Holiday Get Out of Town Recap-a-thon!

Alrighty, so I didn’t get any updates in before I returned to VA or before I depart for AoE – I’m peeking in to say “hey! Still here! Be back next week!” again.

Quick recap though & anything I leave out is completely UNintentional and NOT because I don’t find them recap worthy.

1) Liam grabs for everything now. Especially things he cannot have. And he gets mad when you take them from him.

2) Christmas in Carolina was fantastic. SO happy we had the opportunity to do that!

3) Liam loves to eat wrapping paper & play with his toys while they are still in their boxes of doom.

4) He likes carrots the best, then butternut squash, then sweet potatoes.

5) He fell asleep eating the other day – I have proof but that’s way too much work at the moment.

6) Being sick really sucks but Liam handles it better than Mommy.

7) He hugs and kisses ALL the time now.

8) He REACHES for you.

9) He HATES having his nose wiped. Fine…stay booger-y.

10) His poops have now reached Disgusting Level. I fear the future.

11) Stuffy noses make changing poopy diapers easier since you cant smell them.

12) Liam loves snowmen

13) Now he laughs every time you walk down the stairs with him. I have proof but again, still too much work right now.

14) He loves the train.

15) He filed for his US Passport this afternoon.

16) He got his picture made with Santa and didn’t once even think about crying – again, with the proof thing, but seriously this one would take WAY MORE work since I’d have to take a picture of a picture and then post it...

That is all for now!! I’ll be back on Wednesday night & then my parents are coming into town for NYE. I’ll try and post while I’m gone, I plan on “napping” a lot and Matias never leaves home without his computer so…but I will definitely be back with authority in the New Year if not before then!

SO Cute!

We live right down the street from a fire station and they just came around the neighborhood with Santa & Mrs. Claus riding on top!!

We took Liam outside to see them drive by & to wave at them :)

Christmas must be coming soon - that's twice we've seen Santa in less than 24 hours!!!!!

You're kidding, right?

It seems both Liam & I are sick. Head colds, it appears.

He's being extra cuddly right now & I'm hoping he can stay that way on the train and that he remains a good boy like he always is BUT what crappy fucking timing.

Hyperlinks

For some reason blogger is not liking my hyperlinks so anyone that wants to mosey over to dropshots, I would suggest just copying the link and dropping it into a new window.

booger eaters.

Butternut Squash

Liam got his first taste of butternut squash last night & it seems to have gone over much better than the sweet potatoes :) It's not that he doesnt enjoy the sweet potatoes, it's just that he doesnt LOVE them.

I still have avacado & carrots to make for him but will do that next week (or maybe even take some with me this weekend if I feel ambitious - which at the moment I'm not!) so we'll see how he does with those! Then I think after we are back from our travels over the holidays, I will start him on fruits!

First on the list are apples, pears & bananas!!

I still have a crapload of stuff to do before I even think about leaving tomorrow but my To Do Lists are shrinking so that's a good sign! I think I have todays' schedule under control - breakfast, get ready to go out, WALMART (e gads), drop off order in Nokesville, come home & start packing/putting laundry away after lunch, get ready for Christmas Party, go to party, come home, dinner for Liam & hopefully finish getting packed for myself and Liam. PHEW. I'm tired just thinking about what I have to do!

I'm just worried about how much we have to bring for him this week...food stuff is my main concern cause it's the first time doing it and you only learn by doing in this new occupation of mine. My needs are my last concern so I know I can survive with just 2 or 3 changes of clothes cause my parents happen to have a washing machine, if I need one! Just to need to make sure this little bebe has everything he needs! Grandma is really good about having things for him so that if I do forget she's usually got it on hand or we can make a quick trip to the store for him. Nothing is every far out of reach but I like to plan for things so...the To Do Lists continue to grow!

