Wow! Talk about failing miserably at my goal of posting once a week! Ha! I started this blog out with lots of enthusiasm, but that obviously fizzled out pretty quickly...
Needless to say, MUCH has changed since the fall when I last posted...I went from preparing for Keegan to deploy, to finding out he wasn't, (and back & forth like 6 times,) we found out we're moving to Fort Lewis, WA, Liam is talking more than you would ever believe, and Raleigh is about to be turning ONE! (Plus all the crazy things that go on in my days all crammed in there somewhere.)
Side note: We haven't really publicly announced that we're moving just yet...we've told our parents, & our friends here in NC know, but that's about it...until now of course. So if this is the first time you're hearing about it, we're expecting to move in early spring of next year! I really despise announcing big news about our lives when it changes so frequently. In the army, the only thing you can't count on is that no plans are ever final, so rather than continuing to tell people new information all the time, I try and wait until we're more sure of details first. Even then, the chances of plans changing are still pretty high. So anyways. Keegan signed his life away to Uncle Sam for another 4 years, and we're slotted to go to WA for our next duty station. Initially we were supposed to be leaving in the September/October time frame, but we recently found out that our report date got extended til spring. Right now that still seems far off to me, even though I know it will be here before I know it. PCS moves are such a bittersweet thing. I am so so so excited about moving to WA, seeing the west coast, exploring a new part of the country, and making all kinds of new friends, but at the same exact time I'm already grieving for leaving behind our friends & life that we've made here at Fort Bragg. I have some of the most amazing people in my life here...people I consider to be life long friends, people whose kids I love & enjoy watching grow up, people who have been our family when our family was so far away...It is really sad to have to pack up and say good bye to all that. :'( BUT, as I said before, our move is still a long ways away, so I'm going to save the sentimental sob story for another day!
I read through some my earlier posts from last fall, and one of those included a list of the "20 or so words" that Liam could say. That list is almost laughable now when I think about some of the conversations we have on a regular basis. His speech has grown exponentially, and it's awesome! It's really awesome to finally get a little window into his head, since for so long we had no clue what he was thinking.
Here are a few little conversations we've had lately that amused me:
Keegan was giving Raleigh & Liam sips of his drink, and when it was Raleigh's turn Liam says:
Liam: "No sissy, you already had some, it's my turn!"
Liam was marching around the dining room pretending to blow on a toy horn:
Liam: "I blow my horn. I marching!"
ME: "You're marching?"
Liam: "Yes mommy, I marching in a marching band!"
After bath time & as we walked into his room, Liam pointed at all the toys on the floor and said:
Liam: "Yook mommy, I made a mess!"
ME: "Yes your room is a BIG mess!"
Liam: "Mommy's room is a BIG mess too!"
And, most nights at bed time I hear: "You read my gook agin?", "You sing a song to me mommy?", "You say my payers with me?", "Come teep with me mommy!", "I duv you too mommy!", or "Gooood night mommy!"
<3
Did I mention how awesome it is to hear him talking?
This post doesn't really include very much, but I'm as busy & tired as ever and my to-do list is long & getting longer by the minute. Good night all. <3
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Monday, December 12, 2011
Shaving Cream Paint!
I am always looking for new things to do with Liam that will keep him entertained. He is extremely active and has never been one to sit and play with his toys for long periods of time. I am his favorite toy. If I had only a brown paper napkin, but I was playing with him, it would be his favorite toy for hours on end. He likes company, he likes to interact. While this is a really great quality in him, it also makes it extremely challenging to get through each and every day. When Liam gets bored, he gets whiny. When he gets whiny, I get whiny. It's not a good situation. Needless to say, I LOVE when I find a new and fun activity that Liam enjoys and that we can mix up our days with! Lately while browsing on Pinterest, I've come across lots of fun activities that I want to do with Liam. One of those ideas is shaving cream paint.
Liam had a bout of Hand, Foot, & Mouth disease about a month ago, and he had been feeling very under the weather for a few days. HFM is a virus that causes them to run a low grade fever for days to weeks, while at the same time giving them painful sores around their hands, feet, & mouth. We had had a tiring week because he was not feeling well, and he didn't want to do anything, not even play outside, (which is his favorite!) He had been crying at every bathtime, so one evening I decided to break out the shaving cream & food coloring! It's pretty simple, just put some shaving cream in plastic cups, add food coloring, & mix up! Liam had a ball with it! He played for a solid 30 minutes, painting the walls, painting himself, etc. If you do different colors, it provides a great opportunity to work on learning their colors. If your kids are older, it's a fun way to practice letters. I was thrilled to see how much he enjoyed it, and as an added bonus, clean up was the easiest thing ever, just splash water on the tub walls when you're all done! We've done this many times since then and each time it continues to be a hit. Also, after following that pin to the blog it came from, I ended up finding lots more fun activites to try in the future!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Halloween!
I haven't blogged in a few weeks and I'm feeling so behind! Things have been hectic and busy and I haven't felt like using any of my free time to blog. But tonight I felt like playing catch up, so I'm finishing up this post about Halloween that I started a few weeks ago.
Growing up we never really celebrated Halloween. It was just one of those secular holidays mom didn't care for us to participate in. You know, come to think of it, since being an adult I've never really asked her specifically why she chose not to let us celebrate it, so I can't say for sure what her reasons were. Maybe she'll read this post and then choose to enlighten me.
