Apple Picking

Today we adventured to Anderson Orchard for the second time this summer and had a blast picking apples. I wore Liam in the sleepy wrap again which was great and both of us enjoyed it a lot.

After apple picking we made a quick trip to pick up a gate for the top of the steps and a new litter box for the furry ones. Yay for no  more litter box in the downstairs bathroom!!

I realize that I am crazy with the amount of pictures i have taken lately simply to showcase Liam’s growing hair but it makes me so excited. Look, it even went over his (frat boy popped) collar a little!      

Liam’s activity for the day was seeing how long he could stand without holding on. He did it multiple times today….only a matter of time now….

Day 16 of 30 Days of Blogging – A song that makes you cry

Remember way back to day 1 of 30 days of blogging when I told you that one of my top three songs i was saving for a later post well here it is. Let It Be by The Beatles is one of my favorite songs but it also a song that I rarely make it though (while listening alone, typically in the car) without crying. It reminds me of the weeks prior to moving out of State College. I was so torn about that move because I loved where we lived and i loved my job, loved it. It was a hard move for me and i still long for living in Centre County. If i could pick up and move anywhere tomorrow it would be back there.

I am going to come back and do Day 15 with is my dream house, i just need more time to put all of those thought and ideas together!

Zoo and Bubbles

This afternoon Liam and I took a trip to Walmart….yes, Walmart (the evil empire) shh don’t tell Daddy…anyway, I bought Liam some Elmo bubble bath for a fun Friday night tub adventure.

Bubble Mohawk!

He loved the bubbles, loved splashing around, and may have had a taste or two of the bubbly magic.

 

We went for a walk after dinner tonight to take Liam to the playground and go on the swings. It has been a long time since i’ve had him in this stroller, I always use my Britax one, and he looked so much bigger than he used to. He had a great time chopping on some cherrios as we walked. 

He posed sat still for one shot before deciding that playing in the grass was way more fun than smiling for Mama.

     

He took a fun ride down the slide.

 

And of course happily swung on the swings.

      

Do you see what I see in this picture? Slightly more than just a little peach fuzz on top! 

Yesterday Liam and I went to the zoo with a few of our friends. Case and Liam had an awesome time exploring the zoo out of their strollers. I am pretty sure Bev and I won some cool Mom points for letting them loose.

     

“Dude, check out those penguins!”

   

Liam loved sitting next to the huge fish tank..

“I’m gonna get you fishie”

 

We even saw a tiger up close. They are normally always sleeping so we were pumped to see it up close. 

 

Video of Liam and Case watching the penguins.

Happy Birthday Aunt Debbie

We hope you have a wonderful birthday. We all love and miss you lots!!

Note from Liam

Last night I was in heaven. I got to be strapped to Mommy for an hour while adventuring in the woods! Best.Night.Ever!

Day 13 of 30 Days of Blogging – A Fictional Book

Since I already wrote about my favorite books earlier in this challenge I thought i’d share Liam’s current favorites, and yes, i just realized they are all Sesame Street related..what can i say he is a PBS kid!

First is Elmo Loves Hugs. I got him this book for Valentines Day and he just loves it. It has big, bright pictures of his favorite Sesame Street characters (Elmo, Baby Bear, and Abby). It only has a sentence per page so it is great for my 5 second attention spanned tot.

Liam loves Ernie. He has this little plastic Ernie that he carries around most of the day, we rarely leave the house without him anymore. Anyway, I got this book at half priced books a few weeks ago and Liam took to it very fast. The rhymes are cute and short and the pictures are adorable.

And last but not least is Liam’s favorite book. I have it memorized because we read it about ten times a day, at least three times before each nap. He LOVES this book and will sit contently through the whole thing. As soon as i close it and say “the end” he is grasping to open it back up to start again. I couldn’t even find a picture of this book on the internet or on any book store website. The picture i have shown below is the best i could find but ours is a larger sized book (same cover) and is not a ‘golden book’. I got it at half priced books a few weeks ago so I am not sure if it is even a book still in print or now but if you have a kiddo who likes Sesame Street I would try and track this one down somewhere. It is the classic mother goose rhymes we all know but with an added Sesame Street twist (Twinkle twinkle little star Elmo wonders what you are…) you get the gist.

 

Being a boy mom

Being a boy mom means building block towers

and watching them fall.

  

Playing with cars

 

and checking the wheels.

 

It is where wicked crazy hair is totally acceptable.

 

I love being the Mama to a very awesome little boy.

 

Day 12 of 30 Days of Blogging – Something you are OCD about

Raw meat…..[excuse me while i run and wash my hands and scrub down the whole kitchen after simply typing those words]…i am OCD about raw meat.

Honestly, everything that comes within a four foot diameter of rawness gets scrubbed each and every time. The dishwasher has to be empty so knives and cutting boards can go straight into it instead of contaminating the sink.

I once hyperventilated because the grocery cashier put meat in the same bag as product?!? Seriously, isn’t that on some kind of cashier training video they make you watch?

Aside from my germaphobic tendencies towards meat I can at times me OCD about things being even. I have to kiss Liam and Alex twice and need to be kissed by Alex twice before bed and before he leaves for work. It is all about balance and feeling off balanced makes me feel anxious.

Now if we really wanted to start talking OCD we’d need to have a guest post by my brother :-) Alex and I love watching the show Obsessed, about people suffering with different forms of OCD. We learned from the show that in order to overcome your anxiety you need to go through different exposures, sit with the anxiety, and it will eventually come down. Well we put Matt through an  exposure the other night and made him buy a book from Target that had a bend to one page…the boy did good and made it though unscathed.

