Playroom!

We are ALMOST done with our playroom/guest room and I could not be more excited. I keep telling everyone how much Liam is going to love it, but honestly I think I might love it more. Of course, in my dream home I would have a huge basement for a MUCH larger play area, but for now this is the next best thing.

First, we have had some water/moisture issues in our basement before, so we decided to pull up all the hard wood and replace with tile. This way, the floors won't bubble up if any moisture gets under them. Next we decided to repaint the room. We chose "Forrest Stone" which is a nice greenish/gray to lighten up the room. We then had to decide on the carpet. This was a tough one because we knew whatever we chose, it would get a lot of wear and tear. AND, in addition to that, this room is going to double as a guest room so we wanted to make sure it was some what inviting and not just a huge Elmo carpet. In the end we went with FLOR carpet. It is great because each square is removable and can be washed or replaced if damaged. In addition, each square is pretreated with a stain resistant...perfecto. Last but not least we added a bookshelf and a cubby compartment for extra storage.

We just ordered a queen sofa bed that is going to go on the back wall as you can see in this last picture, and we are going to mount a flatscreen to the wall above the cubby unit. After that, aside from some pictures on the walls, it will officially be complete!

10 months

So, per usual, I'm a week late on posting Liam's 10 month update. Oh well, at least I didn't forget about it completely.

Last Monday Liam turned 10 months old. 10 months people! Where the heck has the time gone. I'm not joking when I say it feels like a month ago that I was at the hospital in the worst pain of my life. And yet here we are, February, and in 2 months it will have been a year since "biggy" was born. Crazy. In 2 more months we will no longer have a baby...we will officially have a toddler!

This age has been very fun and challenging at the same time. For one he is insanely mobile (which I realize will only get worse once he is walking), teething up a storm (cut bottom 2 teeth a month ago, cut first top tooth this weekend and 2nd top tooth is days away), and working on table food skills (see prior post). However, at the same token, he is such a blast, loves to mimic sounds, into screaming at the top of his lungs (which I find very cute), and gets beyond excited to see mommy, daddy or polly (I'm talking HUGE grin, legs and arms start flailing).

At 10 months, Liam is:
- Easily pulling up to a stand on EVERYTHING without any hesitation
- Can climb stairs by himself
- Cruising on furniture
- Taking 2 naps which lately have both been about 1 1/2 hours (fingers crossed)
- Sleeping 7PM-@5:45AM
- Has 3 teeth (almost 4)
- Loves to play with any kid that is his age or a couple years older (truly doesn't matter who)
- Has grown a VERY strong attachment to his blankie.
- Favorite table foods: pancakes, fries, eggs, crackers and cheerios (oh so healthy, I know)

And here's the best I could do with pictures. These month pics are becoming IMPOSSIBLE. Fortunately I was able to get him to sit still for one second while I took a pic with Polly. Unfortunatley he just would NOT smile.

Love this picture. They are both looking at me like "Why do we have to do this again?"

Polly is such a good girl!

The ONLY smile I could get out of him. Shocker it was while he was standing (his favorite activity lately)

This one is great. Pretty much sums up a 10 month old. Took his sticker off right away and wanted to play with it.

Had to bring in reinforcements to distract him.

Pancakes and French Fries

These are Liam's two new favorite foods, and sadly I can't say they are very nutritious. Yesterday our little family had a great eating day. Not only was the food an indulgence from morning to evening, but Liam actually ate a LOT of table food. This is a first for him. Prior to yesterday, he pretty much only ate cheerios, eggs and puffs. I really haven't been worried or stressed about it because I know that one day we aren't going to have a 14 year old son who doesn't eat. He will eat when he is ready, so we still continue with the baby food and just keep offering other foods. Turns out he was ready yesterday (and I don't blame him given the awesome meals we had).

First, our morning started out with blueberry pancakes made by Chef Daddy. We've made pancakes for him before, but for whatever reason, he was obsessed with them yesterday. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with the maple syrup I dipped them in before giving them to him ;).

For lunch we wanted to get out of the house. Since it was too cold to enjoy being outside yesterday, we def did not want to be cooped up all afternoon, so off to chick-fil-a we went. It was fabulous. Liam loved watching all the kids and could not get enough of the french fries (who can!). He would literally kick his legs and his hands in the air when we would give him another fry. It turned out to not only be awesome food (per usual), but it was a lot of fun to watch Liam be thoroughly entertained. We don't usually go out to eat because Josh and I figure it's an easy way to save money. Ever since Liam was born we rarely go out, unless it is for a night out. HOWEVER, yesterday may change things....we both talked about how nice it was to relax and not have to clean up after Liam for a change. Thinking lunch outings may become a regular weekend thing!