I have one really faint memory of trick or treating from when I was really young. All I remember is we were with my cousins, and they'd all walk up to the door for candy but I was too scared to. Other than that, my memories consist of going to church fall festivals and carnivals. Sometimes we'd dress up for these events, which meant digging around the house and putting random things together to create a costume. I think creating a one of a kind costume at home is the best way to do it! It's a great creative project to do with your kids, (when they're old enough,) PLUS you don't end up looking just like everyone else who went and bought their costume at the same place! I don't know how many bumblebees and spidermen I saw this year! Granted, they are all cute regardless of how many of them there are. There is something oddly adorable about babies dressed as insects, and little boys showing off their cotton-blend muscles. :) But still, it is fun to have something totally original! That being said, last year I went totally commercial and bought Liam a Mickey Mouse costume. I'm sure there were a thousand mickey mice scurrying around Fayetteville, but hey, last year was about convenience, and the lack of self control I had when I first placed those mouse ears on Liam in the Disney store - there was no turning back once I had seen the level of cuteness he took Mickey to. Some of my friends came up with some really creative ideas this year.
I got a red plaid shirt from Liam's closet, and a pair of khaki colored "Cars" pants from his drawers. I had them because they came pinned to some other pants I bought at a consignment sale, but I'm not a huge fan of kids clothes with character logos on them, so they were the perfect candidate to turn into scarecrow pants. I cut out some squares from scrap fabric and hand stitched them all over the pants to make patches.
Next, I measured the circumference of the bottom of the pant legs, and cut a strip of fabric in that length. Then Keegan and I hot glued this synthetic hay/crinkly paper that I bought for $1, to the strips of fabric. When each one was covered, we flipped the bottom of the pant legs up and hot glued the strips of fabric & hay to the inside of the pant legs. I decided I didn't want to alter the shirt in any way, since it was in like new condition, so I just glued a few ragged strips of fabric together to create a messy scarecrow belt to tie around his waist and make the shirt look more ragged.
I used some brown flannel and some cardboard from an old diaper box to throw together a hat. Since it was way to big for his head, I glued some ribbon inside to create a suspension that would rest on his head.
Keegan ran to the store to pick up a Halloween face paint kit, although I probably could have improvised with my own makeup. We drew a cute face on him and we were done! On the box of the face paint there were some scary/mean looking creatures, so Liam kept growling at them. He must have thought since we used that stuff on his face that he was supposed to be mean too, because he kept growling all night, and still does every time he sees his scarecrow hat, haha! All in all the costume literally cost me $2.99. I had the pants and shirt, and I only bought the hay paper and the flannel. I also happen to have a lot of both of those supplies left, which is great because it's always nice to have leftover supplies to toss into your craft box!
On Halloween night, we dressed the kids up and sat out on our front porch handing out candy. Liam had SO much fun! He loved handing out candy to the kids as they would come up, and he'd even run out to meet them if they weren't coming fast enough! He took special care to make sure every kid got a piece. When our candy ran out we teamed up with our neighbors and they let Liam hand out their candy for the rest of the night! It was really cold and wet that night, so we were ready to get inside by 7:30. Keean had smoked a whole chicken on the grill that day, and I had made a pot of greens, so we ate a delicious dinner and spent the rest of our evening watching Monday night football. It was a great day!
Growing up we never really celebrated Halloween. It was just one of those secular holidays mom didn't care for us to participate in. You know, come to think of it, since being an adult I've never really asked her specifically why she chose not to let us celebrate it, so I can't say for sure what her reasons were. Maybe she'll read this post and then choose to enlighten me.
I have one really faint memory of trick or treating from when I was really young. All I remember is we were with my cousins, and they'd all walk up to the door for candy but I was too scared to. Other than that, my memories consist of going to church fall festivals and carnivals. Sometimes we'd dress up for these events, which meant digging around the house and putting random things together to create a costume. I think creating a one of a kind costume at home is the best way to do it! It's a great creative project to do with your kids, (when they're old enough,) PLUS you don't end up looking just like everyone else who went and bought their costume at the same place! I don't know how many bumblebees and spidermen I saw this year! Granted, they are all cute regardless of how many of them there are. There is something oddly adorable about babies dressed as insects, and little boys showing off their cotton-blend muscles. :) But still, it is fun to have something totally original! That being said, last year I went totally commercial and bought Liam a Mickey Mouse costume. I'm sure there were a thousand mickey mice scurrying around Fayetteville, but hey, last year was about convenience, and the lack of self control I had when I first placed those mouse ears on Liam in the Disney store - there was no turning back once I had seen the level of cuteness he took Mickey to. Some of my friends came up with some really creative ideas this year.
My friend Kati made a fireman costume for her 2 year old, and a dalmation costume for their 6 month old. Then she turned their wagon into a firetruck. It turned out super cute!!!
These are some of my lovely friends and the awesome "Where's Waldo?" costumes they made themselves!
There aren't too many things that my mom did growing up that I don't agree on, but failure to celebrate Halloween is one of them. Personally I think it's harmless and fun.We had a really good time this year and I look forward to many more in years to come!
Last year I really wanted to dress Liam up as a scarecrow, but since I had a hectic October, I ended up just buying Liam a mickey mouse costume as I mentioned earlier. This year I decided I'd make him a scarecrow though. Because I wanted Liam and Raleigh to be somewhat coordinated, I figured Raleigh could be a pumpkin. :) Keegan's cousin Katie makes lots of boutique items for kids and babies, so she made me an adorable pumpkin tutu and matching bow for Raleigh. The Friday before Halloween, Keegan and I threw together Liam's scarecrow costume during nap time. Keegan's unit was having a trick-or-treat event in their building that evening, so we had to work fast to get it done in time.
