Merry Christmas

Tree time

We did this way back on the 1st of december but I have not been in the blogging mood. I have read three books so far this month so I used up my free time doing that :)

The annual "we are buying a Christmas tree" family photo.

We ran out of lights toward the bottom, but since then have fixed that problem.
Old St. Nick is the newest addition to our tree
there are so many ornaments on our tree that have a special meaning to the D 3, and here is just one of them.....a red leaf ;)
I must go inhale the pine now!

Meeting the man in Red.

We took little D to Disneyland to meet Santa Clause. It was his first time meeting the big man himself, and while we waited patiently in his log cabin (the fire was blazing and his puppy slept on the hearth in front of it, and there was tables of pastries and cookies that Mrs. Clause had laid out for her Mr.) Liam was excited to meet him. He was pointing and jabbering away but as soon as we approached him Liam turned into a frightened little guy so this is as close as we got to having him on S's lap.

Santa is so handsome, check out those rosy cheeks.

and yes his reindeer are there! It was remarkable how beautiful reindeer actually are and these guys were no exception.
Prancer
Blitzen ( he has always been my favorite, please note how modest he is)
and some of their delish cherries and oats, Santa feeds them well.
We hope Santa is very good to all of you this year!

you

you.

you "rawr" like a dinosaur

you shake your head "yes" or "no" when asked a question.

you prefer shaking your head "no".

you could live off a diet of mandarin oranges and olives.

you can make the sign for milk in sign language.

you crawl to the bottom of the stairs and call out for your sleeping dadda all day long.

you scream like a wild banshee when I try to cut your finger nails.

you walk.

you love to stare out windows.

you sing yourself to sleep sometimes.

you scream yourself to sleep sometimes.

you somehow turn every object into a car and make vroom sounds.

you say (some form of) cheese, chip, oranges , grapes, milk, juice, this, that, momma, dadda, doggie, horse, sock, shoe, book, vacuum and uh-oh.

you whisper Shhhh all day long.

you point out every nose you see while we read picture books together.

you wipe down surfaces with a napkin or wipe.

you ask to see the vacuum every day.

you talk to the vacuum every day.

you cuddle when you are sleepy.

you make my heart grow bigger every day.

you I love.

three

my three favorite places that I have been

one: Niagara on the Lake, Canada. probably the cutest town I have ever seen. It is like a storybook setting.

two: Venice,Italy. The gondola ride alone sold me.

three: Donegal, Ireland. Heaven with incredible accents.

Birthday Boy

Here at the Daigle house we have a strong desire to set up traditions to do with our children throughout the year. We started our first tradition today with the Daigle Rainbow Pancake breakfast. We plan on waking our children up every birthday morning with a colorful stack of pancakes.

Here they are on the griddle ( they did not turn out as bright as we hoped, so they looked a bit easter-y)

And a blue cupcake for dessert. He was way more into being messy this time around. He would actually hold the cupcake up to his nose and inhale the icing.




Happy Birthday my darling messy boy.

12 months

12 months

6 teeth

3 is his shoe size

8 trips to Disneyland

2 airplane flights

1 fever

0 diaper rashes

2 states visited

360 sleepless nights

5 nights of good sleep

1 emergency room visit

4 words

21 pounds

10 trips to the doctor

1 year

Let him eat cake.

A year ago I was spending the evening with a nurse wearing cat eyes and every time she would blink they would rotate aroun

d and it was just not pretty. It was the longest night of my life. She kept asking me as I lay there in horrible amounts of pain, "are you sure you want a halloween baby?" I really did not care and kept saying so because o

bviously I just wanted the labor part to be over as soon as possible. Well God did not want me to have a Halloween baby after all and we pushed all night long into the wee mornings of the first. I remember last year so vividly that it was as if it happened last week rather than 12 months ago. I think since I spent the whole day of halloween in the hospital laboring away that it will always be special to me.

Yesterday we had Liam's first birthday party. Here he is enjoying his first cake experience.

Let him eat cake, indeed.

Daigle Day

One year ago, I started this blog to write little love notes to our baby. I can not believe it has gone by so fast, It feel that I have not written nearly as much as I should have. I have quite simply the best life I could have ever hoped for. Thank you Sam for helping me through this last year, and for being a wonderful daddy. The best ever. Ev.er. And Liam thank you for turning our life upside down and showing us a love for you and each other we never thought possible! Every day you remind me of God's Grace and his mercy, his thoughtfulness and his love.

Liam Xander Henry Daigle

"You are a gift from God" Psalm 127:3

three

three things I am currently worried about

one: my boobs sagging. Once this milk is gone, it might just not be pretty. I will feel so bad for my husband.

two: that I will feel this exhausted for the rest of my life. I worry because if I am then the $4. Starbucks Caramel Frap, with no whip cream that I am going to require everyday is going to get expensive. I will feel so bad for my husband.

three: living in the desert forever. If I do, well then you should feel so bad for my husband!

Hush little baby

Hush little baby

don't say a word

momma's gonna buy you a mocking bird

If that mocking bird don't sing

momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring

If that diamond ring turns brass

momma's gonna buy you a looking glass

If that looking glass gets broke

momma's going to buy you a billie goat

If that billie goat won't pull

momma's going to buy you a cart and bull

If that cart and bull fall over

momma's gonna buy you a dog named rover

If that dog named rover don't bark

momma's gonna buy you a horse and cart

If that horse and cart fall down

you'll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

Nearly 12 months ago I did not actually know any of the song past the diamond ring....

so in the first half of your life there was many different versions.

