Monday, April 30, 2007

Last Day of the Zoo Pass

Last night we went to "coffee night" with a group of parents that I hang out with. It was at Sara's house this month. Liam played with Elli, Scarlet, Marlow, and Lilly. I got to meet the daddy's of all these little ones, and my friends got to meet Sean. We had a really great time...probably too great. Liam was so stimulated that he didn't want to sleep all night. I tried just about everything. I only got about 3 hours of sleep...ugh! To make matters worse, he didn't want to nap during the day either. I did manage to persuade him to take an hour long nap in the afternoon. I got some rest then too.

Our annual zoo pass expired today, so I was eager to go one last time before we had to shell out more money. Once we both got our brief nap, we went to the zoo. The weather was lovely. Liam rode around in the Ergo carrier as we strolled through the zoo. This was the first time that we actually made it through the entire zoo. Liam's favorite animal this time were the goats. They were being very boisterous and bleating up a storm. He thought they were funny. Zzzzzz...Oops, I dozed off there. Hopefully tonight will be a better night of sleep for everyone.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Breast Pumps are Suspicious

Well, I made to Austin and back! Sean and Liam survived three days without me and I survived three days without them...Liam has such a wonderful daddy!

While I wasn't at the conference long, it was pretty successful. I made about a dozen contacts during my poster presentation and talked to many more people as well. I got a chance to see a little of Austin. The capitol building is beautiful and the riverwalk was also really nice. The weather was perfect: sunny, warm, cool breeze. I also got to see the famous Austin bats...millions of them come out from under the Congress St. bridge every night. My hotel was located right next to where the bats fly.

The trip home was slightly more "exciting" than I bargained for. First, there was the messed-up reservation for the airport shuttle, which forced me to take a taxi. Then there was the traffic jam and the apathetic taxi driver...he seem to didn't realize that the slower he drove the less his tip would be! (I am too used to aggressive Chicago cabbies.) So I eventually made it to the airport an hour before my flight. Plenty of time, right? Wrong! At the security checkpoint my breast pump made them nervous. They completely tore apart my backpack...even flipping through the pages of the board book I bought for the baby. I explained what the pump was and why I needed it. They tested it and all my other electronics for explosive materials. Now I'm not sure about the safety of using the pump for expressing milk...it certainly isn't sterile anymore. Once I got my bag all packed again, I sprinted to my gate and found a bathroom. This was my last chance to pump for about six hours! After I was done, I had just enough time to buy a sandwich out of a machine and scarf it down before my flight boarded! Whew! Needless to say, I really happy to be home now.

Liam was asleep in the car when Sean picked me up. I didn't wake him. When we got home, I carried him in to the apartment. He was groggy at first, but then couldn't stop smiling when he saw me. Liam slept in bed with us all night.

Yesterday we went to the laundromat to take care of the huge hamper of dirty diapers and other laundry. Liam and I took a nap together when we came home. In the afternoon we played out in the front yard for a little while. Then we had to take care of grocery shopping in the evening. Liam went to bed in his crib until 3am. He didn't go back to sleep for a couple hours. Sean and I both tried sleeping with him in the recliner. Eventually he came to bed with me for the rest of the morning. I can see it will be difficult to re-establish good sleep habits.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Missing Him Already

We've had a busy past couple days. Liam survived running all the last-minute errands before I leave for the SAA Conference and I made sure to take him to some fun stuff too. Monday we went to the NINO meeting, which is pretty much just a huge and chaotic playgroup with babies and children of varying ages. The youngest baby there was only nine days old...she was SO tiny! Liam wanted to play with the toddlers and bigger kids really badly. He kept getting himself underfoot and in trouble. I checked the Ergo baby carrier out of the library for the next month to see if we want to buy one. I thought that this might be a carrier that Sean would like to use because he can carry Liam on his back. I tried the Ergo out in the evening when Liam and I took a stroll through the neighborhood and Scott Woods. It's pretty comfy.

