rarely these days) sleep on through. You usually get up sometime after 7 for the day. If any of these steps are off, you get really agitated. If you don’t nap well, you have night terrors. They are horrible. This is why we don’t go places very often…or if we do, we go between naps. You had night terrors last Saturday at Grandma and Grandpa Cook’s, and we ended up leaving their house and driving home late at night to get you in your own bed. You also had them Wednesday night….you were up late on Tuesday and Wednesday night, and you had an abbreviated morning nap on Wednesday. They were the worst they have ever been on Wednesday…you woke up, which is rare, but then you couldn’t fall back asleep. I ended up walking you to sleep and having you lie with me for a few hours on the sofa before I put you back down. Then you were really upset when you woke up at 4…it took Daddy and I both to comfort you.

You went to your first funeral this month. Your 108 year old great-great-grandma passed away. You talked a lot during the service, so we had to leave. You were very pleasant, but you didn’t want to be quiet.

You think Ollie is your BFF. He’s not quite as sure about you. You yank his hair a lot. Bath time is your favorite time. You splash around in the tub with your dad and you both think it’s the best. Sometimes Ollie tries to climb in the tub with you to get your toys.

Liam, we love you…you are the best!

Desperation Lunches—or I only grocery shop every two weeks and I don’t shop accordingly

2012-02-09T15:33:00.001-05:00

I have been a terrible grocery shopper since Liam’s been born. It’s disturbing and ridiculous how bad I am. I forget things, I can’t seem to make a cohesive list, and my spending is nuts. I used to be really good at grocery shopping…and that’s totally gone out the window. I also really hate doing it…so I extend my time far beyond what’s reasonable. It has forced me to be creative though. We’ve had some really good and interesting (and..keeping it real, some not so good) meals come from the nothing in our cupboards. Here are three lunches I’ve cobbled together recently that weren’t half bad…and they used up random things that were about to go bad.

Chicken Salad A (I made a whole chicken, and we had leftovers, obviously…Andy doesn’t really love leftover chicken…so it became my lunch for a few days)

Chicken

A handful of Craisins

Some pecan pieces

Green onion and celery

A Tbsp. of mayo

A shot of Dijon mustard

Salt, pepper, a bit of lemon juice (from a real lemon)

A tiny pinch of cinnamon

Chicken Salad B

The same as A, just exchange the Craisins for golden raisins and the cinnamon for curry powder

Bean Salad

1 can white beans

Green onions

Broccoli (I had some leftover steamed broccoli I just chopped up)

A quick shot of salad dressing (I used Trader Joe’s Tuscan Italian…basically a balsamic)

Any my favorite end of the week soup….take any veggies left in the fridge, chop them up, cook them in chicken broth, and puree it and add salt, pepper, and curry powder. I find that I like this soup best if it has some carrot and/or sweet potato in it..something about the sweetness makes it super comforting with the curry powder. And I like to keep a bag of broccoli/cauliflower mix in the freezer for this soup too.

Bad Hair Day

2012-02-06T20:32:00.001-05:00

This is what happens when Daddy gives the baby a bath and puts him to bed when Mommy’s out to dinner with friends.

We have a rough hair day the next day.

Random pictures

2012-02-06T20:28:00.001-05:00

Here are a few recent pictures…from different days, but all sweet!

Boy clothes are 116 percent less cute than girl clothes…but this outfit makes me happy to have a boy…I love every bit of it. From the two pocket jacket to the graphic onesie to the cords and the sweet action shoes. Also, every piece of this outfit is from Old Navy or Baby Gap. Wait..the pants are Osh Kosh…I forgot that.

It’s rough being Ollie. You know..the life where you steal avocados and leap into the bathtub with your brother and father and get dried off by your mom who had to pull avocado peel from your mouth while telling you you’ll be lucky to make it your second birthday.

Super love the Hamlet quote…and it’s super appropriate for Liam’s current nap situation (thanks Shannon!)

This happens every day.

Guess whose groomer left the shop she was working at? Guess whose parents are going to cave and pay someone else even though they don’t want to? This guy!

DADADADA

2012-02-06T20:21:00.001-05:00

Liam can say dada. Sometimes I think he knows Andy Cook is his dada…and sometimes I think it’s just the easiest thing to say. Either way…his dadadadada is his favorite person. I think you’ll see that here.

Sippy Cup Love

2012-02-06T20:18:00.001-05:00

Liam loves to chew on his sippy cup. I don’t know that’s he’s actually sipping from it…but he’ll keep it in his mouth for a long time.

Look, it’s my sippy cup!

Umm…can I go to the potty?

Not yet…I’m taking pictures of your brother with his sippy cup!

Seriously…the bathroom? PLEASE!

Okay…just one more..upside down this time!

Our late night television experience

2012-02-02T14:39:00.001-05:00

Several months ago, I told Andy that I would love to be a part of a studio audience sometime, and that I’d really love to see Late Night with Jimmy Fallon live in New York. Andy agreed, and we discussed that maybe when Liam was older, we could go on a trip just the two of us to the city, and try to score seats in the audience. This was obviously going to be in the future, because we certainly aren’t leaving Liam anytime soon.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I was watching the show and Jimmy announced that the show was going on the road for the first time—to the Super Bowl! Which just so happens to be in Indianapolis this year. I applied for tickets twelve seconds later, then emailed Andy and told him. Once we got confirmation that we had been selected for the audience, we asked my parents to come for the day to stay with Liam, and they gladly agreed. So yesterday we got to have our television experience—and it was awesome. We had a blast.

The ticket line was supposed to be open from 10-3. Our paperwork said that just because we had been selected didn’t necessarily mean we were in, because they overbook the show to make sure all seats are filled. We got to the theater at 10:30, and the line was around the corner and down the street. We stood in line for an hour and a half to get our seats and the guy at the door said that they were down to their last few hundred seats at that point. We went back to Andy’s parents house for a bit and hung out, and when we got back to the theater, people were lining up to get in. We were there at 2:45, and the doors weren’t supposed to open until 3:45. We had lunch and wandered around a little…sadly, we didn’t make it down the Super Bowl Village…we weren’t sure if we had enough time (we totally did). They didn’t open the doors until 4:15…and they didn’t have enough metal detectors, so it took forever to get through. We actually split up…Andy went through the express line (for those with no bags/purses) while I waited in the regular line. Once we got in, we found out how great are seats were—we were on the aisle in the 9th row center on the main floor.

Everything about the show was a blast. There is a guy at the beginning who warms up the audience…he kind of tells you the few things they don’t want you to do, and has everyone practice cheering, and tells a few jokes. Then the Roots came out and jammed for about 3-5 minutes…then on the monitor we could see Jimmy, and the show started. They had to shoot last night’s opening twice because Deion Sanders was a bit off the first time. But he rocked it the second time through. Jimmy was super nice—he took a few minutes to talk to the audience between one of the segments to say how much he was enjoying Indy and how they loved the theater and it was so much bigger than their regular studio. When they do things like Head Swap and the subs across America video, they play on the monitor and the audience gets to watch them that way…Jimmy sat at his desk and laughed through parts of them. When they did the songs about people, he genuinely walked out into the crowd and chose three people at random…which makes me super impressed with Tariq, the singer from the Roots. I suspect they know what type of music they are going to play…but Tariq totally freestyles the lyrics on the spot. During that segment, my spazzy face was on camera through the whole first song.

The interviews were a lot of fun…Tracy Morgan talked for about twice as long as was shown. Tim Tebow stayed out for a while longer too..Jimmy told him he should host SNL. Then they filmed some promos for the episode to air before the show. Then it took a little while to set up the studio, but the All American Rejects played, and they were great. And then it was the end and show was over. Andy got to give him a high five at the end…he said his hand was softer than Liam’s. So we were finished, and got to leave and head on home. It was a total blast. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside the theater, and I’m a rule follower, so I didn’t. But here’s what I did take yesterday.

Our line in the morning…this was when we had about 30 minutes left to wait.

The huddle waiting to get in before the show and my wristband…you had to have your ticket and your wristband…they strapped the band on you in the morning when you got your tickets.

8 month photo shoot

2012-01-23T21:35:00.001-05:00

These are a bit blurry…I couldn’t get the light right.

Starting Early

2012-01-23T21:30:00.001-05:00

Liam likes to share my quiet time with me….he plays while I have a quiet time. On this day, though, he wanted my devotional book…and I thought it was sweet.

Rawhide

2012-01-23T21:28:00.001-05:00

Liam Cook will end up crawling to get a piece of rawhide….I can feel it. This kid will faceplant to get Ollie’s rawhide…and yell when I take it away. On this particular occasion, I gave in for a minute to get a few pictures.

Snow Day!

2012-01-23T21:25:00.001-05:00

Liam in his makeshift sled…and his hillbilly snow outfit!

Opening Presents

2012-01-23T21:23:00.001-05:00

Apparently we didn’t document Christmas well. All I have pictures of is Ollie in his stocking and Liam unwrapping puffs. Dad, can you guys load the pictures from your house onto a flash drive and bring it with you Saturday?

The last picture is Liam before church on Christmas morning..I love that sweater..and his other one..I’ll have to get a picture of it too!

The end of spoonfeeding

2012-01-23T21:19:00.001-05:00

This may not be the last time he was fed…but it’s one of them. He hasn’t been spoon fed at least since the start of the year.

I like to feed myself

2012-01-23T21:16:00.001-05:00

Serious about Baby MumMums

2012-01-23T21:14:00.001-05:00

I finally uploaded pictures…so I’ll give you a sampling of some recent Liam pictures in a few posts.

These were about a month ago…before Christmas.

Snippets

2012-01-23T10:06:00.001-05:00

--I just discovered this morning that our library now supports library loans on the Kindle…this is super exciting. I’m working on downloading what I need to make it work right now. I am beyond pumped. This is a real gamechanger!

--Liam is trying to learn how to crawl. He can kind of army crawl sometimes…and he face plants a lot, which is sort of funny. The things he is most interested in crawling towards: rawhide, electronic cords (I’m fixing that), and the hardwood floor in his bedroom (he likes to smack it with his hand). That’s kind of weird, right?

--Speaking of Liam, he’s coming into his own in eating—he’s getting really good at feeding himself. Yesterday he ate puffs, yogurt melts, chicken, cheese, apples, and something else I can’t remember right now. I just remember thinking he had packed away a lot of food for such a little fella.

--Next Wednesday Andy and I are going to Indy for the day to be in the audience for a taping of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. We had talked about taking our first away trip from Liam sometime next year…and we had discussed going to NYC because we both love the city. The one thing we wanted to try to do was be in Jimmy’s audience…and then a few weeks ago, I saw on his show that they were taking the show on the road to Indy for the Super Bowl…so I signed up for tickets—and we got them! We’re both WAY excited.

--And this dumb, but I want to share anyway—diapers.com has the best customer service. Seriously. A few months ago, a package I ordered was missing two items, and I called them and they shipped them right out…like they were here a day later. The lady I talked to was super sweet and apologetic. And, they email you if their original time estimate is off to apologize for any delays in receiving your packages. I for real love this company and their services. And their diaper prices aren't bad either..ha!

--And lastly, I’ve been rearranging furniture, and I like it. I rearranged our living room three times in the last week (in all fairness…the first two were me…the last one was because I needed to put the pack and play back up…someone needs to be corralled when I take the dog out…Andy gets into everything…sorry..I crack myself up). I rearranged Liam’s room, and I like it so much more…I also bought some art to hang in Liam’s room…I just need to get frames. And I rearranged our room and I love it! I need a new dresser (I’m currently using the chest of drawers that was Andy’s as a child…yeah. That doesn’t work)…and I think if we can find a nice dresser (not a chest), and work on the art/décor in our room (and change the light fixture…boob lights be gone!), I’ll love it too.

Serious Question—Storage and Organization?

2012-01-17T14:06:00.001-05:00

Where do you store the things that you aren’t currently using, but will use in the future? Andy and I (mostly just me), have a pretty good “if we aren’t using it, it’s going away” policy…but we have run into a problem—baby stuff. I have 3 Rubbermaid containers filled to the brim with things we aren’t using, but probably will use again in the future—one bin is all of Liam’s clothing from the first six months of his life, another has things like receiving blankets and infant carriers and such, and the last has some toy things we don’t use, bottles that didn’t work this time, but might next time, and all of my pumping supplies. All stuff that we will likely use again when Liam gets a brother or sister in a few years. But I don’t know where to store it. Our one car garage is filled with all of our garage needs. We have a storage shed out back, but it’s kind of gross and I wouldn’t want to put anything good in it. We have zero closet space in the house, and our attic is not useable. So we sit, with three giant storage containers (and truthfully, I could use another…for the Bumbo, play mat, bath sponge, and a few other things….and that doesn’t count the baby swing and bouncy seat that are chilling on the closet floor) just hanging in our living room. The long term solution is a new house. If Andy’s side business works out, we will likely move in the next twelve months…but in the meantime, I don’t know what to do. We have literally filled every inch of space in our house. The only thing that could possibly work is to see if I can move more of the stuff from the garage out to the storage shed…and then fill that space with Liam’s stuff. I can only be so creative…and I think I’ve hit my wall.

PS—As soon as I can find the card reader, I’ll get more Liam pictures up….I have a few fun ones to share.

