Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The best trick yet…

Giving kisses…

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Liam’s favorite thing to do today was hold on with one had while standing and let go until he started to topple then catch himself. Luckily, we only had one head bonk resulting from this new skill.

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Monday, June 28, 2010

Lessons Learned

#1 Do not teach your child to stick his tongue out. It may be cute but he will proceed to do it at every stranger he meets.

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In other news…

This is Liam’s new party pit (i felt bad calling it baby jail) aka a huge play pen! We decided to get a living room sized play pen to make our lives much easier and Liam’s life much safer. So far it has been awesome! We are still waiting on another section that will enclose his ball pit.

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I am still getting use to having it in the living room. It does make me fell quite claustrophobic but gives me great peace of mind to know i can run to put dishes away or make a bottle and Liam won’t pull the TV over on himself, play in the litter box, or climb the steps…which he learned to do this weekend!

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Lesson #2….we should have purchased a house with a play room!

It makes you feel loved but oh so tired….

That is what separation anxiety feel like…to the Mama. Liam had kicked into “oh my goodness she is leaving me what am i going to do now?….I know, scream like i fell out of my crib until she comes back” mode. There is no denying that when your baby is crying for you and the simple act of picking him up soothes him into a state of compete content you feel pretty good and loved, but when it happens almost hourly through the night…it get tiring. Fast.

I am almost certain that the sudden onset of nighttime wakings is due to separation anxiety because for one during the day the boy sleeps downstairs where I am. In an average hour long nap he will wake up anywhere from 3-5 times, look around with groggy eyes, spot me, let out a relived sigh, and peacefully fall back to sleep. [during the time it took me to write this post he has woken up 3 times and done this] On the rare occasion i try to get him to nap in his room his naps are very short and not very productive which leads to a long, long day with a cranky baby. Also, for the first time in Liam’s life i have needed to hold him until he falls asleep. We used to be able to give him his bottle and lay him down, still semi awake, and he would fall asleep within 5 minutes but not anymore. The simple act of leaving him room with him semi awake leads to an all out fit!

So what are our choices?

He can cry it out or we I can rock him back to sleep multiple times a night.  I have always been against cry it out. I have always felt like it was just a phase that would pass and we would be able to get through it without letting him cry it out. I have seen recent research against letting kids cry it out but i have also talked to numerous people that it has worked wonderful for who now have awesome sleepers. Well last night, in an all out i have lost my patients and needs sleep state of mind, i tried to let him cry it out. I let him go for 10 minutes and then went in to reassure him that i was still there but that it was time to go to sleep so that we can be rested for a fun day tomorrow. I gave him his paci, and then tossed in 5 others so he’d have his pick if he woke up again, and he fell back to sleep. He woke up again around 5am and i let him go again. First 10 minutes, then went it, then 15 minutes then went in, then I heard a loud bang and thought he hit his head on the crib. Thinking that he had hit his head (which he didn’t) i ran it and picked him up and he instantly calmed down. I sat down with him in the rocking chair and he fell back to sleep. His face was red and his ears were filled with tears…and i felt awful.

So do we stick with letting him cry it out or not, i am not sure… I’ve hear it only takes a few rough nights for it to work for most people. At Liam’s 6 month well baby check up our pediatrician asked us how he was sleeping and we told him that we did need to get up multiple times a night to simply give him his paci and the doctor told us to let him cry it out. So i am sure he would suggest it this time too. We just have to figure out if it is the right thing for us.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Happy 8 Months Liam

Dear Liam,

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     Today you are 8 months old. I normally start by saying how fast this month went or how i can’t believe that you are 8 months old already but this month i don’t feel that way. It has been a long month due in fact that i have been ready to write you this letter since the week after you turned 7 months old. Liam, the 7th month of your life was quite amazing. The number of milestones you met, things you learned, ways you’ve changed, and the growing you did has been more than i could have ever imagined.

