Tunica

Well Ryan is the big 30!  Last Thursday was Ryan's birthday and for his birthday we went to Tunica, Mississippi.  He insisted that is what he wanted to do for his birthday so after a few phone calls by my parents to a friend of theirs, we got rooms at the Gold Strike.  We made it a family affair.  My parents, Ryan's mom and his sister and brother-in-law came along to.  I am so thankful they did too, because I did not want to leave Liam at home.  We all took turns keeping him so that I could have time to play cards with Ryan.  Here he is on the ride there.

Yum!  He had french fries at Steak and Shake.  French fries have become one of our favorites!

Watching G play on her iPad.  Another one of his favorite things to do!

My parents, Liam and I left on Thursday to go to Memphis to see some family.  We stayed the night with my Aunt Becky and went out to eat dinner at McCalisters with her and my cousin Carroll. On Friday we made our way to Tunica to meet up with Ryan and his mom, sister and brother-in-law.   We put our stuff in the room and then went to eat at the buffet before everyone started playing games.  After we ate, Liam and I made our way back to the room because something I had ate just wasn't settling with me and we spent the rest of the night in the room. Ryan didn't get back to the room until early that morning.  He got a few hours of sleep until Liam woke up at 6 am on the dot like he does every morning.  We got up and woke everyone else up and went to eat breakfast.  After breakfast, Ryan went back to sleep and Liam took a nap so I left both of them in the room and spent some money on the slot machines.  I left the casino after the Wheel Of Fortune slots took all my money.  Later that night my parents, Liam and I drove back to Memphis to watch the MTSU vs. Memphis game.  My cousin Lance plays on the team so we met up with Pam, Gene and Aunt Vicki to watch Lance play his first game and whoop some Memphis Tigers booty!

When we got back to the casino, mom watched Liam while I met up with Ryan and he got me playing 3 card poker with him.  He had already won quite a bit of money so I figured I would try it out.  I cashed in early and took the majority of our winnings to the room with me to relieve mom.  Both of them were passed out!  Sunday morning we had a late check out so we ate breakfast and hit the poker tables again while JoAnn watched Liam for a little bit.  My parents, Liam and I left at one when our check out was but everyone else stayed over and played for a little while longer.  We ended coming home with about $1000 more than we came with so that was nice.  It went straight to the bank the next day to put towards some land that we are wanting to buy.

This is what we had at one point so I had to take a picture of it.  LOL  What we came home with was pretty close to that though!

I'm 9 Months Old!!!!!

Boy am I behind in blogging.  Either this month was really busy or the time went by extra fast, or maybe I was just plain lazy!  Quite a bit has gone on this month so I am going to try to fit in all that I can remember.

Cousin Kenny from Louisiana came in to visit.  This was the second time I had met Kenny and this was the first time that Kenny and Liam met.  Kenny and Aunt Maggie made us some Louisiana gumbo which was pretty darn good.  The city election was going on while he was here so we spent all of election day sitting in front of the Ada Wright Building showing our support for Nanny.  Later that night we went out to eat with the whole family!

Liam has gotten 2 teeth since the last post.  They were little boogers to come in but they finally made their breakthrough thank goodness.  Speaking of boogers, never mind the one in the picture :)  Lets just say that since those teeth have come in, I have gotten some good uninterrupted sleep every night!  I am dreading the next ones coming in.

As for foods, he has been eating more of what we are eating.  He likes macaroni noodles, chopped up kiwi and carrots.  He like mashed potatoes and the beans when I eat chili.  It is funny to watch him eat the kiwi.  It is so slimy so by the time he gets it to his mouth, he as already chased it all over the tray.

He is crawling all over the place.  I have to barricade him in his little play area in the living room because when he escapes he goes straight for the stereo system or to the bathroom to play with his bathtub toys.  For some weird reason he hates to lay down and have is diaper or clothes changed.  He knows exactly what he is doing too.  I can tell him to stop and he will just look at me with this hateful face and then start whining like it hurt his feelings.  I have had to pop his leg a time or two, (not hard, just to get his attention), and that seems to make the same impression on him. LOL

Ok so I hate to say this because every momma wants their babies first word to be "mama." Unfortunately for me, I wasn't so lucky.  His first word was "dada."  That is exciting for Ryan, and I am excited for him too.  But I still wanted it to be "mama" first :)  Since then he has now said "mama" and he says it quite often.  Especially when I walk out of the room and he can still see me.  He can also tell me when he is hungry.  He will stick out his chin and move his little mouth open and close real fast and say a combination of "ma" and "ba" in his little whiny voice.  That usually means "you better feed me now!"