Today we visited with lots of mommas and babies at Sara's house. Liam played with Ellie, Scarlet, Marlow, Lilly, and Ben. The first three on the list are all walking and around 12 months or older. Liam holds his own around these older babies. We decided that this playgroup has the most beautiful babies around...of course we're hardly impartial, but they really are super cute!

Now it's off to bed to get some rest...I have an early morning flight.
It's going to be so hard to be away from Liam and Sean for three days. :(

Sunday, April 22, 2007

First Geocache of the Year


Today we decided to make the most of the great weather. After Liam's morning nap, we gathered our things together and went for a stroll downtown. Beforehand, I looked up several geocaches that were in the area. We stopped at three of them while on our walk. We only found one, but had a nice time getting out and about. We also discovered this beautiful Japanese garden on the campus of Lansing Community College.

After our walk, we went to Sean's friends house for a barbecue. Diane and Brian have two mini-shelties. Liam had a ball chasing them around the house! What fun!

Some good news for the record...Liam has officially gone 1 week without Prevacid and he's had no reflux. I think he has finally outgrown the GERD! HOORAY!!!

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Spring Picnic with Friends

Well, today has not been one of the best days...Don't worry, it has nothing to do with the baby and everything to do with the lowlifes that broke into our shed and stole things from us. So when I got a call from my friend Alissa to see if we wanted to have a picnic, I jumped at the chance to get outside and have some much-needed fun!

The weather was just about perfect today: warm, sunny, and a gentle breeze. We met along the bank of the Red Cedar river on the MSU campus. A lot of people were out enjoying the day. Liam was entranced watching the river and the water churn and bubble in the small rapids. He wasn't as thrilled about the grass though. I took of his sandals and tried to get him to walk with me in the cool green grass. He tried to stand on my feet to avoid touching the grass...when he couldn't do that, he stood on one foot and held the other in the air! Later on he accidentally crawled/rolled off the picnic blanket onto the grass and cried for me to rescue him. Sean also tried to show him how fun the grass was to play with, but Liam just wasn't having any of it!

Ashton even demonstrated the joys of sitting in and pulling on grass, but we still had no luck in persuading him. Isn't Ashtyn such a cutie-pie! She looks like a little gerber baby in this picture! As you can see in the last picture - where the kidos are eating biscuits together - Liam is on the blanket and Ashtyn is in the grass. Oh well... :(

We did have a lot of fun! Thank you Alissa for getting us out of our funk! Liam was so well behaved and relaxed. Now that it's warm, I will have to take him outside more often...maybe we can work on his grass-phobia that way.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Milestone Updates

I am pleased to report that Liam's sinus infection is much improved (now I don't have to suck boogers out of his nose with an aspirator before every feeding!). He has also slept well for the past couple nights, so I'm finally taking the time to write about all the things he's accomplished. He's certainly been busy learning these past couple weeks!

Liam is now cruising around the house like a pro. I'm always amazed at how well he moves and gets around. He can go from laying, rolling, sitting, crawling, or standing in a blink of an eye. This week at daycare, they said he practice walking with the furniture most of the day. He also tried to stand with no hands on a supporting object, something I've also seen him do at home. With his new mobility, he has gotten into a lot more trouble lately. His favorite mischief is to pull my cookbooks off their shelf.

Liam is also extremely dexterous and takes great pleasure at feeding himself now. Sometimes I think he eats just because he thinks it's fun to pick up different foods. On Tuesday he surprised me when he snatched up a crumb of salmon that I dropped while eating lunch...I guess fish is his first meat!

Liam has shown increased interest in our pet birds during the past two weeks. He often pulls himself up and stands next to their cage to watch them and babble at them. He likes to watch Sean or I feed them too. When we visited my parents last weekend, he really noticed their cats. He would get so excited that he'd scream and kick, scaring them away. Eventually he figured out that he needed to be quiet and calm to attract the cats.