I thought I was going to be able to have time to take Liam to a Mommies Group event this morning but that's just not in the cards. I only have so much time to get everything done & it's stressing me out! I'm pretty good about these things but it's just so much different when you've got the bebe to consider and take care of WHILE you are trying to get everything done! Example, how are you supposed to put his laundry away when the only time you get to do it is when he's napping and in his crib? Was easier when he napped in his cradle and I could be in his room during that time...I know all these things work themselves out but with everything going on right now, I concentrate on the little details and yes, I suppose, I sweat the small stuff. I have decided that the house just cannot be as tidy as I want it to be when we leave though and the babysitter will just have to handle the furballs rolling through the kitchen.

But with all this complaining, I have accomplished things :) Christmas card list is completed. 3 more presents to get (at one place) and my shopping is done, Liam is clean and taken care of, the cats are happy, my tree is decorated (but we never got the lights up on the deck), stockings are hung (with care!), and cute outfits are secured for Mommy & Liam for his first visit with Santa...like I said my main worry is making sure I have everything we need for our visit to Grandma's and to TOTALLY make sure I pack it all VERY well. That's my main obstacle, I think. And the fact that I cannot stop obsessing over everything. But, we all know that's not gonna change ;)

You may or may not hear from me until after I get back...

So Much to Say!

We've had a lot going on these days with getting ready for a(n) [early] Christmas this weekend at Grandma & Grandpa's (and Auntie Leanne too!) and an extended trip for Mommy & Liam BUT we've also had a lot going on in the house!

Liam is now eating cereal 2x times a day along with HOMEMADE BABY FOOD 2x times a day (with lunch and dinner)!! We've got it all documented I just have to find the time to post the pictures. He doesnt much like the sweet potatoes too much, but he suffers through them ;) He LOVES his cereal though!

He's rolling over from his tummy to his back consistently now! Much harder to control on the changing table also since he seems to enjoy rolling over to his side during his "naked time". He's shifting positions all over the place in his crib while he's sleeping. And he's sitting up REALLY well - it wont be long before he's an "unassisted sitter" - I think probably during the Holidays he will make this milestone.

He loves Christmas music & prefers to fall asleep to that as opposed to Rubber Soul. I dont think he much liked Rubber Soul for sleepy time music so I switched him back to the Ones (beatles #1 hits). Although his favorite song, BY FAR, right now is Old MacDonald. Even helped him calm down/fall asleep in the car!

Speaking of the car, he is behaving/tolerating it much better - sleeps during our trips and on only really cries before he sleeps. His cow toy REALLY helps him stay calm and entertained. That stays in his car seat permanently!

I'm having issues with his clothes though - since he is SO tall (27") that puts him in 9 MONTH clothes but his weight is still in the 3-6 month range. Seriously, he fits in 9 month old PANTS. He's just shy of 5 months. Either the boy will need a belt (do they make infant belts??) OR suspenders. Probably will get some suspenders if we can find them. HA! He's going to look like a little old man! He's already outgrown some of his 3-6 month clothes - even my favorite striped pants from Target! They are like little high-waters on him! So I'm a little worried here - gonna have to take the time and go through his closet and drawers where I have his next size clothes stashed and make sure I havent missed the chance for him to wear any!

We have Matias' Christmas Company Party this Friday and for the first time it's Kid Friendly so we will be taking Liam and debuting him to his co-workers - should be a fun time, they always do a good job with their parties. Then the next day we leave for NC on the train again - so we'll see how he tolerates the train a few months older! I'm packing cereal and a bottle (or two) for him to nosh on while we travel but since daddy is going to be with us this time, I'm hoping he will help out a lot with the "keeping him busy/behaved" also!

Exciting things coming up this week!! YAY!! I cannot wait!!

When you're the best of friends

Liam LAUGHED and SMILED at Monkey this morning when we were all in bed having our special cuddle/waking up time.

And then I melted into a gooey mess & Matias had to clean it all up!

