Ah, the semester is over. We have a chance to breathe and look over the past few months. Reevaluate. Refresh. Recommit.
When I first started this blog, I had a newborn, loads of extra time, tears, and reflections on our new life. Things have changed. We don't have as much time, but that doesn't mean I should let this go. When I started this blog, I wanted to write every week on little moments of joy in our lives. And now I will recommit to this goal. Instead of entire long posts, there will now be little stories and moments that make our lives special. Moments that are forgotten all too easy. Moments that we will want to remember years from now. And of course, pictures. PICTURES GALORE! :)
Thank you for reading. I look forward to sharing this next year with you.
I love how we watch Sesame Street on Friday mornings.
I love how Liam watches silently in my arms, still for a few moments in the day. I love how when he giggles at something he likes, he looks at me as if to say, "Look! isn't that hilarious!"
Liam has a lot of new sounds and words. He figured out how to use t's and l's. So as he's playing, he sings this quiet "telelelelelelelelele." Over and over again to himself and giggles.
Holy Snow! Madison was finally hit with winter this week.
On Sunday, it was warm and sunny. Liam loves this playground, it's low to the ground so Mommy doesn't have a heart attack and Liam can really have fun.
Being surprisingly cautious on the bridge. Later he stood up and tried to fling himself off. Visions of broken bones and sharp gasps followed.
Then, the snow. First a nice dusting, so it was fun to bundle Liam up and take him out.
Well, fun for me.
Doesn't this one seem like he's mumbling swear words under his breath?
Then the real snow. 18 inches in 24 hours. The whole city shut down and everyone got a snow day. Malls, schools, and even the University closed.
He just stared at the snow, but it made us reevaluate our layering strategy for the little man. Yes, to those that live in warmer climates, you need a strategy. (Because there is a highofsixdegrees this week.) Yes, we need more gloves (we used socks). Scarf? No, wraparound ear cover for his neck. One hat? Two? Hoodie?
When we packed him up the second time, he was more comfortable and was able to walk around and look at things. I showed him how to eat the snow and he loved clapping it in his little hands. He slipped once, but didn't feel a thing. We're excited to go back to GR because my Dad has a sled for Liam.
I'm thinking it will be a little different than last year:
(Oh, I miss that little reindeer outfit.)
When we came back in, we played and played. Liam loves Dr. Suess books now, so we read Go, Dog, Go over and over again. He is back to his old eating habits since we discovered that he just wanted to feed himself. Seriously, if you give him a spoon and a bowl he will eat anything. Even things he didn't eat when I was pureeing stuff - like cut up summer squash! This is the best! :)
We ended the night with a nice, warm bath.
Do you love the modesty patch, I mean, duck?
We swear we won't embarrass him with these bath pictures when he has future girlfriends over. I'm sure we'll find something embarrassing to do, but these bath picture will stay in the album where they belong.
Overall, great week. John worked like a dog on his papers, grading, etc and I had a photo session last Saturday that has kept me busy editing and posting galleries like a madwoman. Thankfully, John got a picture of me during this nutty computer/cross eyed/crazy time:
In case you were wondering, no, that is not a bag of York Peppermint Patties. And no, I did not finish the bag in one sitting, thank you very much.
The fact that I can fool Liam into sleeping in longer. He woke up this morning at 7:15am and I was still a little tired, slept poorly last night, so I tip-toed into his room, nursed him and set him back down as if it was 4am. He went back to sleep. Then I slept for another 45 minutes, got up, and can check my email or drink a cup of coffee and get his breakfast ready before he wakes up for real.
These are wonderful days, my friend. Wonderful days. It took a year, but we have a major sleeper on our hands.
Liam, our boy, is a person. With a personality. Interests. Preferences.
And an inability to fully communicate things. This can make a cute and frustrating situation for caregivers.
Frustrating: When Liam suddenly refuses food that he has loved all along. Like peas, carrots, or his favorite brown rice/ground turkey combo. He LOVED those.
Cute: When he detests the look of the brown rice/ground turkey combo that he buries his head in his bib so far that you can only see a mound of hair.
Cute: When he walks in his big winter coat to the park. He has a little wobble and works on his balance. It is so cute how he aaaalmost loses his balance, pauses on one foot while the other one is in the air, waits, waits, and then resumes walking. And that coat is so big, it's almost as tall as he is.
Frustrating: How he insists on walking everywhere now. Even if it takes an hour. I kid you not. One hour. One block = one hour.
Cute: He loves to watch the train.
Frustrating: He loves to watch the train while standing on the table.
SO cute: He learned how to make the milk, more, and eat signs. And he confuses them sometimes, so instead of making the sign like this (and you only need to watch it for about ten seconds...)
He taps the side of his cheek. EAT! Tap Tap Tap. Then he smiles and waits for his food. Or he'll interchange eat and more (again, ten seconds).
Eat means more and vice versa. So when he wants more book, or to read the book again, he'll tap his cheek. Or he wants breakfast and he'll say more. Too cute. Really. Adorable.
Frustrating: When we don't understand what the hell he is trying to say and he whines. Sheesh!
You get the point. He's a good boy. We love him. And we love that he is learning so much.
We had a nice Thanksgiving. Woke up in the morning and made coffee, eggs, sausages, cinnamon rolls, and hash browns and prepared to not eat until that evening. We laid around in our pajamas and watched Sesame Street and cuddled. It was glorious. When Liam went down to sleep, John and I started watching the Dexter series, and wow, is that addicting. So good.
It was funny how we spent all day making a beautiful turkey, basting, basting, basting, and it turned out so bad. And I mean this truly. We lit candles, sat around our little kitchen table with Liam in his high chair. We passed the biscuits, potatoes, stuffing, and salad. We had wine. It was beautiful. But the turkey was so unbelievably dry. It was like eating a tire. You just had to laugh. We swear that we have to have practice Thanksgivings and make more turkeys so we can find a tried and true recipe. Screw epicurious for turkeys - we're going for the old family recipes from now on.
This week Liam started skipping his first nap and going to a one nap a
day schedule. Liam loves this, but I am still adjusting. I loved
being able to check my email (or blog, or photos, or whatever) and
vacuum the house (or dust, or put stuff in the dishwasher, or whatever)
or sit down for a minute for Pete's sake! It's taking some
readjusting, but it's good. It is nice to have more flexibility in the
day.
On Friday, I took Liam to Madtown Twisters, an indoor gym with trampolines, slides, and other gymnastic equipment to explore. We ran all around, but had the most fun pulling out each and every big exercise ball and EXCLAIMING "BALL!!!" with each one and with equal excitement. Who needs trampolines when you have a five dollar ball to make you happy? It was fun to see him go up and down the toddler slide, though. He did it all on his own, pulling himself up on each step, then coordinating his feet to get them underneath his big diaper bottom and sliding down. He was so proud of himself afterward.