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     After “inch worming” to get around for a week or so right after you turned 7 months old you got up and took off, i’ve been chasing you ever since. You love to crawl around and explore. You have gotten so fast over the last four weeks; i would describe your crawl like a lizard running on hot sand because you almost bend in half and wiggle your butt from side to side.

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Around the same time you started crawling you started to pull up to kneeling. You now love to play while kneeling.

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A week or so later you learned to pull to standing. This is where what little “me” time Mama had was over because i now crawl behind you ready to spot you on whatever it is you decide to pull up on. Be it the recliner, coffee table cubes, or wall; i am there to make sure you don’t fall over (which happens all the time). Your standing would be much more stable if you stood on your flat feet but you insist to stand or try to walk only on your tippy toes.

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**and yes, you have woken up in the middle of the night and threw the video monitor; time to mount it on the wall!**

The other day Grandma told me that she thinks you like to prove me wrong and i’d have to agree with her. The first time we went to our play group one of the moms asked if you were crawling yet and i told her that you were inch worming and taking a few real crawls but hadn’t quite mastered it yet and they you got up on all fours and crawled across the room like an old pro. Then last week at play group someone asked if you were able to pick up puffs or yogurt melts and feed yourself yet. I told them that you typically get it in your fist and then put your whole fist in your mouth but didn’t quite get picking it up with your fingers yet. Seriously,  not even a half hour later i sat you next to me and filled my palm with puffs to entertain you while i ate lunch and wouldn’t you know you picked up every single one with your two little fingers and fed yourself. So in all honesty i started writing this post yesterday. I wrote the paragraph above about standing on your tippy toes and then later that afternoon you didn’t do it once. You stood on your flat feet all day!

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You got not one but two teeth this month. You two bottom teeth poked through within a day of each other at 7 and a half months. You look so cute with those two little pearly whites in there but i do miss seeing that gummy smile. IMG_1943 

You love, love, love playing peek a boo! You laugh so hard every time. You love the personalized songs i make up for you; your favorites are “Someone's in the kitchen with Liam” and “There was a Liam had a cat and Kinsey/Nigel was her/his name Ooo..”

One of your favorite things to do is crawl under the dining room table. I get on the floor with you and watch you weave your way between the chair legs. Every so often you look back to make sure i am watching and give the biggest grin and giggle.

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You love to crawl into the bottom of your exersaucer, you do it multiple times a day. Thankfully within the last week you learned how to get out by yourself.

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You never, ever sit still, ever. When you are eating you are playing with your feet, laying to play with a toy…on that rare occasion you are still kicking your feet….this is why by the time bed time comes you pass out because you are wore out by then!

You moved up into your big boy car seat last week and you love it. You look so much more comfortable in there and even nap better because your head doesn’t fall forward. When i look back at you it is amazing to see how much you have grown, you look like such a big boy in your new seat and not like a little newborn anymore.

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You visited the zoo for the first time this month and had a blast. I think your favorite was the aquarium, especially the penguins!

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You also got to swim in a big pool this month. You are definitely a water baby, yay!! I can’t wait for swim lessons this winter.

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This month your Daddy got to celebrate his first Fathers Day with you. I am pretty sure he is your favorite person in the whole world. There is no one you smile for more or laugh the loudest with. You cry almost every day when he leaves to go for work and you give the best smiles at 5:30 when we go out to meet him at the car after work.

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You were both all sweaty after softball in these pictures. You, just like your father, get hot and sweaty super fast!

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You said your first word this month…you’ll never guess what it was….give up…”dadadadadada”. On more than one occasion you and i have has the following ‘conversation"’…”Liam can you say Mama”..you look me straight in the eye and say “Dada”. You also say “bababa'” and have said “mama” on the rare occasion.