I got a red plaid shirt from Liam's closet, and a pair of khaki colored "Cars" pants from his drawers. I had them because they came pinned to some other pants I bought at a consignment sale, but I'm not a huge fan of kids clothes with character logos on them, so they were the perfect candidate to turn into scarecrow pants. I cut out some squares from scrap fabric and hand stitched them all over the pants to make patches.
Next, I measured the circumference of the bottom of the pant legs, and cut a strip of fabric in that length. Then Keegan and I hot glued this synthetic hay/crinkly paper that I bought for $1, to the strips of fabric. When each one was covered, we flipped the bottom of the pant legs up and hot glued the strips of fabric & hay to the inside of the pant legs. I decided I didn't want to alter the shirt in any way, since it was in like new condition, so I just glued a few ragged strips of fabric together to create a messy scarecrow belt to tie around his waist and make the shirt look more ragged.
I used some brown flannel and some cardboard from an old diaper box to throw together a hat. Since it was way to big for his head, I glued some ribbon inside to create a suspension that would rest on his head.
Keegan ran to the store to pick up a Halloween face paint kit, although I probably could have improvised with my own makeup. We drew a cute face on him and we were done! On the box of the face paint there were some scary/mean looking creatures, so Liam kept growling at them. He must have thought since we used that stuff on his face that he was supposed to be mean too, because he kept growling all night, and still does every time he sees his scarecrow hat, haha! All in all the costume literally cost me $2.99. I had the pants and shirt, and I only bought the hay paper and the flannel. I also happen to have a lot of both of those supplies left, which is great because it's always nice to have leftover supplies to toss into your craft box!
On Halloween night, we dressed the kids up and sat out on our front porch handing out candy. Liam had SO much fun! He loved handing out candy to the kids as they would come up, and he'd even run out to meet them if they weren't coming fast enough! He took special care to make sure every kid got a piece. When our candy ran out we teamed up with our neighbors and they let Liam hand out their candy for the rest of the night! It was really cold and wet that night, so we were ready to get inside by 7:30. Keean had smoked a whole chicken on the grill that day, and I had made a pot of greens, so we ate a delicious dinner and spent the rest of our evening watching Monday night football. It was a great day!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Liam's Adventures: November '11
I promised myself that I'd get better at writing down "the little things." I've kept the little sticky notes on my computer up, and when I remember throughout the day, I quickly type in fun moments that I want to remember. They're adding up though, and I can feel the OCD part of me panicking a little as I realize the list is getting longer, and I'll never get them all written down in order! (see the post on my OCD tendencies here.) So I decided it was time to create a post cataloging some of the random things that have happened that I thought were noteworthy, and just an update of sorts of Liam's little two year old self. :) I think maybe I'll commit to doing an update post for each kid at least once a month, that shouldn't be too hard right?
A few weeks ago I made up a tray of chicken salad sandwiches for Brandi's baby shower. I cut all the crusts off the sandwiches, and being the frugal and waste-not person that I am, I wrapped them up in a piece of aluminum foil to take home for my dog Dixie. Like most things that make it into my car, the bread crusts got left in the car for a week or so before making their way in to the house. One day when I was fetching some things from the back of the car, I saw them and brought them inside. As usual Liam was looking for something to get into so I gave him the foil packet and told him to put them in Dixie's dog bowl. I figured it would keep him busy for 45 seconds or so, (wishful thinking,) and he usually enjoys having little "helper" tasks to do. I started cleaning up the kitchen and Liam wandered into the play room to play. After 10 minutes had passed I headed to the room to check in on him, and I found him sitting with the foil & bread crusts spread out in front of him, and he was chomping away. He just sat there......eating stale bread crusts......for like, 10 whole minutes. This kid is going places folks, mark my words.
We are in the middle of a fun time in a toddlers life called potty training. (If it didn't come through the interweb, I said that with total sarcasm.) Liam will stay dry pretty much all day if, and only if I remember to take him to the potty at least once an hour. I cannot for the life of me get him to poop on the potty. (If the word poop offends you, please leave my blog now because I assure you, one day it will get a lot worse than that... I have a toddler folks, this stuff isn't always pretty.) Anyways, back to the poop; he wont go on the potty, but he has no problem going in a diaper, in underwear, on the floor, or pretty much anywhere that isn't a container used for collecting excrement. (Like I said...please leave if talking about poop offends you.) So we're sitting there in the living room floor one day last week, and Liam picks up this little plastic toy lion. He's making the lion growl at the other toys etc, and then all at once he picks up the lion, turns him over, points at his butt, and yells "POOP!" He then proceeded to get up and run into the bathroom with the lion, and held the lion over the toilet saying poop repeatedly. You know, I love this kid with all my heart but I seriously don't get him. He wont poop on the potty, but he insists that the lion does. Also, he still only says about 20 or so real words.... how in the heck did I get lucky enough for "poop" to be one of the few? (Boobies is another one he knows, go figure.)