When Liam plays he often giggles and "talks". His favorite activity is to explore the apartment. In his room he pulls stuffed animals off the shelves and gets into baskets of toys. He plays with the door, swinging it back and forth and watching it move. He's often seen crawling down the hall, dragging his favorite stuffed elephant or fluffy puppy along with him. In the living room some of his activities are: watching the birds, trying to climb the stereo speakers and chairs, playing peekaboo with the curtains, and geting into the bookcases...just to name a few. All of this exploring often leads to bumps and bruises. He bonks his head at least once a day trying some silly feat. Last week he tried to stand using his jumper/swing and had a spectacular fall that thankfully didn't end in tears. Today he pinched his fingers in the doors of a bookcase...twice! You'd think he'd learn, but he keeps going back for more! Some of his favorite toys are the stacking rings and stacking cups. He thinks it's funny when I stack up the cups and then blow them over! Tonight's fun was crawling in and under the laundry basket as I folded his diapers.

Liam often laughs when we laugh. I can tell that he his aware of our moods and conversations. I think he understands a great deal, even though he can't talk yet. I've started using a few simple signs with him to help him communicate. The most important one is "milk" because I am getting tired of him bitting me to let me know that he wants to nurse.

Sometimes Liam gets grumpy, especially during diaper changes. Usually a well placed raspberry or a tickle frenzy will get him out of his funk. Car rides are also grumpy times, especially if he is tired and hungry. I've found that bringing along a stuffed animal to snuggle makes time in the car much easier for both of us. Liam hates nap time, but really needs his naps. He will play and explore until he's super cranky, so we usually take the time to calm down and nap a couple times a day...once in morning and once in afternoon. Sometimes he also needs an evening nap too.

This morning we said good-bye to Auntie Rae. We were all sad to see her go!...She was such a great help these past few days. Thank you Rae!!!

Oops, I almost forgot to mention TEETH! Liam has been cutting teeth at an alarming rate. He's only 8 months and already has six teeth (four upper incisors and two lower incisors). Hopefully this will be all for a while...We've missed out on a lot of sleep since he began getting teeth at 5 months.

Xanadu

This post has nothing to do with anything, other than a brief mention of a film that a friend of mine made. Andy sent me this link to a highlight reel of his short films. His movies are mostly a bunch of random clips from archaeological field schools...but he is a master at editing! Check it out...you might even see me in it!

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

MIA ?

Some of you may be wondering why I haven't posted in a few days. Well, first there was my sinus infection, then there was the trip to Indiana for a couple days to visit my sick grandfather in the hospital, then there was another really bad hive attack (while out of town) that result in a trip to the ER...needless to say, it's been a busy few days. Right now Liam is down for a nap, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to catch up a bit.

Sean had Friday off. We went to look at a house with the realtor. We looked at some more houses on Saturday too. Sunday we decided to drive to Indiana. My grandfather is in the hospital and the family thinks that he is probably not going to make it to his 81st birthday, which is in a couple weeks. We spent most of the day at his side. Several of my cousins and aunts also were there to visit.

Sean came home Sunday evening because he had to work on Monday. I stayed at my parents Sunday night, that's also when I got "hived". Since I was without a car, my mom took me and Liam to the ER. I received more steroids for the hives...they started to fade a little. We all lost a lot of sleep and went to my parents to crash! Eventually, I made it home yesterday afternoon thanks to my sister, Rae. She drove Liam and I back home and plans to stay here a couple days to help out.

Over the weekend, Liam developed a runny nose, so we made an appointment for him to see the doctor Monday night. Sean and Rae took him so that I could rest, since I was suffering from a terrible sinus headache. Sure enough, Liam has a sinus infection too. Now we have yet another round of antibiotics to suffer through! While Sean went into the pharmacy, Rae waited in the car with Liam. She held him on her lap in the driver's seat and let him play with all the knobs, buttons, horns, and such...according to Sean and Rae, he had a blast pretending to drive the car.

Today Liam played with Rae most of the morning. It was so great to have another set of hands around! I was able to get a little more work done on my conference poster. In the afternoon we went out to run some errands. We made a stop at Goodwill and got Liam a few more summertime shirts and a small musical keyboard...this one is a real half-piano keyboard. After our stops, we went to my rheumatologist about the hives...where are still here by the way! She suggested a antibiotic used for malaria called Plaquenil. I need to do a bit of research on it to see about it's compatibility with breastfeeding. Apparently, it takes a long time to see an effect and stays in the body for many months...this makes me a little nervous. But I really need to find a solution for the hives!