Mommy Panic

2012-01-16T10:52:00.001-05:00

I have been prone to anxiety throughout my life….I have serious memories of sitting with my dear friend Mariah and worrying about things as a child. I often made up horrific situations in my head and tried to figure out what I would do if they happened (like…my parents were killed in a car accident…or my parents and Lauren…and I’d try to figure out who I would have to live with and what would happen). I have prayed that the Lord would guard me against this with Liam, because it’s a trap I fall into easily. It hasn’t been too much of an issue since the first few weeks when my brain was scrambled. But this weekend, it snuck back in a bit.

We let Liam try his first gluten last week—he had some noodles for dinner. A day or two later, his cheeks were really pink and he had the start of a diaper rash. I immediately chalked it up to gluten intolerance or Celiac’s and started planning for a gluten free existence for our entire family…we’re talking baseball team snacks, birthday parties, school events…everything. Because in the back of my mind, something was lingering. When I had the PUPPS rash during pregnancy, my doctor had mentioned offhand that some research was starting to suggest that there is a slightly higher instance of autoimmune disorders in children whose mother’s had the rash. So in my mind, I guess I have been clinging to the thought that Liam will probably have an autoimmune disorder…and a slight rash appearing two days after eating gluten triggered it.

But then I started to really think about it. And look at my son. And I realized something—his pink cheeks were from dry skin. We gave him a bath and rubbed some California Baby Super Sensitive lotion (love that stuff…it’s pricey, but I’m a big fan…and I think it’s worth it) on them and he was fine. His rash was probably from his excessive number of dirty diapers…and that is probably from teething. He has been really fussy and acting like he’s hurting and not sleeping well this past week…so I truly hope his little teeth start coming in soon.

So we’ll still be careful and watch him, but I’m going to try to relax a little. In any case, he stole my bread at Panera yesterday and gnawed on a hunk of it for a long time and he seems to be fine today. I wish we had a camera with us for that one…because watching little Liam gnaw on a little piece of baguette crust was pretty stinking cute.

And so this isn’t a total word vomit…here are two videos of Liam eating (or playing, as may be the case….he likes to suck on food and spit it out…or chew and spit it out). Warning—Ollie gets in trouble in one or both of these…so you might hear me yell at him.

Liam and his daddy

2012-01-16T10:39:00.001-05:00

Liam adores Andy. Full on loves his daddy. He gets the best smiles and the best laughs. And here are a few videos to prove it. Unless you’re my mom and sister, this may not be totally interesting to you, but I am going for it…because I want to remember this too! And again, thanks Mom and Dad for the camera—we’re loving it!

Liam at 8 months

2012-01-10T12:35:00.001-05:00

I really cannot believe that Liam is 8 months old today. This year has flown. Seriously. Liam is still the sweetest thing, but he is definitely starting to exert some independence this month.

So here we go…Liam this month you:

--Celebrated your first Christmas….3 times over. Each time, you were more interested in the wrapping paper and got kind of overwhelmed and cried. You wanted to play with wrapping paper and eat it…you didn’t really care about your presents…we figured out the best way for you to open presents on the third try…Aunt Lauren opened your presents for you and you watched and laughed.

--Your Aunt Lauren and Great-Aunt Cris taught you how to bang on your booster seat tray and you think that is the greatest thing ever. You do it before dinner, and when you are finished eating. You also really love the high chair toy your Grandma and Grandpa Cook gave you. You hate being spoon fed, but you like to feed yourself. I’ve all but given up on spoon feeding you…I’m half tempted to give the leftover baby food I have to Miss Mandy for their new baby because I’m pretty sure you won’t eat it. I tried to give you some baby food turkey and you threw up everywhere. You also threw up real turkey at Grandma and Granddad’s house….I’m wondering if there is a connection. We did figure out your bottle—we changed the nipple size and that’s made all the difference in the world.

--You like it when we give you “fingers” of food…you can hold on to them and bite off the ends. Sometimes you eat well and sometimes you swish stuff around in your mouth and spit it back out. Broccoli stalks seem to be your favorite…at least to grab onto and suck on. You also like dark meat chicken (white is too dry and you get it stuck on the roof of your mouth), whole green beans, slices of sweet potato, apples, mangos, and ground beef. We just separate out a little of our dinner for you and make sure it isn’t salty, and you eat it. For instance, on Monday we had chicken breast, broccoli and tomatoes, and salad…and you ate some chicken, some broccoli, and cucumber. Last night we had whole roasted chicken and green beans, and you had both of those things. Tonight we’re having Mexican lasagna, so you will get some of the meat (without seasoning) and some cucumbers from the salad…and I may give you a little banana.

--You have stayed alone in the church nursery and you love it. The workers are so sweet with you, and I think Mr. Jim is your favorite. They said you sat on the floor and played with him the whole time on Sunday. You were so happy and just smiled away when Daddy and I came to get you.

--You can throw a serious temper tantrum. You and Ollie are having some toy troubles….you want to play with each other’s toys, and when he takes his toys back (or I take his toys away from) (or I take something away from you that you shouldn’t have) you scream and scream and arch your little back.

--Your sleep has been less than ideal this month…You are trying to make your morning nap at 11 instead of at 9, which is fine if we are out somewhere, but you get fussy at home. So we’re figuring that out. Thankfully the weather has been mild the last 4 or 5 days and we have put your daddy’s jogging stroller to good use.

--You love rolling. You are a rolling fool. You will roll the entire length of living room just for the heck of it. I have to put you in your Exersaucer to take Ollie potty or you will roll and get into something while I’m outside for all of one minute. We put your Exersaucer in the kitchen and you hang out in there with me while I cook dinner and do dishes.

Miss Jodi told us that one of the men at church had said that you should be the poster child for people who want to have babies—because you’re so gosh darn cute and sweet. And we couldn’t agree more!

From our family to yours

2011-12-24T20:11:00.001-05:00

Meeting Santa

2011-12-17T20:34:00.001-05:00

Ollie is being needy right now and taking up all of my lap and licking my face…so I’ll leave you with Liam’s pictures. We saw Santa today…he was at the Comfort Station downtown (basically a public restroom with an open area)….you just walked in and a man was sitting there with a Santa suit on. The whole thing could have been shady, but we got our pictures and all was well. And we got to take our own—so I have more than one for you :) Or you know, all of them. Because I’m that person…really.

Liam sitting up (in his way cute snowman jams)

2011-12-17T11:45:00.001-05:00

Liam has a new skill…sitting up! He can sit pretty well on his own when we sit him up. And he loves playing with toys from this new vantage point!

Liam with the Tree

2011-12-17T11:42:00.001-05:00

These don’t show Liam’s full love for the tree…but they do show him with the tree (sort of…he’s a little on the short side…so mostly it’s the presents)

Liam at seven months

2011-12-14T12:43:00.001-05:00

Liam, you are a total blast right…except when you’re not. You have become pretty volatile. You are super happy most of the time, but when you’re mad, you are really mad. You have started screaming more…for more attention, to be held, for more food, to hold your food (which isn’t going to happen), to pet Ollie, to slobber on us…basically, when you want something, you want it now, and you scream to get it. It happens about 5-6 times a day, which really isn’t bad. We just have to be prepared for it.

For the most part, though, you are a sweetheart. You like to play lots. You love shaking your maracas and anything that makes noise. You only pay attention to the television when there is music being played—you love the theme song to Parks and Recreation, which tickles me to no end. You “dance” anytime you hear music..if someone is holding you, you start bouncing and shaking, and if you’re on the floor you smile and kick. You love bouncing in your Exersaucer. You put everything in your mouth. You are a lot better at sitting than you think. If you don’t think we are supporting you, you fall over…but you can sit up on your own really well. You have mastered the roll and scoot to get what you want. We had to start doing some baby-proofing. You put the cord to my laptop in your mouth…so we had to make sure all electrical wires were hidden from your sight….because your reach is getting better.

You are also really in love with Ollie’s toys….and he’s in love with yours. I picked up a mouse the other day, and I wasn’t sure whose slobber was on it—yours or Ollie’s. He is pretty good about sharing his stuff with you….he’ll let you have it for a few seconds, then he very gingerly steals it back being careful to not hurt you or upset you. It’s fun for me to watch. You two interact a lot now….as long I pet him and scratch him, he’ll let you do whatever you want to him. Recently you’ve been grabbing his beard and yanking…and sometimes you lean over him and just “pet” (smack) him all over. Then he licks your face and neck.

You have figured out your own form of kissing. You put your open mouth on our cheek or mouth and slobber all down our faces. It’s pretty funny…when someone laughs, you do it more. You think it’s the best. You are in love with the Christmas tree…you would grab it and pull every bit of it to your face if I’d let you.

You are also getting pretty good at solids. Homemade butternut squash is your favorite, followed by any fruit. You’ll eat everything, but you give a look that says, “Really?” anytime you eat a vegetable….which is often. You sneeze every time I feed you, so you often spit food all over you, me, and Ollie. Because Ollie is there to lick up any wayward bites that you might miss. You love Baby MumMums….because you can feed them to yourself. You will happily sit and munch on one of those about any time. You currently hate your bottle. You want it, your hungry, but you fight eating about 90 percent of all bottles. It’s literally a battle to feed you.

Liam, we love you to pieces, and you are so much fun. You’re the best, bitty boy.

Flipping the switch

2011-12-05T09:46:00.001-05:00

One of the things I have learned in the last nearly seven months is that things can change at the flip of the switch. This morning, for example, I was dancing with Liam and Ollie while listening to the Michael Buble Holiday station on Pandora (BEST.STATION.EVER), and I thought to myself that life just doesn’t get much better than that. And it didn’t. Nope, it went downhill. Liam melted down (hello baby who is still wrecked after Thanksgiving and has had a rough two weeks) and started wailing and kicking. And Ollie stole a toy and destroyed it and growled at me when I went to take it from him. So I put Liam to bed and spanked Ollie. And plopped him in his cage for a timeout (Ollie..not Liam). So now I’m alone listening to my Pandora station, trying to gear up for the day.

Last week was a lot of switches…so it’s kind of a struggle this morning. I had my first cold as a mom (still do, actually), and it turns out it’s really hard to just rest on the sofa when you have a baby who wants to PLAYALLTHETIME. And who goes on a nap strike. And a husband who is working lots of extra time…. It’s all for a good thing, but it’s rough when the week where he hardly sees Liam coincides with the week I got sick. And I hate all of our Christmas decorations…I honestly don’t have any ornaments on the tree (well..one, a ceramic bone I ordered with Oliver’s name on it). It’s just sitting there with the lights and a pearl garland and the tree topper..and one Oliver ornament. And my laptop broke. It doesn’t recognize the battery exists anymore. And my Kindle Fire stopped working…so Amazon is sending me a new one. I think I’d rather just move my desktop (the hand me down I got from Andy) into the living room than replace the laptop right now. So yeah…I’m trying to flip my switch to a more cheerful attitude. Because I have a lot to be thankful for, and my bad attitude is just pretty dumb right now.

Catching Up

2011-11-29T09:50:00.001-05:00

Liam and I spent all last week away from home. We left on Sunday, and stayed in Indianapolis with Andy’s parents until Thursday morning. They had a two week break in having any help or family come, so Andy and I decided it would be good for me to go…just so they weren’t alone for too long. They can’t really have many visitors right now because Andy’s dad’s condition is so fragile…if he were to get sick, it would be really bad, so for the most part, they go to the wound care center to have his wound changed in the morning, and then they are home the rest of the day. So Liam and I went and stayed. Because having your six month old grandson for most of a week might be the best non-medical medicine there is. Especially when that grandson is Liam—because that kid is a charmer.

Poor Liam doesn’t sleep well when he’s away from home, so I didn’t sleep well either. We’re both still recovering. We had a good time, though. And it proved to me just how resilient our boy is. He continued to be super sweet and patient even when he was worn out. By the end of the week, he wasn’t napping well at all, and my mom had to rock him and pat him to get him to rest. I don’t know how she did it. He hasn’t fallen asleep in my arms in a long time. If I try to get him to sleep while holding him, he thinks we are playing and starts bouncing and rocking and singing Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” while headbanging. Maybe not quite all of that. But it’s close.

So now we are home, and happy to be here. I don’t want to leave. I am working on slowly getting the house picked up and back together. I got caught up on laundry Sunday afternoon. Our room is clean, and the kitchen is close…I just need to put away Liam’s clothes (also…I need some storage containers to clear out Liam’s room….at 6 months, we have a lot of things he has outgrown/moved beyond and I need to get them out of his room and into storage somewhere) and clean up the living room and bathroom. I don’t touch Andy’s office. It’s too stressful for me in there.

And now for two pictures of Liam that I stole from Lauren (he wore pants that day…I promise. They were brown and adorable. But he got too hot and we had to take them off. Turns out he’s adjusted to the cold temps at our house, and he gets overheated at other places…it started to happen at church on Sunday as well)

Famous Family

2011-11-16T04:21:00.001-05:00

Andy’s cousin Kathryn has appeared in various media outlets for the last week….here’s a video clip from Anderson Cooper on AC 360. http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/11/14/ac-the-ridiculist-stolen-bike.cnn

Kathryn has been in the news because her bike was stolen. After it was stolen, she was perusing Craigslist trying to find a replacement, when she found an ad for her bike. She contacted the guy, went to his home, asked to test drive the bike, knew that it was hers, drove to her car parked a few blocks away, and loaded up her bike and took it home. When she got home, she called the police and gave them the guy’s address and they went and picked him up. They also recommended she not try that again in the future…which is pretty much what her parents said as well.

