Liam at 5 months

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Sampling

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

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

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

Our children

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

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

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

My own fashion models

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

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

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

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

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

Catch Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The past month

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

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

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

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

October

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

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

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

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

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