It was hummed. HmmHmmmhmmm hmmmm hmmmm hmmmm hmmmmm

It was la la' d. La la la la la lala la la la la la lala

And it was improved.

And if that diamond ring.....won't shine.

Momma's gonna drink a bottle of wine.

Fortunately for you, I listened to the song once on the radio, used my quick memorization skills to soak up all the versus and now sing you to sleep with this lullaby every night of your little perfect life.

I love you.

And if that Horse and Cart fall down

you'll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

Three

Three things that make Liam soooo happy he could dance.

1. The theme song to Olivia the cartoon about that adorable little pig.

2. The Marshmallow dream bar from Starbucks that his dad brings him home in the mornings.

3. Watching his daddy dance.

28 candles

I am officially in my late 20's. Shudder. Sigh.

Here are some of my wishes for this year. I wish per candle, just so you know.

I wish to have a baby in my belly.

I wish to move somewhere chillier. With seasons.

I wish to have my metabolism speed up again.

I wish to go to Ireland.

I wish to be brilliant at photography.

I wish to have a baby who will sleep through the night sometime this year.

I wish to get a French Bulldog. Even though I need another dog like I need a hole in my head.

I wish to have better eyesight.

I wish to have lots of energy to play with Liam.

I wish to have a money tree. I know money does not buy happiness, but you can't buy ANYTHING without it!

This birthday might possibly be the best one I have ever had because it is the first one where I was a mommy. Thank you Liam for making me the happiest birthday girl ever. And to Sam for providing the finances to back up Liam's gift giving. Love you both so much.

Pappie.

I never knew either one of my grandfathers as a child. There was once a man friend of my Grandma Henry that I adored as one, but he too passed when I was super young. I am really happy that Liam has my dad as his grandfather. He is the only one he will ever have. And that is going to be so special to Liam. I can not wait to watch him grow up and love this man he will call Pappie.



Pappie was the first person to arrive to the hospital when I was in labor and he waited for 11 hours before heading home (exhausted) at 2:30 in the morning. Liam was born an hour later. Pappie came to the hospital every single day to visit his grandson. He would not hold him, because little newborns scare him, but look how proud he was.


Here they are together last April when Liam was 5 1/2 months. Pappie always talks in his famous Irish accent when he is with Liam. They both have a little dimple on the left side of their face. When we are at home and I show him pictures of Pappie Liam smiles and talks to him. He is always excited to see my dad when we go to his house to visit.




Here they are just last week, Liam 10 1/2 months. It makes me cry just looking at this picture. It is going to be framed and put in his room. I love my dad so very much, and I look forward to collecting pictures of them together.

I love you dad. He loves you Pappie.

three

three hardest moments of my life

one: watching my baby at 3 days old in the emergency room with his arm in a splint so they could have him on an IV and take his blood. Seeing him freezing from dehydration was horrible, being poked and prodded, well you might as well have ripped my heart straight out of my chest.

two: the hundreds of hours I have watched my baby in pain. From his reflux to his stomach/digestion problems this boy has cried writhing in pain in my arms far to often. I wish more than anything his pain could be transferred to my body.

three: The moments when my mind slips off to somewhere ugly and I think of something bad happening to my baby.

All of my hardest moments pre mommy-hood seem so small now. Nothing could ever hurt me as much as seeing my child hurt.

A little Kermit for breakfast.

I told you I loved this frog.

he

he is silly.

he is also very serious
he is a giggling,
drooling baby boy and
he makes my cup runneth over.

Ten months

I am ten months old now!
I love to crawl, I crawl so fast that if you even blink for a second you will lose track of me. I love looking out the window and watching my dogs go poopie outside. I love mimicking the sounds that my mommy and daddy make. I like sneezing, it always makes me laugh. I hate sleeping. Always have, probably always will. I love eating real big people's food. I can feed myself and I eat everything!!
I love toilets, and toilet paper rolls. You can unroll a whole roll just by pulling on it real quick, did you know that? It is so cool. I love the sound it makes when the windows are down when we are driving in the car. I love music. I listen to it everyday. When a good song comes on or when my mommy is singing a song that I like, I just open my mouth and start singing along.
I am so proud of my teeth. All four of them. I like to grab my parents faces, lean in for a kiss and then bite at them. I love my parents. And I love to give kisses. My favorite part of my day is after I wake up and I have my milk, mommy and I call out for the puppies to come into my room to say good morning. I shriek with happiness after having gone all night without my puppies, and they jump into our laps and give me my morning kisses.


These are some of my favorite things now...



My Mommy always pulls this in circles and I laugh my head off.

My balls. I love playing with balls. The baseball one is my favorite. My Uncle George gave it to me. One day I hope to have 232 balls.

These keys were my mommy's when she was a little girl. I play with them all the time.

This is my favorite dog toy. I love grabbing it and playing tug with Knightley. When I put it in my mouth my mommy says Ewwie Ewwie.


This is a cool fish, I like to watch it drive across the floor.
I love sucking food out of pouches like these. So Yummy.


These stackable toys ... I play with them and shake them. I could play with them for hours.



These frogs are amazing. Probably my favorite toys at the moment. I just chew and chew them. Although little do I know that right after this photo was taken the green frog got tossed into the garbage, death due to a puncture wound in its neck. I got carried away one day.

Buzz and Woody. My sleep buddies. I wake up and play with them in the morning.

This little fish is my favorite bath toy. I carry it out of the bath with me and hold on to it all through getting dressed and story time.


This is my favorite book. We read it every day. Daddy and Mommy take turns. I turn the pages. And I slap every single page and laugh.


Power cords. I will try to play with the cords to anything. The vacuum is the only one my parents will let me play with. It is my way of helping them clean.