I kind of love this story.

Our favorite sentence this week

2011-11-15T21:46:00.001-05:00

Our favorite sentence this week has been, “Liam, your grandparents are going to have so much fun with you this weekend.” Because my mom and dad are watching Liam for the WHOLE DAY on Saturday while Andy and I go out…to Cincinnati!! This is big stuff—it’s the first time Andy and I will both be away from Liam at the same time (well…we went to lunch once and ran errands in Indy twice)..and only the second time I’ve been away for more than an hourish.

We keep telling Liam that, though, because he is so much fun right now. He has figured out jumping and bouncing and does it constantly. It starts when he’s in his exersaucer, but he will keep just bouncing up and down while we are holding or carrying him. He is laughing so much (and screaming more too…but only when he’s left alone) and he’s so funny. His little smile consumes his whole face—when we get him after a nap, his smile is basically his mouth opening as wide as it possibly can. He knows what toys are and he wants them….and he chooses what to play with. He loves Ollie so much and he is constantly trying to pet him and play with him. Together they crack me up. So all these combined….my mom and dad are going to have so much fun on Saturday :)

An Interesting Friday Night

2011-11-12T08:55:00.001-05:00

You know how when things happen sometimes, you think, when I get over this, it’s going to make a great story…one that will enter into the family book of tales to be retold when your kids grow up and bring home spouses and grandkids. I feel like last night could be one of those stories :)

Andy is at his parents house. He left last night. He is going to see them since his dad is home, and to return Keegan. Liam and I stayed home since his dad needs as few visitors as possible right now.

I was worn out, so I went to bed a little before 10. I cracked Liam’s door open several inches because it gets too cold in his room if the door is shut. I had to shut the door to our bedroom because Ollie kept trying to escape. He wanted to stay in the living room on the back of the loveseat and stare at the front door. When Andy’s gone, Oliver likes to take over as man of the house. He takes his job seriously.

So….about an hour after we went to bed, I heard pounding on our front door and saw flashlights coming into the house. You can’t even begin to imagine the panicked, sick feeling. Oliver is losing his mind. The police are standing at our front door. I had to put Oliver in the office because he tried to lunge at the officer. Those few seconds where I was putting Ollie away, I almost threw up.

As it turns out, it was okay. The police were there because Andy called them. He had called the house at 10:15, and I never heard the phone. Apparently right after he hung up, the house phone dialed him back again, but no one was there. Then he tried calling back again and again…on the house phone and the cell phone…probably about 15 times. I never heard the phone because the bedroom door was shut. Or I may have accidentally silenced the ringer earlier in the day, I’m not sure. He got panicked because he couldn’t get ahold of us, and the phone had dialed him, so he called the police to ask them to check the house.

So I assured the officers that we were fine, called my husband and assured both he and his mom that we were fine. And then Liam woke up. Mostly because Ollie wouldn’t stop barking. He was a mess. I got Liam settled back down after a bottle and a diaper change. Ollie started to settle down about 45 minutes later, and I was eventually able to settle down enough to sleep about an hour and a half later. At 12:30….and then Liam woke up at 5. So we’re a little tired today.

Liam Pictures….Post 2

2011-11-11T09:02:00.001-05:00

And lastly….do you think I need to go grocery shopping? Since we are down to 8 eggs, one pound pepper bacon, vanilla syrup, a tablespoon of hummus, 2 carrots, and some radishes in the fridge….I’m going to go with yes. We’ve been trying to eat from our stores for the last two weeks to try to waste less…and we’re about out.

Liam Pictures…Post 1

2011-11-11T08:56:00.001-05:00

Holy 6 Months Batman!

2011-11-10T17:00:00.001-05:00

Liam bo-piam,

You are six months old today. That is stinking wild! It’s gone by so quickly…sometimes I still feel like I just got my PICC line taken out two weeks ago, but then I realize, we’ve come a long way since then, sweet babe.

You are huge! Like enormous! Not in a bad way. I don’t know your stats yet, but I do know that you look SOOO long to me. I can’t get over how big you are these days. You can squeeze into a few last 3-6 mos. things, but in the last two weeks or so, we’ve moved you up to 6-12 mos. Or the 9 mos in Carters. You still wear a 3 in diapers.

You like solids. Maybe more than a bottle at times. You really love pears, and if I mix a smidge of pear into other foods, you gulp them right down. I made your pears in these cute little trays from IKEA, and they are about half the size of a regular ice cube…so I mix one full sweet potato with a pear, and you eat the whole thing. Or I mix your oatmeal with pears, and you try to bite the bowl when I don’t feed you fast enough. Sometimes, though, you’re not having it. Yesterday you spat oatmeal all over the living room. It was all over me, all over you, all over the Bumbo, and all over Ollie. Because Ollie likes to sit right next to you and grab anything he can…if you spill, I have to push him back to keep him from licking you. You spit up the other night, too, and it got everywhere. I thought your dad was going to vomit.

You can roll over, but not well. Your little head is too big. It’s heavy and you don’t like to move it. You can sit up with your hands supporting you for a few seconds, but again, your head is pretty heavy. You can scoot yourself. I’m not totally sure how you’re doing it. I think you might be grabbing the carpet and pulling a little, and rocking and half rolling to get places. I put a toy out of your reach the other day to watch you, because several times I have put you down and then taken the dogs out to the bathroom and when I came back, you were NOT where I left you.

You have the best personality. Seriously. You are sweet and loving and so fun. You like to smile and laugh and play. You LOVE your dad. You think he’s the funniest person ever. Seriously. He gets face-consuming smiles and full gut laughs. You adore him. You are only cranky when you’re tired or don’t feel the best. You’ve had an off week this week, and you’ve been a bit fussier, but even then, you are still so sweet. Most mornings when you wake up, you laugh and shout in bed playing with your giraffe until we wake up and come get you.

No teeth yet, but you are slobbering and chewing up a storm. Ollie destroyed your favorite teething toy the other night. You are both very aware of each other’s toys, and often try to trade. I keep pulling his toys out of your mouth, and chasing him away from your toys. I told your dad that Christmas morning will be interesting—you’ll both be more interested in the other person’s toys!

We celebrated your first Halloween—you were a dinosaur! We didn’t actually do anything, but you wore your little costume. I am excited for your first Thanksgiving and Christmas—they will be here so soon! Today is a pretty big day, too. Your Grandpa Cook is supposed to come home from the hospital today, and I kind of love that it’s on your half-birthday.

Liam Cook, we love you so stinking much. We can’t get through a day without one of us gushing about you—our sweet thing. We love the crap out of you kid :)

Vegetables make me happy

2011-10-31T21:17:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-10-31T10:08:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-28T12:31:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-27T16:43:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-27T09:04:00.001-04:00

A Week in our lives: Tuesday

2011-10-26T10:14:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-25T09:36:00.002-04:00

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

2011-10-24T16:20:00.002-04:00

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 :)

2011-10-23T17:37:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-21T09:11:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-20T08:54:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-16T21:00:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-12T22:17:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-12T11:01:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-11T15:27:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-10T09:49:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-05T16:08:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-01T20:58:00.002-04:00

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.

Liam Pictures….because they make me happy

2011-09-20T16:12:00.001-04:00

The last few weeks have been an interesting time. Interesting in the way where you hold your breath because you’re afraid that any second the world is going to flip on its head. We’re holding our breaths here, waiting to see if the world is going to flip. In the meantime, we’re trying to go about life as if it’s business as usual. And that means enjoying the bitty as he grows up quickly (I’m almost certain he’s cutting a tooth right now—way too young!!!). So without further ado, here is the little e-tiny who makes our lives so much better :)

Liam at four months

2011-09-16T12:06:00.001-04:00

Bitty Babe,

You are four months old now—a third of a year old (not a quarter, like I kept saying…your dad pointed out that there aren’t sixteen months in a year). You have been so much fun this month—it’s an honor and a delight to be your Mommy.

You are wearing a size 3 disposable diaper, and you are into your BumGenius cloth. You are still mostly wearing 3-6 mos. clothing, but some of your pants are larger…but that’s only because I don’t have anything smaller. We’ll find out your height and weight at the doctor next week.

You are so funny now. We love your to pieces, and can’t get enough of you. You laugh so hard it sounds like you’re crying sometimes. You have the biggest smile, and you flash it almost anytime someone talks to you—today you smiled big and giggled for Miss Laurie when she held you, and you smiled when Ben was trying to crawl into your carseat and touch you. You’re a big hit at church too, because you smile and laugh when people lean in to talk to you. You are quite the little entertainer—just like your Daddy. When you’re tired,though, you want none of it. You wear out, and then you scream. For a long time. So we try really hard not to let you get too worn out.

We finally figured out napping for you this month. It’s been a real blessing for me and for you. I watch you like a hawk and as soon as you start exhibiting sleepy signs (yawning, tired eyes, glassy stares, slowing down playing), I whisk you off to bed where you take a lovely nap. If we miss the magic moment, it’s not good. You scream and yell and can’t calm down and can’t get a good nap. So we work to make sure we don’t miss the magic moment.

You discovered Oliver this month. Really, all of your toys, but you love Ollie. You like to reach out and grab him…to touch his leg or pull his beard. He tries to back up when he sees your hands coming. You like playing with your toys too—you love the Exersaucer, the bouncy seat, and your activity mat. You also really love a few very specific toys—a pull rattle from Lamaze toys, your linking rings, and the furry tag ball Miss Shannon made for you. I keep those with us because you love playing with them.

You love fabric—your burp cloths, your curtains (you pull them over your face when you are getting your diaper changed), your bunny rabbit from Aunt Kim (you like to snuggle him in bed). You pull things over your face and shout until someone comes to rescue you. Your dad and I laugh so hard at you because you are just so silly. You like to “kick back” in your bouncy seat—you flip your feet and tush up in the air while you grab your toys. It looks so silly and so funny. I’m thinking the bouncy seat is going to be retired soon because of this—I’m afraid you’ll kick too hard and knock yourself out of it.

You love being the center of attention. If I put you down for too long to go do something (change laundry, grab lunch, etc) you start screaming and crying until someone comes back and talks to you. You want us to focus on you always. You are super funny about it.

I love you sweetheart, and I can’t wait for this next month :)

Love,

Mommy

PS—I’ll add photos later—this month’s photo shoot is proving to be difficult to get

A productive and lazy weekend all wrapped into one

2011-09-12T15:08:00.001-04:00

This weekend was a nice mix of relaxing and work-filled. I spent most of Saturday in the kitchen, and that day of work has paid off with a week’s worth of meals, and soups for this week and next. I was having a mental block with our diet, and I needed some motivation. So I found five recipes from allrecipes.com that fit the diet criteria, and made them (3 soups, 2 bean salads) and I boiled some eggs and made egg muffins (eggs, sausage, spinach, mushrooms baked in a muffin tin). I worked at it fairly diligently (taking time off to feed/play with Liam, hang out with Andy, etc.) from 11-5 Saturday. Then I cleaned the whole kitchen and took the recycling out. I was pretty proud of myself, and the fridge had more food in than it had in a LONG time.

Sunday was more the easy day. After church, Liam was kind of a mess. His nap schedule gets off on Sunday mornings and he has a hard time dealing with that, so I spent most of Sunday snuggling him and trying to get him to calm down. I never achieved a crib nap on Sunday, and that hasn’t happened in a few weeks. He had become quite the napping champion, but he fell off the wagon yesterday. So I snuggled and walked with him and watched tv most of the day…hence the lazy day. Last night after he went to bed, though, I dusted off my old Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD and did it. It was the first time I had really worked out in over a year—and I was pleasantly surprised. Before I started, I told Andy I was sure I was going to die and I didn’t think I would make it through..but I did. I didn’t even get covered in sweat. And I wasn’t super tired or sore after. So I am definitely a lot stronger than I thought—maybe pregnancy gave me a superhuman strength (HA!). I decided I would still stick with Level 1 for a week, though, just to get used to it, then I’ll go on to the next level. I don’t want to get too arrogant :) I really thought I would have to spend like 3 weeks before I switched levels, so I’m glad I felt so strong last night. After I finished, I found a few other Jillian videos I might order in the coming months (because I can face reality and recognize that right now it’s all I can probably really accomplish…Andy makes it to the gym 2-3 times a week after Liam’s asleep, and I don’t really want the two of us to not see each other any night, so this is better for me right now). Here are the others I am looking at (after I get through my 30 day shred…I thought I’d try each of them, then mix them up for some variety). They are all Jillian because I have a slight girl crush on her, and I can appreciate it when she hands me my butt. And because she has never steered me wrong in the results department.

Jillian Michaels Killer Buns and Thighs

Ripped in 30

6 Week Six Pack

Four months ago…

2011-09-09T09:08:00.001-04:00

Liam will be four months old tomorrow, and I realized that I had never actually written down what happened when he was born. I suppose I don’t have to, but I have found that I enjoy having this blog because it reminds me of things I have forgotten that happened in the past. And so I do want to recount those first few weeks….the “almost” weeks as I like to call them.