Friday, April 13, 2007

YoBaby

This post is a mish-mash of things that happened today. First of all, my hives came back last night. I'm not happy about this...I was going to call the doctor, but the office was either busy or closed every time I had a chance to make the call. I decided to take Zyrtec again, even though it make decrease my milk supply.

Liam at three meals of solids today. For breakfast, rise crispies and bananas (the same as mommy). For lunch, sweet potatoes. Dinner was apple YoBaby yogurt and sweet potato. He also got a snack of rice crispies while mommy and daddy were eating their dinner.

We went out to eat tonight at Old Chicago Pizza to celebrate the second anniversary of Sean being cancer-free. This afternoon Sean drove to the U of M Med center to meet with his surgeon and get checked out. The doctor found nothing unusual on his skin, so we came breath easier again. Whew! At dinner I had my first beer in over a year and a half. I'm not much of a drinker, but I decided that with everything going on, I deserved a treat. Mmmm...Newcastle! Don't worry, in case you're wondering, I didn't breastfeed the baby after drink a beer.

Liam is a little congested too. I will have to keep an eye on him to make sure it doesn't turn into a sinus infection or earache. Otherwise, he is just as feisty as usual. He can get around very well now. If I walk to the kitchen, he will follow me down the hall! He crawls, walks with the help of furniture or objects, and sits up all by himself. He's also figured out how to get back down without falling after he's stood up...it only took him about a week to learn that skill!

House Heartbreak


Ok, this isn't about the baby, but I had to post an update on our house search. Today we went to look at another home. It's in the perfect neighborhood: liberal, well-integrated, centrally located, has a library/community center, etc, etc...The house itself is just about perfect too. Check out the hardwood floors and built-ins in the dinning room!
The only problem is that it's just too small. The bedrooms are too small for our queen-sized bed and antique chests of drawers. The owners finished the attic space to make a nice third room upstairs, but with all the sloped ceilings it's impossible to put bookshelves up there for an office. The house is so cute that I want to move in today! But, I just don't think I could fit our furniture in it...and I'm not sure I'm prepared to part with any of my antique furniture. :( I guess we will put it in the "think about" pile and continue the search. The realtor did drive us by a couple other houses in the neighborhood...These are just out of our price-range, but we'll take a look at them tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A Brief, Brief

Liam went to a full day of daycare today. Apparently he wasn't fussy and even took a long morning nap. Even more surprising, I didn't linger in the morning or go feed him at lunch. So he and I made it the whole day apart from one another. I spent the day working hard on my conference poster.

Daddy brought Liam home after dinner. Liam was a little upset at first, but then was hungry and snuggly the rest of the night. We shared some graham crackers. I devised a game where he got to crawl through his tunnel filled with stuffed animals. For some reason, Liam likes it when I blow in his face...I got lots of giggles from that! He went to bed early tonight, after his long, busy day.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Proudfoots & Proudfeets

Liam was clearly uncomfortable due to teething this morning. So after his morning nap, I took him to a couple of our favorite places to keep his mind off it. First we went to Basically Babies, a boutique that specializes in natural childcare products and cloth diapers. I talked to the owner about sewing diaper covers...I've been putting off finishing some precut covers that I got on ebay. She gave me some helpful tips and scrap PUL fabric to practice sewing on, and also sold me the fold-over elastic I needed to finish the covers.

Next we stopped in World Market to look at all the neat stuff there. Liam (& mommy) love this store because it contains so many beautiful and useful things. The casher at World Market knows us well and gave me a bag of ginger cookies because she adores Liam so much. Liam got a little nibble of ginger cookie too.