You still love to eat and now love trying everything we are having. You eat three solid meals a day, breakfast at 9 (fruit and cereal), lunch at 1 or 2 (fruit or vegetable), and dinner at 6 (dinner (meat and veg) and dessert (fruit)). You have bottles in between your solid meals which normal is around 30 oz per day. We usually have a snacks between breakfast and lunch and lunch and dinner. You love puffs and yogurt melts and just this last week learned to pick them up with your fingers and feed yourself. You have also tried a lot of table food this month, just a few bites. You love veggie sticks, cereal bars, graham cracker (your favorite), Ritz crackers, ice pops, sweet tea, lemonade, and a special treat last Friday of a chocolate chip cookie. The only thing you don’t like, in any form, are potatoes; we all think you are kind of strange because of this but we love you.

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You have your own way of giving hugs and kisses and we love it! You tilt your head into our head or shoulder to give a hug and you snuggle your head, very hard, and fast into our face to give kisses. You also love to give Elmo hugs and kisses.

 

You are now wearing mostly 12 month pj’s and 9 month cloths, still a size 3 diaper. You take a morning nap within 2-3 hour of waking and then another afternoon nap around 12 and a short cat nap around 4:30. You go to bed between 8 and 9 and get up for the day between 6 and 7. This month your night time sleeping hasn’t been all that great, mostly because of those two new teeth you got, but you have been waking up more and for the first time in your life been needing to be rocked back to sleep.

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Although this month has so had so many wonderful things happen you also learned to voice your opinion and throw tantrums. Last week i would not let you have a tortilla chip and the fit your pitched was youtube worthy. I think you thought the world was coming to an end without that chip. Oh, and they day i blocked off the dining room and kitchen whoa…that was not cool by your standards and you let me know your disapproval.

Love you always little man,

Mama

Look at how you’ve grown…

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Monday, June 21, 2010

Liam Recommends: Munchkin Spoons

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Up until now I have been feeding Liam with Gerber spoons. They were great when he was first starting solids because they are small and don’t hold much food. Then something happened. Liam became a ravenous eater which lead to frustration and a big mess! I picked up a pack of Munchkin spoons at the store last week and have been IN LOVE ever since! They are wonderful. They have a deeper “cup” for holding more food than the Gerber spoons and he makes almost no mess when eating off these spoons. Honestly, i cannot say enough, we are in love….with spoons.

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…and yes we were eating lunch in the car on Sunday during Alex’s batting practice before his softball game.

**Tomorrow I will have an 8 months old, an 8 month old?!? Wasn’t he just a 7lb 7oz newborn! Goodness it is going by fast!**

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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Now some fluff…

Here is our awesome play group on Wednesday. Of course my child is the one that will not sit down for more than one second….

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Wednesday afternoon we went to the park. I was going to wait until his 8 month letter to post these pictures but i thought this would be a nice sneak peek. He had a blast on the swings. I think it is adorable how he holds on now.

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This is Liam’s new blanket i made him. He is obsessed with plush minky fabric and i found it on sale this week so i got it for him. One side is the brown plush and the other is a light blue minky that i’ve had since before he was born and i hand embroidered his name with chocolate brown embroidery floss.

No lie when i tell you he is obsessed with the fabric. When we got home from the store the other day i sat him on the table and pulled it out of the bag and he gasped with excitement. I bundled it up and put it on his lap and he spend the next fifteen minutes snuggling his head and giggling, it was very cute.

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Do you blog about the bad days?

Why do i blog? I blog so that i don’t forget the story behind the picture. I blog so i can relive the day years from now. I blog so that friends and family, who are all too far away, can be close.

I write for myself…. Writing has always been an outlet for me. A way of getting my feeling out so that my head doesn’t pop off. Before i made my blog public or even shared it with my husband there were many posts that were deleted, never to be seen again because they were my sounding board.

Knowing that i have so many friends and family that read this blog i have found myself censoring posts or not writing about certain things at all. It has been hard and I've struggled with the answer to the question, do i write about the bad days?