When Liam was born, everything appeared to be fine. He was breech, as we knew, so when I went into labor early, they had to get an OR ready and the doctor on call came over for the surgery. She wasn’t my doctor, but if I couldn’t have my own, she was definitely the one I wanted, so I was thankful for that. We didn’t have anything with us. Andy ran home to grab stuff before the surgery (now, I realize we should have just waited and had one of our parents do this) and left his keys at the hospital. He broke into the house through the bathroom window. And came back with the laptop, a change of clothes for himself, and fruit snacks. But not the camera. He brought fruit snacks, but forgot the camera :)

When Liam was born, he was so beautiful. We didn’t hear his little cry for a few minutes because he had gone to the bathroom inside, and they were clearing his little lungs. I got to see him for a very short second, and then he and Andy were whisked off to the nursery and I got stitched up and went to recovery. My parents and Andy’s mom came that night to meet our sweet boy. Andy’s dad was in New York building a stadium, so he didn’t make it until Friday. That night, nothing seemed wrong. Everything was just kind of hazy, since I was recovering from surgery.

Wednesday we met Liam’s physical therapist (she showed us how to work with his little legs since he was a little frog) (he hasn’t had to see her since he left the hospital—he’s fine now) and tried to figure out nursing. That afternoon, we all fell asleep at the same time, and woke up when Andy, Mandy, and Ben came to visit. Through their whole visit, I couldn’t stop shivering. I was absolutely freezing. Mandy put every blanket in our room on top of me, but I was miserable. Rebekah came to visit shortly after they left, and I was a mess by then. When my nurse came in after Rebekah left, she could tell I wasn’t okay, and checked my temperature. It was over 103 at that point. She gave me Tylenol and called the doctor on call that day. I had the first of many rounds of tests as they tried to find out what was wrong with me. That night, my fever spiked a few more times, always with the chills followed by soaking sweats.

By Thursday morning, I was really weak. It was all I could do to try to feed Liam from the side lying hold. Wednesday afternoon before the fever, I had been up and walking the halls. Thursday I could barely make it to the bathroom by myself. At this point, Andy and the nurses and his mom were doing almost all of Liam’s care. I could only hold him a few minutes at a time. My doctor was on call Thursday, and it was an incredible blessing. She came over to check on me several times. Just before lunch on Thursday, she found out what was wrong with me. The pathology report from the c-section came back and showed that there was a fungal infection in the umbilical cord that was making me sick. It’s something that occurs in 1 in 60,000 pregnancies, and 16 percent of the time it also affects the baby. At first, it appeared as though Liam was going to need a 24 hour iv just in case he also had the infection, which nearly did me in. But the pediatrician on call that day called the CDC and the Children’s Hospital in Louisville to discuss it, and they decided that since he wasn’t showing any signs, they would run his blood and watch him, but that giving him an unncessary iv wasn’t probably great either. His blood tests came back negative, so he never had to be treated. I was switched from antibiotics to an antifungal, and we hoped things would get better. They didn’t. My fever spiked higher than ever…to 104.8.

My doctor was concerned, my nurse was concerned…my nurse had it written all over her face when she walked in my room. I’m pretty sure Andy and his mom were pretty concerned as well. At one point that night, my doctor came in and told me that I had to start complaining…she needed me to tell her everything that was wrong because they were getting concerned. She called a friend of hers who is an internal medicine doctor and another doctor who specializes in infectious diseases. Together they found the antifungal that actually worked, but it was an iv treatment only and could be damaging to Liam’s kidneys, so we had to switch to formula.

That was my breaking point. I had handled everything up to then, but that nearly did me in. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. A radiology tech came up to get me for a chest x-ray and I sobbed the whole ride to radiology and the whole ride back. I had to stand still for my x-ray, so I held it together for those few minutes. By this time, my arms were incredibly bruised and I looked like a pincushion from all the blood tests. I just wanted to cry. That was all I could do for a bit that night. I couldn’t give Liam his formula bottles, I had to have Andy do it. It was a crushing blow for me. I felt like I had failed him as a mother. I hadn’t changed a diaper yet, and now I couldn’t feed him. Andy was picking up parenting a lot faster than I was. And I was miserable. I remember trying to hold it together on the phone with my mom, and wanting only to break down sobbing. But all I could think was, “I can’t cry right now, I can’t….I can’t worry my mom anymore than she already is.” We also found out that night that I had some fluid on my lungs and my potassium was low, which really just felt like the kicks just kept on coming. (Sidenote, liquid potassium might be the most disgusting thing ever….I requested 43 bananas instead).

I got my first treatment that night, and my fever didn’t spike again. The next morning, we learned that if it had gone up again, they were transferring me to the ICU. Apparently there was a lot of discussion about our case, and what to do with Liam. The pediatrician and the OB were coming up with a plan for us, to make sure that Liam was cared for because they knew I couldn’t do it, and that Andy was killing himself taking care of both of us. My mom and Andy’s dad all came that day. My sister made it that night. My dad came the next day (right, dad?). By Friday, I was regaining some strength. I was able to get out of bed. I held Liam. I showered. We had visitors and I was able to speak coherently to them. These were all a huge deal at this point.

By Friday night, it looked like I was going to go home Saturday. I had to go 24 hours without a fever, and I made it. I was learning how to pump that day, and I hated it. That night a nurse came over to install my PICC line. She assured me it was a quick and easy process, and commented on how awful the lab techs had made my arms look. An hour and a half and SEVERAL failed needle pricks later, my PICC line was installed. I was covered in sweat and miserable. I had to have another chest x-ray, but this time they let me have the portable one, so they could verify my PICC line was in correctly. I think Liam was in the nursery for all of this. Lauren, do you remember? That’s how hazy this whole week was….I can’t remember where my child was. I do know that the nurses kept him in the nursery that night because they decided I needed some sleep (acutally, she thought we both needed sleep). They fed him and changed him and tried to wake Andy and I as little as possible.

On Saturday morning, it was decided I could go home. Our nurse that day started calling insurance to set up home health care…she thought it would be much easier and better than having to come back to the hospital every day for my iv treatment. It was. We finally got to go home that afternoon, and it was glorious. I don’t remember much about it, except that we were home, and I was thrilled. My mom stayed with us through Wednesday, and Andy’s mom came for the rest of that week. And she came back the next. They did everything for us those two weeks…all the cooking, cleaning, a lot of Liam’s care, helping me recover. We wouldn’t have made it without them. Our church family was a huge blessing at this time too, we kept our small group updated, and they were praying for us, and supporting us. The church was praying for us, and our pastor came down twice to see us and pray with us. Our small group sent flowers, and several of them stopped in to see us. A lot of those first weeks is hazy to me. But I do remember being incredibly thankful. We were so blessed by our friends and family. It was amazing to me to see how many people stepped in and showed us that they loved us and cared about us. I definitely don’t want to forget that. And now, four months later, I can see where our little family was forged together in those early weeks. Liam’s arrival really was trial by fire, and we emerged stronger. I hated that things didn’t work out the way I wanted them to…I hated that I couldn’t take care of him, couldn’t provide him with food, couldn’t do the things I thought I was supposed to be, but now I realize it was okay. He doesn’t know any of that. And he’s healthy and happy, regardless of what happened. And that’s all that really matters.

The diaper box made me teary

2011-09-08T09:02:00.001-04:00

I bought diapers and wipes at the grocery store on Saturday, and instead of putting them away, I just sat them in the edge of Liam’s closet. The other morning, I was looking at them and it hit me. When Liam came home, he looked like the baby on the Pampers sensitive wipes box:

But now, he’s not that tiny baby anymore. There’s no newborn left in him. He’s totally more like the baby on the Pampers Cruisers box:

Combine that with the fact that his first year is nearly a quarter over, and I had that moment where I realized, I am going to blink and he is going to be in kindergarten. And then I will be sending him off to college 12 seconds later. So I got a little teary. But then I realized, it’s okay. I love the way he grows and changes, I love getting to see his little personality. He’s a sweet and funny little guy. Here he is yesterday covering his face with a burp cloth (the kid is obsessed with putting fabric in his mouth, and covering up his whole face with whatever he can get his hands on).

And after I took his burp cloth off his face (clearly, he is stunned):

A map?

2011-09-07T16:41:00.001-04:00

We got a delivery today from UPS. It wasn’t our regular driver, Greg, but a younger man. After he dropped off our package, I watched him go back to his truck and unfold a map. He sat at the end of our driveway for a minute or two, examining the map. And all I could think was, “Really? UPS doesn’t use GPS? He’s seriously using a map in 2011?”

UPDATED: Andy told me later that they have GPS built into the truck. So I don’t know what he was doing with that map.

Is it Saturday yet?

2011-09-02T10:23:00.001-04:00

Some little boy learned the Purdue fight song this morning—and loved it! I wish we had a video camera…he smiled through the whole thing (possibly because I was clapping his little hands together, and he loves that…but more probably because Boilermaker runs through his blood).

Here he is—ready for the start of football season tomorrow (also—a nap)!

He also wants to say—Thanks Miss Lauren for my awesome outfit! I love it!

Four projects for ZERO dollars!

2011-09-01T10:42:00.001-04:00

First off, Andy and I are having a disagreement about my zero dollars claim. I claim that since all materials for these projects were located inside our house and purchased at some point for something, the cost is associated with the previous project or use…and I am simply using what I have to make things for free. He says that with my logic, if he went today and bought all the materials to make a house, then let them sit for a while and then made something else, the something else still isn’t free. Then I threw a pillow at him.

But back to the real reason….I have been pinning inspiration images on Pinterest for a while now, and I hadn’t made any of my projects. Since Liam started napping on Tuesday, I have had some time to get some things done. I got the house cleaned and the laundry done, and then decided to do something that would make me feel more like a human and less like a person who changes diapers and feeds and sings silly songs for all of her waking hours (which I love…truly, but I needed something that would make my brain work a bit). So I have four projects I have completed based on my Pinterest inspirations…and here they are! (Actually two of them were done before this week….I just got them hung up this week)

Project 1:

Source: etsy.com via Kari on Pinterest

Project #1:

I just used Paint and typed out the words to fit the frame…changed the green to go in the kitchen and I was all done. This has actually been sitting in the house since April, waiting to be hung…I just did it this week.

Inspiration #2:

Source: justagirlblog.com via Julie on Pinterest

Project #2:

That canvas was hanging in our garage, covered with a piece of fabric. I bought it when we first moved in, and hadn’t used it in a long time…So I painted it green. The flowers are toilet paper rolls cut into fourths and hot glued on in that pattern. It took maybe a month of collecting rolls to get enough…and the top right only has three petals because someone named Oliver reached up on the table, pulled one down, and ate it while I was changing his brother’s diaper. Same kid stole a green bean yesterday when I was snapping them…and got into the trash and ate part of a bacon wrapper…then threw up the bacon wrapper all over the carpet. But enough about my bad dog :)

Inspiration #3:

Source: kimboscrafts.blogspot.com via Alea on Pinterest

Project #3

Yup…it’s a diaper box turned book storage container. Mine isn’t as pretty as hers…I just hot glued it on so it looked sort of okay, and went with it. It’s holding Liam’s most commonly read stories on a shelf in the living room (it also has my Bible study books) Oliver kept getting into hot glue and had strings of it hanging from his beard.

Inspiration #4

Source: frominspirationtoreality.blogspot.com via Tina on Pinterest

Project #4

The canvas I had was one that I bought at Target a few years ago. It’s brown with white dandelion silhouettes on it, and I still like it, and may want to use it someday in future, so I knew I didn’t want to paint over it. I had a lot of that fabric (it’s from Liam’s crib skirt), so I just hot glued some onto the canvas, so I could cover it and remove it in the future if I wanted. Then I found an outline of the state of Indiana and printed it out. I traced it on cardstock, cut it out, and painted it green. When it was dry, I used spray adhesive and glued it onto the canvas. You’ll see this in a future project I’m working on right now.

Four Years Later

2011-08-31T11:22:00.001-04:00

It was four years ago this week that we purchased our first house. We didn’t get the keys until Labor Day weekend, but the house became ours. It’s crazy to think about it, and to see the ways it has changed and grown in that time. I thought I might do a retrospective…sort of a before, in progress, and the current state of things post. Our house is still by no means finished, but we are making progress. We have the bathroom and bedroom updates planned for this fall, and hopefully we will get through them with little Liam in tow. Liam’s room and the kitchen are the only real “afters” so I’ll do those today (the kitchen…I did Liam’s room pretty recently)….and then our room and the bathroom with the planned updates. And Andy’s office will just be left out for now because it’s a disgusting pit and I try to avoid it at all costs :)

The kitchen when we moved in:

And now (you are of course ignoring the things on the counter and the dishes in the sink, thankssomuch):

It’s taken a lot of time and a lot of work to get the kitchen to where it is. It’s not perfect, but it’s ours, and it suits us. And I like looking at it and remembering each project.

We painted the cabinets one weekend in January a few years ago. I showed Andy a blog that had painted kitchen cabinets black, and we both liked the look, so we went to Lowes and bought the supplies and did that day. We were priming and painting until 2AM, and we left a space heater running in our garage to help them dry out.

