Monday, May 31, 2010

…and he’s off

I know i’ve talked a lot about Liam crawling lately but it simply amazes me how fast he went from no movement, to throwing himself forward, to full out crawling within days. I feel like within these last five days or so he has become a whole new child, doing so many new things. He is babbling all the time, eating his yogurt melts and puffs like a pro (and loving them!), and off course exploring, getting into trouble, and chasing the poor cats.

Here is a few clips from the last few days of Liam crawling, he got so good so fast.

Liam eating his yogurt melts. I have a feeling Alex is getting tired/annoyed with he going “come look, he is so cute when he chews” but i can’t help it, i think it is adorable.

The babbling boy…starting to get a few “dada’s” here and there.

Our Memorial Day Weekend

Liam got ridiculously good at crawling and fast! He is chasing the cats ever where! IMG_1255

He is pulling up on everything and has pushed up to standing a few times. He has been loving to crawl all over everyone like a jungle gym.

 IMG_1262

Grandma, Pop, and Uncle Matt came to visit and Liam got a trip around the living room on Pop….he loved it! We celebrated my Dad’s birthday while they were visiting and i made a great lemon raspberry layer cake with homemade raspberry curd that was phenomenal.

DSC02257

On Saturday we went to the zoo!!

 IMG_1264

Meerkat, it is real, it was posing for us!

 IMG_1274

Liam posing by the fake snake!

 IMG_1283

Time for a drink.

 IMG_1287

It was a family reunion for Sophie.

 IMG_1291

Everyone looking at the giraffes.

 IMG_1297

Liam passed out for a bit, i don’t blame the poor boy it was 90 degrees. IMG_1302

Zebras and Elephants

 IMG_1304 IMG_1309

Monkey posing.

IMG_1317

Liam with a stuffed Sophie,

 IMG_1327

At the butterfly gardens.

 IMG_1333

This is the toy Liam picked out at the gift shop that Grandma and Pop bought for him. This is Willie the penguin; thanks Grandma and Pop.

 IMG_1342

On Sunday we went downtown, walked around, and did some shopping.

downsized_0530001239a downsized_0530001239 downsized_0530001307

They were having a 40% off your entire purchase promo at Ann Taylor loft and i was lucky enough to snag a cute pair of shorts and two tops. The promotion is still going on today and you can shop on-line for it as well!

My parents bought me a new sewing machine this weekend, extremely lucky girl i know! My mom and I had quite an adventure trying to find a machine and after shopping at almost ten different store we decided on getting a Singer Esteem II machine.

1257448538-80291_full

On Sunday i finished my first pair of Jon Jon’s for Liam. They turned out so cute! I have another pair with a patchwork plaid fabric that i am just dying to make. I will post pictures of the outfits soon!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day today!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Show Us Your Life: Things that make you happy!

My ultimate happy day…

The weather would look like this….. sunny sky, crisp air, and beautiful changing trees.

dirtroad4

Walking around downtown State College…

allen_street_1 old_main

…with these two boys.

IMG_0402

Wearing one of these.

HOOD-ALUMNIOVAL!000-10855_d

Spending the afternoon relaxing in one of these

6270566A65UC279292M

…sipping on a pumpkin spice latte

pumpkin-spice-latte

and reading a good book on the nook.

barnes-noble-nook.   

In a clean house with a fall/harvest/pumpkin candle burning.

soy-wax-candles 

….mmmm pure bliss!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

What we’ve been up to…

Milestone after milestone after milestone…Liam really needs to slow down because at this rate he will be walking next week…just kidding, he really has no interest in walking yet.

He is now really crawling, on all fours and getting faster every time. Yesterday he crawled to his sippy cup, picked it up, rolled over and started drinking like an old pro. And three days ago he learned to pull up to kneeling…he pulls up onto his ball pit, bouncy seat, and anything else he can get his hands on … He has been been exploring non stop the last two days!

Liam and I joined a playgroup that we attended for for the first time yesterday. We were so excited, i kind of felt like Cam and Mitchell did when Lilly got a play date with Jasper on Modern Family. We had such a good time. The girls are awesome and so much like a lot of my friends back home and Liam had a blast playing with four other boys his age.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Blog Award

My new blog friend Jessica passed along this award to me and i could not be more honored. Thanks Jessica!

versatile-bloggeraward

Here are 7 random things about me:

1. Like Jessica who gave me this award, i have never *knock on wood* been stung by a bee and often wonder if i am allergic.

2. I have a very good memory for things people tell me and sometimes feel like people think i am creepy because i remember so many details.

