The Best Two Years

Dear William,

Today's your birthday.  It's strange to think that two years ago I hadn't even met you yet.  So much has happened since then!

This picture, to me, captures you entirely.  You are a bundle of energy.  Sometimes people watch you for a while and then ask me, "Does he ever slow down?"  or "Is he always like this?" And I just smile and let them feel sorry for me.  You keep me running and jumping and catching and kissing owies ... and always, always cleaning up after you.

You are one smart cookie.  You know all your colors and shapes and animals and body parts, you sing lots of songs, and you spell my name "M-O-M-O."  You also count to ten in THREE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES - which we didn't even know until you whipped out the Spanish.  (Thanks, Dora!)
We just never know what is going to come out of your mouth, you little parrot.
Sometimes you get very frustrated when you can't do something that you think you should be able to.  We call this your OCD.  I have to calm you down and make you ask for help, so you know that you don't have to do it alone.

You are a boy, through and through, and I'm reminded of this every single day.  Every hanger becomes a gun in your hands.  You spot tractors and buses and "HUGE TRUCKS!" and rocks that I don't even see.  During the school year, we watch the school buses drive by our house every morning and afternoon.

You talk a mile a minute, except when we're on Skype and we want you to talk.  You're bursting with personality, and we love it.  Ward members still come tell me just how much they love you.  My favorite things you say are "Silly mommy!" and "Wummy!" (Yummy!).  I also love how you yell "Yah! Yah! Yah! Yahhhhh!" when you get excited about anything.

Your baby sister adores you.  You love her too and you're a good big brother most of the time - I just have to watch and make sure you don't smother her with all your blankets and toys.
You are teaching us every day, and we love you more than you know.  Thanks for the best two years of parenthood we've ever had.

Love,
Mom

from Liam's point of view

Discovered on my phone camera:

This is why we have kids.

Photoblogging: because I don't even have to leave the couch

I am really loving my Android phone now that I am up in the night (and down all day) needing things to entertain me  - that don't require the use of both hands.

See: Facebook, Great Expectations, Words With Friends, Tetris, Netflix

And, as most of you discovered years ago, it's nice to have a camera on my person at all times so I can record the little moments that make up my life.   Behold:

                           Cutco for Christmas!          

(the best thing is finding pictures that I didn't take)

We had a lovely December, not least because Slice had more than half of the month off work.  My bones stayed intact, my baby is beautiful, and I haven't gone into sugar shock yet. (No small miracle!)  In fact, I'm almost back in my pre-pregnancy pants.
Joy!

Like a Love Song

The other morning while breakfast was cooking we turned on some Vevo.

I had never seen him make any of these faces before....

Wherein I feel like a failure

So it was that just after 10:00 this morning, I had a parenting crisis.

We were at church, Liam and I.  He had woken up so early that he was tired by the time we left for church, which was not a good sign, but I stuck him in the stroller anyway and hoped for the best.

Primary lesson prepared (with handouts!) - check
Tithing - check
Diaper bag with extra books and snacks - check
Arrive early enough to sit on the end near the door, just in case - check
I thought we were set.

During the first Sacrament Prayer, Liam smacked his head on the corner of the arm rest.  I took him out for a few minutes, then came back in to try some books.  He started hollering again.  So I took him AND the bag out and after a lap around the church, I put him down to walk by himself.

It wasn't long before he had walked into a dark, empty classroom and shut the door on himself.
AND THE DOOR WAS LOCKED.
Commence Screaming.

I hurried to the library to ask if anyone had keys.  No.  I ran to the clerk's office.  Someone was there, and luckily, he did.  My son came out with tears streaming down his face, terrified and exhausted and feverish (because he has canines coming in, of course!).  Try as I might, I couldn't get him to calm down.

10:15 and I have to decide.
Stay and try to teach a lesson?  Wait until the end of Sacrament meeting, so I can at least make arrangements for my class?  Take Liam right home and leave them high and dry?
After chasing him around and trying to keep him quiet, I'm not feeling too good myself.  I'm getting light-headed and nauseated and having those oh-so-familiar contractions.