Two falls ago, we were at Lowes buying new carpet when we discovered a hardwood floor that we had never seen before. It was a third the cost of the brand they usually carried, and we loved it. I went to the bank the next day to transfer money from our account, and we bought it that night. When it was delivered, it sat inside the back bedroom and the living room until Andy’s parents came down a week later to help us install it. The tile was down so crazy hard—Andy and I spent hours one Friday night using the back end of our hammers trying to get the concrete board up, and it was not working. The next day, Andy’s dad took one look at the floor and went to rent a jackhammer. They spent all day Saturday helping us lay that floor, and Andy’s dad came back the next weekend to help finish.

We did the countertop and sink and the door this past fall. The original door was an interior door that stuck really badly. Andy accidentally put his shoulder through it one day trying to get it open (also—we had a similar problem on the back door and I put my shoulder through a glass window)…he replaced it with the door the hall closet that was 2 inches two short…and we lived that way for a disturbingly long time. The day we put the countertop in, we had to go to Lowes…we had purchased a countertop before hoping to get it installed, but we didn’t…and it warped too badly to be used, so we had to go buy a new one…that was a lesson learned. And the sink….I knew that I wanted the granite composite, but we didn’t measure the current sink before we went to buy it. When we got there, Andy was sure ours was at least 8 inches deep, and we bought a 9 inch sink. When we got home, I measured our original sink—it was 6 inches deep. But I LOVE the BIG ONE. And the faucet—one day we were walking through Lowes (this was probably almost three years ago) and I saw that faucet on clearance for really cheap. So I convinced Andy we should buy it, realizing that we would use it at some point in the future…I held onto that faucet for nearly two years before it got installed.

And the IKEA cabinets—our kitchen is very lacking in storage space. I made the decision about the IKEA cabinets shortly after we finished the counter in October…and finally made it to Cincinnati to buy the cabinets the end of February with my mom and dad. Andy and my dad put them together, and you cannot even believe how happy I was that day :)

These are not my pants…whose pants are these anyway?

2011-08-30T15:44:00.001-04:00

This morning it was chilly out, so I decided Liam needed some pants today. That’s when I discovered that Liam has 3 long sleeved onesies and one pair of pants in his current size—since we didn’t think it would start getting chilly for another month or so, we hadn’t really stocked up on those things. So I dressed him….in his navy top and brown bottoms. And then Andy asked me why I had dressed our child like Dexter (the titular character from the SHOtime drama about a serial killer). Here’s a comparison:

Liam (he’s holding Green Eggs and Ham and being licked by Ollie)

Dexter (in his kill outfit…and pixel-y)

So…yeah. Luckily, we got a Kohls coupon, a Target gift card, and a notice for Old Navy’s baby sale in the mail today….so we’ll remedy his clothing problem this weekend or next week :)

I have never felt so tired for so long in my entire life

2011-08-29T19:29:00.001-04:00

So. I have something to say. My child really stinks at sleeping during the day. In fact, he’s horrible at it. His nighttime sleep is fine, great even, but naps are another story. Naps are going to kill me. Because it’s not like he’s a weirdo who’s content without a nap….oh no, he needs one, he just won’t take one. Here’s a rundown of a normal day:

We wake up. We hang out. Liam starts to look tired, yawning and such. I put him in his crib and wrap him up, give him a blanket. He begins shrieking before I leave the room. He continues shrieking for 35 minutes, until I give up and go get him. He has crazy dark circles under his eyes at this point, and continues shrieking. I carry him up and down the hallway, I try to figure out how to calm him. He stays awake and stays mad. I pray up and down the hallway. He stays awake, but God gives me the grace to keep walking up and down the hallway.

Sometimes he falls asleep. Sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes we have to get a whole new feeding in before sleeping happens. He has also developed a radar, so that when I put him down, he wakes up instantly and shrieks…and we start the whole process over. And I’m exhausted. I think I need Liam to take a nap as much as he needs the nap.

Small Group Memory Verses

2011-08-26T19:55:00.001-04:00

Our small group is currently studying Desiring God by John Piper. Like all other Piper, it’s not light or easy reading, but it’s very convicting and very deep. We read the chapter on money last week, and we camped out awhile in1 Timothy chapter 6, talking a lot about money and contentment. We committed to memorizing that portion of Scripture together….so I chunked into easier segments for me to remember. Here’s my passage

*Amazon links are affiliate links

Liam’s New Books

2011-08-25T15:20:00.000-04:00

I really want Liam to be a reader. I don’t want him to be a television/video game junkie—I want him to read and to want to read. And so I try to read with him a little each day. He has a sweet little library, and we rotate through his books pretty regularly, but Mommy needed a few new books. As I was talking to my mom today (Grandma and Granddad and Aunt Lauren came to visit) I was reminded that I wanted to find a few new books for Liam. So here are Liam’s new books—and the best part is that I only spent about 25 dollars for all six books.

1. Green Eggs and Ham—this was Andy’s favorite as a child, and I wanted Liam to have his own copy

2. Dr. Suess’s ABC—He already has the other alphabet version of the Bright and Early Board books—and he loves hearing letter sounds sounded out

3.Sheep in a Jeep

4.Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see?—I love Eric Carle…love him.

5. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

6. Big Board First 100 Words

*All Amazon links are affiliate links

Worn Out

2011-08-24T10:21:00.000-04:00

He does slow down sometimes….after a long walk :)

Ollie and Fox-topus

2011-08-23T10:27:00.000-04:00

Ollie got Fox-topus the day Liam came home from the hospital. You know, the way parents give their older children a gift when a new baby comes so they don’t feel left out? Well, Ollie is our child, and he got a gift….and he loves that thing. It got taken away for a while because he wouldn’t stop squeaking it at 11 at night and waking Liam up. It mostly lives on the fridge for now, but some days I get it down and let him play with it for a few hours. He LOVES it….as evidenced by the fact that I can’t get an in-focus picture of him with it….he won’t slow down long enough for me to get one. Also….please ignore all of the stuff on the living room floor….Oliver has put most of that there (not the coffee cup..that’s mine). I spend my days caring for Liam and cleaning up Ollie’s messes :)

Guarding the fox

A parenting first

2011-08-18T13:21:00.001-04:00

Today we had a parenting first—the trip to the doctor’s office for an overreaction.

For the past 2-3 weeks, Tiny Dancer has been sleeping through the night. Like go to bed at 8 and wake up at 6 sleeping through the night. It’s been glorious. But this week, that wasn’t happening. Last night he was up three times in the night, which hasn’t happened since he was 6-8 weeks old.

He also didn’t poop yesterday. Perhaps TMI, but this boy consistently has a BM 1-2 times a day since we switched to the Gentlease formula, and yesterday we had nothing.

He has been crazy fussy and needy this week—wanting to be held almost constantly, and crying when we put him down—both traits we haven’t seen since we switched him to the Gentlease formula.

This morning when he woke up, his left ear was cherry red and looked inflamed up the back of his ear. So I called the pediatrician’s office and scheduled an appointment.

As it turns out, his ear is fine. He has a bit of the cradle cap rash in his ear, and we can treat it easily. And the tummy stuff is probably causing the fussiness and sleep problems….and is probably related to attempting to gradually switch to a generic formula for approximately 12 hours on Monday. That won’t be happening again. And with the amount he ate through the night, he might be on a growth spurt (he weighed 15.5 lbs. at the doctor’s office today—HUGE).

So hopefully we can get the ear thing under control, and his stomach will start to normalize (he’s gone to the bathroom today twice), and we will get the sweet happy boy back.

As long as the other child whose name starts with O and rhymes with Chopped Liver doesn’t keep trying to lick him every chance he gets. Seriously, for the first time ever Tiny Dancer is sleeping in his carseat and O-ChoppedLiver keeps trying to wake him up.

I can’t believe I forgot to post these

2011-08-17T13:55:00.001-04:00

So…I never posted Liam’s bedroom pictures. I have no idea how I forgot…I put a few on Facebook, but none here. So I’ll remedy that situation now. I love this room so much…it’s by far my favorite in the whole house…..it makes me want to get the rest of the house closer to finished, so I can love it as much as I love this room.

Liam at three months

2011-08-17T11:14:00.001-04:00

Bitty Boy,

You are three months old today! You are getting to be so grown up and so funny. Daddy can’t get enough of you—at least once every day he snuggles you close and asks, “Isn’t he just so sweet? Don’t you just love him.” And sometimes I just can’t stop smooching you. Or snuggling you.

You are getting big this month. I don’t know your height and weight—we don’t go to the doctor this month, but I know you’re heavier. You are starting to make my arms and back sore when I carry you for a long time. You are wearing mostly 3-6 mos. clothing, and your Carters brand clothes are all 6 mos (but that still may be from where I accidentally shrunk everything a bit before you were born). You are in a size 2 disposable diaper, and you’re in a weird place with your cloth diapers. You’re between sizes on the Fuzzibunz so they were leaking a lot and aggravating me…so we’re only using a few a day. You are probably ready for the Bum Genius, but it’s been too hot to use the washer and dryer, so I haven’t had a chance to prep them.

You are a very opinionated baby. There are specific ways you want to be held, to be fed, to be put down for bed, for everything. You love being carried. I tried using the sling and the wrap a few times this month, and you screamed. I think you might have taken it if I made you stay longer, but you really prefer being held. You only want Mommy or Daddy when you are tired and cranky. When you’re in a good mood, you will go to anyone. At a church supper this month, you got passed around, and loved all the attention that was showered on you. You were especially fond of Nate, the pastor’s son. He made faces at you, and you just smiled away at him. You also really loved your Aunt Elizabeth this past weekend—you and Ollie both were big fans of hers.

You grab onto toys with your right hand and hold on. You like to pull one of the toys on your activity mat down to where it’s at your face. You like to grab the elephant on your bouncy seat and move it around. Everything that you get in your hands goes straight to your mouth—especially fabric, like your burp cloths and blankets. You rip a handful of my hair out at least once a day, and I often have to groom you to get my hair off of you…partly because you pull it out, and partly because it’s falling out.

You slobber all the time. I am so often covered in your drool, and about once a day you spit up all over one of us. You are a pretty good night sleeper, but a horrible napper. We have talked about changing the curtains in your room to see if that helps. You like to lay out and kick and move and talk. You have found your voice, and it’s loud. Ollie likes to lay next to you, and you usually kick or punch him.

You are a lot of fun, bitty, and we love you so much! We love getting to know you and see your little personality start to form.

Liam’s Education

2011-08-16T15:16:00.001-04:00

Before I start this, please realize it’s tongue in cheek. Clearly this isn’t the most important thing in the world, and it’s really meant as a bit of a joke….I don’t take raising Liam lightly, but there are times when Andy and I joke back and forth about the things it will be important for him to know….and we often have different opinions on the goofier things..this is one of those things.

Now that Liam is a big bad three months old(yes…I’m a week late on that post…what can I say, my days of doing things in a timely manner are gone…I did have them, I remember…it was college, and I wrote down every assignment and due date for the semester in my mortarboard and color coded them according to class…then kept a running list of all assignments so I could cross them off when I turned them in….those days are gone). Where was I? Oh yeah…Liam. 3 months old. It’s time for him to start learning some skills.

Specifically, some lady wooing skills.

He’s got it down now. Ladies everywhere flock to him. But gummy smiles and roly poly thighs can only get you so far in life. Specifically, through the first few months of life.

So he needs to learn some skills. And his dad won’t be able to teach him. His dad thinks that the food court at the mall is an appropriate first date. And that Frisch’s Big Boy is a good place to go on Valentine’s Day (because we already drove past Bob Evans and who wants turn around?). (Also, when did we turn 90?) So clearly his dad is out on the lady wooing education. Which leaves me. So today we started step one.

Learn all of Dave Barnes’s best lady wooing songs. It’s a good repertoire to have. Hopefully he’ll inherit his dad’s singing and gi-tar skills, and with those songs he’ll be a lady wooer. In.no.time. Heck, he might even be able to get away with Frisch’s Big Boy. But he’d better not try.

(This is all I’ve got. I don’t have a step two at this point. I’ll figure that out later.)

So without further ado, Liam’s first lady wooing playlist (there are more….more from Dave even, but since is only 3 months old, I’m starting him slow and giving him a chance to take his time….we’ll get to Nothing Fancy, On a Night Like This, and Since You Said I Do next month):

For Aunt Lauren

2011-08-14T21:24:00.001-04:00

Aunt Lauren, I know that finals week is rough. Sometimes things might feel a little blurry, like they are out of focus:

View Full Album

Or like someone is trying to hit you in the head:

Or maybe just a little spazzy:

Or sleepy or groggy or just plain worn out:

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Just remember that I love you and finals will be over in a week. And you get to hang out with me in one week! And see me in person, and not just the lousy out-of-focus pictures my mommy took way too late this evening :)

View Full Album

Love,

Liam

Baby weight drama

2011-08-14T17:50:00.001-04:00

Since Liam has been born, my weight has been stationary. I lost several pounds shortly after his birth, but since he was about 4 or 5 weeks old, I hadn’t lost any weight. In fact, when I stopped pumping I gained 10 lbs. literally overnight.

As in, the day after I stopped pumping I couldn’t fit into my pants the next morning.

My fat pants. The ones I bought after Liam was born. The ones in a size I had never even skirted near before. They were too tight. So I cried.

Because I can assure you I hadn’t eaten 35,000 calories, so it was really most upsetting. I was trying to lose weight, but nothing was really working.