Liam has been in a toddler bed since late August. Keegan and I vowed to let him sleep in the crib as long as he would! He'd been such a good sleeper for the last 9-10 months, going down without a hitch, sleeping through the night, and even waking up and playing in his crib in the morning! He'd actually request to be put to bed for naps sometimes if he was really tired. We just saw no reason to rock the boat. Then he figured out how to climb out of the crib and things changed. He was getting out whenever he wanted to anyways, so we finally made the switch. He actually did awesome with it! He liked being able to climb in and out all on his own., but he pretty much stayed in the bed all night. He went through a few different weird spells, like the week he insisted on having all his shirts in bed with him. We'd turn the light off and leave for the night, but when we'd find him in the morning he'd removed all his shirts from the top drawer of his dresser and had them in his bed. Every day I'd put them back and every night after we left him he'd get them back out. I was so glad we weren't having issues with him getting up and playing all night....but that was a bad idea. Every time I start feeling glad about something, wouldn't you know it, things go and change on me. About 3 weeks ago I was heading to bed around midnight when I saw Liam's bedroom light on. I opened his door and found him crashed out on the floor in the middle of his toys. I thought it was kind of cute, and I put him his back in his bed and shut the light off and went to bed. The next night, we put him to bed at 8 pm like usual. Around 9 I asked Keegan if he heard thumping, and he told me it was the TV. At 9:45 Keegan headed to bed, and upon going upstairs discovered that the thumping was in fact coming from Liam's room. Almost 2 hours after putting him to bed, Liam was still up, having the time of his life playing. (Why he does not play that long independently during the day....I have no clue!) So we make him get back in bed. 4 am rolls around....and Liam is tapping on Keegan's shoulder in our room. Back in bed for Liam.... Ever since that night a few weeks ago, we are now having problems keeping him in his bed. He goes down pretty well, but he knows how to fake it and be quiet so we think he's sleeping. Last week I was doing dishes after we put Liam to bed, and Keegan walked across the street to talk to our neighbor. I heard the front door open and I assumed it was Keegan coming back in, but when he didn't reply to my "hey babe," I went in the front room to find Liam standing in his pajamas, staring out the open front door! (Can you say scary?) The next 30 minutes were spent putting Liam back in bed after each of the countless times he tried coming back downstairs. (And of course doing this while trying not to laugh is very hard, because I promise you, he's the cutest little rule breaker I know.) Eventually we ended the ridiculousness with a spanking, which solved the problem for that night. Anyways, he's pretty well figured that he can't come downstairs because it blows his cover, (duh!) He seems to be going to bed fine, but we're still finding his light on in the morning and his stuff is all over his room, so he's obviously still waking up in the middle of the night to play, and I'm not sure how many hours of his precious sleep he's missing out on. On my to-do list for this week is to get child safety thingies-bobs for the doorknobs throughout the house, and finally figure out to install that darn baby gate at the top of the stairs. (I bought it almost 6 months ago and it's still not put up.) It also might be a good idea to charge up the baby monitor because we need to put that thing back to good use! I wish I had the kind that you can talk back into and it plays in their room. I would love to see his reaction over getting caught red-handed by us via baby cam! ;)
One thing that Liam is doing lately that I find really cool, is that he has learned which ways we go to get to different places. For instance, the other day we were driving home, and I totally zoned out and missed our turn. Liam immediately was pointing out the window back at our road and trying to tell me something in a language that I have not yet decoded. I realized what he was doing about 15 seconds later when I figured out that we had passed the road we take to go home. That'll make you feel really smart, when your two year old starts figuring things out sooner than you do. Also, I go to a ladies Bible study here on base, and unfortunately Liam hates going to the nursery there. He realizes where we're going when we get on the road that leads to the Watters center. Even though I hate that he dreads it, I still find it kind of cool that he knows directions to places so well. Those are just a few examples of how he's remembering where and what everything is. When we pass the road where Keegan works on our way to the commissary, he points out the window and starts talking about DaDa, and when we pass Sonic he points and starts demanding a drink. It has been neat to see him begin to become familiar with the places we go, to the point of actually protesting when I go the wrong way.
Since I'm doing an update of Liam, I'll go ahead and share some of his new words. Some of you have really vocal kids who talk a lot, so this list may seem like it's not much to be excited about, but Liam has been a late talker, so every time we get a new word I get pretty excited. His new words from this past month are: no, yeah, eat, stop, bye bye, hi, help, treat, pop, cat, & book....I'm sure I'm missing a few. In real life, these words sound more like: ndo, dah, eat, dop, bah bah, hi, hoop, teach, pop, tat, & gook. When Liam was 18 months and still not talking much at all, we got a referral to for him to be evaluated. We weren't really concerned with his cognitive development, but we were starting to wonder why he wasn't talking. They sent a speech therapist to our home to do an evaluation on Liam. The woman who came to our home was so impressed with Liam and had nothing but good things to say about him. When the test results were back, she said that he was at or above age level for everything but expressive speech. (When they do the evaluation they measure all their development, from physcial, to cognitive, to emotional, to social.) She said it's fairly common for some kids to talk later than others and it doesn't mean anything at all. She recommended that we reevaluate at his second birthday just to make sure he continued to make gains. Well at his second evaluation he still wasn't saying much, but again, his scores in every other area were almost all above his age level. He understands everything we're saying, follows directions, recognizes and identifies pretty much anything you ask him to, understands humor, interacts with others well, understands verbs & complex concepts, follows multi-step directions, runs, jumps, climbs, swings, plays, etc...in all these things he excels, but he just doesn't repeat words! (Stinker!) His test scores were still too high to qualify him for speech therapy, but the screener recommended that I take him off base where the standards were different. So at his 2 year well check up, I got a referral from my doctor, and once it was approved through my insurance, I scheduled the evaluation through Pediatric Developmental Therapy off base. After their evaluation they came to the same conclusion: Liam was extremely bright and well adjusted, he was just for whatever reason deciding to talk later than others. Apparently Keegan also waited til after 2 to talk, so I figured it was just part of how he is wired. The lovely therapist we met with off base suggested that he still come once a week to help him along the way. We've now been meeting with her once a week for 4 weeks, and I'm so glad I made the decision to do this. I think Liam is finally at the cusp of his language unleashing, so I don't think all his new words are a direct cause of going to see the speech therapist, however, it has been really helpful for me to meet with her every week. I have learned so many great tips for things to do with Liam at home that will help encourage talking. She basically just "plays" with him the entire appointment, but she incorporates lots of great ways to motivate him to initiate speech. He enjoys going and I feel like it's equipped me with more tools that I can use every day of the week with Liam. I find the whole process of brain development fascinating, so it's cool to talk and discuss Liam's development and the concepts he's working on with someone in the field....and of course it's always fun to hear someone else brag on your kids. :) I really can't wait until he is talking non stop and asking all kinds of inquisitive questions! Everyone keeps saying, "Just wait, you'll be wishing he'd shut up before long!" I disagree! Being two and having lots of thoughts and wants and needs and yet being unable to express them causes lots of anger and frustration for both of us, so I am very glad he is finally figuring this whole talking thing out! Hopefully I can have a whole list of new words to share every week!