I chose the third option.  After some Tylenol and a bottle, he slept for over 3 hours, which NEVER happens.
I still don't know though.
What would you have done?

Home

When I went away to college, I pined for home - and everyone knew it.  One day a boy I worked with asked me, "Who would want to live in Roosevelt, Utah?  What's so great about it anyway?  I drove through there once and I thought it was pretty ugly."
I responded with something awesome like "The people there are the best people in the world!"

Every once in a while I think of the exchange and it makes me smile again.  I'd like to tell that 18-year-old a thing or two, but I just can't do it.  She was so full of confidence and love and loyalty that I hate to clue her in.

Every once in a while, though, I think she might have been right.  Like this Thursday, when Slice and I drove to Vernal to join the Welcome Home procession for the first Uintah Basin military man killed in action since Vietnam.  It was quite a sight.

photo kifed from here

We got there early (and it was a little late), so we had plenty of time to take pictures, which I will be posting over on the photoblog.

I love that my community rallies for things like this.  Businesses closed for hours - in the middle of the day - and people of all ages flocked to watch the procession without candy or scantily-clad dancers.  It was solemn, short, and, in my opinion, beautiful.

I just kept thinking that I would want the same for my son.

While the Slice is away

I've written about single parenting a couple times before, tongue-in-cheek of course, because I know real single parents have it a billion times harder than I do.  In fact, I feel like I'm just getting a glimpse of what my med-school siblings have gone through.

Fortunately for me, Liam still sleeps about four hours a day between his two naps.  He also watches Word World (only one episode a day! I promise!) on Netflix, which gives me time to clean, fold laundry, cook, blog, read, and/or sleep if it's one of those days.

So far I've made deviled eggs, cream cheese brownies (but from scratch), and chocolate cake with this frosting.  I've also read a few of the Percy Jackson books, watched all the episodes of The Glee Project (Cameron!!!), fixed some of Slice's pants and slippers, and spent lots of time with family.

The day I was dreading the most was Sunday - namely, trying to keep my energetic class and my energetic toddler under control for two entire hours.  By the end of the block I had walked out of meetings 4 times, once because my baby was bleeding from the mouth after being hit in the face with a chair.

Ahhh.


This is some more of what we've been doing:

Reunion pics from Mutti's camera

don't tell Slice!

21 weeks

This picture pretty much says it all ...

A few of his favorite things

paparazzi!

June

Parenting 201

I realized this morning that it's been at least six months since I had to take a shower while Slice was gone and Liam was awake.  Crazy, right?

I didn't know what to do - my 12-month old still cries if I even leave his sight.  Unless he's getting into trouble, which I know right off the bat, because he's quiet even though I can't see him.
(And what is it about toilet paper anyway??)

So I took him in the bathroom and he played with his bath toys while I showered.  Fortunately he finds his bath toys much more exciting when they're NOT in the bath.

What do you do?

Birthday Festivities

We had a family party (plus a few friends) for Liam last Friday night.

As we expected, he wanted to play with each gift as soon as he opened it - so we should have just given him one present a day for a couple of weeks.

Oh well!

His favorite present, hands down, is the baby-size golf club Slice has been waiting to give him for several months.  He is obsessed with that thing.  We like that he will walk with it.

Of course, we saved the best present for last.  Time will tell how much he likes it....

To my Firstborn on his First Birthday

Dear Liam,

Today you are a year old.  I won't say how crazy! it is or how fast time flies! because, let's be honest, a year is a year, and this one has been longer (for me) than many.  It has also brought joy that I didn't know existed.

Liam, you are a remarkable baby.  You bring sunshine and smiles wherever you go - literally.  Every time we go to church, to the store, anywhere, people comment on what a cute, happy child you are.   In fact, I've had many people come to me privately to say you are the cutest baby they've ever seen.  Naturally, I agree with them.