Then last weekend, Andy was with his friends from college at their annual gathering, and one of the men had lost 70 lbs. on a diet over the course of the past few months. This is one of Andy’s friends who is the most levelheaded and not at all weird (which is saying something)(my mom wanted this particular friend to date one of her coworkers), so Andy inquired about his diet. It has a real name, but I don’t remember it, but it’s basically a slow carb diet. So for the past week, we have tried it. Andy lost 15 pounds (I know, I want to hurt him), and I lost 5. So we’re definitely going to keep it up.

The plan goes something like this:

You are on the diet for 6 days a week. You take one day a week off..for us, that’s Saturday. On your day off, you eat whatever the heck you want.

For the rest of the week, you are limited to meat, vegetables, and beans (lentils, legumes, nuts also). No fruit, no dairy, no sugar, no grains or pasta. You are supposed to eat 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up. So last week we had 2 eggs and a half cup of egg whites and a 1/2 cup of black beans for breakfast (I found a recipe for Cuban style black beans online that used dried beans….and it’s so much better than anything that comes from a can). We had taco soup for lunch, and then for dinner some sort of meat/vegetable combination. We are both trying to avoid snacking, which is only difficult at 3 pm and 10 pm for me. It honestly wasn’t too bad…I think knowing that if I had a chocolate or sugar craving, I could satisfy it in a few days was helpful.

The hardest part so far was today at Walgreens when the cashier tried to convince me to buy a candy bar because they were on sale for 49 cents. I wanted to shout GET BEHIND ME SATAN at him, but I refrained. Then came home and told Andy we have to go back on Saturday.

I didn’t know going to the groomer’s was dangerous

2011-08-13T21:36:00.001-04:00

I got an injury at the groomer's. It's not Ollie's fault. He got scared. This ill-mannered female wretch named Muffy tried to bite him in the face and attack him. Muffy and her flaky old people owner's pulled in as I was getting Liam out of the car. Muffy got loose in the parking lot. Her flaky old people owner's caught her, and then went inside and just stood in the entrance. I purposely stalled in the parking lot for a few seconds getting the boys out (and you know, I was pretty slow...since I had a baby and a dog and all) so that they would hopefully not be right in the doorway when I got up there. No such luck. Muffy turned and started growling at Ollie....Ollie’s groomer was right in there and she helped me get around the flaky old people into the more open spot when you walk in....where I could put Liam's carseat down out of the way so he was safe. Ollie was trying to get away from everyone, and tried to jump on me for safety and scratched the crap out of my thigh. The worst of the scratches is like the length of my hand and kind of deep...like blood is at the surface but not pouring out. It hurts. He wouldn't leave me, so his groomer got down and started talking to him....he went with her, but he looked so sad...like he thought he was in trouble. His head and ears were down and he was slouching. Then Liam and I made our way safely outside, staying far away from Muffy's flaky old people owners.

So far this morning….

2011-08-12T10:55:00.001-04:00

We woke up at 6:27 AM for the third morning in a row…I think the light must get in his room at that time…or his internal clock is set to wake up at 6:27.

Liam ate a bottle and got a diaper change….I passed him off to Andy in bed and went to make breakfast.

Andy, Ollie, and Liam made their way out of bed while I fixed breakfast. We ate.

I took Ollie to the bathroom. He pooped on himself. It required a haircut on his posterior. Then Andy combed out his hair. Then we gave him ear drops because he has a slight ear infection. It was a rough morning to be Ollie.

Andy got in the shower for work while I played with the boys and poured his coffee.

After Andy left for work, Liam and I went for a walk for about an hour. He fell asleep and then woke up the second we got home.

Liam ate again…..it was a difficult eating time. He kept smiling and laughing and pushing his bottle out of his mouth with his tongue. Then he started kicking and moving and trying to headbang. Basically the kid uses feeding time to practice his roller coaster moves. Sometimes when I burp him, he looks like he’s riding a bull in the rodeo. It’s pretty funny stuff :)

The neighbors #$%^ dog jumped in our window to torment Ollie. Ollie went nuts and I locked him in the bedroom. If that dog ran behind my tires, I wouldn’t stop. I know it’s horrible. But he is awful.

While Ollie was cooling off, I gave Liam a bath. Then we finished the bottle from before the bath.

I let Ollie out and spent the next 35 minutes playing with both boys. Liam started to yawn and yell which is a good sign he needs to nap. He is really good at going to sleep at night, but naptime is a nightmare. He’s currently in his crib screaming as I type this.

And it’s not quite 11 AM and I’m exhausted.

Insurance Issues

2011-08-02T08:55:00.001-04:00

One of the biggest obstacles we have faced with me leaving my job to stay at home with Liam is insurance. My job provided our health insurance, and Andy’s job carries absolutely zero benefits. He works for a smaller company, so his boss isn’t legally required to provide his employees with anything, so he doesn’t. This was my biggest hangup when deciding whether or not to resign. I researched for months, trying to figure out what the best option was. I had finally decided to go with one company, which was actually the same company my school insurance had been provided through. In hindsight, I should have realized that this particular company had been incredibly difficult to work with during my hospital stay after Liam’s birth, but I didn’t process that.

It was a nightmare. Somehow we had applied online, but then an agent also contacted us, and it took them well over a week to figure out that we somehow had two applications in the mix. Then they wouldn’t cancel the first application. I spent HOURS of my time on the phone trying to deal with this situation. It was literally every nap Liam took during the day for a week before I finally got everything figured out. Then our quote came back—at 694 dollars a month. Our original was 285. Apparently we are all on death’s doorstep because there was ABSOLUTELY NO REASON for our payment to be this high. At this point Andy took over and cancelled everything with them. Because I couldn’t pick my head up off the pillow long enough to stop crying. Because I was frustrated and angry and sad.

But then…I had an idea. I had been using an online site that pooled plans from a variety of companies. I decided to go to individual company’s websites and look up their options straight from the source. I found several do-able options, and finally picked one. With this second company, all I did was fill out the application. Then a week later, we got a packet in the mail saying that our coverage would begin on X date, and that our payment was 15 dollars higher than originally quoted. 15…not 400. I can handle that. So we finally have that figured out….after a solid month of dealing with one company, I got the other in less than a week and only maybe an hour of my time. Now it’s too bad that insurance premiums aren’t tax deductible….I think we may hit the income percentage to make out of pocket medical costs tax deductible this year after all of my complications….I just have to keep track of all of my paperwork, and check with my dentist’s office and see if they can reprint a receipt for me.

Tidbits

2011-07-28T21:53:00.001-04:00

--We’re surviving. That’s about it right now. My entire body aches and I think my hips might be so out of socket that they are in separate zip codes. Liam’s had a rough week (I have a call into his doctor…I have my suspicions on what is causing his problems…I’ll tell you if I find out I’m right)(you know, because I diagnose my child on the internet….I was right when I had PUPPPS during pregnancy….and when he had bad gas and constipation….so at least I’m not a hypochondriac-diagnoser) which means we’ve all had a rough week.

--School starts next week at the corporation I used to teach in. It’s weird to not be preparing. I walked down the school supplies aisle at Wal-Mart last night for old times sake…I would have smelled a notebook if I didn’t think the people around me would think I was crazy.

--A student who graduated from the high school I taught at is going to be one of the designers on this season of Project Runway, which starts tonight. I hope it’s on Hulu tomorrow. His name is Gunnar Deatherage, and I taught his younger brother my first year…I hope he doesn’t get eliminated too early….people in town are really excited about this. Here’s a link to an article in the local paper about it.

--Sometimes I miss having cable. There have been a few times lately. But, I found a new show on Netflix—Army Wives. I’m for real in love with it….I’ll be out of Netflix episodes soon (which is disturbing, because there are a lot)(in my defense, my child screams unless he is lying tummy to tummy at a 45 degree angle for many hours a day…so I watch tv during many of those many hours)(also my brain isn’t capable of much more than that)(last week I wrote a check to the hospital and I wrote the correct amount in the top and a totally different amount in the part where you spell out the number…they had to mail it back to me and ask me to fix it). I saw that the latest season of Army Wives is available on Amazon for something like 12 dollars….it’s not on Netflix yet…and I think I have ten dollars in gift cards…so I think I’m going to order it.

--This is insanely boring. Sorry. I am just not interesting right now. All I really do is soothe crying, change diapers, and feed a baby.

A message to Oliver

2011-07-22T23:01:00.001-04:00

Dear Ollie,

You are a dog. You’re supposed to be man’s best friend. Not man’s jerky* friend who only wants to hang out when nothing better is going on. I will not be your booty call. Shape up, or we’re done hanging out and you’re stuck with your dad. And he doesn’t share his food or snuggle. So you’d be stuck rough-housing forever, and I’m pretty sure you’ll miss me.

Love,

Mom

(If you’re my mom or grandma and are concerned that I will talk to Liam like this, I promise to stop when he can understand and not start again until he’s a high school student and ready to pick up sarcasm from a real master)(*If we’re going to be honest, I didn’t call him a jerk…but what I did call him isn’t very nice)

Really?!?!

2011-07-21T16:36:00.000-04:00

After Monday’s post, it was suggested that Liam looks “just like Andy.” In fact, it’s a thought I’ve heard a few times…many seem to think young Liam looks more like his dad than me. To which I have to say, really? He doesn’t look like me at all? For real? So today I present my case…the case that the bitty baby totally looks like his mommy at least a little….and not just his daddy.

Oatmeal Combinations

2011-07-20T15:44:00.000-04:00

Since Liam has been born, I have developed an obsession with oatmeal. Oatmeal and I have had an on-again off-again relationship, and we are so on-again….and not just “Oh sure I’ll attend your brother’s royal wedding” on-again like Chelsey Davy and Prince Harry…for real on-again.

But we’re not just casually hanging out, oatmeal and I. Oh no. We’re in that weird sort of relationship where I try to change him, make him what I want. But unlike the relationships of most 16-year-olds, it works for us. So here are a few of my favorite current combinations:

The Chunky Monkey

1 pack instant oatmeal (I’m currently crushing on Better Oats Oat Fit Maple and Brown Sugar) fix according to package, then add the following

Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk

Dark chocolate dream peanut butter (from Peanut Butter and Co) (a spoonful will do)

One banana, sliced

Granola Berry

1 pack instant oatmeal

Unsweetened vanilla almond milk

peanut butter

blueberries

fruit and nut granola (I’ve been using Cascadian farms—so good…just a small handful is enough)

Chocolate dipped strawberry

1 pack instant oatmeal

unsweetened vanilla almond milk

dark chocolate peanut butter or Nutella

sliced strawberries

And…I haven’t done this yet, I need to go to the grocery store—dark chocolate almond granola…but I’m pretty sure it will be awesome

So there you have it…my top three oatmeal combinations as of today :)

Big Day Out

2011-07-19T14:00:00.001-04:00

All right. Before I start this, I want to let you know that I realize I am ridiculous. I’m sure I’ll look back on this in a few months and laugh at myself…and probably even more when we have a second child. But for now, I’m crazy excited and proud of myself.

Liam and I had our first big day out today. We have been out to eat with Andy a few times…with my parents…and with friends from church. But I had never attempted on my own. We also pretty much stay home all the time. We go meet Mandy and Ben for walks downtown, and we go to small group and church, and doctor’s appointments. But that’s about it. At first I wasn’t up to it, and then his stomach hurt so much that he screamed all the time, and it just wasn’t worth it. But today we changed that.

First, we went to Andy’s office. His coworkers wanted to meet Liam, so we stopped by there about 11 to say hi and see everyone. Then we met our friend Jodi for lunch at 11:30. Honestly, I was so proud that we did a two stop trip. I was beside myself. And then I decided to get gutsy. Liam only has four pairs of pajamas that fit him, which meant that I was washing his clothes AT LEAST twice a week just to have clean jams, and it seems like a waste to do that many loads of baby laundry…because his clothes are so teeny. I had picked up a pair (the fourth pair) at Wal-Mart in their Carter’s Child of Mine brand last week, but that was all they had. I ordered a pair from Kohls last week using some Kohls cash, but they only had one in his size..and they haven’t arrived yet. Old Navy and Baby Gap only had 6-12 months in their cotton sleepers. So I decided to try JC Penney. Penney’s in town is right beside the restaurant we were in….so my gutsy move was to to go Penney’s right after lunch. Jodi went with me in case Liam woke up and melted down, so one of us could hold him. But he was perfect. I found 4 pairs of his pajamas and they were on sale. Then we made it home and he slept in his carseat for another 15 minutes until he woke up to eat. Amazeballs. We left the house for two whole hours and lived to tell about it!!

It’s his heritage

2011-07-18T07:21:00.001-04:00

So remember on Friday when I suggested that someday Liam might grow up and choose to put the wig on his own child? Well, my very sweet mother-in-law scanned this in and sent it to us:

Yup. Same wig….well, from the same place. Liam wore the blonder of the two, Andy’s wearing the brunette wig. It belonged to Andy’s grandparents…they dressed up one Halloween and came to “trick” the family when Andy was about 16 months old.