Fast forward to dinner....some friends of ours had a bunch of people over yesterday evening for some pork butt that was slow cooked on the Big Green Egg all day. It was out of control good. On top of that there was homemade mac n' cheese (made by yours truly), homemade cole slaw, corn bread, and all kinds of delicious appetizers. Liam dove into the crackers and ate 2 whole ones (which again is big for him). He then proceeded to eat the heck out of some mac n' cheese!

Aside from the food, we had a great relaxing day followed by fun company in the evening. Looking forward to many more weekends like this to come!

Daddy's Home

Josh got home on Sunday evening and we are so excited to have him back! Liam was very excited and kept squealing when Josh walked in...it was pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. Things actually went a LOT easier than I thought they would. Liam was great and the only real tough times were the mornings. He has started waking up around 5:30 lately and doesn't go back down for his nap till 9, so all that time in the morning without help can be tough (especially when I myself am dog tired). All in all though, Liam and I had a lot of fun trying some new and different activities together. Hopefully the next trip in our family though, is a min-vaca for yours truly. Josh came back really refreshed and I think it would be great for me to have a little weekend away. The last time I had this was in November and even then it was for a wedding so there wasn't a lot of "me" time. Maybe I can convince some girlfriends to take a little weekend with me ;).

Also, since Josh got home, we decided to try a new morning routine. With the new early wake times it was really wearing on the both of us, so we have now decided to rotate mornings with the 6-7 morning shift while the other one sleeps in. I have NO idea why it took us this long to do this. So far it has been fabulous! On my days, I'll get Liam out of his crib around 6 (even though he wakes at 5:30ish, we think that is WAY to early for him to actually get out of bed, so whether he plays/sleeps/cries, we will leave him in his crib until 6), we will play and watch some videos until 7 and then we get Josh up and we all have breakfast together around 7:15. So far this week I have slept until 7AM twice, and as sad as this may sound, I can honestly not remember the last time I did that. Hopefully as Liam gets a little older he will start to sleep in longer and we can all get up together in the future. For now, this is the best thing for all of us!

2 More Days!

So excited that we only have 2 more days till Josh/Daddy gets home! All in all though things have been going really well (I better knock on wood). The only real issue is that Liam has been waking up super early the past few weeks and its hard to not have help when you are so tired. On top of that, for some ungodly reason, I have been waking up at 3:30/4:00 the past couple of mornings and can NOT get back to sleep. I don't know what my problem is. I'm assuming when I wake at that hour, I start to get anxious/nervous that Liam will wake up earlier than usual and that in turn keeps me from falling back to sleep. On top of that, tonight I've got a sitter so that I can go out for Liz's bday, so I'm sure it will be another night of minimal sleep. Oh well, just a couple more days and then Josh will be home and I can relax again :)

Liam and I have been having a lot of fun.....the past few days we have:

- Gone to the park with Julie and Sadie (Liam is more than obsessed with Sadie)
- Gone to the field to throw the ball for Polly (again, this is another favorite activity of Liams...he could watch Polly catch the ball for hours)
- Played with all the toys in the house a million times over
- Had scrambled eggs for the first time
- Sat on the porch in the beautiful weather and watched the cars
- Had many walks
- Played in the bath a little longer than usual
- Pulled up to a stand on EVERYTHING. He just started standing in his crib a couple days ago and since then can't get enough of standing wherever he is
- Climbed the stairs a million times over
- Played in Polly's cage (unbeknownst to mommy)
- Watched our first Sesame Street (he could take or leave it except for Elmo...why are kids so obsessed with Elmo? Cracks me up)

Today we have to go to the grocery and then we are hoping to meet Auntie Tina at Piedmont Park later if the weather holds up. Tomorrow is a big day because not only will Liam be 10 months old , but we are going to Northside Hospital in the afternoon to meet Jon and julie's new baby girl!!

More updates on how the rest of the weekend goes after Josh gets back on Sunday!

Saying Hi to Daddy!

Relaxing on the porch watching the cars and runners

Can you tell what I had to eat?

What?! Am I not supposed to be in here?

EARLY morning Sesame Street

Flying Solo...Wish Us Luck

Liam and I are going to be flying solo for the next four days. We did it once before when Liam was much younger and everything went great. The main difference, however, is that a) Liam is now mobile and b) he only takes 2 naps now (vs. the 4 he took the last time).

I know I can handle the days since I already do that twice a week by myself. It's really the evenings I'm concerned about. (And specifically its the third, fourth and fifth evening). Most evenings when Josh gets home I'm very ready for a break!! So, I can only imagine that by night three I'm going to be more than ready for him to get back home :)

So, fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and is manageable. I will be sure to give you all an update on how it all goes, as well as how excited I know I will be to have the sitter I set up for Saturday night so that I could enjoy a soon-to-be much needed night out!