I have boxed up all of his 6 month clothes :( and put out all his 9 month stuff.  I wasn't sure what size he would be in when he was 9 months so I haven't really bought any 9 month clothes.  So his 9 month section in the closet is a little sparse.  I need more short sleeve 9 month stuff because it is still hot outside.  As for 12 month stuff, we have plenty.  I love pajamas and he has a whole entire drawer stuffed with 12 month fleece footie pajamas lol

We have a water baby!  He has enjoyed going to the lake and his favorite time of the day is bath time.  I just love that sweet face .... and that sweet tooshie too!!!

As sad as we were to see Kate, our photographer, move to Arkansas, we are happy to have met Angela Zuill.  Angela and Kate are good friends and Kate referred us to her.  Angela got to capture our little monkey's 9 month photos and she did a great job too!  Here are just a few...

It just so happened that the day we had these pictures taken we were also celebrating our 3 year anniversary.  These last 3 years have been the best 3 years of my life!  I love my boys! I don't know what I would do without them!

Oh yea! We have moved into a big boy seat for the car!  His little legs were hanging over his infant seat and he was starting to get too heavy to carry in that thing.  After some research and advice from some friends we picked out a seat at Toys R Us.  It is still rear facing but I'm hoping that at our next Dr's appointment he will tell us that he is big enough to turn around.  We bought headrest DVD players for him to watch movies on and I just know he will love them! Here he is trying out his new seat for the first time.

His first birthday is coming up and I can't believe it will be here before we know it!  I have already picked out his birthday theme and booked his cake ... let the planning begin!!!

I'm 8 Months Old!!!!

Oh my what a crazy month this has been! Maybe not crazy, just busy.  I can no longer just lay him down and he just lay there.  Oh no!  I can't even lay him down long enough to change his diaper.  He flips and flops and it takes all my might just to put a diaper or clothes on him.  He is crawling everywhere and pulls up on pretty much everything.

 I'm not sure how much he weighs but I am guessing around 18-19lbs. He has a very healthy appetite.  He eats 2 solid food meals a day and drinks about 4-5 bottles a day.  New foods are mashed potatoes, acorn squash and green beans.  I am no longer breastfeeding.  It got to be a hassle for not a lot of milk.  So he is on Similac Sensitive and he did really well transitioning to just plain formula.  He holds his bottle all by himself now :(  He now knows what the little bowls of food are when I am fixing his food and when he sees them he whines and cries until you finally put the spoon in his mouth.  He has figured out the whole cause and effect thing!  He knows if he cries or whines he will get what he wants.  We have been working on trying to eliminate that but it seems that once he gets a little bit better about it he gets spoiled at his grandparents house!!!!! He is definitely developing his little personality!!!

 We finally have 2 teeth.  It's the bottom two.  I thought they would never get here.  It seems like they took 2 months to come in.  Teething has been pretty miserable for him.  Thank goodness for orajel, ibuprofen and ice teethers!  They became a bedtime routine there for a few weeks. He is in size 2 diapers and still in 6 months clothes but that won't be for long.  Here in the next few weeks I will be switching out some of his clothes in his drawers to 9 months.  He is starting to bust out of the seams in some of his clothes. 

 He would not sit still long enough to take pictures .... here we are about to dive into the camera

 He is definitely a mommas boy and I love it!  He is my little buddy! I love you Liam. I wish you could stay little forever!  Happy 8 month birthday!

Swimming Lessons

Last Monday started Mommy and Me swim lessons.  I made my schedule at work so that we could attend most of the days.  The only day we are missing is Wednesdays.  The classes are 2 weeks long so we have one more week to go.  I am really surprised at how well he is doing for a 7 1/2 month old.  He loves the water!  We start out by singing some songs to get them used to the water.  He splashes and giggles, it is so cute!  The class is only 30 minutes long but it definitely wears us both out!  I am so glad that Liam and Landon are so close in age.  It gives Hollyn and I a chance to catch up since our lives are so wrapped around our children now.  I have enjoyed getting to know Jenny and Maddie too!  Baby James isn't too far in age from Landon and Liam, so there is another ball player to add to the team :)  The funniest thing that Liam started doing Thursday was when we would have him float on his back, the first thing he would do was automatically put his hands behind his head! It was too funny!  I got the guts to completely dunk him Thursday too!  I was totally against it when we first started but after talking to some other people and reading up about it I decided that it probably isn't so bad after all.  Well I decided to and Hollyn told me I better just do it before I change my mind.  So I did, and he loved it!  He definitely wasn't expecting it but he didn't cry or get upset about it. I'm so glad he is a little water baby!