And because he’s Andy, he did this to the two pictures:

Yup. That’s our bitty boy’s face spliced with his daddy’s. Charming, I know. There is also this gem, with the bitty boy’s face on his dad’s body:

What can I say? I mean really…I don’t know. That may be because it’s 7:30 in the morning and I’ve been awake for two hours because my child has gone on a sleep strike and refuses to nap or sleep for appropriate amounts of time and instead smiles and giggle-coos at me when I try to convince him that appropriate sleep is important. And his father (the man from whom he inherited these awful sleep habits) has recently (as in since Liam’s birth) has decided that he really likes to sleep and that there is such a thing as an “appropriate amount” for work. Thank goodness for caffeine.

Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can’t Lose

2011-07-16T13:12:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, I get a bit attached to television shows. Gilmore Girls was probably the most obviously obsessive over the years…since I watched the seasons on repeat through my last two years of college. But there is a close second—Friday Night Lights. Last night marked the end of this series, one that I dearly love, and I can’t bring myself to watch the last episode yet. I keep looking at it in my Hulu queue this morning, but I don’t want to say good-bye yet. I remember how sad I was when I finished the last episode of Gilmore Girls, and I feel like this will be just as bad. I am fully aware that this is ridiculous. It’s okay. I sobbed when Growing Pains was over too, to the point that my mom suggested not letting me watch the last episode of Full House. It’s not a new ridiculous. Andy does the same thing (not the crying part). Anytime we finish watching a show on Netflix, we are both kind of sad about it and go through a whole “I can’t believe it’s over” time period. But this one…this one is tough. I so love Coach Taylor, and Tami, and the team. I don’t want to say good-bye to Tim Riggins and his greasy hair.

Okay….I’m getting control of myself. Melodramatic moment controlled. At least Jason Katims’s other show, Parenthood, will be back in the fall. If I can’t hang out with the Taylors and all of Dillon, Texas, at least I’ll have the Bravermans.

Sometimes daddy likes to do mean things to the bitty baby

2011-07-15T08:21:00.001-04:00

Also titled: He will not think this is funny when he is fifteen.

Or perhaps: If he’s anything like his daddy, he’ll do it to his own children someday

In the interest of full disclosure, I took the picture. Also, I tried to convince Ollie and/or Andy to wear the other wig and pose. Neither of them were having it. Not one bit.

When your oldest child is too smart for his own good

2011-07-14T08:51:00.001-04:00

Also titled: Ollie is a very naughty dog

Or perhaps: Liam’s first words will be “Ollie, NO”

What we have here is this: Oliver has swiped Liam’s toy. Liam’s toy that Shannon MADE for him. When he realizes he has been caught, he runs BEHIND the sleeping baby. Because he’s too darn smart. And he knows I won’t yell or lunge for him while he’s HIDING BEHIND THE SLEEPING BABY. So instead I had to trick him. But not before I took this picture because while it’s naughty and bad, it’s sort of a little bit funny too.

Officially Unemployed

2011-07-13T15:39:00.001-04:00

So As of this morning, I am officially unemployed. I handed in my resignation letter, turned in my keys, and said a tearful farewell to teaching. I wish I was kidding about that last part, but I definitely did get choked up while talking to my principal, and cried a little. I loved my job—my coworkers, my students, just being a teacher. But I love being Liam’s mom even more. And I know myself. I would make myself miserable trying to do well at both, and I wouldn’t be able to give either the attention and time it deserved. So this is better. It’s a real leap of faith for us financially. Andy doesn’t have health insurance through work, so we have to pay for own now, . I definitely feel like this is the right choice, so we are praying and trusting that God will provide.

So for the first time since I was entering preschool, I won’t be getting ready for the start of the school year, and my schedule won’t be run around a school calendar. That’s kind of a weird feeling.

Liam at two months

2011-07-12T14:00:00.001-04:00

Bitty Boy,

This has been a big month for you!

Your stats: you are in a size 1 diaper when you wear disposables, but once we get through the last few we have, we’ll be switching you to a 2. You peed through a 1 this morning and needed an outfit change at church, and it was suggested that you probably need to switch diaper sizes. Hopefully you stay in the 2s longer…since we received two cases of those as shower gifts.

Length and weight: 12 lbs. 7.5 oz and 23.5 inches long. 75th percentile all the way.

You have outgrown some clothing—a pair of jammies and a few 0-3 month outfits from the Baby Gap. You have a 0-3 months things or 3 month things from other brands that still fit fine, but you do wear a lot of 3-6 mos. clothing…..but still that’s because you have more of those than others.

Your thrush finally cleared up, but we replaced it with a lot of stomach problems. Your formula was making you miserable. Mommy and Daddy had to carry you over our shoulder constantly and walk with you to help you feel better. We had a few very long weeks, with some very long nights. We switched your formula and your bottle and you seem to be doing a lot better—I hope it stays that way because it’s so hard to see you so sad and in pain.

You are starting to become very social. You show us your sweet little smile and you talk to us with your little coos. You shout for mommy when you want attention. You follow your toys and you can hold onto things when we put them in your hand. You are becoming a little person—a sweet baby rather than a newborn. You very much like attention and you have started rebelling against sleeping. It’s getting hard to get you to fall asleep sometimes…you don’t want to miss out on any fun, so you fight sleep.

Today was a big day. You went into the church nursery for the first time—not to stay, but to have a diaper change, an outfit change, and a feeding. Then you fell asleep about an ounce into your bottle. I brought you back to service just in time for the message, and you slept through most of it. We decided to go to lunch at Tapatio’s with a lot of friends, so I gave you the rest of your bottle before we left. You slept through most of lunch, but then you woke up screaming. You didn’t need to eat, you just didn’t want to be in your carseat. Daddy and I were trapped in the back of the table, so Mr. Randy took you and walked with you. He has the magic touch. I’ve seen him sooth many babies with his magic walk, and you were no different. You conked right out and then Ms. Christy held you for awhile….if they hadn’t ridden the motorcycle to church today, we many not have been able to bring you home.

Bitty Baby, I can’t believe how much you have grown and changed this month—you are totally a baby now and not just a newborn. A sweet, happy, smiley, little squishy baby.

Liam = Andy’s son

2011-07-11T17:28:00.001-04:00

I have Liam’s two month post written…I just need to finish his pictures. The camera battery died while taking them yesterday, and he’s not up to it today. I’ll get it posted soon.

Andy’s mom has a lot of stories about Andy’s childhood. Stories that often make me wonder how Andy ever got a little sister. Because the stories of Andy are scary…and it’s not just his mom that tells them. His dad. His aunts and uncles. Andy’s early years are the stuff of legends. One such story is this: as a newborn, Andy was kicked out of the nursery at St. Vincent’s Hospital. He screamed so loudly he woke up the other babies, so the nurses wheeled him to his mom’s room (his mom who was just waking up from a c-section…..one that she had been put under for…and who was alone at the hospital because I guess dad’s went home back in the day) and told her that he couldn’t stay in the nursery because he was too loud. And then they left her. With the loud, screaming baby. Alone. Recovering from surgery.

When Liam was born, one of the things my mother-in-law marveled over was how quiet and sweet he was. Clearly he was taking after his mother, not his father in this respect. Well, it turns out our bitty boy does have his daddy’s lungs, he just likes to save them for special occasions.

Like today. When he got his shots. Seriously. I thought his crying last week when his stomach hurt was loud. Today was out of control. He screamed and screamed and screamed. The nurses gave him three shots and left me with the wailing baby. No fewer than three people walked by and looked in the door as I tried to comfort him and quiet him enough to get him into his car seat. Finally, he settled enough that we could bolt. And we did.

As we got on the elevator, another lady got on with us. One that works on the same floor of the hospital, but not in the pediatrics department…so she’s kind of far away. She looked at his whimpering, tear-stained face and asked, “Is this the baby I could hear screaming all down the hall?”

Why yes, yes it is. Thanks for pointing it out and letting me know just how loud he was. Really. I so appreciate it. I mean seriously. Surely he's not the loudest baby to ever get shots. Why point it out?

Oh well. Bitty Boy gets his lungs naturally….and frankly, I’m glad he lets us know when something’s wrong. It makes it much easier to be his mommy that way.

The Cook Family Baby Survival Guide

2011-07-09T21:27:00.001-04:00

Liam turns two months old tomorrow. I hope to get his two month post up, but odds are good it will be Monday after his doctor’s appt. so I can get his weight and measurements. I thought it was about time to update with our favorite things—the things that have helped us survive these last two months. (Aside from our moms, without whom the first two weeks of Liam’s life would not be possible).

Swaddling Blankets (we have used receiving blankets but our not so bitty boy is too big for them…so I chopped up a bedsheet to replicate the larger muslin swaddling blankets that are sold for babies) Liam really sleeps best when swaddled, so we wrap him up each night (though he does like to escape and scream until we come and swaddle him again)

The bouncy seat. The calming vibrations on this thing are this mama’s best friend. Liam loves this thing, and he spends a whole lot of time in it each day….he takes most of his daytime naps on it. I honestly don’t know if I would have made it through the weeks that Liam was gassy and had an upset stomach without this thing.

My pump—my infection after Liam’s birth required a medicine that wasn’t safe for breastfeeding, so I had to pump and dump…and long emotionally painful story short…breastfeeding never worked out. I still pump a few times a day so Liam gets at least one bottle of milk a day. I’ll keep it up as long as I can which makes my pump a necessity.

The tummy trio—Dr. Browns bottles, Enfamil Gentlease formula, and gas drops. Since our postpartum problems put a kink in our feeding plans, we had to switch to formula. Liam got really sick to his stomach with the first formula we used…we spent many nights walking up and down our 8 foot hallway with him over our shoulder trying to give him some relief. Things have been much better since we made the switch.

The Joovy Scooter—we love th is stroller so much. It holds his car seat if we need it to, but it’s a great all-purpose stroller and the only one we’ll need until he’s out of strollers (with that said…I did buy Andy a jogging stroller for his birthday/Father’s day…he kept saying over and over how much he would love to take Liam with him on his runs…so I made it possible…just as soon as Liam’s old enough for the stroller…oops.)

The meals provided by our parents and friends from church. If not for them, we would have lived on fast food. I honestly don’t remember a lot of the details from the first two weeks of Liam’s life…they are kind of a haze of iv bags, pumpings, feedings, and exhaustion. Our moms took such good care of us…and when they went home and we got down to the real business of figuring out our new life once I was well again, we so appreciated the meals provided by church friends.

Netflix on demand….I have spent many a nap time and night time on the sofa with a baby who doesn’t want to sleep (but who is REDIC-ulously exhausted) and shows like Bones and Eureka…and the Kennedys miniseries (Lauren Onken…I feel like you would love this miniseries)…and old episodes of SNL have been the distraction I’ve needed in those moments.

And I leave you with one of my favorite SNL segments….the human suitcase at the end of this is often repeated in this house….as well as BOOOOOOOOF

Scattershot

2011-07-08T09:51:00.001-04:00

First—Happy Birthday Mom!!! We love you!! (Dad, sorry I missed you..but we love you too!) EDIT—I typed this on your birthday, Mom…I just forgot to post it

And now for a random sampling of things going on in these hereabouts.

-Liam had his first roadtrip. We went to Andy’s parents house for Friday-Sunday (well….Friday night through way early Sunday afternoon). The ride there was great…back was a little tougher. Oliver panted the whole two hours both ways. Liam woke up about an hour from home and screamed for 25 minutes. We pulled over to feed him, and he pooped big time…almost a blowout bigtime. Andy changed his diaper on a garbage bag in the backseat of the car.

-Liam has been having some stomach problems the past few weeks, and we switched his bottle/formula this week. It really seems to be helping—he’s happy and smiling instead of crying and screaming. Last night we got to play with him instead of taking turns carrying him over our shoulders and walking for hours through the house. Needless to say, we’ve been pretty much zombie-fied for the past few weeks.

-Oliver is getting really snuggly…with Andy. He’s pretty annoyed with me most of the time. I think he’s jealous of Liam, but I keep trying to tell him I still love him….but he prefers Andy. It’s okay. Liam likes me better. For now. Once he realizes Andy’s cooler than me, he’ll change his mind too :)

-I had a mocha coconut Frappaccino this weekend. It was amazeballs. Seriously. As good as I remember it from Freiburg. The calories, however, did not help with losing the baby weight.

-I keep telling myself that things will settle down to a normal, and that it has to get better, because people knowingly and willingly have more than one child. If they felt the way I do right now, that would never happen :) (Actually….after Liam got his new formula and we were able to play with him rather than spend hours soothing him, Andy decided that we might be able to have another baby in the future. The very distant future. This mama had a rather traumatic go-around and needs a few years to get over it :)

Happy Birthday!

2011-07-01T11:59:00.001-04:00

A few of my favorite pins

2011-06-30T19:06:00.001-04:00

Between diaper changes and gummy baby grins and all the fun and exhaustion of being Liam’s mommy, I have found an easy stress reliever—Pinterest. Pinterest is basically a website filled with inspiration from around the web that you can “pin” and put on your own board. For years, I have pulled magazine clippings and favorite-d hundreds of articles and ideas, and then could never remember what I did with them or where something was. On Pinterest, I can just go to my board and find the idea if/when I’m ready to use it. Here are a few of my favorite pins from the past weeks.

For More Liam Fun….