3. When i am driving somewhere i have not been before or if i am in a lot of traffic (aka downtown Indy) i turn down the radio so i can see better.

4. I got my first pet when i was 19 years old. She is now a 5 year old, full grown, Maine Coon and a total Daddy’s girl…she is a sassy one.

5. I am pretty sure Liam and I are considered “regulars” at Joann Fabrics. I contemplated asking if they needed a one night a week worker, a discount would be awesome! I had to make a list of all the projects i have going, i believe there are around twelve.

6. I wore shorts, true shorts, today for the first time in at least three years. They were from high school. I kind of felt like a hussy thus we didn’t leave the house but I was THRILLED i got them on!

7. I get a TON of catalogs in the mail (Pottery Barn, Restoration Hardware, Crate and Barrel, West Elm, etc.) so i started an inspiration book with clippings of all the things i love instead of keeping the whole magazine. Now if only i had a way of keeping recipes from my Rachael Ray magazines. I always feel like i am going to throw it away and there will be a recipe in there i will want to try down the road.

I am going to pass this blog award on to these 14 amazing bloggers. Thank you all for filling my google reader with entertaining stories, encouragement, and inspiration.

Tiffany at Cupcake Dream

Meredith at La Buena Vida

Brittney at Living Life Abundantly

Rebecca at A Southern Boy and A City Girl

Sarah at Mr and Mrs (and baby) Smith

Liz at The Hentge’s

Emily at The Pilots Wife

Delia at The Love Life

Sarah Jane at For the Love

Shannon at Double The Blessings, Twice The Love

Heather at Life At Sonic Speed

Stephanie at Confessions of a City Eater

Jill at The Averitt Fam

Heather at Handmade Mommy

Sunday, May 23, 2010

The Weird Things That Are Genetic

My family will surely get a kick out of this…

When i was younger i had a talent that i used to show off. I would curl my toes and then stand, jump, dance, walk…..everything with my toes curled over. Everyone got a kick out of it and had no clue how i was able to do it.

For the record i can still do it……so can Liam. It cracks me up.

IMG_1203 IMG_1208

Mad skills just like Mama.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Our Little Shark

It was a beautiful and HOT day today and we enjoyed every minute of it. We purchased this baby pool for Liam last night and were so excited that he got to use it today.

He had so much fun splashing his feet in the water!

IMG_1238

His shark fin just cracks me up…it is just too cute.

IMG_1241 IMG_1242 IMG_1243 IMG_1245

It was a great day to celebrate turning 7 months old.

Happy 7 Month Birthday Liam

Dear Liam,

    Today you are 7 months old. It has been a quick month and a very fun month. You have changed so much over these short four weeks, you are doing more, seeing more, interacting more, talking more, and believe it or not smiling even more, oh and did i mention mobile!

7month

   You have officially slept every single night of the last month in your crib. We had a rough few nights while you were adjusting but now you seem to love sleeping in your room. You have a rainforest sound machine that we play while you fall asleep and it gets you ever time. During the day i will sit you in your crib and turn the light and motion on with the sound and song setting and you just sit there, absolutely transfixed on it, breaking away ever so often to catch  my gaze and smile and laugh with excitement over your toy…like you are saying to me “Mama look this thing is so neat!”

  You are an independent sitting pro now a days. You can sit, reach for toys or your paci and sit back up. You are able to support yourself with your hands if you are loosing your balance in order to sit back up. You are still working on learning that you can’t turn all the way around without falling backwards or that reaching too far will cause you to topple over; you got your first boo boo this month as a battle wound to this fact.

DSC02202 IMG_1170

   The biggest news this month…yesterday you became mobile! Truly mobile….help me..Mama was exhausted at the end of day one. Liam i just need to know…. why is it that the tv, electrical cords, remotes, video game controllers, and laptops are so much cooler than ALL your toys! I swear if the sight of an electronic item catches your eye you will be at it within seconds, then i put your all the way at the other side of the room and you go straight back for it, over and over and over again.

   The first time you really crawled was in Mama and Papa’s bedroom while i was getting ready. I was sitting doing my hair and you were in the middle of the room playing. The next thing i know there you were trying to pull yourself up onto my lap. So  i put you back and watched you to see if you’d come back and how exactly you got over there. So you got up on all fours and crawled; one hand, one knee in front of the other crawled; you did look like you had a few too many drinks but you did it. The rest of the day you were doing a combination of a drunk crawl (sorry but it is the best way to describe it) and a really fast army crawl. Here is a video of you from yesterday doing the army crawl/the worm.