Restoration Hardware stole my heart

Yesterday I got the fall Restoration Hardware Baby & Child catalog and drooled over it for a half hour. Oh my goodness, i am in love with these rooms. I told Alex that if we have another boy this will be his room…

 

I love this as a big boy room for Liam.

…and this bed, oh my, i just LOVE this bed….

 

Happy Birthday Uncle Matt

Happy Birthday to my younger brother who turned 24 yesterday!!!!

“Mama I don’t think this is birthday cake”

 

So glad we were able to celebrate with you over the weekend! Hope you had a wonderful yesterday!!!

Day 11 of 30 Days of Blogging – A photo you took recently

I took this series of photos last night. Liam was wound up ..to say the least and was crawling around on overdrive and running around furniture holding on with one little hand. We knew that when he got tired he was just going to crash and we were right.

One minute he was playing like a mad man and then next this….

…then he heard the shutter on the camera when i took his picture, popped up and looked at us like “oh i wasn’t sleeping i was just kidding”…

not ten seconds later he did  this…

Day 10 of 30 Days of Blogging – A photo taken over 10 years ago

I am pretty sure both of these were taken about 10 years ago.

Yupp I used to be a blonde…

and a cheerleader…

 

 

Going through all my pictures (because you know when you pull the box out to find one you end up going through the whole thing and reminiscing) I found a few pictures of Alex and I when we were Liam’s ago. I thought it would be fun to play a little game of “who does he look like”. I also found one of me marked 10 months old in the rocking chair that I take Liam’s monthly pictures on…i’ll have to post it after I take his this weekend…ya know ‘cause i’ll have a ten month old this weekend…craziness!

Clearly the apple doesn’t fall far with personality (Liam and Me) … i thought our hair looked a lot alike..don’t you agree HA!

Totally Daddy’s smile! (Liam and Alex)

 

and for old time kicks …check out these kids circa 2002!

  

My verdict…..he totally looks like… Liam!

Happy 10 Month Birthday Liam

Dear Liam,

     Today you are 10 months old! 10 months! This past week I started planning your first birthday party…and yes, i teared up the first time i typed “as Liam turns one”…how can it be true that my baby will be one in eight short weeks?!? Hands down this was my favorite month thus far and everyday day gets more fun. Liam, you have such a big personality and your energy is contagious. You have two speeds fast and crashed… you are like the energizer bunny until your batteries run out and you simply crash for an all out, arms spread wide, down for the count… nap. This is the sign you batteries are running low…

You love to dance! Every time i say “Liam can i see your dance” you start bobbing side to side or every time you hear me start singing “just dance” you start dancing. In the last few days you started dancing to commercials and a lot of the music your toys make. Last weekend I taught you how to do “so big” on our way home from a day trip to Brown County. You love to show me how big you are.

Your favorite game to play is peak a boo! You play two ways, one hiding behind a blanket and the other when you crawl behind the recliner and wait for us to ask “where’s Liam” and then pop your head up with THE BIGGEST smile.

This past month you have gotten so fast at standing up, transferring between close pieces of furniture and cursing along the couch, around your table toys, and about the coffee table cubes. You started walking really well with your walk behind toys and can stand up on them on your own to walk. You don’t seem to have too much interest in walking by yourself yet because you  know how fast you are at crawling.

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You love to empty all of your toy bins …

 

   

You learned to sit yourself up on your knees to play and also got a lot better at sitting yourself up on your butt to play from crawling. You now do it all the time. It is nice to see you sit in one place once in a while. Instead of clapping when you get excited you do a full arm swinging clap while bouncing on your knees.

You have been carrying everything around in your mouth! I’ll blame it on the fact that you now have three teeth (very, very soon to be four). Cutting your top tooth has been ten times harder on your than your bottom two were. It was a rough month in the teething department.

   

You love to ride on your toy race car. I am pretty sure you could sit on it all day long and get pushed around. You have a permanent grin on your face the whole time you are riding. Besides your car your favorite toys this month are your two table toys, your walk behind walker, your Sesame Street music player and pop up toy (I just conversed with your Daddy on an appropriate term for that toy and pop up toy was the best we could come up with), and empty bottles. You love stuffed animals and give lots of hugs and kisses to them.  The aquarium (behind you in the picture below) is one of your favorites as well. You love to crawl up and turn it on and just watch the animals move around. The aquarium used to be in your crib but after a few too many days of laying you down for a nap and having you wake up in a spit second only to crawl of and play i brought it downstairs.

I forgot to mention last month that you learned to climb the steps, you are so fast!

You finally learned how to work your walker and now run around the kitchen. The walker is a dangerous weapon to anyone else in the kitchen with you. You chase me around and love to run me over.

 

You got on a great eating schedule this month and still love food. You typically have a 7 ounce bottle at 7am, breakfast of fruit or oatmeal at 8:30, 4 ounce bottle at 9, nap for about 30 minutes, 6 ounce bottle at 12, lunch at 1:30 followed by snacks, nap sometimes in the afternoon for about an hour, 6 ounce bottle at 4, dinner meat with vegetables, a yogurt, and table food at 6pm, and a bottle at 8pm before bed. You are sleeping wonderfully through the night for over two months now 8pm-7am. You mostly sleep on your belly and have a habit of balling up your blanket and using it as a pillow.

You love drinking from one of our cups. Every time i take a drink in front of you you spit your pacifier out and open your mouth for some. If you find an empty cup, you will bring it to your mouth and make a slurping noise like you are taking a drink.

You are wearing mostly 12 month cloths and a size 4 diaper. No doctors appointment this month (not until you are a year old!) but we weighted you this morning and you are 22 pounds on the dot.

 

Love you always,

Mama

Look at how you’ve grown…

It amazes me every month to see how much you have changed and grown in such a short amount of time…