Our last stop was Playing Picasso, the ceramic painting studio. Last month I decided that I wanted to make foot prints on a tile for each month until Liam's first birthday. With the help of Sarah, the gal who works there, we managed to get a pretty good set of foot prints. We had a little trouble with his second foot, because he wanted to curl it as I stepped him down onto the tile. Somehow we ended up with six toes on that foot...hmmm...I managed to remove the extra pinkie toe with a little sand paper. Liam has such big feet! He has my long toes and his daddy's wide feet. I can just imagine how hard it will be to shop for shoes when he gets older!

At home, I played with Liam most of the afternoon. When daddy came home, he spent some time with Liam while I sewed one of the diaper covers. I also squeezed in a little time to work on my poster for the upcoming SAA conference. During Liam's bath tonight, I was struck by how long his arms and legs are now. He no longer has the physique of a baby, he looks like a toddler already!

Monday, April 9, 2007

"Children acting up in public will be lightly stunned"

Don't worry folks, it's just a line from a "Simpson's" episode that reran this evening. It was the episode where all the babies go crazy and wreck Springfield, so an angry group of single and childless people start an initiative for anti-family legislation. Raising a family is already hard enough in the US. But I think that was the point the writers were trying to make.

With all the illness, home-buying stress, and everything else going on in my life at the moment, I was reminded that I needed to find my happy place tonight. Here it is...

In other news, Liam got his sixth tooth today.

Pregnant in America

A friend of mind sent me a link to this movie: "Pregnant in America". It's a documentary about how pregnancy and childbirth have been problematized and medicalized in the US. I hope that this is one step towards natural childbirth practices becoming more mainstream. Check it out.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

Dreaming of a White Easter

This morning there was snow on the ground when Liam and I went to the 7:45am Easter Mass (you gotta love that Lake-Effect, NOT!). Daddy stayed home because he was still really sick and coughing. Liam was pretty good at church. He got to flirt with a 17 month-old little girl when we walked around in the foyer during one of his restless periods. Her mommy was impressed by home well Liam gets around (with a little help from mommy) for only 8 months old. We got home around 9am and Liam went down for a nap. Shortly after, grandma Kathie and grandpa Mike arrived from their hotel. My folks came up to visit yesterday to help us out while we were all sick. It was so great to have a couple extra hands and sets of eyes!

While Liam napped, we put out his Easter basket, some plastic goose eggs, and a bath-time book from grandma and grandpa for him to find. We also hid a huge stuffed ducky that my sister sent in his play tunnel. Liam found the "Little Quacks" bath-book first and spent quite a while chewing on it. Then he discovered some eggs and the basket. My camera and camcorder batteries all died unexpectedly while I was trying to capture the moment. :( So I went to charge the batteries and fix Liam a snack, but much to my chagrin, he found the ducky before I could get fresh batteries! He had a ball crawling through the tunnel to the ducky. Later he played with it, nuzzled it, and crawled over it...too cute!

The rest of the day involved feeding, napping, talking, and playing with the grandparents until they had to go home. One of Liam's favorite toys has been his Leapfrog "computer". He got tired of it a month ago, so I put it away for a while and then brought it back out two days ago. Now that he can pull himself up, he loves to stand next to it and dance to the songs it plays when he pushes the buttons. In other news, we also got word that my grandfather is back in the hospital. We hope we can go visit him once we are no longer sick.

Poop Doesn't Happen (for 4/7/07)

Ok, this is going to be one of those posts that my son will hate me for when he's old enough to read it. BUT...because I had to feed him formula all day on Friday, Liam was terribly constipated on Saturday. His poor digestive system just isn't used to the stuff in formula. It was so bad that he would scream and cry uncontrollably after every feeding. I've never seen him so upset. I tried aloe juice, fruit juice, water, warm baths, massages, even petroleum jelly on his bum, and still he cried in pain. I've heard stories from other moms about how there baby was constipated for a week. I can't imagine that with Liam, he's not the sort of baby that can handle being even a little bit uncomfortable...he is very sensitive.

Thankfully, I got the chance to do a little research on the steroid that I am taking and found out that it metabolizes within 2 hours of taking it...with this knowledge, I decided it was better to resume breastfeeding than to continue with the formula. For all our sake!