Cry Face Progression

[Editor's Note - both pictures were taken by DADDY while Mommy was NOT present!! No Liam Fellows were harmed in the taking of these pictures]

Big Boy

Look at my big boy holding his own bottle yesterday!

Saturday Six

I used to do this "thing" called Friday Five and it would be Five Questions sent out every Friday...so I thought I would do a Saturday Six and list six things (go figure!) that just drives me crazy in love with Liam at the moment.

1) how he holds his hands in "prayer" when he nurses
2) the tickle spot on the back of his neck that sends shivers through him and makes these funny noises emerge from him uncontrollably.
3) listening to him talk to himself in the morning
4) watching him learn to pet Monk
5) whenever the commercial with the Beatles Christmas song comes on he cranes his little head around to see the TV - can he possibly KNOW it's the Beatles? It's not like we've played that song for him...
6) the nose scrunching

Like the Rooster Crows

Our son, and I say "our" son because lord only knows where he is getting this from, is an Early Riser.

Every morning 6:30 he starts talking to himself in squeals and gibberish and is as happy as can be! But damn, that's early. Now, thankfully, he usually goes back to sleep after I nurse him but on mornings like this when I am getting ready to head out the door at 8am, I'm hoping the noise of the house being "awake" doesn't keep him awake also. It's amusing to watch the cats listening to him wake up and talk - but then again a lot of things are amusing to me at that hour.

Last night he didn't sleep through the night either & I don't know why - maybe because I fed him dinner a 1/2 hour earlier? He woke at 10:30 and wanted to nurse (and that's fine with me cause I'm also trying to keep my supply up while we transition to solids) and then again at 4:30AM. He wasn't cold, I made sure of that - thinking maybe with the weather REALLY dipping into the low 20s that he needed to be more bundled. P.S. It's 12 degrees right now.

And I've been up since then. I couldn't trust myself to wake up at 6 like I needed to to get ready for today, so I just got up & came downstairs and read a magazine until I got into the shower. So, I'm frigging tired already & it's only 7:05. It's going to be a long day. But hopefully, a very profitable day! I just don't know how well I will be functioning once I get back home (I'm already thinking about this & I haven't even left yet!) and we have a lot to do this weekend as it is our last weekend home before Christmas. And not one single gift has been bought. BUT I have addressed a nice chunk of our Christmas cards :)

New video

I've uploaded the Snowman Series video to www.dropshots.com/talljendmb for your amusement. Remember, he stopped truly performing when the camera came out! And now every morning, we sit in our bumbo seat and play with the snowmEn - Grandma sent him one without knowing how much he loved the ones from previous years!

A Boy & his Snowman

This is the first two in a series of photos taken the other morning.


The first one is called - "Wait, I'm taking out my chupie!"


The second is titled "Liam & Frosty 'chillin' at the Piano Bar"

And because...

I haven't posted a picture in FOUR days (!), here's one for your viewing pleasure.


The Liam Fellow watching his Baby Einstein.

Liam Robert’s 4 Month Checkup

Liam went to the doctor today for his 4 month checkup (he’s really 18 weeks old though) & to get his second round of shots.

And the numbers are in!!

Length 27” – OFF THE CHART!!! LITERALLY!!! BIG BOY!!!

Weight 14 lbs. 4 oz – YAY!! He gained 3 pounds since our last check!! Even though he’s still on the skinny side, we’re bumping up his cereal intake so that will help him get the calories he needs!!

Head Circ 16 ¾” – his noggin grew ¾ of an inch since his last check!! They aren’t concerned about his remaining flat spot since most of the rest of his head evened out, we’re just waiting on less back time and more upright time to take care of that naturally! YAY! Our son doesn’t need a HELMET!!

YAY! GOOD JOB LIAM ROBERT!