That's my Liam update for the month of November! I really like the idea of having a post for each kid every month. It will be a cool way to look back at their changes & growth, and a great way to lock away all the memories! I'm sure all my other posts will be filled with things about the kids too, as they take up about 95% of my life, but it's fun to dedicate an entire post just about them for that moment in time.
A few weeks ago I made up a tray of chicken salad sandwiches for Brandi's baby shower. I cut all the crusts off the sandwiches, and being the frugal and waste-not person that I am, I wrapped them up in a piece of aluminum foil to take home for my dog Dixie. Like most things that make it into my car, the bread crusts got left in the car for a week or so before making their way in to the house. One day when I was fetching some things from the back of the car, I saw them and brought them inside. As usual Liam was looking for something to get into so I gave him the foil packet and told him to put them in Dixie's dog bowl. I figured it would keep him busy for 45 seconds or so, (wishful thinking,) and he usually enjoys having little "helper" tasks to do. I started cleaning up the kitchen and Liam wandered into the play room to play. After 10 minutes had passed I headed to the room to check in on him, and I found him sitting with the foil & bread crusts spread out in front of him, and he was chomping away. He just sat there......eating stale bread crusts......for like, 10 whole minutes. This kid is going places folks, mark my words.
We are in the middle of a fun time in a toddlers life called potty training. (If it didn't come through the interweb, I said that with total sarcasm.) Liam will stay dry pretty much all day if, and only if I remember to take him to the potty at least once an hour. I cannot for the life of me get him to poop on the potty. (If the word poop offends you, please leave my blog now because I assure you, one day it will get a lot worse than that... I have a toddler folks, this stuff isn't always pretty.) Anyways, back to the poop; he wont go on the potty, but he has no problem going in a diaper, in underwear, on the floor, or pretty much anywhere that isn't a container used for collecting excrement. (Like I said...please leave if talking about poop offends you.) So we're sitting there in the living room floor one day last week, and Liam picks up this little plastic toy lion. He's making the lion growl at the other toys etc, and then all at once he picks up the lion, turns him over, points at his butt, and yells "POOP!" He then proceeded to get up and run into the bathroom with the lion, and held the lion over the toilet saying poop repeatedly. You know, I love this kid with all my heart but I seriously don't get him. He wont poop on the potty, but he insists that the lion does. Also, he still only says about 20 or so real words.... how in the heck did I get lucky enough for "poop" to be one of the few? (Boobies is another one he knows, go figure.)