   You love playing with toys. Your favorites right now are your orange teether ball (you laugh so hard when we squirt the air at you with it), the ABC duck, baby piano, fisher price radio, lots o’ links (or any necklace i am wearing), giggling Elmo, ring around the treetop toy, and picture book. You are starting to learn cause in effect by pressing buttons purposefully to turn on the repetitive songs toy.

DSC02225

You are still a doorway jumper-aholic. You have become quite wild in there. You learned  how to jump forwards and back and then lift your legs so that you swing.

You love to play in the bathtub! You splash around and laugh hysterically at the fish when i squirt you with it. We have so much fun during bath time. You also found another ‘toy’ to play with during bath time…we’ll just leave it at that and say that we try to keep lots of real toys in there to distract you. Yesterday we bought you a alligator baby pool. I can’t wait until we are about to use it and play outside in the water.

IMG_1055

You love to eat and love all foods. After your 6 month well baby appointment we got the go ahead to let you eat meats and dinners. You have pretty much had everything and loved it all. You eating and napping pattern right now is a 7oz bottle at 7 when you wake up, a 4 oz bottle around 8 before you nap, brunch at 10 of a jar of fruit baby food (your favorite is peaches and apples with blueberries), 4 ounce bottle at 12, nap until 2, between 2 and 3 we usually have a snack of puffs, baby umm umms or fruit in your fresh food feeder (you love watermelon, grapes, strawberries and bananas), 4 ounce bottle at 4, dinner at 6 of a jar of dinner (chicken and veggies with rice or noodles, turkey and sweet potaotes, mac and cheese with veggies, ect.) and vegetable and a half jar of a “dessert” (fruit), then a 6 ounce bottle before bed at 8. You have tried a few table foods, just a little and just for fun, and loved them. You’ve had a cereal breakfast bar, ravioli, homemade waffles, and lime chips with guacamole.

 DSC02187

You have been so happy this month and just loving life. Honestly going into public with you is quite an adventure. You try to make friends with everyone, whether or not they are looking at you you smile ear to ear at them and when a luck one meets eyes with you you get so excited, start kicking your feet and smiling so hard. You also like to “talk”to people and more times than not shoppers at the other end of the store can hear your “conversation”…you are loud but so entertaining.

 IMG_0958 IMG_1161

No doctors appointment this month, we won’t be back there until the end of July. We weighed you at home and you are over 19 pounds now and solid (just like your Dad). You are wearing 9 month and some 12 month clothes and still a size 3 diaper. You wore out your first pair of footie pj’s this month; all that learning to crawl takes a toll on cotton.

IMG_1186

It has been such a fun month and I know from here on out it is just going to keep getting more fun, scary with you being mobile and a dare devil but fun. I can’t wait for what next month has in store…including the summer weather and a playgroup!!!

Love,

Mama

Look at how you’ve grown…. (wow you got tall this month!)

birthdays

Friday, May 21, 2010

Happy Birthday Pop

 DSC02231

We can’t wait to celebrate with you next week!

Show Us Your Life: Your City

The topic of today’s Show Us Your Life is Your City.

Well “My City” is still MountainTop, PA, where both Alex and I were born and raised and quite the opposite of where we live now, Indianapolis.

This is the house i grew up in, thanks to bing maps birds eye view.

bellavista2

This is our house in Indy…

indyho3use

This is the high school Alex and I went to …. good old Crestwood High School.

cwood

…this will be Liam’s high school.

exterior-avon-highschool-540

Mountaintop doesn’t really have a whole lot to offer besides pizza places and banks … but it has amazing scenery. You don’t realize how much you take mountains for granted until you move to “the middle”.

mtop mtop2 mtop3 mtopwinter

Indy on the other hand has A LOT to offer.

This is a picture of downtown and the canal. I used to work right by the canal and it was awesome to go to lunch at Buggs Temple and sit outside on the patio that overlooks the canal.

indy1

Monument Circle during the Christmas season.

indy2

Of course Lucas Oil Stadium.

 indy3

Brickyard, Indianapolis Motor Speedway!

indyu4

The Indianapolis Zoo….i CANNOT wait to take Liam this summer.

 indianapolis-zoo

The Children’s Museum.

DCF 1.0

…and of course a wide variety of amazing restaurants.

St. Elmos

3657

Eagle’s Nest at The Hyatt

hyatt_eaglenest

Shopping is amazing too!

72802657_d1d6a8bbe0 Keystone metropolis-shopping

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my two cities.