We are stepping up his cereal intake to ½ cup TWO times a day – whoa! He had his lunch today and ½ a cup is a TON but he loved it and got his full so Mommy is happy. It seems he wasn’t getting enough calories from the Pimp Juice since he was waking up so often in the night the past few weeks or so. Next week, after we try out the 2x a day cereal, we will be stepping it up to VEGGIES!! WOW!! Our boy is growing up so quickly!! Seems it’s all happening so quickly. Too quickly, sometimes. He doesn’t need Mommy anymore. *weeping*

He did REALLY well with his shots, only cried a little bit and then as soon as Daddy picked him up he STOPPED. Mommy decided that Daddy can hold his little arms down next time…don’t quite know how I got stuck doing that in the first place! He’s napping now, after his lunch, so we’ll see how long he is down for considering they say they are ‘supposed to’ sleep for longer when they get their shots. Think they take Cat Nappers into account!

I’m really happy with his weight gain since I was starting to get worried that he wasn’t getting enough (I guess Mother’s Instincts are right on spot, eh?) with just Pimp Juice so I’m glad he gained a nice amount but I am looking forward to him putting on a few more by the end of January!

He needs to move out of his infant car seat by 29”, so we only have two more inches and then we need a new one – but this one will last him through toddler-hood so it’s not that big of a “strain” since he’ll be using it for YEARS! And I don’t think they are overly expensive either for what you are getting – just spread out the cost over the years you will be using it!

I’m really relieved that Liam gained weight and that we are moving towards helping him put more on in the upcoming week but still the little inkling of a thought of how I (or my body) has somehow failed him is still sneaking in. I’m just MORE thankful that we decided to give him cereal and not wait and have him go ‘hungry’ for a week when he didn’t need to.

Funny man in the house

When Grandma & Grandpa were here for Thanksgiving Liam started mimicking Grandma's cough. We call it his little fake cough & he's become quite the expert at it but now he's added a new twist.

The Pant.

He coughs about 3 times and then starts flaying his arms and legs and PANTING. And he thinks he's quite funny when he does this.

On a completely different note but still amusing to me - we went to church on Sunday & he filled his pants during one of the hymns/songs/whatevertheyarecalled and we didnt hear him "do" it until the song ended and he GROANED so loud that both of us had to laugh.

He is also EXTREMELY fascinated by the Christmas decorations around the house! I didnt think he would be so young, I thought this stuff didnt REALLY start attracting him till about 6 months...

He LOVES my new Let it Snow sign that Grandma got for us, stares at it everytime we walk past and we've even held him up to it to get a closer look. (it's on the top of the pantry door sill)

He LOVES the snowmen on the mantle with our stockings - just sits and stares at them whiling smiling.

He LOVES my Dept. 56 Village - everytime we walk past it we stop and look at everything and keep the arms pinned to his side as he is trying to grab at it all.

He LOVES the tree! We only have the lights and garland on it right now, tonight we'll do all the decorations after he goes to bed so that he can be "surprised" when he wakes up in the morning. But he loves to go over to it and stare at the lights and he just thinks it's the neatest thing since Pet Rocks.

But the thing he LOVES most of all at the moment is our singing snowman from Hallmark - he sits at a piano and dances and sings & Liam has been PULLING IT closer to him and HUGGING ON IT!! It's too cute! I took pictures this morning & a video but the kid has become hip to the presence of the camera and usually stops what he is doing right away and videos dont usually come out to great if there's only one of us here entertaining him! But I'll probably post it anyway so y'all can get the idea :)

Phew...

I was just nursing Liam and he was making this strange cry - not a normal cry at all - and I was getting worried that he either didnt want Pimp Juice anymore because he just wanted cereal OR that something was wrong.

I fed him for as long as I could with the tears coming, then took him to Daddy so I could quickly research what was going on...didnt find anything online to help me (gee, you think a crying baby MIGHT mean hunger?) and then I turned to my Baby Whisperer book and couldnt find anything in there either! Just as I was sitting at the top of the stairs, starting to worry maybe he was getting sick or something was wrong with the Juice, Matias came upstairs with a sleeping baby in his arms.

