When your oldest child is too smart for his own good

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

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

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

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

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

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!