The 4th of July

Liam's 1st July 4th went much better than I psyched myself up for.  I had to work that day but I got off just in time for the festivities.  I picked him up from Nana Jo's house and Ryan and I met up with my parents at Mr. OD's house across from the Rec Center.  We were right beside where they lit the fireworks.  By the time it was firework time, it was also bedtime.  He was starting to get a little fussy so I warmed up a bottle but there were too many people and too much going on to eat.  Finally, the fireworks started.  I was expecting screaming, but to my surprise he sat there and watched them with no fuss at all.  He would flinch every once in a while but he did really well with them.  I held his ears at first and at one point when I didn't have his ears covered, he put his little hand up on his ear and snuggled up to me trying to go to sleep.  The moment the fireworks were over, he was out!  Today was also a special day for another reason.  I was my Granddaddy's birthday.  We went and saw him the Monday before his birthday and brought him ice cream and strawberries.  He was surprised to see all of us there and I think he would have licked the ice cream bowl if we would have let him.  That's Grandaddy, he never leaves a thing on his plate!  I have to get better at taking pictures since I didn't take any of the the special time we had with him :( But here are some before the fireworks started and it got too dark!

Pulling Up!

Oh my! The past few days have been busy busy! No more laying him down and knowing that there is nothing he can do to hurt himself.  Nope, not anymore.  He is pulling up on everything.  Once he did it the first time, it was over from there. This morning I had folded clothes and put them in a basket and left them on his play mat in the living room.  Well he decided to pull up on it and start unfolding the clothes. 

To my surprise he was even pulling up on the couch. 

 I can't believe our baby is growing up so fast!  We lowered the bed the other day when we realized that he was starting to try to pull up.

 Today when he got up from his nap, this is what we saw....

I guess we are going to have to lower it down even more!

I'm 7 Months Old!!!!

Watching Liam learn and grow has been such a joy.  This by far is my favorite stage. I know that I will say that every time I blog.  He is on a pretty steady schedule now.  He eats pretty much 4 times a day.  First thing in the morning he gets solid food.  He gets some type of cereal and a fruit or yogurt and then part of a bottle.  For lunch he gets a full bottle.  For dinner he gets solid foods again.  We give him veggies and sometimes a fruit.  I decided to kind of veer off from the Super Baby Food Diet book and I boiled him some chicken and pureed it up.  He loves it, especially when we mix it with a veggie! And at night before he goes to bed, he gets another full bottle.  We have increased his ounces again so "part" of a bottle is 5 ounces and a full bottle is 7 ounces.  I am having to supplement with formula which was something that I didn't want to do.  My body has pretty much decided to only produce about 15 ounces a day which is not enough!  I'm okay with formula now, it just wasn't part of my plan.  I keep telling myself that I am lucky to get as far as I did.  He is starting to get some rolls on him and he is definitely getting heavier!  He is getting easier to travel with.  Now, I can just get him out of his car seat and sit him in a buggy or a highchair at a restaurant.  As for teeth, well.... he has been trying to get teeth now for a month it seems.  There are days when I can feel a sharp little area on his bottom gums and then there are days when they are swollen and I can't really feel much of anything thing.  Lately we have been having to give him ibuprofen or tylenol and keep orajel on his gums.  That has kind of been a routine before bed.  He was wearing me out waking up every 2-3 hours every night.  He seems to sleep better at night now that we do that.  He usually goes down between 8-9 and wakes up around 6-6:30 or I wake him up around 5-5:30 on days that I have to go to work.  I am going to have to start baby proofing the house here pretty soon.  He is crawling around but he is still slow and I can keep him contained in the living room but that isn't going to last too much longer.  He loves jumping in his jumper and cackles when we play peek a boo. We spend at least one day a week on the new boat and he LOVES the water!!!  His first birthday will be here before we know it so I guess I need to start planning! We love you monkey!