Friday, December 31, 2010

New Years Eve

I have to admit, New Years has not been fun since I was a teenager. Running about in downtown Santa Cruz for First Night, which has been canceled since 2005 and replaced with a community started parade and festival that is making the city mad.

But I fondly remember a mass of people, foods to eat, musicians and performers all just doing their thing, as well as all the city planned stuff that cost an arm and a leg to get into.

Ever since then, and the horrible party of New Years '99 into '00 which shall never be forgotten, always thought of as a terrible idea in hindsight, and forever be remembered by a few key events I wish had never happened.... New Years had not been all that much fun.

I hope that a few years from now Liam will have fun with it, getting to stay up late if he can, banging some pots and pans together and shouting outside.

Until then I shall just use the day like any other day.

On that note...

Here are some pictures!

The house! We are all moved in, keys given back to the manager at the old apartment. Now we just have a few more touch ups here until we can call it perfect. And a whole lot of yard maintenance to learn about. First thing on my list is the Hydrangeas you can still see dead flowers on!


Liam got a play yard for Christmas. Right now it is a safe place for me to put him while I do things that take my attention off of him. I leave it open most of the time when I am in the room, but it is nice to have a place for him to be when I have to step away for a while. I put an unzipped sleeping bag in it as at least a slight cushion for him when he topples over.


And he has been toppling a lot lately! He mastered crawling, and sitting, but has decided to rush full on into kneeling and pulling up into standing. While the standing does not happen except in his crib so far, he gets on his knees and can wind up on his bum or his side pretty quick. So far no serious head bonkings, but the little ones still make me wince. Thankfully I am not one of those moms who wants to go overboard.

He also is having a major teething session, so he is a little upset. Everything is making him look at me with those sad eyes. Even playing!


Liam is of course enjoying his kitty cats... I think we have one of the most tolerant cats in the world. Plus the cats are a great distraction when the teething gets to be too much for him. I only hope their nerves survive it all!

 
We have started the long process of unpacking. I made a rule about bringing in one box at a time and unpacking it fully before moving onto the next box, and putting things where they go. I am trying to declutter and keep a tidy house. (I also started another blog on an idea I had to help with that concept...)





And I will end this blog post on a happy note... Liam also got a swing for Christmas! And an excuse to bundle up and go outside. So far we have to limit it, his little cheeks and hands get so cold!


So Happy New Years to all, and I will see you next year!






Sunday, December 26, 2010

Baby's First Christmas, the day after

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who sent a gift for Liam.

Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, and Cousins all helped make his day one full of paper tearing and amusement.

We had a calm day with Liam sleeping for a lot of it and then getting to sample part of dinner with us. He tried mashed potatoes and a roasted carrot instead of just a mashed steamed one.

I debated running broccoli through the blender, but decided against it at the final moment.

While dinner was cooking, Liam got a bath in the kitchen sink. He was drying off and getting lotioned with me while we sat on the couch when he took an interest in the Christmas Tree, leading to a great picture.
I sent it out as yesterdays Daily Liam, but here it is again.



p.s. If you want to be part of the Daily Liam, just let me know and I will either text or e-mail you a picture of the little guy every day.

Friday, December 24, 2010

All I want for Christmas...

Apparently, despite never hearing the song, Liam wants his two front teeth for Christmas. The upper left one is starting to show! It is just being a little nubbin behind his gums right now, but you can see the edge where it is going to push out in a day or two.

Merry Christmas little chompy baby!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Have a Crawly Jolly Christmas!

Liam is almost crawling!

He made 3 crawling steps today (all one right after the other!), and 2 last night. The motivation for these were reaching toward the cats, and grabbing at a cat toy dangled by his Uncle Dave.

I am just happy that he is almost crawling. He is getting to be more mobile, so it was not a moment too soon that the infant play yard arrived in the mail.