Liam has been in a toddler bed since late August. Keegan and I vowed to let him sleep in the crib as long as he would! He'd been such a good sleeper for the last 9-10 months, going down without a hitch, sleeping through the night, and even waking up and playing in his crib in the morning! He'd actually request to be put to bed for naps sometimes if he was really tired. We just saw no reason to rock the boat. Then he figured out how to climb out of the crib and things changed. He was getting out whenever he wanted to anyways, so we finally made the switch. He actually did awesome with it! He liked being able to climb in and out all on his own., but he pretty much stayed in the bed all night. He went through a few different weird spells, like the week he insisted on having all his shirts in bed with him. We'd turn the light off and leave for the night, but when we'd find him in the morning he'd removed all his shirts from the top drawer of his dresser and had them in his bed. Every day I'd put them back and every night after we left him he'd get them back out. I was so glad we weren't having issues with him getting up and playing all night....but that was a bad idea. Every time I start feeling glad about something, wouldn't you know it, things go and change on me. About 3 weeks ago I was heading to bed around midnight when I saw Liam's bedroom light on. I opened his door and found him crashed out on the floor in the middle of his toys. I thought it was kind of cute, and I put him his back in his bed and shut the light off and went to bed. The next night, we put him to bed at 8 pm like usual. Around 9 I asked Keegan if he heard thumping, and he told me it was the TV. At 9:45 Keegan headed to bed, and upon going upstairs discovered that the thumping was in fact coming from Liam's room. Almost 2 hours after putting him to bed, Liam was still up, having the time of his life playing. (Why he does not play that long independently during the day....I have no clue!) So we make him get back in bed. 4 am rolls around....and Liam is tapping on Keegan's shoulder in our room. Back in bed for Liam.... Ever since that night a few weeks ago, we are now having problems keeping him in his bed. He goes down pretty well, but he knows how to fake it and be quiet so we think he's sleeping. Last week I was doing dishes after we put Liam to bed, and Keegan walked across the street to talk to our neighbor. I heard the front door open and I assumed it was Keegan coming back in, but when he didn't reply to my "hey babe," I went in the front room to find Liam standing in his pajamas, staring out the open front door! (Can you say scary?) The next 30 minutes were spent putting Liam back in bed after each of the countless times he tried coming back downstairs. (And of course doing this while trying not to laugh is very hard, because I promise you, he's the cutest little rule breaker I know.) Eventually we ended the ridiculousness with a spanking, which solved the problem for that night. Anyways, he's pretty well figured that he can't come downstairs because it blows his cover, (duh!) He seems to be going to bed fine, but we're still finding his light on in the morning and his stuff is all over his room, so he's obviously still waking up in the middle of the night to play, and I'm not sure how many hours of his precious sleep he's missing out on. On my to-do list for this week is to get child safety thingies-bobs for the doorknobs throughout the house, and finally figure out to install that darn baby gate at the top of the stairs. (I bought it almost 6 months ago and it's still not put up.) It also might be a good idea to charge up the baby monitor because we need to put that thing back to good use! I wish I had the kind that you can talk back into and it plays in their room. I would love to see his reaction over getting caught red-handed by us via baby cam! ;)
One thing that Liam is doing lately that I find really cool, is that he has learned which ways we go to get to different places. For instance, the other day we were driving home, and I totally zoned out and missed our turn. Liam immediately was pointing out the window back at our road and trying to tell me something in a language that I have not yet decoded. I realized what he was doing about 15 seconds later when I figured out that we had passed the road we take to go home. That'll make you feel really smart, when your two year old starts figuring things out sooner than you do. Also, I go to a ladies Bible study here on base, and unfortunately Liam hates going to the nursery there. He realizes where we're going when we get on the road that leads to the Watters center. Even though I hate that he dreads it, I still find it kind of cool that he knows directions to places so well. Those are just a few examples of how he's remembering where and what everything is. When we pass the road where Keegan works on our way to the commissary, he points out the window and starts talking about DaDa, and when we pass Sonic he points and starts demanding a drink. It has been neat to see him begin to become familiar with the places we go, to the point of actually protesting when I go the wrong way.
Since I'm doing an update of Liam, I'll go ahead and share some of his new words. Some of you have really vocal kids who talk a lot, so this list may seem like it's not much to be excited about, but Liam has been a late talker, so every time we get a new word I get pretty excited. His new words from this past month are: no, yeah, eat, stop, bye bye, hi, help, treat, pop, cat, & book....I'm sure I'm missing a few. In real life, these words sound more like: ndo, dah, eat, dop, bah bah, hi, hoop, teach, pop, tat, & gook. When Liam was 18 months and still not talking much at all, we got a referral to for him to be evaluated. We weren't really concerned with his cognitive development, but we were starting to wonder why he wasn't talking. They sent a speech therapist to our home to do an evaluation on Liam. The woman who came to our home was so impressed with Liam and had nothing but good things to say about him. When the test results were back, she said that he was at or above age level for everything but expressive speech. (When they do the evaluation they measure all their development, from physcial, to cognitive, to emotional, to social.) She said it's fairly common for some kids to talk later than others and it doesn't mean anything at all. She recommended that we reevaluate at his second birthday just to make sure he continued to make gains. Well at his second evaluation he still wasn't saying much, but again, his scores in every other area were almost all above his age level. He understands everything we're saying, follows directions, recognizes and identifies pretty much anything you ask him to, understands humor, interacts with others well, understands verbs & complex concepts, follows multi-step directions, runs, jumps, climbs, swings, plays, etc...in all these things he excels, but he just doesn't repeat words! (Stinker!) His test scores were still too high to qualify him for speech therapy, but the screener recommended that I take him off base where the standards were different. So at his 2 year well check up, I got a referral from my doctor, and once it was approved through my insurance, I scheduled the evaluation through Pediatric Developmental Therapy off base. After their evaluation they came to the same conclusion: Liam was extremely bright and well adjusted, he was just for whatever reason deciding to talk later than others. Apparently Keegan also waited til after 2 to talk, so I figured it was just part of how he is wired. The lovely therapist we met with off base suggested that he still come once a week to help him along the way. We've now been meeting with her once a week for 4 weeks, and I'm so glad I made the decision to do this. I think Liam is finally at the cusp of his language unleashing, so I don't think all his new words are a direct cause of going to see the speech therapist, however, it has been really helpful for me to meet with her every week. I have learned so many great tips for things to do with Liam at home that will help encourage talking. She basically just "plays" with him the entire appointment, but she incorporates lots of great ways to motivate him to initiate speech. He enjoys going and I feel like it's equipped me with more tools that I can use every day of the week with Liam. I find the whole process of brain development fascinating, so it's cool to talk and discuss Liam's development and the concepts he's working on with someone in the field....and of course it's always fun to hear someone else brag on your kids. :) I really can't wait until he is talking non stop and asking all kinds of inquisitive questions! Everyone keeps saying, "Just wait, you'll be wishing he'd shut up before long!" I disagree! Being two and having lots of thoughts and wants and needs and yet being unable to express them causes lots of anger and frustration for both of us, so I am very glad he is finally figuring this whole talking thing out! Hopefully I can have a whole list of new words to share every week!
