Our New Savings Plan

Well, the title is a little misleading...it's not really a savings plan, but we really are going to save quite a bit each month now that we are off of formula!! That's right, we are officially a bottle free, formula free house! Josh and I did the math the other day and we can get 6 GALLONS of whole milk for the cost of 1 medium sized formula. It.is.crazy.

Liam has been battling a cold for the past few days and 2 nights ago it took a turn for the worse when his fever rose to 103. 2 trips to the pediatrician later (don't ask) and we were diagnosed with a double ear infection and conjunctivitis of the eye all at once. Well since I was going to be staying home with him for a few days until he recovered, I took the opportunity to drop the bottle and formula. I have heard many different methods on how to go about dropping and switching, but after a lot of thought, we decided to go cold turkey. I figure it's better to have 2-3 days of awfulness than drag it out for an extended period of time.

Day 1, didn't go so great. He was feeling pretty lousy from the ear infection/cold and not really into eating anyway so he literally DID NOT DRINK all day. I was starting to get a little worried that he would get dehydrated, but tried not to focus on it too much. I knew he would drink once he got thirsty. Well, it must have all hit him in the night, because day 2 he woke up, I gave him his sippy cup of whole milk and he started CHUGGING it. Literally chugged around 8 oz. Then when he woke up from his nap he was crying, so I gave him another large cup of milk and he proceeded to chug that as well. AND, ever since then, we are have been great. No fussing, just chugging of milk and eating our food and all is good. He is also feeling much better.

I seriously want to knock on wood writing this post, because I can not believe how easy and smoothly it went. I don't know if it helped that we have had a sippy cup around since he was 4 months old just so he would get used to it, or if he was too sick to notice the difference. Whatever is was, it worked and I hope I'm this lucky whenever we have another little one.

He looks a little out of it in these photos because he had just woken up from 13 hours of sleeping. I guess the sleepless nights of not feeling good finally caught up with him.

Walking and Uh Oh

Liam officially has his first word and it is "uh oh". Of course he babbles up a storm yelling and screaming dadadadada and mamamamama, etc, but we can tell that he really doesn't understand what those words mean. However, "uh oh" is different. This past Saturday, we were all sitting at the table eating breakfast when Liam dropped some of his food on the floor and immediately said "UH OH". I looked right up at Josh and he said to me "did he just say his first word?". We both figured it was a fluke, but then the rest of the morning and all afternoon whenever he dropped something it was followed by "uh oh". It is so cute and I can't get enough of him saying it. Of course, I would have loved for his first word to by mommy, but hey, I guess "uh oh" will have to do :) I tried to get it on video this morning and however with the camera rolling he refused. Finally after about the 10th try I got it.

In addition to saying "uh oh" over and over and over again, Liam's absolute favorite activity right now is practicing walking. We don't have a walker, but we do have a little car that has a high back which he can push and use to walk with. I swear this kid can't get enough of the thing. Whenever he runs into a wall and can't turn around he begins screaming because he wants to keep going that badly. We probably do this activity 50 times a day (and sadly I'm not exaggerating).

"Love on Polly"

I guess somewhere along the way whenever Liam would lay his head down on Polly, I would say "aww, love on Polly". I did not really even realize I was doing it. But then, the other day I randomly said it and Liam (who was not even next to Polly at the time) crawled right over to her and pretended to put his head down on her. It was the cutest freakin thing ever. So, now I naturally say it all the time :)

Here's a little clip from this morning. I was actually hoping to get him standing and cruising along the window but once he sat down and went over to Polly I was able to capture a "love on Polly" moment instead.

Hand, Foot, Mouth Awfulness

Thank goodness we are over the hump of this short lived but horrible virus. This past weekend, Liam started acting pretty fussy which is unusual for him. For the most part he is a pretty content, happy little guy. It started on Saturday afternoon but we ended up going over to the Wittens that afternoon and he immediately perked up so I thought it was just a fluke (I now know that he was probably so distracted by Sadie and all the toys he didn't focus on his pain). Sunday is got worse. He took 2 great naps so there was really no excuse why he would be fussy other than something was wrong. He has been having some constipation issues lately (I know, poor guy), so we chalked it up to that and put him to bed early. Well not even 1 hour in, he woke up crying. This proceeded to happen off and on ALL NIGHT long. At one point, I couldn't even console him or get him to calm down. He finally fell asleep on my chest around 3:30AM and slept that way till 6:00AM.

The next day naps were terrible and he started in with a 101.5 temp, so I immediately called the Dr and a couple hours later we were diagnosed with hand, foot, mouth disease. Apparently our Dr said that Liam's throat was very red, very swollen, and had sores all over it. Guess that explains the fussiness :( He also had a couple bumps on his feet that I hadn't even noticed. The rest of that day and evening are a blur. Liam was in so much pain he cried for about 3 hours straight and there was nothing we could do to console him. It was heartbreaking. After an after hours call to the Dr. we got some tips and medicine suggestions that finally helped him calm down and at midnight he passed out and did not wake up till 7:30 the next morning.

Tuesday was a little better than Monday and Wednesday and today are even better. His fever is gone, he is finally back to eating and drinking and his naps have improved. He did break out in a rash all over yesterday which as unattractive as it is, means the virus is at the end (thank heaven!). He also had a HUGE (yet comical) blowout yesterday that made Josh and I feel like we were living out the scene from Three Men and a Baby. So thankful he is feeling better and is almost back to his happy, carefree self.

Finally felt like playing for the first time in a 24 hour period

His poor little rash :(

Spring weather = playground weather

Yesterdays weather was unbelievable. I was literally sweating in shorts and a long sleeve shirt. On top of that, the sun was shining and it was the perfect day to go to the playground. Since Liam can't walk yet, we like to venture over to the playground near Julie and Sadie because it has a rubber mat (rather than wood chips) and all the equipment is plastic or metal (rather than wood like the one near us). I'm loving Jules being on maternity leave because we literally have playmates almost every Tuesday and Thursday. Luckily when she goes back to work, she will still have Tuesday's off, so hopefully we can continue our outings. I am looking forward to when she is done breastfeeding though, because then we can start to incorporate some drinks into these play dates :)

Here's some pics from yesterday's park adventure. Any of the pics where Liam is staring off to the side or up in the air he is most likely looking at Sadie. He is infatuated with her and thinks she is the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Nona and Captain

This past week some of Liam's favorite visitors come for a quick visit. Nona and Captain were on their way to Charleston for a fun filled weekend with friends, but we were luckily enough to get to spend a few days with them before their adventure began. It was only 2 days, but in those 2 short days, we got to play at the park, have an amazing lunch at Sun in My Belly, take lots of walks, drink a little too much wine, enjoy a mommy/daddy only date night, relax, and just watch Liam play his heart out with his nona and captain. I have gotten REALLY bad lately at forgetting to take pictures, and this visit was no exception. Somehow, I completely forget to take out my camera :( Luckily, though, I do have a couple shots of Liam with his Nona and Captain that we took back in December which I had completely forgotten about. These were taken on an unseasonably warm day in Piedmont Park.