We wrestled with it to put it up, trying to figure out how to move it to be in the shape we wanted and finally it got into place. It is the perfect size to give him lots of room and take over half the living room. But considering that we sometimes need to do things that involve NOT watching the baby constantly, it means we have a safe place to put him where he can work on his crawling skills in relative safety and not end up under the couch or under a desk chair. It will come in handy out in the yard this summer when I am trying to garden, and Liam is wanting to play.

He also got to hang out in the kitchen while I was making dinner last night. He was in his high chair and spending time with me, banging some measuring cups together and a wooden spoon.

Plus all this, he is starting to sit up. Sometimes on his own he will end up sitting, but if we sit him up, he will stay that way for quite some time and then instead of falling over, now he will just sort of bend over and then get into his crawling pose or do a belly flop.

I love watching him figure things out, so it will be fun on Christmas morning when we give him his presents to open. He will get to play with the paper and tear them open... then keep playing with the paper and disregard the toy... like all babies. I have no expectations otherwise.

In other news, Dave is here and getting settled in. I think he is bored to death waiting for his computer to arrive. But he gets on well with Liam, he seems to like Liam and Liam thinks he is pretty great too as far as I can tell. Liam took to him right away.

Tomorrow we get to go out to breakfast with some family here, then have a nice calm morning until Dan gets home from work. We get Chrismas Day to spend as a family and I am thankful for that.
 



Monday, December 20, 2010

Home Sweet Home

Yesterday was moving day. The movers came at 9am and piled things into their truck. They did a pretty good job loading, but the unloading was a bit sloppy. That is ok, we can restack the pile.

Liam had a rough day, so much happening around him, even with him staying in the basement with mom while the movers were running through the house.

Comcast came and hooked up the internet, can't live long without that now can we? The day ended with putting beds together, Dan crawling under the house to run the cable for my internet under the floor, and then an early night heading to bed.

We found a few quirks with the house as we started to settle in, like why they had the water heater turned up sooooo high. If you don't have it high, you run out of hot water after just 5 minutes.

Today we awoke with a strong desire to hit the Aleve bottle and get some coffee made. All of us were sore! We all whined and moped a bit, then overcame our various aches and pains with some more work. Unloading a few boxes of needed stuff, getting some more work done in the basement and tending to Liam's needs.

Poor little guy was extra cranky today, plus his cheeks are chapped. I think perhaps the new environment, rolling about on the carpet in the basement, the change from warm to cold multiple times a day as we traveled more with him in the days before moving, and perhaps the oodles of drool he has been drooling each night in his sleep that just stay on the sheets. So we have been tending to his poor little cheeks today when he seems upset. He also might have another tooth coming in soon.

He is working so hard to crawl!



But he still has a ways to go. I hope he gets there soon, he will not be so frustrated then.



I went out and searched all over for a live Christmas tree of the Norfolk Pine variety. Alive, in a planter, and NOT covered in spray on glitter. I got what I wanted, except for the glitter. Thankfully it seems rather well stuck on and is not leaving little glitter particles all over the place. Yay!




So it is a little leany... that is ok. It is the best looking tree with the least amount of glitter. Now to just collect ornaments that mean something.  We have two so far. A hand painted glass one from the realtor, Tim Saeland. (Nicest guy, I really liked him a lot. He went above and beyond in getting us to look at houses that had what we needed and not waste our time on other ones. ) and a cute little snowflake from my Aunt Judy that we are using as a star on top.

Our living room is looking more like home.

Plus the move had the added benefit of creating a bonding experience for our two kitties who have had a hard time getting along with each other. Tulip and Katchoo spent the better part of Saturday snuggling in the same carrier and have been hissing at each other less. Lets just hope that the truce lasts past the settling in phase.



Now to begin the great task of unpacking, organizing, cleaning as we go and getting all settled. Right now everything is in weird places that has come out of its box. I think the thermos is hanging out with a pile of fabric on the kitchen counter while some shelves and the baby bath frolic in the dining room.