2011-06-11T13:56:00.001-04:00

Check out the pictures Andy posted at www.nofailgraphics.com. Some are repeats of the ones I posted yesterday, but edited differently. Andy actually knows what he’s doing and doesn’t just play around on Picnik until he finds something he likes….he can for real tell you what he did with his images in Photoshop. He challenged me this morning to try to figure out Photoshop for myself, so we’ll see. He has some new ones too, from a photoshoot last night….so check them out if you are my mom or my sister and can’t get enough of LiLi and his little punkin head. (that’s what Andy’s mom says)

Liam at one month

2011-06-10T13:57:00.001-04:00

Liam, you are one month old today. I can hardly believe it. I told Daddy this morning that for as long as the nights have been, these past few weeks sure have flown by.

Right now, you wear mostly 0-3 mos. clothing. Sometimes I put you in 3-6 mos, mostly because you have more of them and I don’t putting things over your head that feel tight. You outgrew the newborn disposable diapers we had for you, and we’ve had to loosen the snaps on your cloth diapers.

You had your one month well check today, and you weighed 9 lbs. 10.5 oz. and you were 22 inches long. Dr. Holly said we should keep doing what we’re doing because you are a healthy boy.

You had an ultrasound on your hips this morning too, and the technicians kept going on and on about how sweet you are—it happens everywhere we go. You just attract attention with your cute face and your sweet personality :)

(For that picture, Mommy stuffed you in a basket and laid you on Ollie’s sheepskin rug—Daddy was horrified)

Mister, you still have thrush. You’re going on four weeks with it. In your first month of life, you’ve had thrush, a fungal diaper rash, and a staph infection, and you never once complained. Dr. Holly gave us a new prescription, so hopefully it will clear right up.

For the first two weeks of your life, your grandmas stayed with us. Mommy and Daddy are so thankful for their help—with everything that surrounded your birth, we couldn’t have done things on our own. You are a very blessed boy with two wonderful sets of grandparents who love you very much.

Your days look like this: Wake up at 7:30, eat, diaper, fall back asleep. When you wake up between 9:30 and 10:30, you eat and get your diaper changed and usually stay awake a few hours. You spend some time in your bouncy seat, we sometimes read a story, or we look at your black and white cards (you totally love the animal one Miss Shannon sent you). You do some tummy time (which you love…you like to scoot yourself around some during tummy time too) and just kick around on your activity mat. After your lunchtime feeding, you usually take a nap on my chest. It’s where you sleep best, and the only way we’ve found for you to a really good afternoon nap. You usually stay awake a little while in the evening too, and this is when you play with Daddy or watch Ollie or do the same things you did in the afternoon. We try to take a family walk which you love…your stroller is one of your favorite places). Then we either hang out, or it’s time for you to be fed and put to bed.

Mister, you are loud. Not so much crying loud, but you make noises all the time. Especially in your sleep. Your monitor kicks on lots, and Mommy and Daddy always listen to hear if you are going to keep on making noises or just stop. If you stop, then it’s just a sleep noise.

Oliver loves you so much, and you love him. You aren’t phased by his barking at all. He is jealous of you, and shows it by laying down next to us when we’re holding you or feeding you, and then he sighs and looks at us with sad eyes out of the corner of his eye. It’s a real show.

You started lifting your head off our shoulders during burps when you were less than a week old, and sometimes you are incredibly violent about it. Last week you popped me in the lip and it hurt!

When you are hungry and we aren’t feeding you fast enough, you start chewing on your own fist and you get what we call “crazy eyes”

Your favorite thing in the world is to be held and snuggled close. I love it. I told Daddy that I will snuggle you as much as you want because you’ll only be my sweet baby once, and our time with you like this is so fleeting.

Adjusting

2011-05-30T17:15:00.001-04:00

We are finally getting to our new normal. Things have calmed down, and I think I’m starting to see the way things will go around here. At least for now. Friday, I got my PICC out….and it made me so happy. It’s crazy to see such a huge hole in my arm….but I will take the hole over the line any day of the week. I’ve also decided to stop planning how I think things will go….because nothing has worked out the way I planned or thought.

As of now, we are doing well. Andy and I have figured out a care/feeding schedule that works for us. Right now, I am exclusively pumping. We tried to go back to breastfeeding as soon as possible after my medicine, but we had some issues. We’ll just say that there is not much advice out there for “my baby had to be formula fed for 14 of the first 16 days of his life and now he’s so used to the bottle that I think he’s going to rip my freaking nipple off and the thought of trying to breastfeed him makes me want to die inside because the pain is so bloody intense.” I only wish I was being dramatic. We had a whole family meltdown and came up with a solution that’s working for us. I’m pumping….and it works. It’s not ideal by any means, but Liam is getting breastmilk and I don’t cry 36 times a day. I only had a single electric pump (because we really didn’t plan to bottle feed….we owned like two bottles that came in a gift set and I had the single pump….obviously we’ve gotten a bit more since then), so I ordered a double yesterday….so I can cut my time in half that way. My supply isn’t quite up to snuff yet (but we’re getting close) so we have had to supplement formula a few times as well. I’m starting to be okay with these things. I still don’t love it, but I’m recognizing that it doesn’t make me a failure as a parent, and that it’s okay. We have to figure out what works for us, and frankly, the last three weeks have been anything but ideal and we’re dealing with that the best we can.

Since Liam is eating from a bottle, it does mean we can split up his feedings. As of now, Andy feeds him his last bottle before bed (because Mommy goes to sleep earlier than Daddy), then I take care of the middle of the night feeding/diaper, and Andy gets the first thing in the morning. Then whoever does whatever during the day….tomorrow will be my first full day home alone with Liam and Ollie. Liam and I have to go to the bank and the health department so I will also be driving for the first time (unless I go get groceries tonight, which may happen) AND making my first outing alone with baby. It seems overwhelming right now, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.

Liam seems to love his carseat and his stroller right now (the boy likes to be moving). He’s been on two walks in the park. I think I have overestimated my ability on both walks…..we went to the park Saturday night, and I forgot about the hills the way we went. I kind of wanted to die by the time we got home. I keep having to remind myself that I did just have surgery three weeks ago….and I had a very serious infection after surgery….both of which would make it so that I wouldn’t feel great for a few weeks……and I had both, and am caring for a newborn and sleep deprived….so it’s okay to take it a little easier. Yeah….I keep saying it…but it’s not really happening :)

Pajama Day

2011-05-26T15:19:00.001-04:00

Sometimes, it’s just a good time to stay in your pajamas. Today is one of those times. Any night where we are up half the night because of storms, and the other half with feeding and pumping and this mama ends up getting less than 3 hours of sleep overall is a good night to be followed by pajama day. See? Liam stayed in his pajamas, and he looks oh-so-fabulous in them! (Liam’s mommy…not so cute)

And just for kicks and giggles….here are some of the outtakes.

“Oh…were you taking a picture? Didn’t you want me in it?”

“Quick….he’s on the ground….I’ve got to sniff him!”

“Mom, seriously, I’ve got this under control…no worries.”

A package deal…two for the price of one.

Someone has beard issues.

Seriously….enough. Stop taking pictures.

First Outing

2011-05-26T14:53:00.001-04:00

Liam got to go on his first outing that wasn’t to the hospital last night. We went for a walk in the park next to our house. It was a family affair—Andy’s mom had Keegan, Andy had Ollie, and I got to walk with Liam and his stroller. Here’s our boy in his stroller (which is way too big for him right now…even with the Snuzzler to tuck him in….I think we’ll be using his carseat attachment until he gets just a bit bigger).

This picture was taken after the walk….when it started sprinkling and we couldn’t get our family shot outside.

Also—can I tell you how much I love little boys in striped onesies—that one is from Baby Gap and it makes me all sorts of happy….especially since he got it in 0-3 mos. from Andy’s parents neighbors, and 6-12 mos. from a cousin of the Cooks.

7The State of :Things: Two Weeks In

2011-05-24T10:35:00.001-04:00

Liam is two weeks old today. It’s kind of hard to believe we’ve been parents for an entire two weeks. So I thought I’d give an update on how things are going here.

--Liam now weighs 7 lbs. 14.5 oz. He had gained six ounces from last Wednesday to yesterday, so our boy is on a healthy little growth streak. Also…he was two inches longer than he was at birth.

--Liam is starting to figure out the joy of stretching out. Our boy still lays like a frog for most of the time, but occasionally, he’ll kick out and stretch.

--Liam has made himself a nice little schedule. He wakes up every 3-4 hours and gets his diaper changed, eats, and hangs out a bit before going back to sleep. Except at 2 AM. At 2 AM he wants to hang out for a long time. And possibly poop in his brand new clean diaper. He likes to talk politics and celebrity gossip and anything else under the sun at 2 AM. I blame Andy. He did that to me all the time while I was pregnant….he would come to bed and wake me up to talk in the middle of the night. I don’t find it to be a charming trait in either of them…but they are both so darn cute.

--During his hang out time, Liam has started looking around more. He has this black and white pattern card that came in one of his toys, and he can follow it all the way around with his eyes. He also likes just being held and talked to. He and I talk about ridiculous things…”Ollie just moved his left paw. Ollie is biting his leg fur. Ollie stop biting your leg fur. Liam, you are making a funny face. Is Mama insane?”

--Andy’s mom came back to help for the week, and I am so thankful. I don’t think I could do everything without her right now.

--My PICC line comes out on Friday….and I am so excited. I think it will change our whole world. I definitely feel like our schedule will be freer. THhe things we will be able to stop doing soon: my iv line each afternoon…which takes a full hour. I will be able to stop pumping and dumping…which will free up a few hours a day…and definitely allow for more nighttime sleep. No more preparing formula and warming bottles and sterilizing nipples. Next week, we won’t have to apply Liam’s mouth and rash creams four times a day. We’ll just have a lot less to do every day.

--As a side note on that last point, I think Andy finally realized why I’m so much more tired than he is. He and his mom had changed Liam’s diaper at 2, and brought him to me to feed. They fell asleep around 2:20…and I stayed up to feed him, try to get him to fall back to sleep, and to pump. At 3:50 I woke Andy up and asked him to take Liam back to his bed….I think it was the first time he realized how long it takes to do everything I do in the middle of the night.

--In a surprising twist, Andy is gung ho in love with Liam’s cloth diapers. To the point that he made the decision to stop using disposable over the weekend. And since he’s the primary diaper changer right now, he’s the one that gets to make that call. He likes them because they are super absorbent—they keep the wetness off our boy, he likes the way they cover him, and they seem to really be good for his rash. He has also taken care of all poop removal in the cloth, and seems to be totally okay with it. He told me the other day that he was really hesitant about it…but he’s really glad I made the call on them because he feels like they are so much better for Liam.

--I’m recovering well. No more fevers. My medicine seems to be working well. I’ve gotten the hang of giving myself an iv treatment. I hate my PICC line with a passion. It gets in the way. I can’t hold Liam in my right arm because the lumens dig into the back of his head. If I leave my elbow crooked for too long (like holding a bottle or pump) it hurts when I straighten it. My left arm, neck, and shoulder are super sore from doing all the baby work, since I can do very little with the right side. I don’t have two necks. I meant the left side of my neck.

--My c-section scar is healing up well. It only hurts a little, and sometimes more itches than anything. My pain has lessened significantly in the last few days…I’d say I’ll be recovered from that pretty shortly. And that’s exciting. (Shannon—thank you so much for telling me about the brace thing---I ordered one and it has been my absolute best friend)

--Also…just to keep things interesting, I ended up with some bruising in the vein in my right hand where the iv was in the hospital. I had no idea it could appear so much later. But it hurts like heck and I have to use hot compresses to help it go down. Now how funny is that?

--And lastly, Oliver. Ollie has adjusted well. He loves Liam, and is very protective of him. He just wants to watch him (and lick him…but we try to stop that) and love him. He’s very sweet. He did learn this weekend that he doesn’t have to wake up for diaper changes and feedings overnight and now stays firmly planted in bed and asleep whenever we get up with Liam. So I’d say he’s the best rested member of the family. He never showed any signs of jealousy, and has done crazy well considering the chaos our house has been in. He goes to the groomer this afternoon, and he LOVES the girl who does his hair…so I’m hoping she showers him with some extra special attention (she always does…Andy sometimes has to pick him and carry him out to get him to leave because he loves his groomer so much)

4 years

2011-05-19T14:23:00.001-04:00

4 years ago today, this was happening:

And it was awesome. Perfect really…everything I could have imagined.

But today? Better than I could have imagined. Far more than I could have ever hoped for.

Because I married my best friend.

And he’s only getting better.

Even today, as I’m on my third shirt (after being peed on and spit up on), fifty pounds heavier than on that day, sitting on the sofa with an iv dripping into my arm, and a mess on the sofa where I accidentally dumped my pump a little early….I know that he loves me more than he did on that day. After the week and a half we’ve had, there’s not a doubt in my mind. My husband would lay down his life for me, and for our son. I can’t think about the way he’s shown love to both of us without breaking down into tears….it’s a beautiful, wonderful thing. I have always loved my husband, but I have to tell you….I really love watching my husband as the father of our children. That sweet boy I married has become an the incredible man that I love being married to. So this anniversary, it’s a special one. It’s a real good one…and not because of any extravagant gifts or vacations or awesome dinners out….because it’s the anniversary we get to celebrate as parents for the first time….the anniversary we get to celebrate after being tried by a bit of fire….and the anniversary that we get to celebrate today as best friends and as husband and wife and as parents.