By late evening, he finally passed some poo! It was a triumph! He still had a few more painful bowel movements before all the formula came out of his system. In retrospect, I'm SO glad that I was able to breastfeed him since birth. I can't imagine changing formula-poo all the time! Boy is that stinky stuff! It could be used for biological warfare...really! Ok, I'm done. No more poo talk for now.

Friday, April 6, 2007

Sick, sick, sick...

We're all really sick. Yes, again! This time with bronchitis, or something. On top of that, I had a terrible allergic reaction and had hives all over last night...even in my throat. Since I'm delirious right now, I'm just going to list a few details from the past two days.

Thursday:

* Liam slipped while trying to stand with the end table and bruised his forehead pretty bad.

* Liam ate grated carrots for the first time. He's gotten really good at feeding himself small things like rice crispies and grated carrots.

* Liam cut his FIFTH tooth (it may have actually came out on Wednesday, but I didn't notice it till Thursday). This one was his second incisor in the upper right side.

* Sean came home from work sick with bronchitis. I came down with bronchitis and hives in the evening.

Friday:

* I called my doctor first thing in the morning. Got chastised for not going to ER last night. He gave me a steroid shot and some pills too. He called Liam's pediatrician, who said it was still ok to breastfeed. I talked to the pharmacist, just to double check. He said to pump and dump while taking the pills and feed Liam formula in the meantime. I decided to pump just to be safe.

* Liam not happy about going cold-turkey off breastfeeding.

* We all went to look at some houses with our realtor in the afternoon. Pretty disappointing. Liam slept through most of it...thank goodness!

* My accident prone boy pinched his finger in the door of a bookcase just before bedtime. Some tears, but he's ok.

Now I'm going to go collapse...goodnight.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

A Full Day of Daycare!

Today was both relaxing and anxious for me. Liam went to his first full day of daycare, without me hovering around. I actually went home and worked while he was there. I felt so relaxed being able to work as I please, but also very anxious wondering how he was doing...especially since he's had a rough couple of days. I called at noon to check in. They said he was playing well and had taken a short nap, but was not eating from the bottle. It figures! So I told them to feed him the pureed bananas that I packed in his bag and that I would come breastfeed him in an hour.

When I got there, he was being rocked by one of the daycare providers. As soon as he saw me his little legs started kicking like crazy. He buried his face against me when I picked him up. I could tell he was anxious when I fed him. Afterwards he seemed better though, and went back to playing. So I quietly slipped out so that he wouldn't start crying.

I decided to leave him in daycare till 5pm. So that Sean and I could enjoy dinner alone when he came home from work. After our Cajun-style rice and beans, Sean went to bring Liam home. Liam was SO happy to see me when he got home! We had a tickle and raspberry fest to make up for being separated for most of the day. I also gave him a nice bath and a massage. Afterwards, he cruised around the apartment getting into everything - like it was all new to him all of a sudden! He especially wanted to help me feed our pet birds and kept trying to climb up to see them.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

Happy 8-Month Birthday!

At 8:46am Liam turned 8 months old. What were we doing? Sleeping together in the armchair. Why? Because Liam had spent most of the night before awake and crying, no actually it was shrieking. Sean and I were nearly at our wits end! There was nothing noticeable wrong with him: no cough, no fever, no rash, no wheezing, ok maybe a little congestion, but certainly nothing worth shrieking about! I guess I just have to file this one under "teething" and move on.

Liam's crankiness continued throughout the day, despite my best efforts. I don't normally let Liam watch TV, but he did settle down and stay happy while "Sesame Street" was on. This gave me a short enough break to recharge a bit and fix some breakfast for myself. Liam ate a breakfast of banana slices and rice crispies. He refused to nap most of the day. I did manage to get him down for a little over a half hour around noon. When he woke up we got things together and went to Sara's for a playdate. Today he got to play with Elie, as well as 12 month old Scarlett. Scarlett's mommy's name is Lindsey. We all talked and let the babies play till around 4:30. Liam was surprisingly mellow - I expected he would be happier when we went out for a bit.