We have a house, now to turn it into a home!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

The boxes were stacked by the chimney with care...

Moving right before Christmas has put a bit of a damper on the holiday spirit this year.

We are hoping to send out some Christmas gifts this year, but they will be a little bit late. We are packing up everything and somewhere in the mess of painting and moving everything else seems to take back stage.

I know we missed Christmas last year, but if nothing else this year I want a small tree and to at least send some cards.

My mom just got here this morning so she can help us with getting the house ready and the move. Today she and I are going to finish the painting while Dan stays home with Liam and works on packing.

I am so weary and looking forward to a chance to just relax for a little while.

Will post pictures of the house once we get it all painted. Just a little bit more to do and then we are finished with that part and will be ready to move in. And clean. And unpack, and organize.

But thankfully once we are in the house, we will not ever HAVE to move again, unless we choose to move if 15 years down the line we find a better place or something.

It is almost over.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Things I can not wait for

I love reading my cousin-in-law's blog. But I am just a SMIDGE jealous. Her and her 4 girls bake cupcakes and all kinds of goodies, make fudge, decorate a christmas tree... well, the littlest one tries, but even she can help in ways, and participate. She gets to interact more than Liam can right now.

I want to bake with Liam. I want to decorate a tree... (we WILL do this this year, but it will have to wait until the 21st or so, after we move.) I want to sit in the kitchen with him and watch him lick frosting off the mixer blade. I want to do all those fun things she does with her munchkins.

In a way, I want Liam to grow up just a little bit.

But I am enjoying him as he is right now too. Learning to crawl... I love watching him try. He gets up on his hands and knees and wobbles a bit, sticks his bum in the air, and tries to move one arm and BOOMPH, down he falls, back to his tummy just to get up and try it again.

I know these times will pass so fast... and I DO enjoy them and love having my little baby who snuggles with me and sucks his thumb. I love each second of watching him learn... but I am so excited for what comes next, I can hardly stand it!!!!!

Saturday, December 4, 2010

House into Home

We have set a moving date... December 19th!

Thanks to my step mom and my dad we are able to hire movers to make this transition not be accompanied by back pain, arguments about how to get a desk through a door and the seemingly endless trips through the courtyard to put the boxes into the truck.

We hired 2Brothers movers, and I will let you all know how that works out. Out of all the movers I called and looked up they had the best rates, looked the most professional and were the kindest on the phone. I hope they live up to that when they come to move all our stuff.

Dan and I are closing in on finishing the painting jobs. I think that if I go over there on Sunday or Monday after he gets off work I will be able to get enough prep work done so that we can just come in on Wednesday and finish it up. All we have left is the wall for the other half of the kitchen and dining room, painting the entryway and the hallway and the accent color for Liam's bedroom. Plus the cupboard backings and the cupboard and cabinet doors. Then all we do is rehang curtains, sweep the whole place, run the vacuum and call it good. It sounds like so little when I write it down, but feels like so much when I think about doing it.

My mom and I got a lot of work done when she was up here for a week. We got the wallpaper taken down from the master bedroom. Liam helped with that!  We also did a lot of prep, painting, sanding.... so many things!

Dan's brother, Dave, is going to come rent the bottom living space from us for a while, which will help us with the monthly payments for the house. Liam will have his uncle close by and I think it will do Dan a lot of good to have someone so close who he can spend some time with.

I am going to see about getting a couple kids to babysit for while I look into getting licensed for child care. Graphic Design is not going anywhere, even as a home business... I am getting desperate for some income.

Liam is getting so close to crawling, he does amazingly well! Soon he will be all over the place!

He is starting to make "Mmmmm" sounds, some "mmmaaaaa, maaaaaa" babbling that makes me smile. We repeat his sounds back to him, add new ones... He is learning so fast. I love watching that moment when something makes a connection and he realized what he can do.

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