Thing is - this isnt his normal nap time - it's Juice time! His schedule is so rigid so it really threw me off that he was ONLY tired and didnt want to nurse at all. I know there should be some flexibility in there AND there is BUT he ate before his 2pm nap and then this was the first time I was nursing him again since.

Maybe, just maybe, I'm over thinking this and he could be in a growth spurt too but it really just threw me that he wanted a nap so badly and instead of falling asleep while nursing, he chose to cry. And, to be honest, Liam doesnt cry. He's even stopped (knock on wood) crying in the car. He doesnt cry when he wakes up from naps, he just squawks loudly! He barely cries when he wakes up during the night - as you can see most of these things involve WAKING UP and EATING!

Anyway. He was tired. End of Story. But I wasnt sure what it was and that is what was worrying me. I think it all centers around starting cereal & me worrying that he's going to reject the boob totally now & not just the right one :)

Can I have some more, please?!

Matias complained that I fed Liam messy-ily, but seriously, how else do you feed a baby and NOT have it be messy?

Get your feet off the table!

Liam's first meal at the table & his feet were up there in a nano second! Excuse the messy house! But check out the NEWLY REFURBISHED kitchen table!! Just in time to have another grandkid mess it up!

Liam reading a magazine

Hope you didnt want the Home Companion back, Grandma!

I feel like a pendulum!

We had decided NOT to feed Liam his cereal but when he didn’t sleep through the night again & it was taking Matias about 2 hours to fall back asleep after Liam woke up so Daddy decided that we needed to try the cereal to see if it made a difference in his sleep patterns.

The first night he slept normally – waking twice – and was a happy little camper all day long yesterday – even sleeping BOTH WAYS in the car when I drove into work. He did have a very bad nightmare that night around 1am so I’m not sure if he would have woken up for a feeding if he hadn’t had this dream. But he didn’t go down for his 10am nap which worried me cause we were getting in the CarCar to go ByeBye later in the morning – so I was concerned that his schedule was going to get more out of whack. Thankfully with his naps in the car (about 30 minutes each) he was ok nap wise.

We decided to use the ready made formula we got from the hospital to mix his cereal with last night instead of me pumping (Hate! Pumping!) for that tiny of an amount & he LOVED it! He was so happy in his highchair & had two servings of cereal and I probably could have given him a third if I wasn’t worried about him horking up that last serving. He smiled and kicked and grabbed at the spoon and talked the entire time I was feeding him! Then he was out before the first Beatles song was over (Love Me Do)!

AND HE SLEPT UNTIL 6:15AM!!!

He went back to sleep after a feeding until 8:17 and we’ve been up since then. It took him a while to go down for his 10am nap, in fact he woke up after about 5 minutes and started playing so I took him upstairs and rocked him to sleep and he’s still asleep now.

Liam’s doing REALLY well with his cereal & I couldn’t be happier! I started feeling a little ‘strange’ last night after I fed him though. I had this feeling come over me that he didn’t Need me anymore & that he was growing up so quickly and soon we would be feeding him “real” solids and giving him the keys to the car. And I felt a TINY bit resentful towards the cereal for giving him something I couldn’t. He finally slept a great nights sleep because he wasn’t hungry and he was hungry because the Pimp Juice wasn’t cutting it for him 100% anymore & that makes me sad. Here I was somewhat wanting a break from nursing and now that I have it, to an extent, I’m upset that he has another source of food! Isnt that what I wanted?!? I guess I’m just not ready for him to be such a Big Boy. And for him to enjoy it so damn much. HA. I swear I can see in his eyes now when I nurse him that he’s wanting that cereal! Lord, I’m just crazy.

Let me tell you this left boob of mine was FULL this morning! Whoa doggie – you try sleeping on your stomach with one Rocky Mountain and one Alamaden Valley Foothill.