My Valentine

No time for the mush or the gush. And not that you would want to hear all about how wonderfully happy my husband makes me.....(refer to post last October).
So in short he is my love, my life, my Valentine. We have spent 5 spectacular V'days together. This year as my husband was driving me to McDonalds to surpirse me with an Oreo McFlurry (my absolute favorite, thanks to my pregnancy with Liam) we were recalling some of our favorite V'day memories. Both of us agreed that the first was one of our favorites. It was my first Valentine's ever that I had someone to do something special for. I had a trip flying around for 4 days before I would get to see him in Boston. I was not going to have time to shop for anything once I got there, so I collected things around the country to decorate his apartment with. I loaded up on lots of goodies, candles, streamers, A Heart shaped door mat (huge), and a bunch of confetti. I smuggled all of this in extra brown paper bags along with my suitcase, tote bad and purse. After all the door mat was HUGE. So I arrive in Boston for V'day. And I sit patiently at Sam's apartment waiting for him to get home from work. I had a few hours remaining and I did not want to decorate until right before he would arrive since there were so many candles to light. We were also going out to dinner and I had flown all morning so I was delaying my shower as well......
So 4 hours earlier than expected there is Sam coming through his front door! He surprised me with getting off of work early. And Im screaming NO NO NO You can not be here yet! No NO NO! I make him go back to his car and I tell him to wait for a few minutes and then come up. I open the front door throw the mat on the ground and hurry back inside decorating as fast as I can and then running into the bathroom to get ready. Looking back Im not sure why I went to shower right then but I did, and not knowing that I had locked the dead bolt on the front door I leave Sam stuck outside. I take my time getting ready all the while thinking Sam is in the apartment thinking Im so sweet for decorating it. I get out look around Sam is not in the apartment. I realize he is locked outside. With Lunch. With what was my favorite Teriyaki Sandwich for lunch. With what was a Hot Teriyaki Sandwich for lunch. Now it was a cold one. And poor Sam was out there for close to an hour thinking that I was mad at him and had locked him out on purpose! haha
Anyways it is a funny memory for us. And 5 sweet years later, so deliciously sweet they might as well have been dipped in chocolate, we still have crazy moments like this together. And I love him more every year because of them.

Liam's dedication

Every day Sam and I pray over Liam's life. We pray that the Lord will be his vision, his path, and his guide. It was important for Sam and I to stand in front of our family and Church family and dedicate Liam to the Lord. Making a public profession of our promise to God to raise our son to know him and his word and the sacrifice that was made for each one of us.

I will miss this....

When I am just sitting down to put my feet up after spending the last 20 minutes putting my baby to sleep, and he wakes up again crying.
When I just get Liam cleaned up and dressed and he spits up and he needs an outfit change after 5 minutes in the other one.
When I have him completely bathed and I am wrapping his towel around him and he pees on himself.
When he will not stop screaming, no matter what I do to calm him down.
When I am up for the 3rd time during the night and I am so tired I can not see straight.
When I am juggling a screaming baby in my arms while I try to make myself a quick something to eat.
When I have bounced, rocked, and walked, Liam and I know longer remember a time before back pain.
When I am just sitting down to put my feet up after spending the last 20 minutes putting my baby to sleep, and he wakes up again crying. And again crying. And again crying.

I just think to myself.....I will miss this....

I know one day Liam will be a little boy, teenager, young adult, who will not need his mommy to coax him back to sleep and ...I will miss this....
He will no longer need me the way he needs me now. And at the times when it seems like this is wearing me down, and I have run out of patience, I just think...I will miss this...
So as hard as it may seem to put him to sleep or have him out of my arms long enough for me to do something (like eat) or my back is breaking from all the bouncing, I am happy to have this time with him. Happy to be his mommy. Happy to be his comfort, to be his familiar, and to be his Happy.
Happy that he needs me, because one day he will need me in a different way and I will miss this time when he was small enough to cradle in my arms and all he needed was to be rocked to sleep.

I will miss all of this.