You got your father's charming personality, my boy, which will be a great asset to you throughout your life. You love people, too, and I've said many times that you should have been a youngest child instead of an oldest.  We have to entertain you constantly!  If you ever aren't getting enough attention, you take care of that pretty quickly.  You like to have all eyes on you.

Right now, you're pretty sure that you are the best thing to ever happen to this earth.  If I could preserve this confidence for you, I would.  All too soon you will have siblings, friends, and school experiences that will make you think otherwise.  I only hope you never lose that smile.

It has been a sheer joy to have you in our home.  I don't think there is anything sweeter than watching a child discover the world for the first time.  Every new food, noise, cupboard and animal is exciting again.  You make us smile and laugh and make ourselves ridiculous.  You also make us proud.  The ones who "know" tell us that your attention span (and dexterity) is off-the-charts.  You are smart, and we know it.

We love your kisses and your snuggling, your singing and your games.  You've given us plenty of learning experiences in the last year, Liam; more are certainly to come.  It was no easy task to get you here ... but you were worth it.  Every second of pain was worth it.

Love you forever!

Love, Mom

Today.

Last Memorial Day I looked something like this.


My friend Brittanie was out to visit for the weekend, and I sang the National Anthem for the Memorial Day service at our local cemetery with my sister and her friend, which is no small feat when one's lungs are that squished.

But the organizers of the service neglected to tell us that right after we sang (i.e. in the silence), there would be a 21-gun salute.  So we were standing there with our backs to the guns all innocent-like, and they fired three times, and WOW you should have seen my belly jump.  The rest of me jumped too, but little unborn Liam was definitely not expecting that noise.  I still think that might be what put me into labor exactly 12 hours later.

Angelbaby Strikes Again

For the past ten months I have been living my life in two-hour increments.  (Aside from Sundays, which do not allow such luxury.)  I don't leave the house much -  if I do, Slice stays home - and when we go places all together, it must take less than two hours or we have a fussy baby on our hands.

And all this time I've been wondering, how do moms get anything done outside the house?  Ever?

Then recently, I became aware that not all babies sleep for more than half of their lives.

See ... Liam now sleeps consistently from 9:30 at night to 7 or 8 without waking.  He also takes 2-3 naps during the day, usually around two hours each.  So as a general rule he is awake for two hours, then sleeps for two hours, and we (literally) plan our days around his naps.

Most of the time, this schedule is awesome.   It is simple and predictable, and we are incredibly lucky that one of us can be home with Liam almost all the time.   He hardly ever cries when we put him down anymore; he goes right to sleep and I love it.  But sometimes, it is hard for the very same reasons - life isn't simple or predictable.  We like to visit with family and eat Sunday dinner and go out of town occasionally.  Even overnight!  But if we do, we have to figure out how to deal with him, because he doesn't just sleep anywhere.  Not even in our arms.  He's barely learning to fall asleep in his carseat.

So my question is this:  How do you all do it?  Forgo the naps to get a little more done?  Deal with a fussy baby so you can stay at your parents' a little longer?  Put them down wherever you're at?
Or do your babies just not nap during the day?

(And if they don't, HOW DO YOU STAY SANE?) 

and now we know what to get him for his first birthday...

Thanks Shawna and Casey for the entertainment!

The Health.

The little goblin had a check-up this week, plus shots (boo.) which have made him grouchier and less sleepy than usual.

According to the stats, this kid is in the 50th percentile (or lower) on pretty much everything.

Huh?

He's like, the jolly green giant!  He weighs 21 lbs!   Everyone we know says "Wow, he's big!" whenever they see him!  How is he barely average?

We are baffled, to say the least.
But whatever.

Also, how do you keep your kids entertained at the Dr's Office?  We had two appointments this week - both during his naptimes - and decent wait times for both.  This is what we did.

to Grandmother's house we go

Grandpa and Grandma's house is always more fun than our house.  Just ask Liam.
But especially when there are new baby chicks.....

AND a new baby swing!

A pretty good day, all around.