My posts make it sound like my days are filled with shopping trips, giggles, play dates and smiles but this is far from the reality of it. There are days like today…when i pulled up my email, more than once, to draft a letter to my old boss asking for my job back. When the second Alex leaves for work Liam starts red faced wailing….until 6pm when he gets home. When it is two in the afternoon and you are on your second attempt at a shower, screaming “the wheels of the bus” as loud as you can, only to have little man screaming like this pack and play is filled with hot coals instead of every single one of his favorite toys. I have always felt as though i was a patient person and during the first seven months of Liam life i never lost my patients with him but lately i have felt so drained, like i have nothing left because getting screamed at all day and lately most of the night is trying, to say the least. I know it will pass, i know it will, but it is trying to trek though and come out on the other side that i am battling with.

Shall we end this post with a fitting song…i think we will

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

Nothing says summer like…..IMG_1906

…a baseball on your tush.IMG_1910

Monday, June 14, 2010

Three Day Weekend

Alex had a three day weekend (woohoo) because his parents were in town for a visit.

Dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack….and Daddy picking on Liam by giving him bunny ears. Liam loved Joe’s! I think it was a combination of all the lights and that he got to try sweet tea and lemonade…talk about love at first taste!

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Cornhole

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Liam in his new big boy car seat!

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Liam is now pulling up on everything. He got so good at it!

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Friday, June 11, 2010

The King has arrived….

First of all i’d like to give a huge shout out to my Mom and Dad for offering to swap bed with us and my in-laws for driving it all the way out here. Alex and I traded them the king size bed that was in my old room/now guest room for the queen that we had. We were thrilled to be sleeping on our big, new bed last night…even going to bed a few hours early because we were so excited…. So how did the first night go, you ask….

Well…picture this…There is an imaginary line dividing your side and his, i think most of us have this unspoken rule in the bedroom. Hubs rested oh so comfortably, all night long, on his side of the bed….. occupied only my himself. I on the other hand, or should i say side, was not. Since we still had the queen sized bed in our room resting on the wall our clock was blocked so i had no way of knowing what time it was during the night. At one point Liam woke up and started fussing so i went into his room to try and get him back to sleep. I gave him his pacifier but he was not interested. I brought him into our room so that he wouldn’t wake up the in-laws who were sleeping in the guest room, figuring it must be close to 5, the normal time Liam comes into our room to take an hour or two nap. Well it was not 5, it was more like midnight. So Liam spent the whole night in our bed…..ok, at this point i need to be honest and say it was wonderful. I have not been this rested since he was still sleeping in our room in his pack n play. No running into his room when he melts down during the night, no having to rock him back to sleep for 30 minutes….every time he started fussing i just quick gave him his paci and he slept wonderfully. Okay, so at this point i am not sharing my side with Liam. Not even 30 minutes later both Kinsey and Nigel decided they want to sleep with us for the first time since Liam was born. Nigel made a comfy spot right in the bend on my knees and Ms. Kinsey decided that right next to my feet would be the best spot for a nice long slumber. So, in the end, my first night in the new bed was spent curled up in the same contorted ball as it usually is….i guess this is another part of being a Mom, right?

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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Not one….but TWO!

Two teeth in two days…..hmmm i guess that explains the lack of sleep we have been getting. He has been much better today compared to the last few days so i am hoping since both teeth have broken through he is relived of some of the discomfort he has been having….poor kiddo, i can’t imagine how much that had to hurt, thank goodness for (generic) Tylenol! IMG_1470

I also need to note that for the first time, at seven and a half months old, Liam blew out of his diaper….yowza! Poo up to his shoulder blades…it was super fun to clean up :-)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Wordless Wednesday

Someone learned to smile for the camera. IMG_1463

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Monday, June 7, 2010

Future Rocket Scientist

Liam was dabbling in some future careers today….

Hmmm aerospace engineer…

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He was really into the biochem….

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Ooooh engineering mechanics and dynamics….

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Ah ha … so this is what physiology is….

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…or maybe he’ll be a celebrity because he already knows how to ward off the paparazzi.

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