That's my Liam update for the month of November! I really like the idea of having a post for each kid every month. It will be a cool way to look back at their changes & growth, and a great way to lock away all the memories! I'm sure all my other posts will be filled with things about the kids too, as they take up about 95% of my life, but it's fun to dedicate an entire post just about them for that moment in time.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Brandi's Baby Shower
This post will be entirely dedicated to sharing about my friend Brandi's baby shower. :) I do not take credit for all the things you see in this post. Brandi's shower was a group effort by myself and two other lovely ladies Melissa and Michelle. We had a great time planning and preparing for Brandi's shower. We spent lots of time in the aisles of Hobby Lobby deciding what to buy, (we went kind of unprepared,) lot's of time sitting around my kitchen table gluing tissue paper to things, and a little bit of time smearing cupcake icing everywhere. There were a lot of hours spent making decorations, (mainly the center pieces which are seemingly simple, but extremely time consuming,) but it was all worth it to throw a great shower for Brandi!
Brandi is a dear friend of mine. We met last December at another military wife friend Melissa's birthday party. Brandi's and her husband had just PCS'd (for you non-military folks, that means moved,) to Fort Bragg. Her husband Josh was assigned to Keegan's unit. We hit it off right away and became fast friends. Brandi is so sweet and caring and was always willing to jump in and help with things. She was there from helping us move into our new house on base, to helping me out with Liam when I was sick and Keegan was gone, to trying to help me clean my house when I was pregnant and ready to pop. (I say "try" to help me clean because unfortunately I'm a bit of a control freak and I find it really hard to sit back and let people do things in my home.) Brandi has two sons, 6 and 4, but she and Josh had been trying for a long time to have another baby. Needless to say when she told me she was pregnant, I was super excited for her! I told Brandi I wanted to throw a baby shower for her, and she told me that two of our other friends also said they wanted to throw one, so I just teamed up with Melissa & Michelle, and we did everything together. It was not a picture perfect everything-in-place kind of event... we were throwing things together at the last minute and we were not entirely sure our tissue paper pom poms weren't going to crash on our heads while we ate, but Brandi had a good time and she got lots of cute things & things she needed, so we were all pleased.
Brandi is a dear friend of mine. We met last December at another military wife friend Melissa's birthday party. Brandi's and her husband had just PCS'd (for you non-military folks, that means moved,) to Fort Bragg. Her husband Josh was assigned to Keegan's unit. We hit it off right away and became fast friends. Brandi is so sweet and caring and was always willing to jump in and help with things. She was there from helping us move into our new house on base, to helping me out with Liam when I was sick and Keegan was gone, to trying to help me clean my house when I was pregnant and ready to pop. (I say "try" to help me clean because unfortunately I'm a bit of a control freak and I find it really hard to sit back and let people do things in my home.) Brandi has two sons, 6 and 4, but she and Josh had been trying for a long time to have another baby. Needless to say when she told me she was pregnant, I was super excited for her! I told Brandi I wanted to throw a baby shower for her, and she told me that two of our other friends also said they wanted to throw one, so I just teamed up with Melissa & Michelle, and we did everything together. It was not a picture perfect everything-in-place kind of event... we were throwing things together at the last minute and we were not entirely sure our tissue paper pom poms weren't going to crash on our heads while we ate, but Brandi had a good time and she got lots of cute things & things she needed, so we were all pleased.
We had the shower at our neighborhood's clubhouse.
Pom Pom balls made out of tissue paper, and streamers.
We made the topiary centerpieces with little terra-cotta pots that we painted white, twigs from outside, (thanks Gordie,) and tissue paper balls!
On the menu for the shower was spinach artichoke dip, buffalo chicken dip, chicken salad sandwiches, veggie tray, fruit tray, cupcakes, and punch!
My lovely and generous neighbor had some diapers as a gift for Brandi, and I asked her if we could turn them into a diaper cake for the gift table. It's not the prettiest diaper cake ever, but it was made with love. :) Melissa turned out some cute bows to decorate it with.
Pink and brown swirl cupcakes! We had this idea to do pink and white swirled icing, and we wanted the insides of the cupcakes to be pink. We had no clue what we were doing or how it was going to look, but I'm proud to say that they turned out great! (Even if I was left with a disaster in my kitchen.)
Here's a close up of the centerpieces and the middle of the cupcakes.
The guest of honor arriving.
The guests minus Michelle who was taking the picture.
Melissa was a greedy clothespin thief. *snicker*
Brandi playing one of the games. She was supposed to keep her eyes closed and identify all of the baby items from the basket. It was too easy! Later I read online that another spin on that game is to put the items inside brown paper bags and then have them guess, that would've been more appropriate. You really can't fool a veteran mother who's already got two boys at home, lol.
I got Brandi a boppy pillow and I sewed a slipcover for it. I'd been storing it at my house inside a garbage bag to keep it clean. Since it was awkward to wrap, I was just going to tie a big pink bow around it. At the last minute, I was assembling chicken salad sandwiches and I asked Melissa to tie the bow for me....apparently she thought I meant leave it in the garbage bag. I say that's one classy way to wrap a baby shower gift! ;)
Keegan stayed at home with our kids, and when the shower was over he walked the kids over to the clubhouse and helped us clean up. Liam was snatching cupcakes from the table.