He finally fell asleep on the short drive home. The weather was so sunny and warm, that I carefully put him in my Moby wrap carrier and went for a walk around the neighborhood with Sean. It was so lovely out...We just had to enjoy it, since it's supposed to snow tomorrow. The winds started to pick up as we got home. Liam also stirred and woke up. He was surprised, but happy, to be outside.

Once home, I gave him a bath. I also let him have a little time in the nude after his bath...another thing that I rarely let him due. Liam loves to be naked. Of course I took some pictures...but they won't be posted here!!! :) For dinner he ate a half a container of pureed carrots and played with some saltine crackers. Later I got out my violin for the first time since he was two months old and played a few songs. He watched me very intently and then tried to get into my sheet music and violin case. Sean and I played with Liam and talked about houses the rest of the evening. Let's hope tonight will be more restful for everyone!

Monday, April 2, 2007

My Heritage?

Ok, this post doesn't have anything to do with anything, but I just had to share it! A couple days ago I ran across a web page called myheritage.com. In addition to doing the usual genealogical stuff, they also featured this program that compares your picture to celebrities to see who you look like. I just had to try it!

Here are the results. Much to my surprise Molly Ringwald, Angelina Jolie, and Gewnyth Paltrow were among my look-a-likes, even using this rather goofy portrait from church. I also imported a photo of Sean to see who his look-a-likes were. One of his top scorers, James Spader, has always been one of my movie star crushes! I'm not sure what all this means for Liam's looks. I don't think the face recognition program will give you results with a baby picture!

Today Liam and I did a little shopping. I finally got some baby-safe items for around the apartment...I covered open electric plugs & put up a gate to block off the kitchen. I also found a huge deal on some mesh fabric to use as a baby carrier for the summer months. It was even my favorite color, turquoise.

After Sean came home, a realtor came to visit and get started looking for homes for us. Jim seemed like a really nice guy. Hopefully he will find us something great! The rest of the evening Liam practiced being a couch-potato with daddy...doesn't he look so big today! I can't hardly believe how big he's gotten!

Sunday, April 1, 2007

April Fool?

As I figured, Liam's good sleeping streak ended last night. There was lots of tears and crying, and sleepy parents in the morning...sigh...I just take comfort in knowing that the lack of sleep is all completely normal, at least that's what this "Mothering" article tells me.

There is no doubt that Liam is my son, because now that he is mobile he is incredibly accident prone. First thing this morning he fell over while trying to stand up using his new piano. As luck would have it he caught his upper lip on either the toy or his little teeth and busted it open! I picked him up when he started to cry after the incident and cuddled him. I realized his lip was bleeding after I saw the blood on my arm. I checked to make sure that it didn't require stitches and he settled down in just a minute. Poor little guy!

Sean decided to take vengeance out on the piano toy and for the next half hour proceeded to try to take it apart. His goal was to remove the legs of the piano so it would sit flat on the floor. In the end, the piano won...it was just engineered with too many dang little screws! Afterwards we had to scour the living room carpet for any screws that went AWOL. Now my junk drawer has two more loose screws...I'm not sure what this says about me!

Later this morning we attended the wedding of our friends, Dan and Annie. Sean was the best man and I was the photographer (complete with baby strapped to my back). Sean held Dan and Annie's little boy, Aidan, during the wedding. It was a super short wedding, as they had to fit it in between the Palm Sunday masses.

I had invited some friends and their babies over for a playdate this afternoon, but everyone was under the weather with colds. So instead we continued our house search, went to a couple of open houses, and also made a stop at the library. Upon returning home, we discovered that Liam had had a massive diaper blowout...his second today! A flurry of baby baths and laundry ensued to clean up the mess. I even had to spot clean the car seat! Blowouts have been happening a lot recently. I don't know what's going on...I still use the same prefold diapers and covers. If anything, the diaper covers are snugger fitting now than they were a month ago, so there should be less problems, right? Not only is the poop filling the diaper and cover, but also making its way out onto his clothes. Our diaper service ends on Thursday of this week. I will be on my own to wash diapers after that...I'm certainly not looking forward to it if the blowouts continue!