Liam' ; mois de s troisième

Liam's THIRD month =),
This little bambino is growing like a weed. His hair is coming in and although we can not tell exactly what color it will be yet, we know for sure it feels like peach fuzz and a lot of head rubbing goes on in this house. His eye color is still a bright blue and although we do not know if this will be his permanent eye color, we know for sure that as of right now they are the exact same color as my father's. He likes to keep his hands and toes clenched tight. He loves his bath time with his rubber ducky and smiles while you wash his hair. He will have conversations with you with expression in his coo's that lead you to believe that he knows exactly what he is talking about. His ears stick out and I like to nibble on them. His cheeks are so plump that when he has his head down they hang down and touch his chest. His belly is so round he looks like a miniature Santa Clause. He likes to kick all blankets off of him, grab fist fulls of mommy's hair and pull, he loves music and is the only person on earth who would want to listen to me sing for extended periods of time.
At three months he is 11lbs 7 oz. And I am expecting my muscles to start showing any time now :). His bedtime is around 7 and he is pretty good about going down for it now. It used to take us three hours to get him down for the night and now the longest it has taken is 1 hour. Once he is asleep he has a nice 6 hour sleep wakes up eats and then goes back down anywhere from3 -5 more hours and then eats again and has another quick little sleep. Naps during the day are currently what he is fighting us on. He just does not want to close his eyes and miss out on, the car ride, the stroller walk, the green paint on the walls in his bedroom. He wants to know what is happening everywhere. And oddly enough, at night he sleeps with his bedroom door closed but once it is day time he wont sleep unless the door is open. Whatever works at this point is what we go for. He is not a very large baby and still fits into some of his 0-3 month clothing but we are adjusting his wardrobe to the next size up. I can not believe that a quarter of his first year has blurred past us. I am not sure why I am bad at time management but I really must be because I can not seem to write more often. Even now the bebe is asleep in my arms as I type this.

New Year, New Month

Two months, BABY!
Oh how he has grown! Literally and figuratively. He is still a pretty "petite" baby as the doctor says. He now weighs 9 lbs 11 oz. Just one oz shy of being exactly three pounds heavier than his birth weight. This week I am packing up his newborn clothes (tear) I have been squeezing him into them these past few days just so he can wear them one more time each. He helps me out by dirtying his clothes which often leads to multiple outfit changes a day. Three days ago we went through 5! I am sad to see his little clothes leave his drawers and closet but I am sure his knees will appreciate being able to stretch out again!
Liam is now smiling and cooing quite often. And it just warms my heart how sweet he looks and sounds. There is truly nothing better in the world than walking up to your baby and see his smile when he recognizes his mommy and daddy! I love watching him interact with Sam. Every morning when Sam gets home from work they have daddy and baby time. And at night Sam feeds him his evening bottle so they can bond together. And yes my man helps me put him to sleep at night. Has gone with me to every doctor appt. Wakes up during his evenings off to help change Liam. I know this post is about Liam but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate my helpmate. I do not know how any mother could do this alone.
Some days are truly smooth and wonderful and I feel like my head is screwed on tight again. Today being one of them. Others take us on a whirlwind blast to the first days home. Yesterday being one of those. Every day is so entirely different than the last and once we think we have a routine going with him, Liam likes to change his mind and throw us for a loop.
We like to refer to him as our Zero to Ten baby, because he can be totally at peace and then when he wants something he goes straight to a 10 crying. We stole the term from our pediatrician who pegged his personality right away with this term. And today when describing his lack of sleeping during the day she said he has a hard time going down when things are going on around him because he is "nosy". Again she hit it on the nose. Liam acts like he can't bear to close his eyes in fear he will miss out on something. I find God's humor in this and smile along with him, well try to smile along because gosh I am exhausted!
Well I hear the little one stirring so I must go pick up the "nosy" one and fill him in on what he has missed this past hour.

O Holy Night

In this family we celebrate Christmas with such joy and gratitude in our hearts, for it is the birth of our Lord and Savior. We are so thankful that the Lord sent his son to earth so he could live and die for our sins. Sam and I are looking forward to Liam getting older and teaching him about why we celebrate Christmas and how truly wonderful a day it is. It is such a magical time of year, especially for children and we also are dying to see our little boy's face light up when he see's glimpses of the Christmas magic ( Christmas lights, Santa Clause, and presents under the tree). We have a few years until then so for now we relish in our newborn baby, the greatest gift we could have received this year.
We spent our Christmas Eve attending Church and relaxing at home watching Christmas movies, and thanking God for a quiet baby!
Christmas we woke up and Sam and I exchanged gifts while Liam slept through the morning. I got my husband a handful of gifts which he will be returning, and my husband got me Tupperware. haha
Liam woke up put his Santa Suit on and visited over the web through Skype with his Memere :) It was wonderful that we got to see and visit with her on Christmas. We later went over to my parents house and had dinner and visited with the family. It was a wonderful day and one we will remember forever, after all it was our first Christmas with our Son :)
We hope you all had a wonderful day filled with Family and the Lord's love.

O Christmas Tree...

O' Christmas Tree O' Christmas Tree how Lovely are Thine Branches.....
How fun it was to have a new renewed reason to get excited about Christmas. Obviously Liam is way to young to ever remember this year or the next few, but his mommy and daddy will and that is what makes this so exciting. This week we headed out as a family and picked out a perfect Christmas Tree. It smells delicious now sitting in our living room. We wanted you all to share in this with us because most of you are so far away and will not be with us this Christmas so here is our journey.....