This is my good pal Stephanie and I. :)
Myself, Brandi, & Dakota, (in utero.)
Only around 4 more weeks til Dakota makes her arrival and I am so excited to meet her! :)
Monday, November 7, 2011
Pumpkin Patch, NC State Fair, & a smorgasbord of photos.
During the weeks when Keegan's away working, I always try to make the time go by as quickly as possible. When I have a week full of appointments and things to do, it flies by. Keegan just spent 2 weeks in the field, so I was thankful to have a very cram packed week full of things to do! Between appointments, ladies Bible study, working on baby shower stuff for Brandi's shower, & meeting up with friends, week one flew by. On Friday of that week, my friend Stephanie and I decided to take our kids to a local pumpkin patch. They got to see some farm animals, play around in the play area, go on a hay ride, and pick out a pumpkin to take home. Stephanie and I had the most fun laughing and poking fun at the less-than-friendly farm manager. (We're great upstanding citizens, I know.) But he had such an attitude and it was actually quite funny, I promise. Here are some pictures from our trip:
Bailey and Liam checking out the ponies. Bailey looks so cute in her glasses. :)
This was taken right before the turkey bit Liam's finger. Liam wasn't happy, but Stephanie reassured him that Thanksgiving was right around the corner and that turkey was gonna "get his."
Liam sharing some veggies with me.
Liam and Bailey had fun playing with all the veggies in this little wooden store front.
Raleigh and Liam. This was my best attempt at getting a cute fall picture. The sun was in Raleigh's eyes or it would have been perfect!
Bailey being cute. :)
Stephanie was smart enough to pack snacks for the kids!
My Liam is a charmer!
Liam collecting veggies for his basket.
My kiddies and I. :)
My kiddies and I on the hay ride. Getting two kids to look at the camera is a real challenge. Heck, forget that! Getting one kid to look is a challenge, getting both to look is a miracle!
Steph and Bailey on the hay ride.
Liam enjoying his snacks and trying not to get yelled out by the angry tractor driver, lol.
We had a good time at the pumpkin patch! It really just felt so good to get outside of the city for a little while and breathe some fresh air and sunshine. The weather this October has been absolutely incredible too, so that makes it all the better. We brought out pumpkins home and I put them outside our front door for decoration. :)
Keegan got to come home for Friday night and Saturday night, but he had to be back at work on Sunday. We went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant on Friday, and we decided to go to the NC State Fair on Saturday. Some other friends of ours were also going, so we met up with them at starbucks on Saturday morning and followed them to Raleigh. We had a good time at the fair. Both kids were so well behaved the entire time! Raleigh hung out in the stroller for the first half of our time there, and then I carried her in the moby wrap for the second half. Both kids were kept entertained by all the sights and sounds around them. We took Liam to see all the livestock, ate fair food, browsed all the exhibits, and Liam even got to ride his first ever big kid rides! It was fun, despite the annoyance of trying to maneuver a huge cumbersome double stroller through thousands of fair-goers. Here are some pictures from our day!
Raleigh and Liam were both happy to see their daddy after a long week of him being away!
Liam and our pumpkins from the farm.
Liam pointing to the cows and saying "mooooo!" at the NC state fair.
Keegan pushing our precious cargo through the chaos.
Cullen and Emily look so cute. :)
We got deep fried oreos. Yes, they were delicious.
Liam on his first ride! :) The look on his face was because he was ready for it to start. He loved it!
Raleigh hanging out and being sweet. :)
Keegan and Liam on some random fire truck ride. Liam begged to go on this!
Liam was literally falling asleep before we even got out of the parking lot! We wore him out. :)
We had a great day together at the fair, but we were happy to get back to Fort Bragg and enjoy Keegan's night home. Sunday we missed church because Brandi's baby shower was at 2, and Melissa, Michelle and I still had tons to do! We spent the better part of the morning leading up to the shower decorating, preparing food and doing last minute touches. (I'll be sure to share details of the shower later.) The shower went really well and I think Brandi got some great things for little Dakota! I made it home in time to spend a couple more hours with Keegan before he had to be back. We were all sad to take him back to work, but I did get a chance to see some of their awesome living quarters out at the air strip! I'm not even being sarcastic, it was really cool! In the past, going to the field meant sleeping wherever you could find a place, whether that be on the ground, or in the back of a truck, or sometimes in a tent. But in his new brigade, they have all kinds of awesome equipment, including a massive climate controlled tent! Keegan was out there by himself that night on a guard shift, but he turned all the generators on and gave Liam and I a tour while Raleigh dozed in her carseat. Here are a few snapshots of Liam exploring the tent.
Liam being cute on our way out to the air strip.
Having fun driving while daddy got all the generators on!
Playing with the toys his daddy works on for a living!
Soon he'll be old enough to play spades too!
He wasn't impressed with the comfort level of Keegan's cot, lol.
We got home well past their bed time, but Liam really wanted a snack. This is the face he does when I tell him "Don't smile." Reverse psychology anyone?
It was a great weekend, even though I had to say goodbye to my man for another week.... I have no clue how many pictures I added to this post, but I'm not going to count, because if I do, I'll probably end up deleting half of them after concluding that I have too many. I justify the insane amount of life documentation going on by telling myself that it makes my mom (grandma) happy! Here ya go grandma's! It's even better than happiness in a bottle, it's happiness in a blog!
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